This page is touring China on your own for China Travel Tips. In 1983, China raised the curtain on individual tourism. Addressing a tourism policy conference in October 1982, Han Kehua, director of China’s National Tourism Administration, stated that China would begin accepting applications for visits by individual tourists with a view to expanding the proportion of individual tourists to 20-30% of China’s total tourist volume by 1990 and to 30-40% by the end of the century. The vast majority of China’s 1.5 million foreign tourist visits in1987 were accounted for by group tour participants.

In the late 1980s, there were two distinct avenues available for foreign individual travel in China. The first method is the formal approach, through the auspices of CITS. CITS treats applications for individual travel in the same way it arranges travel for groups: itineraries are applied for in advance, CITS responds with a fixed schedule and price, the trip is paid for, and the visa issued. It is now possible to complete this process within two weeks, applying to CITS direct (through its offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, New York, or London) or through its travel-agent representatives.

For those who cannot (or will not) be pinned down in advance to a fixed schedule in China, there remains the quasi-sanctioned, “freelance” approach. This method is best begun in Hong Kong, where an individual visa (usually to Guangzhou or Beijing) is readily obtainable from CITS, CTS, CYTS, or a number of private agencies now issuing such visas. One-month tourist visas can also be issued by any Chinese consulate if one has a roundtrip air ticket or reservations at a hotel in China, pro-viding that the trip does not take place during September and October, the peak travel season. There are also tour operators who can complete the necessary forms for you, for a modest fee. Obtaining the first sanctioned foothold within China is vital. From that point onward, authorizations and connections to other “open cities” in China are readily obtainable.

In 1988, a new travel option presented itself: Hertz International and CTS (Macau) will be promoting self-drive tourism packages in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.