China keeps rolling out the welcome mat with their visa-free travel policy, which is fantastic.
But once visitors arrive, they can hit a bit of a digital wall.
Foreign cards can run into trouble.
Apps can default to the Chinese-only version.
But new guidelines promise to fix all of this.
Will China finally let foreigners in, digitally speaking?
After that, every year, on one single night, China gathers around the screen.
The Spring Festival Gala is part family ritual, part national heartbeat.
It's nostalgia, it's spectacle, it's about a billion people all tuned in together.
How did a TV show become like this?
We're going to talk about the night that China watches together.
Coming to you live from our studios in Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm Steve.
Thank you very much for being with us today.
And for the show, I'm with Yushun and Feifei.
First up.
China's visa-free policies are bringing more and more international visitors through the gates.
Once inside, though, many encounter a digital learning curve.
Mobile payments can be tricky for foreign wallets.
Apps may default to Chinese, requiring patience and workarounds.
Simple tasks like ordering food or hailing a ride or buying a train ticket can take a few extra steps.
But good news is on the way because solutions are emerging.
New national guidelines now aim to make digital services more accessible to foreign visitors and overseas residents.
It's a promising step toward a more connected, user-friendly experience.
The question, I guess Fei-Fei and Yuxin, good afternoon is how quickly the ecosystem, the digital ecosystem, can evolve to welcome the world and catch up to where it needs to be.
So let's get straight into the guidelines.
What do they talk about?
So these new guidelines, released very recently, as you said, aim to smooth out everything online, basically from mobile payments to all the other online services that visitors can enjoy.
This policy is jointly issued by 11 government bodies, so we can see that is a very broad push.
Yeah, this is a big deal.
Yes, to raise that level of opening up and also simply welcoming international visitors, And they are trying to fix some of the digital sticking points that foreign visitors often face.
And, for example, in mobile payments, in the use of languages and also in areas like housing, health care payment, tourism and public services.
So it's not only targeting short-term travelers, but also are trying to help those who plan to live in China a bit longer term.
Me raising my hand.
I was excited when I saw this story.
I thought, wait a minute, that's me.
Or at least part of this is related to me.
I saw an explanation on this.
Put simply, the message is a world-class digital economy should also be easy for the world to use.
Well said, yeah.
It really impressed me.
And I've seen some of the videos that like foreigners visiting China, no matter it's about the culture shock or you know how advanced these digital economy is.
They were shocked, but they're just surprised.
But probably it's kind of hard for them to actually use these digital economy kind of thing.
And now, with these new policies, they can actually be the user of all of these preferential policies.
Yeah.
And, as you mentioned, Fei-Fei.
It's covering a lot of things housing, health care payments tourism, public services, all of this.
It's looking to get a real boost.
And if we're looking forward to five years from now, four years from now, by 2030, the goal is even more ambitious.
They want inbound digital services reaching a globally leading standard.
And by then the country envisions a fully connected, inclusive digital ecosystem where end-to-end digital services align seamlessly with international norms.
And this would be where digital openness would play a much bigger role in driving economic and social development wholeheartedly, that the country will reach that goal.
Because I had friends who lived in China about 15 years ago and you know we chat sometimes and he's always curious.
One of my friends is always curious, you know, how is it now?
How's this now?
How is it now?
And judging from our conversation, things were a lot more complicated 15 years ago compared to.
I said oh no this, you can do this in English now.
And he's like, what?
So things change very, very quickly.
And that's why I said you know, I think things will continue to change very quickly, especially when you have so many government bodies behind this.
All right.
So let's get into some of the specific details then of these measures, if we could.
Hmm.
The guidelines lay out 14 concrete steps aimed at fixing the everyday digital frustrations foreigners may run into.
That includes easier access to telecom services and smoother digital payments, with stronger support for overseas e-wallets inside the Chinese mainland.
And I've seen reports saying that, let's say about the very famous e-payment tool Alipay.
Throughout 2025.
More than 10 million inbound tourists have experienced China's digital lifestyle through two convenient payment solutions.
That's Alipay's linking overseas cards to domestic wallets.
So first of all, you can use your like foreign cards now.
And then Alipay's using overseas wallets in China.
That means.
For example, Italian visitors can just pay directly using their familiar app.
I think it's Atinaba or tourists from Uzbekistan.
They can use their familiar OctoMobile to pay.
So they can use their own applications in China.
Yes, because these applications are collaborating with Alipay.
So basically they are transferring money maybe that kind of money from their own apps to Alipay and then to the shops.
So it's more convenient for both ends of the shopping experience for international visitors.
They can pay with their own money, their own currency.
And for the Chinese businesses, they don't have to worry about getting a lot of foreign currency.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
It makes things easier too in a different way, because in the past you might go to certain shops, bigger shopping centers or bigger brands that will take maybe an international credit card or something like that.
But you can't or couldn't go to the local mom and pop convenience store and use that same card.
So as a traveler, you're always trying to figure out, oh, what can I pay?
What do I use?
And then there's, like this pause and this awkward moment when you get up to the counter to pay for something.
Yeah.
And it doesn't ruin the experience.
No, no, I'm not saying that.
It's just if you can make it so that you don't even have to think about it.
It's just so much more convenient where you can just pay anywhere at all.
All right, another big change is to languages on different platforms.
So they are encouraged, platforms are encouraged, to clearly offer translation tools and multilingual versions so that users aren't left, I guess, kind of guessing their way through essential apps and services.
Yeah, this one applies to me as well.
And one of the things that I find a little bit frustrating now and, by the way, the only reason I'm quote unquote complaining about this is because this is our topic today
It's not a huge issue for me, but this is my experience.
You go onto certain apps and you'll have a translate button, right?
So it will switch things over to English and, But then on other platforms and sometimes these are major shopping platforms there are no translation services available at all.
So it's not a unified system.
And I'm not saying that it's easy to do, because these are different companies that are operating independently.
I'm just saying, you know from an expat's experience.
It would be nice if you could find this across all major platforms.
It would make life a lot more simple.
Yeah, and also I think for some apps, they do offer multilingual versions.
It's also very difficult to find the button where you can tap on switch.
It's there sometimes, but you have to know the Chinese characters in order to find how to switch that language over.
Okay, so those are a couple.
Any more big details we need to know about?
There are also other changes, for example in real life, like in traveling shopping, eating out experiences.
They're also hoping to have better and more digital tools for overseas visitors to make their experiences better, simpler and more fun.
For example museums, scenic spots or other facilities in tourism.
Culture are encouraged to build better websites, mobile applications with better and more convenient booking services, meaning probably in more languages and also allowing foreign visitors so that they can reserve.
Because for some, especially for museums, they sometimes have a cap on the number of visitors they can receive every day.
And they sort of need, first of all, to let foreign visitors know about this kind of information.
And when it comes to making the reservation and making the booking, it should also be more convenient, more simple, in a way, for foreign visitors And when it comes to, for example, online travel agencies, they are also encouraged to launch more guided tours for international visitors.
I think we all have this kind of experiences.
When you go to a new country, especially when you don't know their language at all, is very difficult to navigate through different scenic spots because there will definitely be some kind of a bucket list that you want to visit, definitely at this time.
And if there is one tour, one sort of package that offered to you so that you can go through this bucket list very quickly, very efficiently, and also learn about the history and culture behind, That's better than you going through your own website.
You know Google for one scenic spot after another, trying to make the routes, to figure out the routes to get to A, to B and to C and how to get back to your hotel.
And also you need to worry about meals and how to make the payments and so on and so forth.
It's much effortless in this way.
Well, I mean, yeah, I want to say this too.
It sounds like we're complaining.
Those are the things that you deal with when you travel to a different country, wherever you're going in the world that speaks a different language than your own.
But the goal here is to make things as as easy as possible, as stress-free as possible, and i think ultimately, the goal too would be to enrich the experience of the people who are traveling and feifei, all the things that you just mentioned, you know, with that ease of mind, it really would help you to enjoy yes, your cultural experiences while you're here now.
That said, you know we've talked about the touristy stuff, but it goes beyond that, Yuxin.
Exactly.
As we just mentioned, that is not only for the tourists, but also for people from overseas who would like to actually live here in China.
So, from booking hospital appointments and accessing education resources, and also handling investment, startup and government services, there are More guidelines push for more user-friendly digital public services.
And one that I saw is that Beijing, there is a hospital called Treyangliu Hospital.
In September 2025, this hospital launched a new generation of bilingual self-service terminals.
And these machines support 12 core functions.
Yeah, like registration.
Appointment booking checking, exam scheduling, also medical record creation, also e-invoice printing so that you can get your refund, or something.
The full interface is in both Chinese and English, allowing foreign patients to complete this entire process without waiting in line, because everything's digital.
Yeah, my experience at the hospital has.
I've only been a couple of times for non-serious things and it's just been.
It's been confusing and also wonderful at the same time.
The wonderful part was When I went in the first time.
I went to the information desk because I didn't know anything.
I didn't know where I was supposed to go.
I didn't know what I was supposed to do.
There were no English signs or anything.
And I went to the information desk and they said, would you like a translator?
That translator came down within five minutes, stayed with me through the registration process because I was visiting for the first time.
Took me to the doctor, waited outside while I was with the doctor, then took me to the place where I needed to print out and pay and get my receipt and then took me to the place where I picked up my medicine.
Waited outside, so doctor counters in English.
A little bit.
I mean, she didn't come in.
That's a bit private, I think, you know, bring the translator into their room.
Right.
But I'm sure she would have.
But anyway.
Yeah.
So that was the wonderful side of it.
Now, the confusing side was the second time I went.
I didn't get a translator because I already had my hospital card.
So when it came to time to pay.
I needed to go to one of the terminals that you're talking about and there's no English available there.
So my strategy was look at the person at the terminal next to me and see which buttons they're pushing.
Look at the color.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And which card did they insert into the machine?
And it took me, you know, an extra five, 10 minutes.
I don't know, but I figured it out in the end.
But again, you know, these types of services will speed things up.
That's for sure.
All right.
So if digital convenience has become a critical part of China's opening up strategy a very high standard opening up strategy then I guess a question to ask would be why has this become of such importance at the moment?
Well, first of all, I think now pretty much every factor in the Chinese society, in your daily life, for example, starting a business in your work, it's vastly digitalized.
There will be some kind of online platform, being a website or application that pretty much most of China are using that.
So for foreign visitors when they come to this environment, it's exciting in the first glimpse, but when you really try to use that it can be confusing, because not every country is as digitalized as China.
First of all,
And then we are also for having these visa-free policies in place, so we are seeing more and more of these visitors.
They are all having sort of stuck in this point of, for example, mobile payments or language barriers and how to make bookings and accommodation in some of the paperwork if they want to start their own business here in China.
So it seems like it's not only necessary, but if the authorities really want to continue to open up the market here, welcome more visitors to China, is inevitable to offer this wider range of very convenient measures to them.
For me, this is tied directly to the visa-free policy.
Because the visa-free policy is intended.
The point is, to bring more people visiting the country and, who knows, perhaps choosing China as a place to set up their life.
So let's look at some of those numbers.
Last year in 2025, foreign nationals made more than 82 million border crossings.
That was 26% more than 2024.
Over 30 million people entered China visa-free, nearly 50% more than in 2024.
And that's accounting for almost three quarters of all foreign entries into the country.
And of course, that visa-free policy allows people to do that.
So in my mind and I don't think it's a stretch to say when you have that kind of policy put in place and you have millions and millions and millions of people entering the country, who probably, for many, are coming for the very first time, then you want to make it as seamless as possible.
And the added benefit to that is that when they come and have a positive experience, they go home, they tell people about that, they're more likely to come back and it can expand exponentially.
Hmm.
And like China travel is exactly becoming a trend, I would say.
It's, I think, benefiting for both sides, of course.
For these shops and stores they have the opportunity to, I think, get more, of course, consumers right.
And for these foreign visitors, they have the opportunity to experience another culture.
And I've seen some of the videos online saying that some Very famous Chinese scenic spots.
I think it's in Yunnan.
It's known for its beautiful scenes, the lakes, the mountains and snow peak and everything.
And some of the shop vendors who are doing the service of scenic spot photo shooting.
That's a quite popular thing in China.
There are many foreign visitors specifically fly to that destination for the photo shoot.
Oh, really?
They offer all of the services like makeup, costumes and all of the like one stop shopping.
So they can sort of dress up in, for example in traditional costumes of any Chinese ethnic groups and then pose for photos.
And you can take pictures with, of course wolves, like dogs, and also horses, to give you that sense of you know, experience.
Wolf-like dogs.
Yeah.
I wonder what breed that is.
They're calling that, like, pictures with wolves, but of course we know that as dogs.
Yeah, that's an important stipulation, I would say.
All right.
Well then, what would be some of the?
You know we talk about culture shock when people come.
What about the digital culture shocks?
I think one would be that Well, we've talked about this before.
I think I mentioned on the show, I have a hard time remembering when I ever use cash or when I have ever used cash after moving to China.
I came with cash.
I assumed it's money.
Everybody's going to take it.
And then my first experience was with the taxi driver immediately after arriving at the airport.
Um got to our destination, offered him cash and he looked at me like oh, i don't have change for you exactly those were the next words.
Yeah, it's not that cash is not welcomed, it's just because they receive cash less and less on daily basis.
They just don't have the change to give you.
Why would they?
Yeah because, especially for foreign visitors, when you go to your local bank, most of the time you get the 100 kuai bill.
And 100 kuai bill in China can buy a lot of things, a lot of services.
So, for example, if you buy a cup of milk tea which is like 10 kuai and you give them 100 kuai, most of the chances they don't have 90 to give you back.
And that's kind of one culture.
And another one is that In China, because of the online services that we're offering, a lot of services is actually registered under your phone number.
And your phone number is linked to the Chinese ID card.
And that can be a very big headache for international travelers.
First of all, of course, they don't have an ID card.
And then they also don't have a local phone number.
Yes, that can be one problem.
Unless you get a SIM card, right?
Or an eSIM or something like that.
Yeah, yeah.
But for first-time comers, it would still be a very stressful experience for them to figure out how to get that SIM card.
Oh, 1,000%.
I mean if you landed in China with no knowledge about WeChat or Alipay or anything like that, I mean you would be, you would be lost in the beginning.
That is for sure.
Because your phone, I think, Yushin, you would agree.
Everybody would agree with this.
Your phone is life, right?
Because everything you need is inside there.
And I think you can treat it as an advantage or a disadvantage because basically, if you have to rely on that smart device when something's wrong with it, or electricity, or the wife, or the internet um, it could be more troublesome.
So um, and another thing is that everything just so hyper integrated, because you just mentioned that there are some apps that are we called super app, because you can do so many things.
Basically, your life can also rely on that one single app.
So they they bundle payments maps, messaging services into one ecosystem, which feels efficient once you're in, but maybe Can be also confusing at first, because you need to go into the interface and you need to find that English option button When it's all in Chinese.
Yeah Yeah, and I think that's you know something to keep in mind and I I encounter this when I
I go to Canada sometimes and I see tourists who are coming from other countries and they don't speak English or they don't know how to use the local services.
And the locals in Canada are kind of just explaining things like, Yeah, this is simple.
Yeah.
And in my mind, I'm thinking this is not simple at all.
These people have never seen this type of system before.
What are you talking about?
Simple.
So that's something to keep in mind too, that absolutely everything can be different and absolutely everything can be new.
I want to mention, too, I hope there's more support for for different languages.
I'm spoiled because I'm an English speaker.
And a lot of the translation services available are for English.
But I think it would be great if other languages were available as well.
Because, of course, not everyone speaks English who visits China.
So that would be great to see.
And also, I think when it comes to language, it's more than just a simple translation.
For example, in the past I remember the subway stations of Beijing changed their names, their English names, from direct English translation to the Chinese pronunciation.
And that caused quite a bit of a discussion online simply because why are we doing that?
And then we dig into that and finding that, because when a foreign visitor asking a load calls for a direction for example, where is the bird's nest locals won't understand.
But when you, when you ask them, where is niao chao ah, they'll have the idea where where, what place you were talking about.
So that is the reason why they decided to change that name from english name to a chinese pinyin name.
So that is so you can see, for signs and a lot of the languages in our society, it's not just as a simple as translation, and also they're sometimes mistranslated in some cases as well.
Yes, that's true.
That happens a lot on the food ordering applications.
The translations are quite funny sometimes.
And then there's the whole other issue about.
You know, there was the discussion about Chinese dish names.
What do we do there?
We talked about this on Roundtable maybe a year ago.
You know, lion's head.
That's the meatballs.
Buddha jumps over the wall.
Oh, yeah.
Right.
Is it jumps over or climbs over the wall or something like that?
But in Chinese, it's jumps.
Is it jumps?
Yeah.
So but as you know.
You sit down in a restaurant and you're like, Buddha jumps.
Is that chicken?
But the names are so poetic in Chinese, right, that you want to keep them.
So, yeah, that's that's a whole other issue, though.
All right.
So these changes are going to help to put China more, I think, on the global stage in terms of travel, because there's going to be a lot more tourists, perhaps a lot more talent moving to China, maybe more investors, more businesses, less mystery, more familiarity.
But one of the things and this is kind of a side issue, but I think it's worth mentioning for sure is about the 2026 China Travel with Chinese Films event.
This is a really cool thing that's happening too.
Yes.
So China launched this 2026 version.
It also happened last year.
It's basically to stimulate consumption through a closer integration of the cinema and tourism, and also centered around the movie releases during the spring festival.
Yeah.
So this would be for tourists, but this would also be for locals too.
Yes yes, so it basically is that it promotes some of the travel routes linking to film locations and story settings.
So for in this year, i think, the central stage taking place in guangdong provinces there are, i think, like more than 20 cities participating and a number of different routes, and i think one of the promotions is also supported by nap that we covered on roundtable before, called nihao china, And also there are different routes.
For example, in Foshan they have a route surrounding going around Shunde, which is the basically food city, which is known for its delicious food.
And they sort of offering the spots that you can go through in Shunde and the type of food that you can try out in there.
This CMG China Media Group has also promoted this event China Travel with Chinese Films on more than 600 public screens in 28 different countries, including America and Germany and France, and so on and so forth.
And this will hopefully further boost international tourist interest in traveling to China.
And sometimes a movie can do exactly that.
It can inspire people. to want to visit China.
So we have some clips that we wanted to share with you, and that's exactly what we're going to hear how film can inspire interest in a country.
Hello, I'm Jelena Čulević, a cross-cultural influencer from Serbia.
I watched Avatar years ago and was blown away by those towering sandstone pillars.
Later I found out they were inspired by the surreal mountains in Čandjadje, so I decided to travel there and see them for myself.
The scenery was absolutely breathtaking.
I loved it.
Hello everyone, I am Dr. Najmus Saqib, a pediatrician living in Beijing for the last 16 years.
A few years ago, I watched a movie called Ai and Ditan.
It moved me deeply and I knew I had to experience the place for myself.
So, during the Chinese New Year, I visited the Ditan Temple Fair, Thetan Park isn't just a park.
It's an imperial altar in Beijing that was once used as a site to worship the god of earth for good harvests.
But during the spring festival, it transforms.
The air buzzes with laughter and music.
The atmosphere was incredibly festive.
I tried many traditional snacks, watched lion dance performances, and explored various art displays.
It was really fun.
For someone far from home, that day felt like belonging.
It wasn't just fun.
It was a beautiful reminder of how culture connects us all.
Thank you very much.
Hello semuanya.
Hello everyone.
I'm Alexander William and I'm a content creator from Indonesia.
Once, I watched an old Hong Kong movie called A Terracotta Warrior.
And it sparked my interest about Chinese culture and also the Terracotta Warriors sculpture by itself.
So last year, I went to Xi'an.
I visited the Mausoleum Site Museum of Qin Shi Huang.
And when I went there, I experienced the real-life sculpture of Terracotta Warriors.
And it really, really is amazing.
It gives me solemn but also powerful vibes.
And it's still one of my most unforgettable moments of my life.
One of the first places my wife and I visited after arriving in China was Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors.
It's kind of a cool experience.
You can't really avoid crowds, because it's one of the most famous places on earth for people to visit.
But the most mind-blowing thing was when you zoom in and see their faces and you realize that every single face is different.
Every single face is different.
It's astonishing.
You can't get as close to them as I would have hoped.
You can't stand right next to them because it's an archaeological site.
They're digging there, right?
So there's distance, plenty of distance.
But when you take your camera and zoom in and you look at the details on the faces and on the bodies, it's really astonishing.
Yeah, and they're really really tall, they are big, they're full-size people.
Yeah, and i saw videos that, if you are, get really as close as you can, you can see the fingerprints.
It feels like you can actually talk to the time.
Yeah yeah, that's very funny.
That was a cool movie.
That was a Hong Kong movie, I believe he said, that inspired him to visit there.
Our first speaker there said Avatar, not knowing that the scenes from Avatar came from a southern part of the country.
Yes, called Zhangjiajie.
I visited there 15, 20 years ago before, I think it's the time around before Avatar hit the cinemas.
And it was absolutely beautiful.
That's what it looks like, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Apart from the rock is not really floating in the sky.
It's like a pin, like different pins sticking into the earth.
But when it rains, you can see the clouds, the fog, or in a way that's going through the mountains.
Sometimes you can see the mountains, some of them staying a bit of a blur in the background.
It just feels like a different world.
That's also the reason I always wanted to visit Zhangjiajie.
Avatar.
Avatar.
I think it's most of the people's reason to visit Zhangjiajie.
I just got to find the right time to go though, because every time it seems that I'm asking during a holiday time.
So I ask our co-workers, you guys, is this a good time to go?
No.
No.
No, no, no.
Go on a Tuesday morning during a non-holiday time or something like that.
Okay, I'll try and figure it out.
But it's on the bucket list.
That's for sure.
What was the park, the Temple Fair Park that that doctor mentioned as well?
It's also called the Park of the God of Earth.
I think most people have gone to the temple of heaven and this one is the other one, the temple of the earth.
And the movie is based on a very famous Chinese book called Wo Yu Di Tan, Iron Di Tan.
And it's about, the author is called Shi Tie Sheng.
It's about, he was paralyzed. when he wrote this book.
And the book is basically about his life around this park and how he started to find hope in sufferings, and also his stories with his mother.
It's a very touching story.
So I'm really surprised to see that this park is mentioned.
Any personal Chinese films you think would inspire people or perhaps inspired you to visit some places, some places like I couldn't.
I could think of that one, but some of the movies are actually taking place here in Beijing, because I visited that art district and interview some of the artists.
Actually,
Oh, the 798?
Yeah, 798.
Oh, they film movies there?
Yeah, some of them.
Yeah, because it is actually used to be a factory.
So some of the movies was getting shots from there.
And also, of course, we can see a lot of these tourist destinations even in some very fashionable shopping malls here in Beijing or the places that they take their way as a background for their no matter it's the movie or TV drama.
So a lot of people would just visit that place and take the screenshot of the TV show and then take the picture for that, like as a punching kind of thing.
And yeah, a lot of people sharing that online as kind of also encouraging people and promoting both the place and the movie.
Yeah, I know.
For me I think, especially looking at this year's Spring Festival movies releases, There's one movie that really stood out with me.
It's called Pegasus 3.
It's the third installment of this movie franchise.
And the second installment actually featured a very beautiful grassland in Xinjiang called Bayambolak Grassland National Reserve.
And I think it also became really, really popular among the viewers of this particular movie.
And this year, they also go to another grassland in Sichuan Province in Jiulong County.
And it's sort of on the borderline of the Xizang Qinghai Plateau, where you can see a mixture of grassland, of mountains, of lakes, of canyons and plateaus.
So you can see all of that in one place, and so, taking advantage of this movie, the county itself actually also designed some of the self-driving routes for visitors to also recreate that movie shot versus reality photo shoot experiences.
So that's very cool.
It's all a spider web, isn't it?
It's all.
It's all connected the soft power movement, where you have the visa free policies put in place.
And then that's connected to, you know, the digital convenience for tourists to come in, which is connected to films, which is connected to um plush toys like labubu, which is connected to video games and it all.
It's an ecosystem, it all works together.
All of these things work together to help put china on the map as a hot tourist destination for people to come.
And we mentioned the millions and millions of people and the percentage increase from 2024 to 2025.
I bet we're going to see those numbers shoot up here in 2026 as well.
