The Chinese in St. Petersburg are interested in buckwheat

The tourist season officially started in St. Petersburg on April 28. This year the city expects a serious increase in the number of tourists from China. RosBalt found out what excursions the Chinese prefer and how acute the problem with illegal guides is in the Northern capital.

Full visa-free tourism between Russia and China resumed last fall. This means that in the summer many more guests from China will come to the Northern capital than in 2023: their increased activity is already being recorded by workers in the tourism industry. At the same time, the list of excursions preferred by guests from the Middle Kingdom remained almost unchanged.

Director of the laboratory for the study of Chinese tourism, analyst of the China Professionals training and personnel center Polina Rysakova told RosBalt that the programs of the Chinese who come in groups and on their own are almost the same.

» Of course, at certain points the lists of places to visit may vary, but in general they are the same .

Some of them are offered by travel agencies, and tourists themselves see some on Chinese websites that recommend certain attractions, so there are usually no surprises in the program. The most popular sites are the Hermitage, Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Peter and Paul Fortress, Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and the Russian Museum. If we consider more individual programs, some Chinese visit summer palaces in Gatchina or Pavlovsk, ” the expert explained.

She also noted that atypical excursions (for example, on the roofs and front doors of St. Petersburg) are not popular among the Chinese.