Steering around roadblocks

Briton Richard Webster (right) and friends stage a kung fu session on the Great Wall during a road trip.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"Put me in a car, and I'm happy," Webster says.

"Driving is the best way to see a country."

The government is shifting gears to encourage foreigners to explore China from behind the wheel. It announced at the end of August simplified procedures for foreigners to drive into China via bordering countries.

Foreign motorists will no longer need approval from local public security bureaus and tourism administrations from Oct 1, the start of the weeklong National Day holiday. That's according to a joint notice released by the Public Security and Foreign Affairs ministries, and the China National Tourism Administration.

They'll also no longer need to report half a year in advance to several central government organs, including the CNTA, the General Staff Department and the Ministry of Public Security. These bodies currently must give approval before drivers can start Customs procedures, explains China CYTS Tours' deputy general manager of inbound tourism, Yu Liangbing.

(The rules don't apply to foreign residents.)

"The complex procedures make it virtually impossible for foreign tourists to drive into China," China Tourism Leisure Association secretary-general Wei Xiao'an said after the announcement.

After next week, foreign tourists who plan to drive into China can hire approved travel agencies to handle the procedures 60 days in advance.

The catch is that tourism-visa holders must take along a tour guide.

"That'd probably put me off," Webster says.

That's coming from a guy who picks up every hitchhiker, as a rule.

"Autonomy is the whole point," he says.

Such a requirement would be unthinkable in the West, he points out.