A minimalist villa nestled among lush forests, misty limestone peaks and cinematic skyline views: striking Instagram reels like these finally convinced Claire Thum to make her first trip to China.
The 28-year-old Singaporean is one of millions of foreign tourists who visited the country in 2025, when arrivals and tourist spending surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
Thum knew only of terracotta warriors until Chinese travel content began regularly popping up on her feed. “To me, the first step to exploring more of China was to dip my toes into Shanghai,” she said.
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Highlights included a visit to the viral perfumery To Summer with its signature garden, a snowboarding simulation experience and picking out winter clothes at Japanese sportswear store Descente. Now she’s planning another trip to the Asian nation, with the far-flung regions of Yunnan, Xinjiang and Harbin top of her list.
After years of pandemic restrictions, in 2023 China launched a massive push to win back tourists with the gradual introduction of visa-free travel for 50 countries. That campaign got off to a slow start, as memories of Covid curbs hurt the country's reputation and flight routes took time to come back. But now tourists appear to be returning much faster.
That's partly thanks to an online promotion campaign the government ramped up last year, including on Western platforms banned in China. At the same time, favorable views of the world’s second-largest economy reached record highs in a number of countries in 2025, according to Pew Research Center, as Donald Trump reshaped global impressions of America. Trends like ‘Chinamaxxing’ — where Western citizens adopt habits from the Asian country, such as drinking hot tea — also went viral.
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“The inbound tourism boom gives China the soft power boost it’s chased after for years,” said Olivia Plotnick, founder of Shanghai-based marketing consultancy Wai Social. “I’ve heard more than a few recent visitors to Shanghai tell me that in their eyes, Shanghai is the new Tokyo.”
