--- title: Relaxed, refined — foreign visitors impressed by ‘shopping paradise' description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/relaxed-refined-foreign-visitors-impressed-by-shopping-paradise/ article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-06-18T14:27:41.328Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-09T07:28:06.838Z article:section: Paid Content og:title: Relaxed, refined — foreign visitors impressed by ‘shopping paradise' og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  _This content was paid for and prepared by China Daily, an official publication of the People's Republic of China. The TIME editorial and advertising departments were not involved in the creation of this content._ Tourists samples local snacks on July 23at a gift shop in Shanghai. CHEN HAOMING / XINHUA By WANG XIN While strolling around Shanghai’s trendiest shopping precinct on their visit, Vietnamese couple Nhu Truong and Tu Vo had an unexpected opportunity to take part in an exciting new retail trend. In upmarket Shanghai Xintiandi, the two 30-year-olds noticed an outlet of Harmay — a Chinese multi-brand retailer known internationally for its warehouse-style approach to sales. Vo, an investment manager at a bank in Vietnam, said that before their five-day Shanghai visit they had watched many TikTok videos of people shopping in Shanghai who shared information about buying reasonably priced cosmetics. Established in 2008, Harmay started out as an online cosmetics retailer. However, to attract a younger trend-driven generation of consumers they subsequently introduced warehouse-style shopping at offline stores. It has 19 brick-and-mortar stores in 10 cities across China featuring unique designs tailored to local cultures. They have become popular destinations for international tourists seeking unique travel and shopping experiences. As China draws increasing numbers of inbound travelers, Harmay has seen a sharp growth in inbound consumption at all its stores. In June, over 30% of its Shanghai Xintiandi store revenue came from international travelers, with tourists from the Middle East and Asian countries including South Korea and Singapore, the top shoppers. Since the store launched a departure tax refund service on June 19, it has issued more than 2,000 applications for international visitors. As of June, China’s 240-hour transit visa-free policy has been extended to 55 countries in Europe, the Americas, Oceania and Asia, according to the National Immigration Administration. The number of foreigners coming to China visa-free increased significantly in the first six months of the year, the NIA announced on July 16\. From January to June, immigration authorities across China recorded a total of 13.64 million visa-free inbound trips made by foreigners, up 53.9% year-on-year. China has also fine-tuned its departure tax refund policies, and boosted shopping convenience for global visitors. Foreign visitors are eligible to claim departure tax refunds for purchases as low as 200 yuan ($27) per day at the same store, compared with the previous threshold of 500 yuan, and can get instant cash refunds up to 20,000 yuan, according to a new policy released in April. Ongoing efforts are also being made to widen the scope of refundable goods, expand tax refund stores, and streamline refund procedures to offer efficient optimized services. The policy highlighted the instant departure tax refund service, or, the “refund-upon-purchase” model. The service allows foreign tourists to claim value-added tax refunds at the stores, or nearby refund counters, rather than waiting until they leave the country. The measure is intended to encourage them to spend the refund on more shopping, according to the State Taxation Administration. Last year, total spending by inbound travelers hit $94.2 billion, up 77.8% year-on-year. The nation sees substantial growth potential in the inbound consumption sector, and plans to increase the number of tax refund stores to about 10,000 nationwide this year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Digital services and upgraded measures by local governments are also contributing to the “shopping in China” boom. The Vietnamese couple who shopped at Harmay quickly got their tax refund at the store, and were soon searching for a phone app for a place to buy tea, snacks and local souvenirs. Despite their short stay in Shanghai, they became familiar with local mobile apps and online platforms such as Dianping and Meituan. “We use them for food delivery services every day. They are really easy to use and we researched a lot on them,” says Nhu Truong, an IT developer. To help visiting foodies select delicacies in Shanghai, Dianping, a popular online review platform, provides a “must-eat” list in Chinese, English and Korean. It is one of the latest efforts to facilitate foreigners’ travel experience and boost inbound consumption.Angel Cuerdo and Fabiola Jubin, a Spanish couple in their 50s, said they had a wonderful travel experience in China, after a previous visit to the country about two decades ago. Although their luggage was almost full when they arrived in Shanghai after visiting other countries, they spent around 200 euros ($234.7) buying a backpack, headphones, tech products and traditional books. “I am sending messages to all my friends, telling them that this is really an unexpected and great experience for us. It is safe here and everything is clean,” they said in unison. “People were really nice to us and shopping is much cheaper. I would 100% recommend to everybody to come here and try the new Chinese experience.” _Hong Lan and Zhang Yifan contributed to this story._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/relaxed-refined-foreign-visitors-impressed-by-shopping-paradise/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/relaxed-refined-foreign-visitors-impressed-by-shopping-paradise/"},"headline":"Relaxed, refined — foreign visitors impressed by ‘shopping paradise'","datePublished":"2026-06-18T14:27:41.328Z","dateModified":"2026-06-09T07:28:06.838Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/relaxed-refined-foreign-visitors-impressed-by-shopping-paradise/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"Paid Content","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/relaxed-refined-foreign-visitors-impressed-by-shopping-paradise/","name":"Relaxed, refined — foreign visitors impressed by ‘shopping paradise'"}}]}] ```