China does not let Russian tourists in despite visa exemption

Despite official statements by Chinese and Russian governments about resuming mutual visa-free group travel since 1 August, little to no Russian citizens manage to travel to China via this system.

The association of Russian tour operators stated that the visa-free system of tourist group exchange has not in fact started working.

"As of 31 August, the entry of Chinese groups to Russia according to this scheme has not started, and 'visa exemption' for departure is only valid in the Far East," the statement reads.

The Russian authorities are confused about the reason for this situation.

"China has suspended the process of arranging the sending of visa-free groups to Russia. We are not sure why," the council of the World without Borders association admitted.

Only one test group of Russians went to China from Moscow. Nearly 1,000 people left the border town of Blagoveshchensk in Russia for China, 500 more people went there from the city of Khabarovsk.

The residents of the regions of the Far East are going to China via the visa-free group lists, but there is no mass tourist flow there either.

Background:

Recently, the Chinese State Cartographic Centre of Standard Maps presented a set of geographic maps for 2023 where it marked Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island on the Amur river as Chinese territory. It was done despite the fact that according to a 2008 agreement between Russia and China, the island was divided between the two states.

Meanwhile, Chinese is being actively incorporated into the university curriculum in Russia, which is motivated by the increase of the economic competitiveness of Russia.

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