But if you go out of your home in China, you will find that the scenic spots are still crowded with people, but they are full of foreigners.
It turns out that some foreign tourists now love China Travel.
This is a temporary entry permit that can be obtained at the port entry and exit management office.
As of the end of July, my country has 38 open ports, most of which are international airports and ports, and implements a 72 or 144-hour transit visa exemption policy for people from 54 countries.
Such a policy naturally gives foreigners an opportunity to understand China. The number of foreigners coming to China in the first quarter of this year has increased three times compared with the same period in 2023.
However, in their videos, you will find that:
China in the eyes of foreigners seems to be different from what we think.
Living area for Chinese people, beginner area for foreigners
When coming to China, foreigners have their own travel guides.
Because of their high international recognition, Beijing and Shanghai are their first choice for "newbie tourist villages".
In addition to these two tourist novice villages, foreigners with some travel experience in China will flock to cities such as Chongqing, Xi'an, and Chengdu.
When the plane lands in China, these foreign friends will show up at the airport with their backpacks and cameras.
Then they will start the first thing they do in China: take the subway.
The subway starts, and they will begin their exploration journey of China with trepidation and curiosity.
The first thing is food. Foreign friends who are unfamiliar with the place will choose food that they are familiar with. For their first meal in China, they choose to buy coffee and eat hamburgers.
After eating the local delicacies, tourists can put their uneasy hearts back into their stomachs and start to try Chinese food.
The Internet-famous big meat skewers in the night market have become the menu of foreign tourists through word of mouth.
They will not hesitate to praise and say the Chinese words they just learned: "delicious".
Although the non-standard pronunciation of Mandarin sounds "tasteless" to the Chinese ears, this cannot stop the hospitality of the Chinese and the curiosity of foreigners.
The Changsha stinky tofu that is a must-try in scenic spots is a must-try, and the Beijing-style bean juice is also a must-try.
Some people have hideous faces after taking a bite, while some foreign girls are surprised to find that it has a "lemon-like freshness".
There are limited food guides, and foreigners start to eat whatever they see.
I queued for an hour with the locals to buy the most delicious butterfly cakes.
Eat Roujiamo in Shanghai, eat Xiaolongbao in Xi'an. When you enter a restaurant, you can't recognize the Chinese characters on the menu. After ordering randomly, stir-fried shredded potatoes, spicy chicken, and big plate chicken are served on the table. A closer look at the ingredients shows that they are just potatoes and chicken.
Diners can reduce the ingredients, and chefs can also increase the amount of dishes. A large plate of stewed potatoes and chicken can make two adults unable to walk.
It can't stop the hospitable Chinese from actively speaking in the comment area: "It's time to tell foreigners that meals need to be accompanied by staple foods." After a big meal, one of the most important things for foreign friends is to find a toilet everywhere.
After all, most foreign toilets require a fee, and McDonald's toilets require the password on the receipt.
Eating, drinking, defecating and urinating are important things in life. If you don't explore the toilets in a foreign country, you will increase your risk of social death.
What surprised foreigners is that Chinese toilets are free, and there are clean toilets in the subway.
What surprises the Chinese is that in order to make it easier to go to the toilet, the Chinese have come up with a new trick and developed a dedicated mini-program that allows you to see nearby public toilets.
Foreigners are traveling, and Chinese are being recommended. Following the perspective of foreigners, we can even notice aspects of Chinese life that we have never noticed.
The elevators in Chongqing need to be transferred like the subway, and Tianmen Mountain is gorgeous at night.
The life that Chinese people are accustomed to has a new way of opening up from a different perspective.
China is different from what I thought
Before coming to China, many foreigners were wary.
Because they did not know enough about China, many people's impression of China still remained in the last century.
The things they could mention were Peking duck and dumplings, Chinese Kung Fu, and the Great Wall.
I wonder if the prices here are too high and I can’t afford to buy things even if I travel.
I worry that there is racial discrimination here and I will encounter prejudice from others after I come here.
Because I don’t understand, there are many misunderstandings.
In addition, the cost of direct flights to China is high, and the travel information provided by the Internet is limited. "Not understanding" and "never been there" have become the real difficulties faced by many foreigners when traveling to China.
So when they choose to travel to an Asian country, they often choose to go to Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
The reason why "China Travel" has become a tourist trend for foreigners today is the convenience of the "144-hour transit visa-free policy" and a doubt in their hearts after reading a lot of negative information:
What is the real China like?
Before coming to China, the Irish couple, who are travel bloggers and have been to many countries around the world, were advised by people around them that this is a place they should "never come to".
Before the plane landed, they also had many concerns and prejudices of their own.
For them, this is an adventure and a challenge.
They departed from Thailand and entered Chengdu, China. With rich travel experience, they made many arrangements in advance. Buying a SIM card and withdrawing RMB were the most basic requirements.
Downloading convenient software such as Alipay and Amap was their homework for this journey.
They made sufficient preparations and took the initiative to understand the city through their own observations.
Using electronic payment to buy subway tickets is fast enough.
The road was not as noisy as they had imagined. Without the roar of engines, the streets could be described as "quiet".
The few words on the Internet cannot form the whole picture of China. If you want to understand it, you have to come here to know it.
Stand on this land in person and interact with the people living on this land.
On the way to the subway at the airport, the Irish couple met a local resident who enthusiastically told them how to get to the city center and provided them with a lot of help.
After parting, they couldn't help but sigh:
"This is our best first impression of a country."
Interacting with the city and communicating with the people living on this land will eliminate the gap.
After the video of foreigners traveling in China became popular on overseas websites, an American netizen watched the video and couldn't help but comment: "No matter what you think of China, it's better to take a look at what this country is like and listen to what the Chinese are thinking."
China is here, everyone is welcome
China is not convenient for foreigners in every aspect.
When they come here, they have to change their familiar social software and use Chinese software to reduce the inconvenience of life.
Strange cities, strange languages, and a new lifestyle will inevitably make them panic about the unknown.
Daily communication relies entirely on gestures.
In the cashless daily life, the cameras that capture traffic violations always make them think about it, and they feel that they have no privacy at all.
The inability to contact their families conveniently through the Internet here has become a problem they must face when traveling here.
Some of these problems during the travel process need to be solved by China.
Since the beginning of the year, China has made special optimizations for mobile payment services, and Alipay can already cover most consumption scenarios of foreign tourists in China.
New service counters have also appeared at the airport, such as UnionPay, Alipay, Ctrip and other sites, as well as overseas guest payment service centers.
And some are what they must face.
Because in a strange land, it is normal to be uncomfortable with the local climate.
In the "uncomfortable", everyone has the opportunity to see the side that they have never known.
Canadian blogger kk came to Shanghai in May this year. He tried to get a haircut at a local barber shop and visited Xiaomi's auto show.
Following the crowd, he accidentally visited the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, where he learned about history that he had never learned in history textbooks.
Although he did not recognize the Chinese characters on the wall, he also gained a new understanding of China in just a few hours through the English annotations.
When he uploaded his travel experience to the video platform, he was questioned by many people, who felt that what he recorded was just a false impression.
But he told these people:
"In a world full of hatred, don't spread more hatred.
I believe that if I look for bad things in China, I will find them, but why should I record them.
I want to show love and spread love."
Whether it is a person or a city, there are good and bad sides, it all depends on how we want to see it.
As the Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said:
"China is here, welcome everyone."
Only when we are in the same place can we have more collisions of ideas and cultures, and the relationship will be closer.
A British couple traveled to Beijing, and they were called "the wine fairy couple" by netizens because of a bottle of white wine.
On the first day of their trip to Beijing, they walked into an alley.
Here, every greeting will be met with a warm response.
When they met an old man, they started to communicate with him with a question "Have you eaten?" The old man would use his hands to tell them which pancakes were the best, and they chose to buy white wine and pancakes, and then return to the original route to meet the old man again.
On a quiet afternoon, with people coming and going around, they sat together on the roadside, drinking wine, eating peanuts and chatting about family matters.
The most valuable thing between people is the "human touch". This is our common pursuit, regardless of nationality, race, or skin color.
Many videos of foreigners traveling to China show their surprise at life in China.
Because life in China breaks through their cognition.
And in the amazement of others, we will also find out how hard it is for us to get used to it.
"China Travel" is an opportunity for foreigners to understand life in China.
It is also an opportunity for us to re-understand life and look at the world.
Get rid of the complaining and negative state and see the happy life we already have.
Foreigners will see the real China, and we will see an increasingly larger world.
Here, there are marks left by our ancestors, and there are small happiness that China is creating now.
There is warmth given to us by others, and there is also a future we are working hard for.
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