It took a while to find one, wandering around Beijing. Eventually, it was at the northern exit of Beihai Park, so pleasant in this early spring, where visitors must decide whether to embark on a tour of Qianhai Lake or prefer to lose themselves in the traditional alleys that give the capital its village atmosphere, that three of this rare species were discovered: an Irish woman and a German couple. Foreign tourists.
After three years without welcoming any international travelers during the Covid-19 pandemic, China would now like to attract more. According to the Chinese government, the country recorded 35.5 million foreign visitors in 2023. In December, it exempted nationals of six countries, including France and Germany, from visa requirements for stays of up to 15 days, and has since extended this list to 15 countries.
This is because foreign visitor numbers remain very low. Last year, the number of visitors represented just 36% of the level reached in 2019, according to the National Immigration Administration. This already modest figure needs to be contextualized further: Most of it was business travel to this must-visit market, which resumed as soon as the borders were reopened and the zero-Covid policy was lifted.
In the land of QR codes
The few tourists who take advantage of this new policy are discovering a changed country, which they have heard a lot about in the media, not all of it good. Jasmine Petrauschke, 24, and her partner, Jonas Köhli, 26, originally from Mainz (Germany) but now living in Frankfurt, decided to visit China's two biggest cities. Their Air China flight took them to Beijing, from where they would take off again a few days later for Tokyo, and on the way back, they would stop for several nights in Shanghai.
The couple recounted that they first had to install the WeChat and Alipay apps, as nothing can be done in China without them. "The most complicated part has been the apps," said Köhli. It has become very difficult to hail a cab, pay for a meal or enter a tourist site without using one of these two methods. Many cafés and restaurants ask customers to order online once they have sat down. And most transactions start with this exchange: "Wo sao ni, ni sao wo?" ("Am I scanning you, or are you scanning me?"). Already highly connected before the Covid-19 years, China has emerged totally converted to QR codes.
If WeChat, which combines the functions of WhatsApp, Facebook and Amazon, once harbored global ambitions, those days seem to be over. Now, for a foreigner to open a WeChat account, he or she must have the registration validated by a Chinese third party. But in July, WeChat and Alipay, the Alibaba Group app that enables all online payments, committed to connecting foreign payment cards. The fact remains that unless foreigners install a VPN before leaving, they find themselves cut off during their stay from all the websites and apps they use on a daily basis, such as Gmail, Google Maps and WhatsApp.
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