the Beijinger

What do fireworks, great action movies, fruit wrapped in baskets, fancy envelopes, new clothing and people getting fat have in common? You guessed it, they’re all things you see during Chinese New Year! As this year’s chunyun comes to a close, let’s take a minute and look back on some of the impressive figures that were rung up during the CNY period.

The ski season is starting to wind down. It's time to strap your skis on and hit the slopes before all that lovely powder turns to shui. Here’s a list of ski resorts, plus some organized trips if you don’t want to arrange it all yourself.

Yes, snowboarders are welcome too.

Update: Comments on this post have now been closed - we encourage readers who'd like to continue to discuss visa queries to head to either this section of the Beijinger forum or to Nadine's page devoted to visa issues - which can be found here - http://fxzl.blogspot.com

"We have made some arrangements according to usual international practice. That is, in the approval process we are more strict and more serious with the procedure"

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang

Beijing saw a marked drop in the number of overseas tourists in April, which fell by 5.3 percent year-on-year, according to official statistics revealed on Tuesday. Yu Xiuqin, the bureau's spokeswoman attributed the decrease partly to Beijing's tightened business visa approvals on foreign visitors for international exhibitions and conferences, because of safety concerns for the coming Olympic Games.

China Daily: Beijing sees marked drop in overseas tourists in April

An enormous amount of confusion currently exists throughout Beijing's expat community in regard to the Chinese government's apparent, but not officially announced, recent tightening of visa policies. The lack of an adequate response from government departments and spokespeople to the increasing demand for clarification of the gap between the existing regulations and commonly observed practices, has only added to the frustration felt by both business people and those hoping to travel to China during the Olympic period. As applications are being handled on a case-by-case basis, it’s almost impossible to make absolute and irrefutable statements about what’s going on, still, patterns have begun to emerge and below I outline what is known and what can be suspected to be the case in regard to the new visa situation.

What we know for sure:

Former Beijing-based writer Jennifer Conrad has written a list of "Eight Lesser-Known Places to Visit in China" for Seattle-based travel site BootsnAll. Some of the destinations -- i.e. Harbin and Dalian -- could be considered quite common for the more well-traveled and longer-term China residents, but a few stand out for their uniqueness and relative obscurity:

Want to travel around China but don’t have the money at the moment? Now’s your chance to plan your perfect China vacation and get it for free from Ctrip.

The China-based travel site's “Win Your Dream Vacation” contest ends this Friday. Ctrip judges will choose 20 itineraries, which will then be put to a public vote.

Now is the time to start thinking of how you would spend two weeks in China (starting and ending in Shanghai, and including up to four cities). To get you started, here are some ideas for all China travelers, from the newest wide-eyed tourist to the more traveled road-warrior looking for a new challenge.

Like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, hutongs are an exclusive feature of Beijing. For more than 800 years, hutongs have formed the bones of Beijing’s inner city, and we suspect their original builders in the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) could not have imagined that the complex net woven by these simple alleyways would one day become must-see tourist attractions.

If you’re tired of long walks, crowds, or sold out flights, Capital Airport doesn’t have to be your only option when it comes to flying out of Beijing. The little known Beijing Nanyuan Airport, sitting approximately 20km south of Tiananmen Square, serves as a very viable alternative for domestic flights.  And with 113% passenger growth since 2007, the airport is becoming more and more relevant.

Most of us are aware that it's not easy for Chinese citizens to visit places like Europe and the US, but I was surprised when visiting Thailand with a Chinese friend a few years back to find that even the Thais require mainland Chinese citizens to show evidence of RMB 20,000 in a fixed-term deposit savings account before issuing a visa. In contrast, I could simply roll up with my Australian passport and get an entry stamp at Bangkok Airport, no questions asked.

The difficulties Chinese citizens face in obtaining visas, even for may other developing countries, also impacts on foreigners wishing to travel with Chinese friends or partners. Local journalist Chen Zikun recently did a blog post about his experiences obtaining visas for a broad range of foreign destinations, and ChinaTravelTrends.com have been good enough to post a translation.

The Spring Festival move has started. Chun Yun is the world’s largest yearly human migration and it is expected that half of China’s population will travel over the next few weeks. With up to 700 million people traveling trying to get home is no small feat and people have found lots of ways to avoid train travel, which - from the looks of it - does not bode well for a relaxing holiday.