Direct flights to Seoul for 220 yuan ($30), Bangkok for 300 yuan, and Moscow for 600 yuan — these eye-popping fares from Datong, a fourth-tier city in northern China’s Shanxi province, have gone viral on Chinese social media since September.

Across China, travelers have dubbed the tickets “cabbage-priced,” slang for something so cheap it’s practically free. The ultra-cheap deals are part of a growing push by smaller Chinese cities to open more international routes and lure tourists to boost the economy, as China expands visa-waiver programs and relaxes transit rules for foreign visitors.

In December 2024, Datong was added to China’s expanded 240-hour transit policy, allowing foreign travelers to stay visa-free for up to 10 days. Although not among the 21 new ports open to direct international entry, the city moved quickly to attract transit visitors.

It launched its first direct flight to Bangkok in November 2024, followed by new routes to Ulaanbaatar, Moscow, and Seoul between June and August 2025.

The city is known for the Yungang Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a network of ancient temples that have appeared in the hugely popular video game “Black Myth: Wukong” and the recent box office hit “Nobody.”

Until recently, however, international visitors could only transfer through Beijing to reach Datong. But amid new international routes and wider visa access, this summer, bookings by foreign tourists to Datong surged ninefold year-on-year as of late August, the fastest growth among all Chinese cities.

The heavily discounted airfares are largely fueled by local government subsidies meant to boost tourism and recoup the costs through higher tax revenue, said Liu Jinsong, director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Asian Affairs, in a commentary published by The Economic Observer.

Similar incentives, Liu added, are often used nationwide to attract passengers to newly opened flight routes.

But some warn that the strategy carries risk. Wang Qiyan, director of the Leisure Economy Research Center at Renmin University in Beijing, cautioned that “local governments must do the math carefully. It shouldn’t become a money-losing business just to add more cheap international routes.”

Since 2020, major airlines have turned to livestream “flash sale” promotions to revive international travel after the pandemic, including tickets as low as 200 yuan to destinations in Southeast Asia or 400 yuan to Japan.

But such ultra-low fares are short-lived, often leftover seats from last-minute inventory with uncertain dates and limited availability. Many are red-eye flights operated by smaller foreign carriers, according to domestic media.

“The layout of China’s international air routes is gradually extending to third- and fourth-tier cities, unlike in the past when routes were concentrated in major airports,” Liu wrote in The Economic Observer.

Of the 21 new visa-free entry ports added under China’s transit visa policy in December 2024, seven are located in third- or fourth-tier cities.

Data from travel platform Qunar shows the trend extends well beyond Datong: all 20 Chinese cities with the fastest growth in foreign flight bookings this summer were third-tier or smaller. For instance, in Yiwu, a city in eastern Zhejiang province known for the world’s largest wholesale market for small consumer goods, bookings rose 2.6 times year-on-year.

(Header image: VCG)