Tourism ties getting into full swing

Tourism experts and industry insiders have voiced optimism about growth in tourism involving China and Russia because of the countries' strong economic ties, eased visa rules and geographical proximity.

In August last year, China and Russia resumed a policy of visa-free travel for group tours under which people from the two countries holding ordinary passports are allowed to stay anywhere in the Chinese mainland or in Russia for up to 15 days in a tourism group of between five and 50 people. The policy, originally adopted in 2000, was suspended during the pandemic.

"The number of Russians visiting China has surged this year, and my colleagues and I were very busy from May," said Song Xueyan, 43, a Russian-language tour guide who works in Hunchun, Jilin province, a city that is on the Sino-Russian border. Cross-border tourism between China and Russia is usually down from late September, but Song said he expected that will be different this year, with business remaining robust into winter.

"The eased visa rules is one of the major reasons. More availability of tourism activities at lower prices is also attractive to Russians."

The company he works for, which employs 12 tour guides, had provided services to about 6,000 Russian tourists since May, he said.

Heihe, the cross-border port in Heilongjiang province adjacent to Russia, had had more than 360,000 entries and exits from January to late July, three times more than in the corresponding period last year.

Last year, 317,000 people who visited Heilongjiang, or more than 90 percent of all the province's overseas tourists, were from Russia, the People's Daily reported.

More Chinese tourists have also been visiting Russia since China loosened travel restrictions and resumed outbound group tours to Russia in February last year. Russia resumed the mutual exemption of visas for Chinese passport holders six months later and made e-visa services available to 55 countries including China about the same time.

By July this year, 559 travel agencies in Russia were authorized to conduct business receiving visa-free Chinese tour groups, 50 percent more than a year earlier, People's Daily said, citing figures from Russia's Ministry of Economic Development.

The tourism bureau of Primorsky Krai said the area received 129,500 visits by Chinese last year, and about 49,000 visits in the first three months of this year, roughly matching figures in a similar period before the pandemic.

Wei Changren, founder of btiii.com, a tourism-related financial news website, said he was optimistic about tourism between China and Russia.

"It's easy to get to Russia thanks to the relaxed visa rules and short travel times. Traditionally popular tourism draw cards for Chinese such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok are attracting ever greater numbers of people."

Many Chinese who travel to Jilin and Heilongjiang like to get in a visit to Russia at the same time, one big attraction being Russia's culture, including the architecture that contrasts with that of China, he said.

"China and Russia have a long-standing friendship that includes economics and people-to-people exchanges, and deepening ties will continue to drive tourism collaboration."

In March, Chi Zijian, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, proposed a China-Russia cultural and tourism belt in Heilongjiang.

The province can gain financial support from the central government to improve infrastructure such as roads and railways, she said, and a China-Russia cultural and tourism belt connecting the province's 18 border counties and districts and 19 ports would offer quicker and easier access for Russians to China.