Have you ever known the new visa policy of China already?
According to the new policy for tours, Shanghai is trying to consolidate its status as a global hot spot by allowing visitors arriving by passenger liners to spend three days in the city without a visa.
Pending approval from the central government, the city plans to extend the visa-free policy at its two airports to the cruise terminals, and set up duty-free stores and tax-refund outlets there, the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration said on Tuesday.
The policy, first raised in a proposal by Shanghai Deputy Mayor Zhao Wen to the national political meetings in March, will hopefully be in place within the year, the administration added.
Tourists holding third-country visas and plane tickets are allowed to apply for visa-free transit at the city's Hong-qiao and Pudong airports. Before this, Shanghai had been carrying out a program for years to allow visitors arriving from 32 countries by air a 48-hour visa-free stay.
As for how, or to what degree, the new program will benefit the tourism sector, Chen said it is hard to estimate because unlike business travelers taking airplanes, tourists arriving in liners set their itineraries far in advance.
But the policy corresponds to Shanghai's plan to develop its tourism and cruise industry, Chen said.
Developing the cruise industry - which has changed from the days of transoceanic transportation and tropical vacations only available to society's elite - has become an important strategy for seaside cities like Shanghai, Tianjin and Sanya to boost tourism.
The National Tourism Administration in September approved Shanghai as the first experimental zone for the development of China's cruise industry.
The number of passengers at Shanghai's cruise terminals has surged this year, thanks to the city's policy support and public interest in a vacation option now affordable for ordinary people.
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