Foreign travelers flock to China to embrace Chinese New Year

Having an authentic Chinese New Year experience is emerging as the latest travel adventure, with foreign visitors flocking to China on its most important holiday – the Spring Festival.

Chinese authorities forecast average daily cross-border passenger flows during the season in excess of 2.05 million, up 14.1 percent year on year. Data also shows flight bookings by foreign travelers for the holiday period surged more than fourfold over the past two weeks, compared with the same period last year.

Travel and Tourism World has reported that the Chinese New Year is becoming a new highlight on the global tourism calendar.

From snowy adventures to warm escapes

For many overseas travelers, Spring Festival is uniquely charming owing to a blend of diverse local delicacies, China's vast and varied scenery and rich traditions stretching back centuries. From ice-and-snow tours in the north of the country to trying their hand at crafts in one of the mainland's heritage cities and duty-free shopping on the tropical paradise that is Hainan Island, travelers are spoilt for choice.

Bookings for destinations such as the northeastern Chinese provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, as well as Xinjiang and Qinghai, known for their spectacular winter landscapes, are firmly trending upward, while southern provinces, including Yunnan and Hainan, have attracted travelers looking for a place in the sun.

The northeastern province of Heilongjiang handled 244,000 inbound and outbound travelers in the first month of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 29.7 percent, according to official records. Over the nine-day holiday, total cross-border passenger volume is expected to reach about 45,000.

This year's Spring Festival marks Hainan's first holiday season after the launch of independent customs operations in December 2025. The Haikou General Station of Immigration Inspection predicts that inbound and outbound passenger volume at Hainan's three major airports – Phoenix, Meilan and Boao – will reach about 80,000 during the holiday, up more than 24 percent from the same period in 2025.

Exploring China's diverse cultural landscape

The modern traveler yearns for authenticity. Foreign visitors can cross 5,000 years of Chinese civilization in just a few days, through immersive intangible cultural heritage experiences.

In Huangshan, east China's Anhui Province, tourists can join traditional fish lantern parades and even learn to paint the signature scales on their own lanterns under the guidance of master craftsmen.

In Shandong, more than 20 international students from over 10 countries, including Russia, Ecuador and Morocco, took part in workshops featuring heritage crafts such as silk figurines, Song brocade weaving and bamboo weaving, immersing themselves in the festive atmosphere.

South China's Guangdong offers traditional cultural activities such as paper-cutting and lion dance performances. A catering company executive told China Media Group (CMG) they are in the midst of preparing blowouts for foreign tour groups hoping to indulge in traditional reunion and banqueting feasts.

It wouldn't be a trip to China without shopping. Many visitors are actively hunting for "China-only" fashion styles, Year of the Horse merchandise and state-of-the-art tech gadgets like foldable smartphones.

CMG reporters spoke to a tourist from Albania who bought a traditional Chinese outfit she said she planned to wear at her wedding. An Argentine visitor purchased a horse-themed sachet as a New Year's trinket for good luck. Staff at a flagship smart device store on Shanghai's Nanjing Road East said foldable phones are flying off the shelves with visitors from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the United States being the first to snap them up.

China's visa-free expansion makes trips a breeze

The "Spring Festival in China" travel trend is taking off, fueled by the country's expanding visa-free policies and continued efforts to streamline entry procedures.

In 2025, China expanded unilateral visa-free access to 48 countries, while the number of countries with mutual visa exemption agreements rose to 29. China has also upgraded its 240-hour transit visa-free policy, expanding eligibility to 55 countries and increasing the number of entry ports to 65, making short-notice travel increasingly convenient.

Meanwhile, improved tax refund services such as "buy now, refund now," wider acceptance of international payment methods, and upgraded digital services have made travel and spending a breeze for overseas visitors. Earlier this month, 11 government departments, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, jointly issued a document aiming to further enhance digital service convenience for inbound travelers.

Recently, China's Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments also released a special plan for the 2026 "Happy Shopping for the Chinese New Year" campaign, covering six areas; dining, accommodation, transport, travel, shopping and entertainment. The plan also calls for further improving payment services – covering bank cards, mobile payments and cash – to better facilitate spending by inbound tourists.