CCTV News: With the help of various favorable policies, foreigners' "China travel" and "China shopping" to China are ushering in another wave of boom. Driven by the departure tax refund service, the volume of inbound tourists in my country has continued to expand, and the number of inbound travel orders on May Day increased by 173% year-on-year. As one of the popular destinations for inbound travel, Shanghai will further optimize the outbound tax refund consumption environment during the May Day holiday, so that overseas tourists can enjoy more convenient services.

Since my country introduced a series of visa-free policies last year, the number of inbound foreign tourists in Shanghai increased significantly, receiving 1.743 million inbound tourists in the first quarter, an increase of 37.1% year-on-year. In Tianzifang, a landmark that many foreign tourists love to check in, the dazzling array of Chinese-style products such as flower tea, porcelain, paper cutting, etc. are sought after by foreign consumers. A German tourist was interviewed and said: "We wanted to come here to shop. We bought scarves and other tourist souvenirs. We came to China 9 years ago. I saw the changes that have taken place in 9 years. Now we don't need a visa anymore. It's much easier for us to travel here."

Since the promotion of the "buy-online" service for departure tax refund in April, many foreigners "formed" have flew to China to purchase on behalf of others. Not only food, clothing, special crafts, but also electronic products such as mobile phones and computers are also popular with foreign tourists. "Made in China" has also been on the "purchase list" of foreigners.

Recently, my country has introduced a series of new measures to optimize the convenience of payment for foreign passengers, reducing the starting point of departure tax refund from 500 yuan to 200 yuan, etc. As one of the pilot cities of the "buy-and-refund" policy for departure tax refunds, Shanghai has currently 587 departure tax refund stores, of which 284 stores have achieved "buy-and-refund". Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commerce Commission, said that in recent years, Shanghai's departure tax refund sales have always been among the top in the country. Last year, Shanghai received 6.706 million inbound tourists, an increase of 84% year-on-year; tax refund stores issued 86,000 tax refund forms for overseas tourists, and sales of tax refund products were 2.37 billion yuan, an increase of 86.6% year-on-year. In the first quarter of this year, Shanghai's departure tax refund continued to maintain a high growth momentum, with sales of tax refund goods reaching 760 million yuan, an increase of 85% year-on-year. The Shanghai Municipal Commerce Commission will also work with relevant departments to further optimize the consumption environment for departure tax refunds, accelerate the layout of departure tax refund outlets, improve the convenience of departure tax refund services in business districts, and optimize the "buy-and-refund" service, so that overseas tourists can "buy-and-refund" more conveniently by shopping in shopping malls.