評論
打印
You're listening to special English on CRI NEWS Plus Radio. I'm Mark Griffiths.
Finally we go back to China. Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, will launch 72-hour visa-free stays for foreign travelers.
At the beginning of the New Year, travelers from 45 countries are expected to enjoy the policy, if they hold third country visas and have onward tickets to leave for a third country or region within 72 hours.
The policy is expected to boost local tourism and bring in revenue.
More than 750,000 foreign tourists came to Shenyang last year, up 18 percent year on year, according to the city's tourism bureau.
So far, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Chongqing have the 72-hour visa-free service in place. Dalian, a port city also in Liaoning Province, will also launch the service at the beginning of the 2014.
Stay in tourism. Hainan Island in southern China shares the same latitude as Hawaii. It has the same lush lines of palm trees and the same year-round balmy temperatures.
The local government is playing up the resemblance and hopes to brand Hainan as a kind of "Chinese Waikiki".
Ten years ago, Caddie Lu created the island's first English-language travel website, Sunny Sanya.
Lu says until recently many people had no idea that China even had an island, but the government's efforts have drawn more international beach-goers.
Three years ago Hainan aims at becoming an international tourist island. So there are many privileged policies for this island. So the government is trying to promote Hainan as ancient Hawaii.
One of these privileged policies is the short-term visas that are handed out at the airport to tourists on holiday.
There are also a growing number of direct international flights and luxury resorts.
But perhaps the most creative way that the Hainan government is attracting tourists, is by attempting to turn the island into a surfer's paradise.
