In the summer of 2025, there will be a lot of “old” people in the streets of China. Some in the night market, some in the high-speed train station, and also in the convenience store to study "how to spend money in two dimensions".
They didn’t come to “explore the ancient countries of the East.” Instead of flying directly to "up" and playing a few days to go back to the video and say, not blowing black, China is stronger than the United States.
This is not the title party of which marketing number, but a real cognitive earthquake. A global reality show triggered by the 144-hour visa-free policy.
To say the key to triggering this cognitive earthquake, we have to mention China's 144-hour visa-free policy.
The so-called 144-hour visa-free means a whole six days. Even tourists transiting China can stop by without applying for a visa.
It is worth noting that this policy is not temporary.
In 2023, China first tried water in Hainan, did not expect in three months entry tourists will increase by 183%, and 30 percent of tourists said to come again, the pilot effect was better than expected.
So in 2024, this policy will be directly spread across the country.
Among the visa-free countries, the focus is on more than 50 Western countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia.
After all, people in these places have long been influenced by the media, and the impression of China is the greatest.
In addition, many people think that China’s move is to attract tourism revenue.
In fact, it is not at all the ticket money, our core is to engage in "cognitive subversion" - you say a thousand and ten thousand, it is better to look at people in their own eyes.
The best thing about this trick is "low-cost communication":
Every foreigner who comes to China is a "mobile broadcaster". Their videos and travel notes on social platforms are one hundred times more effective than official propaganda.
According to Ctrip data in the first half of 2025, the number of overseas bookings to China has directly increased by 70%.
And many old foreigners did not come to China before, in my head was infused by a bunch of Western media, always felt that here "is not free", and everywhere there is surveillance watching.
But just landed in China, a lot of old and foreign "standards" broke the ground, and one of the most frequently spoken words in the mouth became "I have been deceived by the media for many years."
There is an American tourist who is used to waiting in line with his credit card to pay in San Francisco. When he arrives in Guangzhou, he can brush his face to collect money when he sees an aunt selling fruit on the roadside.
He held up his mobile phone and took pictures for a long time: "Brushing your face in our place is only in science fiction movies. Here, you can buy a mango for 10 yuan, and the gap is too big."
More notably, if it is to let the elderly rank a "China shock list", the first two are absolutely inseparable from "life smoothly" and "safe sense".
First of all, the "smooth sense" of life: ride a shared train, send the phone to the home for half an hour, and the food market can pay the face.
These technologies have long been used to by Chinese people, but in the eyes of foreigners, they are "full of high technology".
What surprised them was security.
Many old people walk in the streets at two or three o’clock in the morning, see a doll car at the gate of the store, and the old grandmother walks slowly in the park, with no "safe worry" feeling of tension.
Later, after checking the data, they found out that the crime rate in Chinese cities has been lower than the global average for three consecutive years.
One Canadian tourist said, "We don't dare to go out alone at night, and it feels fair to eat on the side of the street here in the morning."
These old-fashioned shocks eventually turned into a "spread bomb" on social platforms, forming a fierce chain reaction.
As long as a foreign blogger sends a video of "media misleading me", it will basically explode overnight, and millions of redirects are common.
Moreover, this real sharing from ordinary people is more convincing than official propaganda and diplomatic statements – after all, who would believe an amateur blogger “lies”?
As a result, the old narrative of the western media is simply untenable in the face of these "hands-on shots", and more and more people follow the foreigners in the video to get to know the real China again.
With more and more foreign tourists coming to China, their videos are becoming more and more popular online, and the impression of foreigners about China has also changed greatly.
According to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey, in the 20 countries surveyed, people with a positive view of China for the first time exceeded 50 percent.
Many Western officials have said that “China’s development model can be replicated and is more practical than that of the West.”
Although there is a lot of positive propaganda about China on the Internet, there are still indomitable "foreign media" looking for trouble, claiming that China's opening up is to let others recognize itself.
In fact, our core goal has never been to “seek recognition”, but to “dare to make real China appear.”
You think, if there is no power, no confidence, how can you dare to let foreigners go around and take pictures?
Just like in the past, some countries were afraid of showing shortcomings and always circled tourists in fixed routes.
But China now, whether it is the thriving outdoors of Shanghai, or the outskirts of rural towns, dare to let the old people go anyway, anyway, this openness itself is the expression of self-confidence.
As the 144-hour visa-free policy continues to be pushed forward, more people from the United States, Britain and France have flown to China.
They personally experience high-speed rail precision and efficiency, the convenience of digital payments, feel the tranquility of late night streets, a lot of people walk straight. “China is far stronger than the United States in terms of convenience and social security.”
These real voices spread through social platforms, making the smearing remarks of "China is backward" completely lose their foothold, and making the world understand the real China again.
Source of information
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1843733438190593899&wfr=spider&for=pc