Luxury goods

Chinese tourists are renowned for their love of shopping for luxury items, so many of the robberies take place outside jewelry stores and high-end boutiques. In 2013, the Chinese were the world's biggest-spending tourists, according to the World Tourism Organization. Last year, 1.5 million Chinese visited France, spending more than 571 million euros. It's estimated that by 2020, France will host about 2 million Chinese tourists a year.

The increasing number of Chinese visitors has seen outbound consumption continue to grow, and while most of them travel to France in search of Louis Vuitton, Cartier, or luxury skincare brands such as La Mer, spending on secondary brands has also increased.

An inconspicuous drugstore close to the Saint-Germain-des-Pres metro station by Notre Dame Cathedral is filled with Chinese tourists year-round. The shop is famous for selling skincare products at the lowest prices in Paris, and has hired Chinese guides to assist tourists in their search for their favorite products. It has long accepted UnionPay, a Chinese purchasing platform equivalent to Visa and MasterCard.

Last year, the Comite Colbert, an umbrella organization for 75 of the biggest names in the French luxury goods industry, urged authorities to take measures to combat crimes against Chinese tourists.

LocationLocation is often a factor in crime, too. Xu Qing, a travel agent from Oufa Travel, a company that specializes in European tours, said Chinese people are often easy targets for thieves because many travel agencies in China arrange cheap accommodations in the suburbs of Paris in an attempt to cut costs and make their packages appear more attractive. Some areas, most notably the city's northern suburbs, have become synonymous with criminality, and even the locals hesitate to enter them.

However, despite the rising number of reports about the crime rate, an increasing number of Chinese are traveling to France and its capital city, lured by romantic notions and the idea that the country is a microcosm of Western civilization.

"France is still the most popular European destination for the Chinese," said Xu Zhigeng, manager of overseas sales at Ctrip, one of China's biggest online travel agencies.

France is aiming to keep the numbers growing. Earlier this year, the authorities shortened the visa-application procedures for Chinese visitors to ensure that all the paperwork can be completed within two days.

One significant change is that Chinese people are no longer required to submit their visa application to the French consular service closest to their place of birth. Prior to the change, a person who lived and worked in Beijing, but had household registration, or hukou, in Shanghai had to submit their papers in the town in which they were registered. Now, though, they can deal with the French embassy in Beijing, or any other mainland city in which France has a consulate. As a result, the number of Chinese visitors to France has risen by about 40 percent, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.

Visa changes

The change has also encouraged Chinese tourists to spend more time in France. The visa application for the Schengen zone, a 26-country bloc without internal borders, stipulates that Chinese nationals who plan to visit France and Italy, for instance, must apply to the French consulate if their stay in France will be longer than their stay in Italy. If the number of days in each country is the same, the visa application must be made to the country in which the visitors will arrive first.

Because it's easier to obtain a Schengen visa from France than most other countries in the bloc, many Chinese tourists include France in their European trip, despite the risks. "I had planned to travel to Switzerland and France, but stay mostly in Switzerland. However, after learning that it only takes two days to get a visa from France, and the French are usually generous in granting more travel days, I altered my itinerary and will now spend longer in France," said Wang Yali, who plans to honeymoon in Europe later this year.

According to the 2013 Chinese Citizens' Outbound Travel Survey, conducted by the China Tourism Academy, France ranked fifth in the chart of tourist satisfaction with a score of 82.33 points. Dai Bin, the president of the China Tourism Academy, said that over the past year, he has seen Chinese tourists being treated with an increased level of respect, but would like to see more being done to ensure their safety. "We feel that the security for China's outbound tourists should be strengthened in terms of government control," he said.

For Xie Wen, the news that Chinese police will soon be on hand to assist tourists was welcome, but not enough to make her consider changing her plans: "It's good news. It will certainly make Chinese people feel much safer when they visit Paris. I still won't go there, though. It's always wise to play safe."

Contact the author at: zhanglei@chinadaily.com.cn

Peng Yining and Yang Yang contributed to this story.