Tourism in China

Tourists inside the Forbidden City, Beijing

Between 1949 and 1974, the People's Republic was closed to all. In the late 1970s, when Deng Xiaoping decided to promote tourism vigorously as a means of earning foreign exchange, China started to develop its tourism industry. In 2018, the Chinese hotel industry had a large pipeline of 2,500 new hotel projects.[4]

Bridge at Nanxi Street over Puhuitang River

Lantern Festival in Nanjing

The expansion of domestic and international airline traffic and other tourist transportation facilities made travel more convenient. Over 250 cities and countries had been opened to foreign visitors by the mid-1980s. Travellers needed only valid visas or residence permits to visit 100 locations; the remaining locales required travel permits from public security departments. In 1985 approximately 1.4 million foreigners visited China, and nearly US$1.3 billion was earned from tourism.[8]

In 2015, China was the fourth most visited country in the world, after France, United States, and Spain, with 56.9 million international tourists per year.[9] In 2017, tourism contributed about CNY 8.77 trillion (US$1.45 trillion), 11.04% of the GDP, and contributed direct and indirect employment of up to 28.25 million people. There were 139.48 million inbound trips and five billion domestic trips.[10][11]

Sightseeing boats ply the river in Shanghai, providing just a tiny percent of the revenue from tourism

China has become a major tourist destination following its reform and opening to the world in the late 1970s instigated by Deng Xiaoping. In 1978, China received about 230,000 international foreign tourists, mostly because of the severe limitations that the government placed on who was allowed to visit the country and who was not.[12]

Data from 2016 showed that the majority of foreign visitors hailed from Asian countries with South Korea being the top source country for China inbound tourism. Among the number of tourist arrivals, a substantial 81.06 million are from Hong Kong, 23.5 million from Macau and 5.73 million coming from Taiwan. The number of foreigners visiting China in the same year, was 28.15 million.[13]

In the same year, overnight visitors increased 4.2% over the same period of 2015 to 59.27 million (of which over 60% came from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan).[3]

Most visitors arriving in China were from the following areas of residence or countries of nationality:[14][15][16][17]

Nationality	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013
Hong Kong	80,500,736	79,368,424	79,795,890	81,059,400	79,448,100	76,131,700	76,884,600
Vietnam	7,948,664	7,587,932	6,544,198	3,167,300	2,160,800	1,709,400	1,365,400
Taiwan	6,134,236	6,136,081	5,871,268	5,730,000	5,498,600	5,365,900	5,162,500
South Korea	4,346,567	4,191,790	3,854,869	4,762,200	4,444,400	4,181,700	3,969,000
Russia	2,722,571	2,414,301	2,344,646	1,975,900	1,582,300	2,045,800	2,186,300
Japan	2,676,334	2,689,662	2,680,033	2,587,400	2,497,700	2,717,600	2,877,500
United States	2,406,657	2,483,554	2,309,282	2,247,800	2,085,800	2,093,200	2,085,300
Malaysia	1,383,502	1,290,744	1,232,499	1,163,900	1,075,500	1,129,600	1,206,500
Philippines	1,177,668	1,202,966	1,160,875	1,134,700	1,004,000	967,900	996,700
Singapore	1,008,545	978,028	940,223	921,900	905,300	971,400	966,600
Thailand	870,526	832,605	775,747	749,000	641,500	613,100	651,700
India	869,570	708,517	818,954	799,100	730,500	709,900	676,700
Canada	776,328	849,941	805,026	740,800	679,800	667,100	684,200
Australia	734,511	751,865	733,663	673,200	637,300	672,100	723,100
Indonesia	724,784	708,517	680,841	632,900	544,800	566,900	605,300
Germany	622,198	643,074	634,053	//	//	//	//
United Kingdom	612,213	607,846	590,714	594,300	579,600	604,700	625,000
France	490,963	499,160	493,712	503,500	486,900	517,000	533,500
Italy	279,474	277,776	279,686	266,800	246,100	253,100	251,200
Spain	165,984	167,988	155,564	149,600	136,300	141,000	132,400
Sweden	103,600	109,991	111,758	115,200	118,400	142,000	159,000
Mexico	94,312	92,546	82,134	73,300	68,300	65,800	60,100
Macau	//	25,150,800	24,650,000	23,503,200	22,888,200	20,639,900	20,740,300
Myanmar	//	12,379,800	9,655,500	2,428,100	144,400	132,800	134,700
Mongolia	//	1,915,800	1,864,000	1,342,300	1,014,100	1,082,700	1,050,000
Laos	//	305,200	230,900	83,600	26,100	21,700	19,400
North Korea	//	250,700	229,500	209,500	188,300	184,400	206,600
Netherlands	//	196,200	194,000	199,500	181,800	180,400	188,600
Kazakhstan	//	195,100	222,900	225,400	241,500	343,600	393,500
Ukraine	//	180,700	171,800	160,400	141,700	118,100	121,900
Nepal	//	157,500	132,500	83,300	50,000	53,600	58,800
New Zealand	//	146,400	143,500	136,000	125,400	126,600	128,600
Pakistan	//	130,900	127,300	119,100	113,100	108,900	106,500
Brazil	//	118,800	105,200	93,300	85,500	94,600	95,800
Cambodia	//	101,600	61,600	49,900	42,500	39,300	34,600
Bangladesh	//	101,600	91,500	85,000	80,200	69,800	58,900
Israel	//	97,500	91,500	82,900	76,200	78,500	79,700
Iran	//	96,900	136,700	128,000	113,200	113,700	88,900
Poland	//	95,300	90,500	83,900	74,800	76,100	71,600
Egypt	//	85,600	83,500	82,900	86,500	83,900	74,400
South Africa	//	83,600	74,900	66,700	65,500	68,200	68,600

Foreign Arrivals in Beijing

Nationality	2019	2018
United States	629,000	720,000
Hong Kong	322,000	348,000
Japan	247,000	249,000
South Korea	242,000	248,000
Taiwan	222,000	242,000
Germany	198,000	194,000
United Kingdom	153,000	159,000
Australia	141,000	150,000
Singapore	127,000	123,000
France	120,000	127,000
Canada	100,000	152,000
Russia	96,000	87,000
Malaysia	82,000	87,000
India	75,000	68,000
Italy	69,000	65,000
Thailand	57,000	75,000
Indonesia	45,000	50,000
Spain	45,000	48,000
Philippines	31,000	26,000
Switzerland	30,000	32,000
Mongolia	29,000	31,000
Sweden	27,000	30,000
New Zealand	22,000	20,000
Macau	18,000	16,000

Some form of Chinese is virtually universal in China, with Mandarin as the standard form and many other varieties also in use; some, like Cantonese and Shanghainese, have tens of millions of speakers.

According to research completed by The Daily Telegraph in 2017, less than 1 percent of people (some 10 million) in China speak English conversationally.[18]

Tourism in China
Temple of Heaven, an AAAAA-rated tourist attraction in Beijing
Simplified Chinese	旅游景区质量等级
Traditional Chinese	旅遊景區質量等級
Literal meaning	Tourist Scenic Area Quality Ranking
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lǚyóu Jǐngqū Zhìliàng Děngjí

Tourist Attraction Rating Categories (Chinese: 旅游景区质量等级) is a rating system used by the Chinese authorities to determine the quality of the attraction relative to its peers in terms of safety, sanitation and transportation. It is divided into five categories which are A (or 1A, the lowest level), AA (2A), AAA (3A), AAAA (4A) and AAAAA (5A, the highest level).

The categories are awarded based on, amongst other factors, the importance of the site, transportation, tours as well as issues related to safety and sanitation. The system was established in 1999 and extended in 2004 (when the category AAAAA was introduced). The ratings are administered by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and are based on the code "Categories and Rating Standard of Tourist Attractions".[19]

Numerous tourists visit parts of the Great Wall, including the section at Juyongguan

The Terracotta Army in Xi'an

Hall of Supreme Harmony at the Forbidden City

Sculptures at the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity in the Summer Palace

The Bund after dark, Shanghai

• Mountain Lu, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, also called Mountain Lu National Park
• Changbai Mountains, an important nature reserve home to the rare Siberian tiger
• Grand Canal of China
• Great Wall of China
• Silk Road, abandoned cities along this famous ancient trading route
• Huangshan, Anhui
• Mount Jiuhua, Anhui
• Mount Tianzhu, Anhui
• Forbidden City, Beijing, once the center of the 'Chinese imperial universe' and off-limits to the masses - now open to all
• Summer Palace, Beijing
• Temple of Heaven, Beijing
• Dazu Rock Carvings, Chongqing
• Three Gorges, Chongqing and Hubei
• Gulangyu Island, Fujian
• Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu these 1,000-year-old man-made caves on the old Silk Road contain some of China's most impressive Buddhist heritage
• Kuling town, Jiujiang, located on top of Mountain Lu, a former summer resort for European settlers in southern China
• Li River, Guangxi, where boat trips are taken to see the contorted peaks that have been immortalized in Chinese scroll paintings
• Caohai Lake, Guizhou, where many experience being punted along this shallow lake to see many of China's varied birdlife
• Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, Harbin, Heilongjiang, where extravagant and bizarre sculptures can be seen from life-size ice castles with rainbow lighting to fantastical snowy tableaux
• Yabuli Ski Resort, Heilongjiang, the country's largest ski resort where many Chinese take their skiing holiday
• Longmen Grottoes, a parade of Buddhist figurines and reliefs, near Luoyang, Henan
• Wudang Mountains, Hubei
• Old Yalu Bridge, Dandong, Liaoning, a half-demolished bridge to North Korea remains an important relic of the Korean War.
• Terracotta Army, Xi'an, Shaanxi, the former ancient capital, these 2,200-year-old life-size soldiers guard the tomb of China's first emperor.
• Confucius Mansion, Qufu, Shandong, home to nearly eighty generations of the great sage's clan
• Mount Tai (or Tai Shan), Shandong, a holy peak home to immaculate temples and pavilions
• The Bund, Shanghai, an elegant parade along the Huangpu River of colonial architecture juxtaposed with Shanghai's skyscrapers
• The Hanging Temple at Mount Heng, Shanxi is a temple clinging to a precipice and a series of grottoes containing a panoply of Buddhist statuary
• Yungang Grottoes, near Datong, Shanxi, a renowned Buddhist site
• Jiuzhaigou Valley, Sichuan
• Leshan Giant Buddha, Sichuan, the world's largest carved Buddha
• Mount Emei, Sichuan
• Mount Qingcheng, Sichuan
• Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet originally built by King Songtsän Gampo in 637 to greet his bride Princess Wencheng of the Tang dynasty
• Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, home to one of China's most unique minorities - the Dai people
• West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang

Sunset at Sanya Bay, Hainan

Tourist resources in China can be divided into three main groups: natural sites, historical and cultural sites, and folk customs. China has 55 World Heritage Sites, the second largest in the world after Italy, which has 58.[21]

Natural sites

The terraced rice paddies of Yuanyang County, Yunnan

Mount Emei, Sichuan

Zhang jia jie

China's mountains, lakes, valleys, caves and waterfalls include:

Mount Tai (Tai Shan) in the east, Mount Hengshan in the south, Mount Hua in the west, Mount Hengshan in the north, and Mount Song in the center of China have been called the Five Sacred Mountains since antiquity. The Taishan massif, which snakes through central Shandong, is admired by Chinese as paramount among them. Another mountain celebrated for its beauty is Huangshan in southern Anhui, known for its graceful pines, unusual rocks, cloud seas and hot springs.

Jiuzhaigou, Huangguoshu Waterfall, and Guilin are all located in southwestern China. Jiuzhaigou in northern Sichuan is a beautiful "fairyland valley" running over 40 km through snow-covered mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and forest. The Huangguoshu Waterfalls in Guizhou are a group of waterfalls, 18 above-ground and four below, which can be heard from five km away. The Li River in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region winds its way through karst peaks for 82 km between Guilin and Yangshuo.

On the plateau in Northern China are many lakes. The Tianchi (Heavenly Pool) in the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang Autonomous Region is 1,980 meters above sea level. This 105-m-deep lake is crystal clear, the high mountains surrounding it carpeted with green grass and colorful flowers.

Along the renowned Three Gorges of the Yangtze River are many scenic spots and historical sites; the Qutang Gorge is rugged and majestic, the Wu Gorge elegant, deep and secluded, the Xiling Gorge full of shoals and reefs and rolling water. The Lesser Three Gorges are lush with greenery, flanking water so clear you can see to the bottom. The Three Gorges Dam built here is China's biggest key hydro-power project.

Historical and cultural sites

Beauties Wearing Flowers, by Zhou Fang, 8th century

China's long history has left many cultural relics and the title of "China Top Tourist City" has gone to the first group of 54 cities. The Great Wall, a symbol of the Chinese nation, is also a prime example of historical sites that have become major tourist attractions. As the greatest defense-structure project in the history of human civilization, it dates back more than 2,000 years ago to the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods - huge in its scale and grandeur. There are more than ten sections of the Great Wall open to tourists, including the passes, blockhouses and beacon towers at Badaling in Beijing, Laolongtou in Hebei and Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu.

Grottoes filled with precious murals and sculptures are concentrated along the ancient Silk Road in Gansu. The best known are the Mogao Caves, a "treasure house of oriental art", with 492 caves with murals and statues on the cliff faces. There are 45,000 sq m of murals and over 2,100 colorful statues, all of high artistry. In the south, grotto art is represented in Sichuan by the Leshan Giant Buddha, carved into a cliff face. Seventy-one meters high and 28 meters wide, it is the largest sitting Buddha in stone, showing the carving skill of ancient craftsmen.

The Shaolin Temple in Henan, the birthplace of Chinese Zen Buddhism and famous for its Shaolin Kung Fu martial arts, dates back to 495 AD. Here can be seen the Ming period Five-Hundred-Arhats Mural and Qing period Shaolin kungfu paintings. In Hubei, the beautiful Wudang Mountain, with 72 peaks covering an area of 30 km² (12 sq mi), form a sacred site of Taoism, which preserves one of China's most complete and largest-scale ancient Taoist architecture. In western Sichuan, Mount Emei, dotted with ancient Buddhist temples and structures, is one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains｡

South of the Yangtze River, Suzhou and Hangzhou, long known as "paradise on earth", are crisscrossed with rivers, lakes, bridges, fields and villages, as beautiful as paintings. Today's well-preserved ancient cities includes that of Pingyao in central Shanxi, but was also the site of the Neolithic era Yangshao and Longshan cultures, 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Ancient Lijiang in Yunnan is not only the center of Dongba culture of the Nakhi ethnic group but also a meeting place for the cultures of Han, Tibetan and Bai ethnicities. Built in the Song dynasty, this city has many stone bridges, stone memorial arches and dwelling houses, which provide precious materials for architectural history and can be called a "living museum of ancient dwelling houses."

Folk customs

Lugu Lake, Yunnan

"March Street" celebrated by the Bai people in Dali, Yunnan, is associated with the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy suppressing a devil to help the Bai people. It became traditional to burn incense and offer sacrifices to commemorate her virtues every year and the festival has become a major annual gathering for Bai commercial, cultural and sports activities.

The Water-Sprinkling Festival of the Dai ethnic group in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, is a lively occasion taking place in the spring. People chase and pour water (a symbol of good luck and happiness) over each other, among other activities such as dragon boat racing and peacock dance.

Lugu Lake between Sichuan and Yunnan has become a tourist destination following the building of a new highway giving access to this area. The matriarchal society of the 30,000 local Mosuo people is noted for its "no marriage" traditions and is called the last women's kingdom on the earth. Mosuo women, local dugout canoes and undulating singing style are considered unique to Lugu Lake.

The China National Tourism Administration promotes a tourist theme every year; 1992 was "Friendly Sightseeing Year." Then came "Landscape Tour", "Tour of Cultural Relics and Historical Sites", "Folk Customs Tour", "Holiday Tour", and "Ecological Environment Tour." From 2000 to 2004, the themes were "Century Year", "Sports and Health of China", "Folk Arts of China", and "Culinary Kingdom of China", and "Catch the Lifestyle."

The themes for 2005 were "China Travel Year" and "Beijing 2008 -- Welcome to China." In order to strengthen exchange and cooperation with the international tourism industry, the China National Travel Administration is planning a series of related events, including the Shanghai-hosted "2005 International Tourism Fair of China", the Beijing-hosted 2005 annual meeting of the Federation of Travel Agencies of France, and "the 2005 China-Australia Tourism Symposium."

Since 2013, all regions in China have had tourism publicity events under the "Beautiful China" umbrella, but with a different theme for each area. The year 2018 was declared as "Beautiful China – Year of Integrated Tourism" while 2017 was declared as "Beautiful China – Year of Silk Road Tourism".[22]

A guide leads a group of Norwegian tourists to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing

The fast development of China's transportation infrastructure provides wide-ranging travel for domestic and overseas tourists. Throughout China many hotels and restaurants have been constructed, renovated or expanded to satisfy all levels of requirement, including many with five or six-star ratings.

China has regulated international travel agencies. On June 12, 2003, the China National Tourism Administration and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued Interim Regulations on the Establishment of Foreign-funded or Wholly Foreign-owned Travel Agencies.

• Golden Week (China)
• Red tourism
• Tourism in Hong Kong
• Tourism in Macau
• Visa policy of China

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.

• Tourism in China travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Media related to Tourism in China at Wikimedia Commons
• Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China