Int'l tourists set sail on China Discovery Voyage cruise

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The first coastal cruise tour for inbound travelers in China, the China Discovery Voyage, is attracting international tourists to embark on a unique and wonderful China travel experience along the country's coast.

Operated by Viking Cruises, a leading Norwegian cruise line, the luxury cruise liner Viking Yidun will run eight China Discovery voyages from September to November, accommodating 930 guests.

In Shanghai, one of the ship's home ports, cruise passenger Jerry expressed his surprise as he learned of the enormous changes the city has undergone over the past decades.

"If I start with Shanghai 50 years ago, when it was a little town compared to what it is today and Pudong (District) was a mud flat, it's much more interesting for me to look and see what I see happening," he said.

The Viking Yidun will take travelers to coastal cities including Zhoushan and Wenzhou, where they can explore local markets and beaches, as well as Xiamen City to discover the intangible cultural heritage of Chinese stone carving.

"We're going down south to very small Chinese cities and along the East China Sea. So, I'm really curious to see how that is because I've been to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing before. It's really neat to come back 20 years later and see all the differences. But I never [went] to the small towns before, so that should be really interesting," said Susan, another cruise passenger.

"We're very impressed with all of the greenery, all of the trees and the flowers, and how well trimmed and arranged everything seems to be. I just wish we could get out in it," she said.

At the Shanghai North Bund International Passenger Center Cruise Terminal, booths showcasing Chinese paper-cutting art, wood carving, and other forms of intangible cultural heritage attracted the attention of the passengers, highlighting the charm of ancient Chinese craftsmanship.

The National Immigration Administration reported that from January to July this year, 17.25 million foreigners visited China, marking a remarkable 129.9 percent increase compared to last year. Estimates indicate these tourists are expected to contribute over 100 billion yuan (about 14 billion U.S. dollars) to the economy.

According to the China Tourism Academy, in addition to their long-haul travel expenses, these inbound visitors are major spenders—shopping accounts for about 25 percent of their budgets, followed by hotels, restaurants, bars, transportation, and entertainment.

In the coming year, Viking Cruises plans to expand its coastal routes for tourists inbound for China, covering more destinations and developing additional onshore cultural tourism projects.

"Because now we're in China and we have Chinese food, we have Chinese staff. And it's a totally different experience. And I guess for China now, it's more interesting who's inbound and we're doing hard work on that," said Torstein Hagen, CEO of Viking Cruises.

Int'l tourists set sail on China Discovery Voyage cruise

A Chinese envoy on Friday called on the related countries to immediately and unconditionally unfreeze and fully return the overseas assets of Afghanistan so as to support the country's efforts to enhance its people's wellbeing.

Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to United Nations, made the call at a UN Security Council meeting where Resolution 2763 (2024) was unanimously adopted, which extends for 14 months the mandate of the team monitoring sanctions against the Taliban and associated individuals and entities that threaten Afghanistan's peace, stability and security.

In the resolution, the Security Council decided that the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team will continue to support the Security Council Committee established pursuant to Resolution 1988 (2011), a subsidiary body in charge of overseeing the implementation of sanctions regime on the Taliban.

China hopes the monitoring team will actively perform its duties in accordance with its mandate under the resolution and strongly support the Security Council Committee's work, and China supports the monitoring team to increase engagements with the Afghan interim government and looks forward to an early visit by the team to the country, Geng said.

"The resolution reaffirms the need to help Afghanistan meet its economic and humanitarian challenges, restore its banking and financial system, and utilize the assets of the Afghan central bank for the benefit of the Afghan people. China urges the countries concerned to immediately and unconditionally unfreeze and return in full Afghanistan's overseas assets, stop imposing illegal unilateral sanctions against Afghanistan, and support Afghanistan's efforts to improve its people's livelihood," he said.

The Chinese diplomat stressed that the resolution affirmed the necessity of reviewing the 1988 sanctions regime and the Security Council's sanctions should help promote peace and stability of Afghanistan.

Noting that the Afghan Taliban has been in power for more than three years, the situations in Afghanistan is generally stable and the rest of the world is increasing engagements with the authorities, Geng called on timely changes to the sanction regime in accordance with the development of the situation.

As a first step, the Security Council should put back into place exemptions to the travel ban for persons associated with the Afghan interim government so as to create conditions for the international community to strengthen engagement and communication with the country, the envoy said.

Geng pointed out as the resolution also reiterated that the territory of Afghanistan should not be used for supporting terrorism or for threatening the security of other countries, China urges the Afghan authorities to implement the requests of the resolution and strengthen the counter-terrorism efforts.

China urges unfreezing, returning Afghanistan's overseas assets