A foreign tourist records with a Chinese-brand pocket camera at the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing, May 2, 2026. [Photo/Xinhua]
Foreign visitors to China are venturing well beyond the country's gateway cities, with shopping hubs, border cities and inland destinations attracting growing numbers of overseas travelers as expanded visa waiver policies continue to boost inbound tourism.
Online travel platform Qunar said on Friday that foreign passport holders booked flights to 160 Chinese cities through its platform during the first half of 2026, up from a year earlier and covering destinations stretching from the China-Russia border city of Heihe in Heilongjiang province to the western city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
While Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province remained the most popular destinations, secondary cities posted some of the strongest growth.
Chongqing recorded a 30 percent year-on-year increase in inbound flight bookings, the fastest growth among China's top 10 inbound destinations, while Changsha in Hunan, Hangzhou in Zhejiang, Zhengzhou in Henan and Xi'an in Shaanxi all posted double-digit gains, according to Qunar.
