“It is always a pleasure to greet a friend from afar!” goes a famous Confucian saying. To facilitate more of these arrivials of “friends from afar,” Beijing has been taking a series of measures to pave the way for people-to-people exchanges.

The National Immigration Administration (NIA) announced on July 15 that China’s 144-hour visa-free transit policy was extended to three more entry ports, bringing the number of Chinese ports covered by the policy to 37 for citizens of 54 countries. It is one of the recent measures of China showing the broad goodwill necessary to enhance people-to-people exchange with the rest of the world.

International travelers are going through an immigration inspection at the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport on August 14, 2024.

Beginning on December 30, 2023, Beijing has announced 15-day visa-free travel for ordinary passport holders from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia. This policy will continue till November 30, 2024.

On March 7, 2024, the measure was extended to include Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Since then, it has been extended twice more to include more countries with the duration extended to December 31, 2025. Parallelly, China has been enhancing tourism infrastructure and personnel by investing in travel guides, technological advances, and e-payment systems, plus further promoting inbound tourism, highlighting historical attractions in partnership with Chinese companies like Trip.com. The travel measures are especially important as China has been decisively contributing to the reboot of global tourism. 

Meanwhile, several countries – particularly in the West – could reciprocate since tourism is not just people happily criss-crossing the world to explore new things for a certain number of days, reinforcing prosperity, but one of the mothers of learning between cultures and civilizations.

A firsthand knowledge of a country inoculates us against prejudices and stereotypes. Chinese tourists are famous because they traditionally travel in large groups and splurge on shopping. Now they are also increasingly known for their deep interest in the cultures they visit, which is very important for peoples of different civilizations to strengthen their bond with each other.

A recent case was the visit I hosted of a dozen students from Tsinghua University to Spain one year ago. It was the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the commemoration of the 110th anniversary of one of China’s most famous universities. Accordingly, I co-organized a two-week tour for them.

They visited Spanish consultants, VIPs, and institutions, covering history (visits to the old quarters of Madrid and Barcelona); art (a visit to the Thyssen Museum and the Landscape of Light, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO); language (familiarization with the Spanish language – the second most important language in the Western hemisphere – through an introduction to the Spanish press); and a visit to one of the Confucius Institutes. It also covered connectivity (a visit to the Abroñigal railway terminal, which is the arrival point of the Yiwu-Madrid train, also known as the Yixinou China-Europe freight train and an essential part of the BRI).

There was also time to discuss the key issue of energy (at the law firm of López-Ibor Mayor and Associates, specializing in international energy laws). Besides, the two-week tour found space for international relations (a visit to the oldest Spanish think tank, CIDOB, in Barcelona). For business, I organized a visit to the IESE Business School in Barcelona. Finally, there was also time for institutional relations linking the two countries and continents for which I took them to visit the Asia House in Barcelona, a public diplomacy institution supported by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other institutions, which contributes to Spanish-Asia dialogue and to China-related programs.

Goodwill, long-term friendship, and the desire to constantly learn are fundamental elements in human relationships. I particularly remember two unforgettable trips to China separated by a 30-year time span that in retrospect helped me to better understand the sense of bilateral tourism.

In August 1987, I visited Chengde, the imperial summer retreat of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), less than 250 kilometers from Beijing. The municipal authorities proposed I play the role of a tourist to promote the historical dimensions of the city in a documentary film to be shown abroad. I learned two things during that five-day experience. One was that the city built in the 18th century is one of the best examples of the coexistence of multi-ethnic and cultural diversity in their long exchange, convergence and synthesis, including Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. That legacy is expressed in the architectural styles in China's north and south. UNESCO has described this special city as one which “has witnessed the consolidation and development of China as a unitary multi-ethnic state.”

The second thing I learned was why UNESCO decided 30 years ago to include Chengde on the World Heritage Site list, namely, for its ecological component. Chengde’s original and comprehensive plan in the early 18th century included mountain resorts and outlying temples, following the topography of natural hills and water as fundamental parts of the city. Chengde embodies key aspects of China’s foundations as a country and civilization and at the same time showcases how to reconnect with nature at a time when every country is building, rebuilding, preserving or adjusting its architecture and infrastructure to combat climate change.

Another experience I would like to highlight took place seven years ago, in the Yongnian District of Handan City in Hebei Province. I had the privilege of visiting the former residence of Yang Luchan (1799-1872), a tai chi master who founded the Yang style. It is known that its meditative breathing techniques follow nature. These exercises inherently reinforce well-being and health, and are recommended by doctors. This is something I knew since I lived in China in the second half of the 1980s.

But what I freshly learned on my 2017 tour came from the conversation I was able to have with the rector of Handan University, Professor Ma Jibin. He and his colleagues were deeply convinced that if everyone practiced tai chi, "we would be better people," able to contribute to peace. Tai chi brings calmness and prudence, and would have an impact on world peace processes. For this reason, he said, Handan was engaged in a long-term plan to establish agreements with universities in Western countries, Russia, the Middle East, and in the Southern hemisphere to promote tai chi.

Of course, finding peace, both personally and collectively, depends on multiple factors, including recovering ecological equilibrium. A cultural tourism scheme though offers a window of opportunity to assess all this and start thinking new ideas or methodologies.

When we see wars that seem to have no end in sight, and countries where there are more weapons than inhabitants, where citizens can buy weapons as easily as they can buy aspirin; when we see violent attacks on presidential candidates or high-ranking officials, it is time to reflect. It is important to travel, to talk to other people, to see precious traditions and kinds of modernities, and to learn languages long seen in the West or the East as belonging to “distant cultures.” In exchanges, we learn.

A word to the wise is enough. 

AUGUSTO SOTO is director of the Spain-based Dialogue with China Project.