Chinese people embrace tourism to celebrate Lunar New Year

Seeing the world

"Happy Chinese New Year from abroad! I had a great time roaming around Singapore!" a tourist from Chongqing surnamed Zhang posted on her social media on Chinese New Year's Eve. In her photos, she and her daughter are in summer clothing and her parents can be seen taking pictures in front of greenery.

Although the trip was an impulsive decision, it was only made possible by a recent visa-free travel policy and the fact that a direct flight from Chongqing to Singapore takes just five hours.

More Chinese people like Zhang chose to ring in this new lunar year in a foreign country. China's National Immigration Administration has estimated that the Chinese mainland will see a daily average of 1.8 million inbound and outbound passenger trips during the Spring Festival holiday this year, approximately 3.3 times larger than last year's figure.

Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher at the Tongcheng Research Institute, which is affiliated with a major online travel agency, said that countries such as Singapore and Thailand are becoming travel hot spots after their implementation of visa-free travel policies for Chinese tourists. These overseas trips are expected to give a strong impetus to tourism spending, Cheng said.