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Current Affairs

Malaysia has never had so many Chinese tourists. It wants more

Jane Lyu flew to Malaysia on Tuesday to visit a city that she had never heard of until recently. The 32-year-old engineer from Guangxi, southern…

By Samantha Johnson / June 27, 2026
Jane Lyu flew to Malaysia on Tuesday to visit a city that she had never heard of until recently. The 32-year-old engineer from Guangxi, southern China, first spotted it on Weibo.

Now, standing outside the pink-domed Putra Mosque in Putrajaya, she explains through a translation app how the country’s administrative capital, a planned city barely three decades old, ended up as the first stop on her Malaysian itinerary.

Lyu, who arrived as part of a company trip that began in Singapore, is one of millions of Chinese tourists poised to visit Malaysia this year – and Malaysia is counting on all of them.
Hot air balloons float near Putra Mosque (left) in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Photo: EPA-EFE
Hot air balloons float near Putra Mosque (left) in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Photo: EPA-EFE

Her group decided to look beyond the buzz of Kuala Lumpur in favour of Putrajaya’s staid grandeur, long, empty roads flanked by government offices and the Putra Mosque’s lakefront arches opening onto a wide ceremonial square that is perfect for photographs.

“Before this, we never heard of the Putra Mosque but we saw it on [microblogging site] Weibo and Douyin [the mainland Chinese version of TikTok]. We had to go. it looked so beautiful,” Lyu said

“On social media, we saw durian stalls as well. We can’t wait to eat the fresh durian.”

Travellers like Lyu are exactly the type Malaysia is targeting with its Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign. The country aims to welcome 7 million Chinese tourists this year, banking on visa-free travel, expanded air links to third-tier Chinese cities and a digital campaign built around mainland mega-apps such as RedNote, Douyin and Weibo.
A RedNote user takes a picture near the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: RedNote
A RedNote user takes a picture near the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: RedNote

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