More foreign visitors present more positive China stories

The National Immigration Administration recently announced that the number of inbound trips to China in the first half of this year increased to 14.63 million, up 152.7 percent year-on-year. Many attribute the increase to China's visa exemption policy implemented last year. As of now, the National Immigration Administration has implemented a 144-hour visa-free transit policy at 37 ports.

Tourism officials in China must be happy now that the scenic spots and historical sites are crowded with foreign visitors, because the unilateral visa-free entry policy is designed to boost inbound tourism. Happier are the diplomats and journalists because foreign nationals are not only visiting China in larger numbers but also presenting positive stories about China to the world.

Using their mobile phones, the tourists are sending tens of thousands of photographs, videos and stories of their travels to China to almost all influential international social media platforms, drawing hundreds of millions of Western viewers. Their stories, photographs and videos about China are different from what the Western politicians and media outlets have been telling them.

Having gone over some of their stories and photographs, I, as a journalist who has been to almost all corners of China on reporting assignments, have to say that their "dispatches" are more or less fragmented, technically immature and sometimes too emotional. But I also have to say that they are mostly objective, original and largely unbiased, and thus believable.

Digging deeper into their stories, I found the key words used in their dispatches are of being "shocked" or "amazed", or both. For long, the photographs and videos they have seen and the stories they've read about China in their home countries have been mostly negative: the air in China is polluted, the economy sliding, and the people dissatisfied with governance and oppressed.

They can't help but be shocked and amazed when they see with their own eyes something totally different, in fact, the opposite, from what they have been told.

They are shocked by the modern infrastructure when they land at China's airports. They are shocked by the convenient subway and high-speed train services. They are shocked by China's cashless paying system and robots and drones that send takeaways to their address within half an hour. They are shocked by the size and the modernization level of not only metropolises such as Shanghai and Shenzhen but also of many little-known small cities.

They are amazed by China's divergent yet unifying culture, and beautiful scenes. They are amazed to see the Chinese people enjoying their life, singing and dancing in parks and squares. They are amazed by the country's security system, which enables even women to walk alone in cities late at night. They are amazed by the fabulous restaurants and by the wide variety of cuisines from different provinces. They are amazed by the vast number of public toilets, which are clean and well maintained.

Some foreign nationals have visited China to "investigate" how the surveillance cameras on the streets are "violating" people's rights. They did find lots of such cameras and even interviewed some people to find out their reaction. But the local people told them that as law-abiding citizens, they are not only not worried about but also grateful for the cameras, for the cameras have played a key role in curbing theft and pick-pocketing in the country. "What freedom and rights can you enjoy if you are not sure of being provided basic security?" one of the interviewees asked the interviewer.

As a patriot, I am grateful to the objective and positive "reporting" on China by the foreign visitors. I sometimes get emotional when reading or watching videos or reading stories praising China. Indeed, China still has a lot of problems to address such as the slowing economy, rising unemployment, disparity in the development level of different regions, and corruption.

Since China is a big country, it would be demanding too much from a foreign visitor to present an overall picture of the country within two weeks. I hope more foreign visitors come and stay in China longer enough to enjoy, observe and tell their China stories objectively-good or bad.

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.

kangbing@chinadaily.com.cn