Chinese are traveling abroad in record numbers

SHANGHAI, China -- When Hua Qiren first applied for a passport 15 years ago, he sat in long lines to get approval from police and other officials. After three months of frustration and still no passport, he gave up.

He tried again last April, after Shanghai introduced simplified procedures. The oxblood-red Chinese passport arrived in the mail just 10 days later. The 45-year-old hotel manager celebrated by taking his first trip overseas -- a week in Thailand.

"Getting a passport used to be the biggest obstacle for Chinese people to travel overseas," Hua said. "Not anymore."

Once isolated from the world, Chinese are traveling abroad in record numbers, aided by rising incomes and the growing willingness of their government to let its people leave.

The Chinese have emerged as one of the fastest-growing groups of international tourists, a rare bright spot in a global tourism industry hurt by an economic slowdown and fears of terrorism.

Courting Chinese tourists

A rising number of countries in Europe and Asia are aggressively courting Chinese tourists with discount fares and liberal visa rules, though the United States has been slow to join.

"Given the turbulent times we're facing, a country like China and its double-digit growth is quite attractive," said John Koldowski, managing director of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, a Bangkok-based industry research group.

A record 12.3 million Chinese went abroad between January and September, about 25 percent more than the same period last year, according to China's Ministry of Public Security, which issues passports.

That's an enormous change for a country that allowed just 210,000 people to go overseas during the entire first three decades of communist rule. In those days, Chinese citizens were restricted even more than they are today, some major countries didn't have relations with China, and all but a few Chinese couldn't afford foreign travel anyway.

After China began opening to the world in the late 1970s, the first wave of overseas travelers were mostly students or officials. Now, most Chinese go abroad for sightseeing, experts say. That number got a big boost five years ago when the government allowed group tours overseas.

A new jet set

As late as the mid-1990s, Chinese traveling abroad dressed in their holiday best and were seen off at the airport by dozens of waving relatives for the momentous occasion. Now, among younger Chinese, a new jet set has appeared, eagerly showing off passports full of colorful visa stamps.

Dou Jing, a 26-year-old agent at the travel agency Concordia International in Shanghai, boasts that she has visited 10 countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan.

"Overseas travel used to be a luxury for the very few," she said. "But it has become part of the lifestyle of many ordinary Chinese people."

Travel agents say the United States is the most sought-after destination, despite tough visa requirements aimed at keeping out people bent on illegal immigration. Some 400,000 Chinese visited there in 2000, most as tourists, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

"If America were to open its doors, the numbers of Chinese tourists would triple, quadruple -- particularly to popular destinations like Hawaii and Las Vegas," said Xu Chunlin, a travel agent at China Eastern Airlines.

Most Chinese tourists go to nearby Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, which have become increasingly dependent on new visitors, said Koldowski at the Pacific Asia Travel Association. Resorts are redecorating to suit Chinese tastes, he said. Some are discarding white furnishings -- the traditional color of mourning in China.

Discount package tours are now popular to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, which in 1997 became the first country to allow Chinese tour groups.

"The region is looking for alternatives, and one of the keys is China," said Koldowski, who calls China's rise "the awakening of a travel giant."

Nevertheless, overseas travel remains an impossible luxury for most of the country's 1.3 billion people. Even in Shanghai, China's richest city, only one in 10 residents has a passport, according to the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily. But the number is rising quickly.

The city introduced simplified new passport application procedures in November 2001. In the next six months, it issued 180,000 passports -- almost as many as in all of 2001, said the state-run Shanghai Star newspaper.

The old system required approvals from employers, police and city officials, a months-long background check, an invitation letter from overseas and, in many cases, large cash deposits to ensure the applicant would come home.

New applications require only an employer's approval and can be filled out at a post office. The fee is just $24 and forms can be downloaded from the Internet.

For Hua, the hotel manager who went to Thailand, getting a passport fulfilled a 15-year dream of going overseas.

"Now so many people have seen the outside world with their own eyes," he said. "It is impossible for China to close its doors again."