Passport of call

Indonesia's Bali is among the popular destinations for Chinese tourists. Photos provided to China Daily

The recent relaxation of several countries' entry requirements for Chinese has produced tourism surges, especially in East and Southeast Asia, which remain the most popular destinations. Yang Feiyue and Erik Nilsson report.

It's not just the fishing, clubbing, spa treatment, rafting, beaches, sunsets and royal-palace tour Zhang Haoran enjoyed in Bali that lured him to the Indonesian island.

Those were largely afterthoughts.

"I choose Bali because it has offered visas for free since early June," he explained on July 30, before leaving for his eight-day visit that'll end on Aug 8.

"I didn't spend a dime on visa fees."

The Beijinger visited South Korea's Jeju Island (Jeju is the sister province of Bali and China's Hainan) during the three-day May Day holiday－again, because of visa-free entry.

Jeju has been drawing droves of Chinese with its hiking, mountains and manmade attractions, including a teddy-bear museum, Magic World and theme park featuring miniatures of over 100 famous landmarks from around the globe.

Still, its allure to Chinese is less because of its sites than its ease of entry.

Zhang's recent travels are indicative of China's outbound tourism, reflected in the first half of the year's destination rankings.

Countries with recently liberalized entry rules for Chinese tourists dominated popular destinations in 2015's first six months.

Shanghai-based tourism-consulting service Gold Palm released its list of the Top 10 destinations outside the Chinese mainland.

They are, respectively: South Korea; Taiwan; Japan; Hong Kong; Thailand; France; Italy; Switzerland; Macao; and Germany.

East Asia rose against Southeast Asia among outbound Chinese tourists from January to June, while countries in both regions remained favorites－largely due to visa policies, plus proximity.

Chinese made 61.9 million trips abroad during the period, China National Tourism Administration data show. That's 12 percent over the same period last year, a Gold Palm report says. More than 100 million traveled overseas in 2014.