The bustling Xiushui Business Street (Silk Street) in Beijing is experiencing a significant surge in visits paid by international tourists, thanks to the country's implementation of visa-free policy.
The business street, known for its array of shops selling a wide range of souvenirs and gifts and a vibrant shopping atmosphere, is among the top destinations for visitors from abroad.
Since earlier this year, China has implemented a visa-free policy that exempts many European ordinary passport holders from the time-consuming and costly obligation, encouraging travelers from nearly a dozen European countries to explore this Asian country. It allows ordinary passport holders of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg, to enter and stay in China visa-free for up to 15 days for business, tourism, transit, as well as visiting relatives and friends .
Against such a backdrop, the business street, with a spike in international tourist arrivals, has offered popular options with distinctive Beijing features to foreign visitors.
"From January to April this year, the combined number of overseas tourists we received was expected to increase by nearly 20 times from the previous year. We've selected a batch of souvenirs that can represent Beijing for our customers, so as to make each and every of them happy," said Dong Qing, an employee of the business street.
Ibeku hailing from Nigeria was on a business trip to Beijing. She came to the business street to tailor a suit of Nigerian traditional costume with Chinese silk.
"First of all, I love fashion. So if we have Chinese silk [and] Nigerian style [together], that's like a mix of cultures, and that's what we are all hoping to get this day," she said.
Taking into account the tight schedule of foreign customers, many merchants reduce the time it takes to craft bespoke garments from the traditional four to five days down to an impressive 18 hours.
Furthermore, they also provide global mailing services for international customers who express concern about limited luggage space or tight travel schedules.
According to data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the capital city received 469,000 inbound tourist arrivals in the first quarter of this year, up by 3.1 times year on year, and the foreign exchange income of tourism is 650 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year growth of 225.8 percent.
Beijing's 'Silk Street' thrives with influx of foreign tourists under visa-free policy
Xiushui Business Street thrives with influx of foreign tourists under visa-free policy
China has taken a significant step toward high-level opening up in its medical sector with the launch of the country's first fully foreign-owned hospital in the northern port city of Tianjin.
The move, part of a broader policy shift announced late last November, allows foreign investors to establish hospitals in selected major cities, complementing the domestic healthcare system and addressing unmet needs.
The 1,000-bed hospital, named Perennial General Hospital Tianjin, opened on February 26, represents an investment of about one billion yuan (roughly 139 million U.S. dollars) by Singapore's Perennial Holdings Private Limited.
The hospital offers comprehensive medical services to meet the diagnosis and treatment needs of both common and complex diseases. It also has an international department that provides customized healthcare services -- including health management and chronic disease management.
Liu Dan, president of the hospital, emphasized the hospital's role in enhancing local healthcare options.
"We are a strong complement to the Tianjin medical and elderly care market. We utilize our own strengths to spur the market potential, as well as to address the unmet needs of the public. At the same time, we are internationalized. We work on global standards to provide patients with second treatment opinions from experts in Europe and America," said Liu.
To integrate into the local market, the hospital plans to accept national medical and commercial insurance as payment options, while also focusing on quality care for seniors to meet the demands of an aging population.
The hospital's opening aligns with broader healthcare challenges in China, where public hospitals face a staffing gap of around one million, and primary healthcare institutions are short by 50 percent, according to the 2025 Chinese Government Work Report. Last year, the government introduced a pilot policy permitting wholly foreign-owned hospitals in select cities, marking a significant shift in foreign investment restrictions.
Perennial Holdings, the company behind the hospital, sees this as part of a strategic vision to serve high-end customers and promote medical tourism.
"We have been in China for over 20 years, so we fundamentally believe that this healthcare we are doing, we are complement to public hospitals, we are utilizing better medical resources. We are going to serve the high-end customers. And also we are going to create what we call medical tourism. Our strategy is to invest in the capital cities or the first and second-tier cities. In all these cities, there will be multinational corporations, top corporations that the top-tier customer -- they are used to (high-end) service. Today, many of them go overseas to see medical services, they should be the ones who stay in China. At the same time, our intent is to organize all these medical resources. And we want to capture foreign medical resources into China," said Pua Seck Guan, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Perennial Holdings.
Beyond investment opportunities, experts see the opening as a driver of institutional change.
"This is a great start. I believe that a series of institutional opening up policies may be introduced in the future, including those in the financial industry and high-tech industries," said Guo Yingfeng, a researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
While challenges remain for fully foreign-owned hospitals, their emergence represents a significant step toward greater openness in China's medical sector, offering new healthcare models and opportunities for both local and international stakeholders.
China opens first fully foreign-owned hospital
