The east China province of Zhejiang reported rapid growth in tourism in 2001, which saw more than 1.47 million tourist arrivals from overseas and a revenue of US$ 699 million in foreign exchange earnings.

The figures represented increases of 30.5 and 35.9 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, a tourism official said Wednesday.

The province also earned 52.9 billion yuan (US$ 6.37 billion) from 68.95 million domestic tourists in 2001, up 23 and 17.5 percent respectively.

The total tourist income accounted for 8.7 percent of the province's gross domestic product for the same year, an increase of 0.82 percentage points from the previous year.

The province with such renowned scenic ancient city as Hangzhou and many historic relics plans to offer more and better service to tourists from around the world.

There are over 600 star-class hotels in the province, which boasts cultural relics dating back to several thousand years ago.

( Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2002)