Overseas visitors look beyond landmarks to experience everyday China

Wearing a pair of mixed reality glasses, Ugandan content creator Kaziro Grace Mukisa found himself standing among Beijing's old streets, where virtual figures from the ancient Chinese myth "Classic of Mountains and Seas" appeared to emerge from the pages of the book and blend into the real world around him.

He reached out repeatedly, adjusting his view and interacting with the digital images floating in front of him.

"You could see animated characters appearing alongside real-life scenes. It was very vivid and immersive," Mukisa said at the 2026 China Culture & Tourism Industries Expo in north China's Tianjin Municipality, which concluded on Sunday.

Around the expo, technology is giving visitors new ways to engage with Chinese culture.

At the four-day event, visitors encountered a wide range of emerging tourism experiences. Humanoid robots performed on stage, a robotic horse walked steadily along a simulated mountain trail, and a robot chef prepared food. Visitors could also immerse themselves in traditional Chinese crafts, including New Year paintings, porcelain making and the inside painting of snuff bottles.

Sri Lankan tour guide Amila was drawn to a camping vehicle displayed at the expo. After stepping inside and carefully examining its space and facilities, he said the vehicle was a fresh experience for him and offers many more possibilities when traveling.

Amila, who has visited China many times over the past two decades, said he had witnessed improvements in tourism services and infrastructure.

"China has rich historical and cultural heritage as well as diverse natural landscapes. I love visiting museums in different places and exploring World Heritage sites," he said, adding that services such as online ticket booking, facial recognition entry and smart audio guides have made travel more convenient.

In Tianjin, some overseas visitors are looking beyond the city's best-known attractions, choosing mountain homestays or wandering through local neighborhoods instead.

Tuane van der Merwe from South Africa recently traveled to the city's Jizhou District with her parents, choosing a mountain homestay instead of popular urban attractions. Surrounded by nature, they could view the Great Wall from their accommodation.

"Here, you can see the city and nature together as one," Tuane van der Merwe said. "It's just amazing."

Another travel blogger, Billy, explored Tianjin's neighborhoods, focusing on ordinary scenes rather than famous landmarks: breakfast shops filled with morning aromas, people walking along the Haihe River and conversations echoing near bridges at dusk.

For him, these everyday moments revealed another side of the city.

Such experiences are emerging as China's inbound tourism continues to grow. A recent economic impact study by the World Travel & Tourism Council showed that international visitor spending in China reached 135 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, up 10.5 percent year on year, exceeding the global average growth rate of 3.2 percent.

Meanwhile, easier entry policies have given international travelers more options. Since China optimized its transit visa-free policies in December 2024, inbound travel facilitation measures have continued to take effect. Data from the National Immigration Administration showed that China recorded 22.91 million inbound foreign visits in the first half of this year, up 20.4 percent year on year. Of those, 77.7 percent were made under visa-free entry facilitation policies.

Olesia Razumnaia, general manager of Sunmar Travel Agency in Russia, said overseas tourists were increasingly shifting from simply visiting attractions to experiencing local culture and daily life, with more interest in immersive and experiential travel.

China is responding by developing more diversified tourism products. The country's tourism development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) calls for creating themed tourism products featuring food, traditional crafts, history and culture, technology experiences, wellness, study tours, festivals and shopping.

"Tourism is not only a bridge for cultural exchanges and closer connections between peoples, but also an important window for presenting a real, multidimensional China," said Wang Wei, vice president of the China Association of Travel Services and senior vice president of Trip.com Group.

Richard Matuzevich, senior manager of the External Liaison Department of the World Tourism Cities Federation, said China's diverse tourism experiences allow visitors to discover a more complete and modern picture of the country.

"A first visit is about getting to know China. A return visit is about experiencing China," he said.