Foreigners take part in a Qijiang Farmers' Woodcut Printing activity on a train on February 12, 2025. The China Railway Chengdu Group has collaborated with Chongqing authorities to host a themed event bringing intangible cultural heritage to train carriages. Photo: VCG

Foreign tourists in China are no longer flocking only to major cities but instead exploring hidden gem towns in China.

Data from Qunar.com on Tuesday showed that, during this year's summer travel season, flight bookings by foreign tourists covered 144 cities, with the fastest growth in bookings concentrated in some lesser-known towns. For instance, flight bookings to Datong in North China's Shanxi surged by 9 times year-over-year, while those to Yiwu in East China's Zhejiang rose by 2.6 times.

High-speed rail has become a primary means of transportation for foreign tourists looking to explore "more deeply." 

The data showed that high-speed rail bookings by Indonesian tourists increased by 2.5 times during this summer, while those from Malaysia, Australia, Canada, and the UK all saw growth exceeding 100 percent.

The farther the travelers' home countries are from China, the more inclined they are to explore extensively and visit more Chinese cities. Among tourists who purchased domestic high-speed rail tickets twice or more during the summer, the top three source countries were the US, Russia, and Canada.

Unlike the past trend of Chinese tourists shopping abroad, "China travel" has sparked a "shop-in-China" boom. 

Yiwu in Zhejiang, known as the "world's supermarket," has attracted foreign tourists eager to stock up on items like Hanfu clothing, embroidered scarves, and hand-made tea sets.

Qunar's data shows that flight bookings to Yiwu by foreign tourists this summer increased by 2.6 times year-over-year. Among them, travelers from Vietnam and Indonesia saw growth exceeding 3 times.

Additionally, the breakout success of the animated film Little Monster of Langlang Mountain has reignited global interest in Shanxi's ancient architecture. While domestic tourists have been flocking to Shanxi, Datong has drawn a growing number of foreign visitors. Qunar's data indicates that flight bookings to Datong by foreign tourists this summer surged by 9 times, the highest growth rate nationwide.

Zhang Zhongyin, a researcher at Qunar's Big Data Research Institute, analyzed that the increasing number of airports in third-tier and smaller cities has made "small-town travel" more convenient for foreign visitors. 

As multilingual services and other supporting facilities improve further, China will become a destination where foreign tourists can "return often and always discover something new and unique," Zhang said.

Global Times