A journey into the real China

When Paulette Bethel, the Bahamian ambassador to China, recalls her trip to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region last year, her eyes light up.

She was dressed in the robes of a Mongolian princess, and carved the roast lamb that would be served for dinner. She also rode a horse across the grasslands.

"My favorite animal," she says with a smile.

Moments like these have become cherished memories for many foreign envoys who have taken part in Discover China Cultural Tour, a program launched by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2021.

More than 500 diplomats from 107 countries participated in the program, which by the end of 2026 will have covered 24 provincial-level regions.

Beyond being a sightseeing tour, the program is a carefully arranged immersion for diplomats to step outside Beijing and learn about a country that is too often understood only through statistics and briefings, according to the tour organizers.

On Friday, the program's 2026 edition was launched in Beijing's Shunyi district, a place known as the home of Beijing Capital International Airport.

Diplomats got a taste of the interplay of ecology, industry, and culture in the district. They visited a car factory, where they walked through the manufacturing floor and watched as vehicles took shape along the assembly line. Outside, test drivers put the cars through their paces — accelerating, reversing, and navigating courses designed to showcase handling and stability.

Kimberly Zammit, deputy head of the Maltese embassy in China, admits she was too nervous to take the wheel herself, but she watched with fascination.

"It felt like you were watching a film, or the behind-the-scenes of a film. It was amazing, and they're so big, and all the colors of the cars are so nice," she says.

A liquor distillery also left a strong impression, with the scale of its operation and the artistry of its presentation. The complex felt more like a palace, with its courtyards and pavilions evoking a sense of history, many of the diplomats agreed.

The bottles on display drew as much attention as the liquor inside."We were all telling ourselves that the bottle itself, without the alcohol, must cost a fortune," Zammit recalls.

"All the bottles were so beautiful, so colorful. You could use them as decorations and maybe put flowers in them, like a vase."