Chongqing: With temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius outside, Chicago native Michael Shedd visited a hotpot restaurant located inside a former air-raid shelter in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality. In front of him was a bubbling, intensely spicy broth, but the heat and humidity did not seem to bother him. ‘I feel it’s cool as I get inside, just like there are air conditioners, but there are not. This is amazing,’ Shedd said.
According to United News of Bangladesh, thousands of air-raid shelters were carved into Chongqing’s mountainous terrain in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Once used as refuges for civilians during China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many have since been converted into hotpot restaurants, teahouses, and venues for Sichuan Opera performances. The shelters offer visitors a naturally cool environment while preserving an important part of the city’s history. ‘The temperature inside the shelters remains around 25 degrees Celsius all year round,’ said Wang Jing, marketing director of the restaurant. During summer weekends, the restaurant serves more than 300 tables a day, with about one in six diners coming from overseas.
As a severe heatwave sweeps across parts of the world this summer, such unusual destinations have helped make ‘China Cool’ a popular term on overseas social media, following the earlier trend of ‘China Travel.’ By late July, bookings for inbound summer trips to China had increased by more than 20 percent from a year earlier. Data from Trip.com showed that European countries accounted for 30 percent of the top 20 source markets for inbound tourism to China this summer. Orders from Europe surged 275 percent year on year, while ticket sales increased by more than 2,000 percent.
China’s vast territory and diverse climate provide numerous natural destinations for visitors seeking relief from the summer heat, ranging from high-altitude plateaus and forested mountains to coastal areas. Huangshizhai, a scenic area in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in central China’s Hunan Province, stands more than 1,200 meters above sea level. Its dense forests and mountain breezes provide a naturally cool environment. Data from the past five years show that average summer temperatures at major tourist sites in the park ranged between 16 and 25 degrees Celsius from June to August.
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park received more than 100,000 international tourists in July, up 46.78 percent year on year, with visitors from 148 countries and regions, according to local authorities. A similar increase has been recorded in northeast China. At the Changbai Mountain Scenic Area in Jilin Province, located on the ‘golden summer escape’ belt around 42 degrees north latitude, daily visitor numbers have exceeded 30,000 since the summer peak began in July. The number of overseas tourists has risen 38 percent compared with the same period last year.
China’s cooling infrastructure is also becoming part of the summer travel experience. By 2025, China had 150.6 air conditioners for every 100 households, or more than 1.5 per household, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Over the years, cooling facilities have expanded beyond homes into public spaces, including shopping malls, neighborhood cooling stations, underground shelters, and transport hubs.
China’s expanding visa-free transit arrangements and improved travel facilitation have contributed to a noticeable change in inbound tourism this summer, with visitors staying longer and exploring beyond traditional tourist routes. For many international travelers, ‘China Cool’ means more than escaping high temperatures. It represents a different kind of travel experience combining cultural discovery with modern innovation.
Data from the National Immigration Administration showed that China recorded 22.91 million inbound visits by foreign nationals in the first half of this year, up 20.4 percent year on year. Of those visitors, 77.7 percent benefited from visa-free entry arrangements. ‘A China that pursues peaceful development, buzzes with innovation, and pulses with cultural richness is winning ever-greater trust and recognition around the world,’ Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular news briefing in late July. ‘We welcome more international friends to come and feel the warmth and vitality of a Chinese summer for themselves,’ he said.