BEIJING, July 9 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to embrace the world with open arms, inject new dynamism into the world through its development and create more energy and enthusiasm for people-to-people exchanges, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
China has recently become quite a popular destination for foreign tourists. Many have posted their experiences on social media. Figures show that "China Travel" has become a top trending search term on multiple global social media platforms.
"Very glad to see the popularity of China as a tourist destination for foreign visitors," spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press briefing in response to a related query.
Government figures show that in the first half of this year, China received nearly 14.64 million foreign travelers, up 152.7 percent year on year. Of these, over 8.54 million entered China visa-free, up 190.1 percent year on year, Lin noted.
As more and more countries benefit from the visa-free policy and as China adopts more measures to ease cross-border travel, "on-a-whim travel" to China is becoming a reality, he said.
"We have seen recently a lot of videos posted by foreign travelers -- many are first-person view or snapshot videos -- which give people a glimpse of China's robust dynamism," Lin said.
"Through their lens, we see the light-show on the Liangma River in Beijing, Shanghai street delicacies, food delivery by drone in Shenzhen, and the futuristic sky train and self-driving air taxi in Optics Valley, Wuhan," he said.
Figures show that 86 percent of the foreign visitors who had been to China before find it much easier today to make payments in China. Scanning the payment codes with one's phone has become a stylish experience for foreign friends in China, Lin added.
The competent government agency expects more foreigners to travel to China in the second half of this year, the spokesperson said.
The "China travel" boom stems from China's unique charm, and more importantly, an open and inclusive Chinese society, and the warm and hospitable Chinese people, said Lin, adding that it's also the result of China's high-standard opening up.
"There is so much to see and experience, and so many opportunities to share and turn into cooperation. We welcome more foreign friends to make China the destination of their next journey abroad," he added.