During this year’s National Day Golden Week, the borders of the motherland are crowded with tourists. From the snowy plateau to the northwest border, from the northeastern border to the southern gate, cultural tourism in border areas continues to heat up. Behind the popularity are the accessibility of infrastructure, the convenience of customs clearance policies, and the deep feeling of national unity, which give border tourism a new look.
The road is open and the border is not far away
This holiday, the "Road to Tibet" on the snowy plateau is particularly lively. "I specifically set out from Bengbu, Anhui, and traveled 3,880 kilometers to the foot of the Potala Palace." In the early morning of October 1, tourist Ms. Cui's words in front of the Potala Palace Square in Lhasa spoke to the aspirations of many people.
During the National Day Golden Week holiday, tourists check in at the Pema Lincuo Scenic Area in Tibet. Photo courtesy of Pasang Tsering
Border cultural tourism is booming, first of all because of "accessibility". As the campaign to revitalize border areas and enrich the people continues to advance, infrastructure such as railways, highways, airports, and ports in border areas continues to improve. The once distant border areas are becoming "go-go" destinations for tourists.
Taking Tibet as an example, the Lhasa-Linchi Railway, which opened in 2021, has been operating safely for five years. The Fuxing EMU has compressed the journey from Lhasa to Nyingchi to more than 3 hours, and has transported a total of more than 6.25 million passengers; according to data from the Tibet District Bureau of Civil Aviation, this year's Mid-Autumn Festival During the "Double Festival" of National Day, Lhasa Gonggar International Airport plans to guarantee 2,208 flights, with a passenger throughput of 287,000; the supporting facilities along the G317 North Sichuan-Tibet Line and G219 are constantly improving, and there is a constant flow of self-driving tour fleets.
Once the road is open, the border town will become more popular. Lozha County in Tibet is located at the southern foothills of the Himalayas. It means "big cliff in the south" in Tibetan and borders Bhutan. Pasang Tsering, a staff member of the local culture and tourism bureau, said that after the launch of the National Day activity of "Traveling the Southern Tibetan Gorge and Encountering the Secret Land of Lodzha", there has been an upsurge in trying on Tibetan clothing and checking in. Folk competitions such as horn hunting and plateau archery have attracted many tourists to participate.
Zhang Xianling, associate professor at the Institute of Chinese Community at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that border areas continue to promote infrastructure construction, with priority layout of transportation, energy, water conservancy, information network and other projects, constantly opening up the "capillaries" of border development, and paving a fast lane for the development of the cultural tourism industry. When the characteristic industries of border areas are deeply integrated into the unified national market, the economic ties between the border areas and the mainland will become deeper and stronger.
Visa-free, see the three countries at a glance
His eyes turned to the northeastern border. In Hunchun, Jilin, the two-way visa exemption between China and Russia and the departure tax refund policy for overseas passengers have made group travel to Russia and inbound leisure travel more popular at the port.
Tour groups are waiting for inspection in an orderly manner in the port hall, and the border inspection department has opened more inspection channels and shortened the waiting time for inspection. In the Fangchuan Scenic Area, where you can see the Three Kingdoms at a Glance, tourists lined up in front of the Longhu Pavilion to climb up and overlook the autumn scenery at the junction of China, North Korea and Russia. Many Russian tourists also came here.
The combination of visa facilitation and customs clearance innovation is turning border ports from "channels" into "destinations", and border cross-border tourism has become an intuitive window for high-level opening up to the outside world.
On October 5, a mecha formation paraded in the square in front of the Friendship Pass in Pingxiang, Guangxi. Photo courtesy of Guangxi Pingxiang Youyiguan Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
This year’s holiday, Guangxi’s border tour breaks out of the old model of “just take a look at the boundary monument and then leave” and redefines the “national gate experience” with a sense of technology and immersion.
In the square in front of the Pingxiang Friendship Pass, robot dogs lined up to patrol the border, and mecha formations paraded along the street. The thousand-year-old pass encountered AI technology. Huang Liping, manager of the scenic area management department, said that as of October 5, the scenic area had received nearly 40,000 tourists. In addition, local cross-border tourism is also increasing. Tourists can apply for border travel passes to leave the country with their ID cards. There is an endless stream of tourists making appointments to visit Lang Son, Vietnam every day.
Similarly, in the Detian Cross-border Waterfall Scenic Area, the China-Vietnam Detian (Ban Gioc) Waterfall Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Zone pioneered the "one ticket to visit two countries" model, allowing tourists to travel between the two countries in one day.
"In the past, tourists came to Detian and got off the bus to see the waterfalls, take photos and check in, and walked around in a short time; now they can shop in Cross-border Street, taste rice field coffee, and watch immersive performances in the evening. Many people will stay one night." Ma Chengwu, the owner of Detiantun B&B, said that it is difficult to find a room in B&Bs during the National Day, and many tourists come from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Behind this "cross-border slow enjoyment" is the support of the reform of customs clearance facilitation - the cooperation zone has launched measures such as "face check-in" and "nearby check-in" to promote the transformation of customs clearance into "invisible passage".
Integration, culture and tourism are warm
The deep charm of border cultural tourism lies in the exchanges and integration of various ethnic groups. The National Unity and Progress Promotion Law implemented in July this year clarifies that the construction of the border urban system should be strengthened, development and opening up policies should be improved, development and opening up platforms and industrial platform facilities should be promoted, industrial support capabilities should be enhanced, border trade should be supported, border tourism should be developed, and cross-border economic cooperation should be encouraged.
Tourists from all over the country take photos under the national gate of Alashankou Port in Xinjiang. Photo by Jin Yuxuan
“Tourism should gather people’s hearts and allow people of all ethnic groups to share the fruits of development.” Zhou Jingjing, Party Secretary and Deputy Director of Xinjiang Alashankou Municipal Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau, said that from October 1 to 5, the city received a total of 57,800 tourists, and tourists spent a total of 36.29 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.49% and 11.32% respectively.
In recent years, this Silk Road city has created a new model of "port + study + leisure shopping", connecting the national red study, China-Europe train sightseeing, and cross-border shopping in the comprehensive bonded area into a tourist route, fully unleashing the vitality of holiday consumption.
Today, in Alashankou, people from all ethnic groups, including Han, Kazakh, Uyghur, and Hui, work and operate together in scenic service posts, specialty restaurants, and imported goods shops. Tourists from all over the world chat and interact with local citizens, enhancing understanding and deepening friendship while visiting the border scenery.
The Chinese family is close and welcomes guests together. In Lakang Town, Luozha County, tourists and local people had a great time dancing Guozhuang; in Hunchun Fangchuan Folk Village, Korean songs and dances were performed in turn, and tourists from all over the country, Korean people and Russian tourists shared delicious food; in Pingxiang Puzhai Characteristic Street, NPCs dressed in Jing ethnic costumes paraded along the street, and tourists ordered a cup of coffee, listened to street music, and felt the slow life at the border.
"Borderland cultural tourism is not only about seeing the scenery, but also about 'seeing China'; it is not only about 'going to the border', but also about 'integrating into the Chinese national community.'" Wang Wei, a professor at the School of Chinese National Community at Minzu University of China, said that through cultural tourism and building bridges, we can promote the all-round embedding of all ethnic groups in space, culture, economy, society, psychology and other aspects, and understand, realize and share the construction achievements of revitalizing the border, enriching the people, and stabilizing the border through tourism. The warmth of border cultural tourism is the warmth of the Chinese nation as a family, and the warmth of Chinese-style modern border governance. (End) (Reported by Li Tengfei, Gongsang Lhamo, Song Yulong, Guo Jia, Zhang Guangquan and Xiao Jingfeng in "China News")
