World gives mainland Chinese travellers warmer welcome as nations ease visa restrictions
United States, Japan and South Korea among countries to extend length of visas and lowered threshold for travel approval to attract big-spending mainlanders
The relaxation of visa policies in many foreign countries means mainland Chinese visitors are now expected to travel abroad more than ever before.
Chinese citizens have long complained that their passports have been among those facing the greatest discrimination because of major difficulties when applying for visas to Western countries.
The situation has slowly changed, as popular overseas tour destinations – even the United States and Japan – have increased the validity of tourist visas or lowered the threshold for visa approval, in order to attract more mainland visitors, who are now among the highest spenders per capita in many places.
The latest country to vie for Chinese tourists is South Korea, which has started to issue them five-year multiple-entry visas after scrapping its system of one-year and three-year visas. The requirement for obtaining the new visa has been loosened so dramatically that people earning a monthly salary of more than 5,000 yuan are entitled to receive it.
Luo Luo, a 35-year-old woman who runs a small shop in Henan province, is one of beneficiaries of the new US visa policy. Since November the US has increased the validity of tourist and business visas from one year to 10 years, and the validity of student visas from one year to five years.
Luo, who failed to be granted a visa when she last applied in 2008, said she had received an unexpectedly quick response this time after her latest application for a visa at the US embassy in Beijing.
