*China continued easing its visa policies in 2024 to boost openness and people-to-people exchange, allowing more foreign travelers and businesspeople to visit the country visa-free. *Statistics released by Chinese online travel service giant Trip.com Group show that the volume of travel bookings from foreign tourists to China during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday grew by 203 percent compared to the same period last year.
*The new visa-free transit policy enables foreign visitors to see the real China -- advanced science and technology, a stable society and people's affluent life -- which is different from how the country has been portrayed by some Western reporting. BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- As the Chinese people are celebrating the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, they have been joined this year by an increased number of foreign tourists, who have come to experience Chinese culture following the implementation of a new visa-free transit policy.
Andrea Schmitt and her husband, a couple from Berlin of Germany, are among those foreign tourists. The couple recently visited and marveled at the lanterns in the ancient Yuyuan Garden of Shanghai. They made online research on this traditional Chinese festival, the most important holiday in China, before they started their journey.
It is an occasion for family reunions, just like Christmas in the West, Schmitt said before noting that the festive atmosphere in China is different from what they had imagined it woul.
