Fifty-four travel agencies in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) will be able to go through the visa procedures for the foreign tourists who head for the Pearl River Delta in southern China from Macao.

The SAR government has received an official notification from the China National Tourism Administration.

In line with it, the Macao travel agencies are entitled to handle the visa issue for the foreign visitors to nine cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing and Huizhou, and the visas are effective for not more than six days, according to sources from the SAR government.

At present, relevant departments in Macao and Guangdong are jointly drafting detailed measures.

The move is expected to give an impetus to the tourism development in Macao and the Pearl River Delta as a whole, authorities noted.

(People’s Daily 04/24/2001)