Tourists from Belarus and Russia pose for photos at the Yuyuan Garden area in east China's Shanghai, Feb. 1, 2025. As the Chinese people are celebrating the Spring Festival, or the Chinese 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.

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. Its latest move was an extension of its visa-free transit policy, which has permitted eligible foreign travelers to stay in the country for 240 hours without a visa.

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.

According to Tujia, a Chinese homestay booking platform, Shanghai's Spring Festival homestay reservations made by foreign tourists more than tripled from last year, and the number of homestays available for foreign guests was up by 30 percent, with many providing English services.

Spring Festival, social practices of the Chinese people in celebration of the traditional new year, was added by UNESCO into its list of intangible cultural heritage in December last year. (Photo by Chen Haoming/Xinhua)