: Strategic developments in Central Asia
Communications丨The entire city of Bukhara knows China has a long holiday - Exploring the hot trend of cross-border tourism in Central Asia. Xinhua News Agency, Tashkent, October 6th. Communications｜The entire city of Bukhara knows China has a long holiday - Exploring the hot trend of cross-border tourism in Central Asia. Xinhua reporters Hu Weijie, Bao Nuomin, Hou Ming. As the sun sets, the ancient city streets of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, are bustling with tourists, and vendors are calling out their wares. Yan Hong, a tourist from Harbin, and her parents are curiously playing with the cups and plates on a roadside stall, deeply attracted by the intricate and dense painted patterns. "Uzbekistan has many historical cities along the Silk Road, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, these cities from books deeply attract me." After visiting in person, Yan Hong felt even more that the trip was worthwhile. She said that the integration of history and modernity, and the mutual learning between different civilizations, have given this place a sense of familiarity yet full of surprising beauty. Like Yan Hong, the number of Chinese people choosing to travel to Uzbekistan is increasing. On June 1, 2025, the mutual visa exemption agreement between the two countries officially took effect, further boosting the tourism heat between the two countries. Data from the official website of the Tourism Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan shows that after the implementation of the visa-free policy, the number of Chinese tourists increased by 3.5 times. "Now, the entire city of Bukhara knows that China has a 7-day long holiday in October," said Khamraev, a merchant dealing in local miniature paintings and traditional handicrafts. He told reporters that during China's National Day holiday last year, Chinese tourists almost "flooded" his small courtyard, and those days were also his busiest business periods. Neighboring Kazakhstan also has a mutual visa exemption with China. In the Chimbulak scenic area near Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, the continuous Tianshan Mountains are lush green, and clouds and shadows flow. Qi Yue and his wife, tourists from Hangzhou, are queuing up to take the cable car. "We decided on a whim, and 'visa exemption' was an important consideration for our choice," said Qi Yue. Thanks to the visa-free policy, many Chinese tourists visit here from Ili after traveling in Xinjiang. Some tourists choose multi-country tours with longer stays. Zhang Dongni plans to travel through multiple Central Asian countries by land alone. When she met the reporter, she had already completed her journey from Almaty to Issyk-Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan and planned to visit Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city, and then planned to go to Khujand, Tajikistan. "The people here are very friendly and enthusiastic." When traveling from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, to Osh, her large luggage prevented her from getting on the bus. She tried to share a ride with some locals. "We communicated using translation software in the car. When we were about to get off, they said I was a guest and they would pay for the ride."
Event details
These categories are assigned by an automated classifier and are not manually verified — they can be inaccurate or mislabelled. See how Newsmap classifies events.
Source
This event was reported on Telegramby @XHNews. The summary above is an automated, neutral description; always consult the original report before relying on it.
Related reports
Other recent reports about the same actors or country: