China's mainland has received 58.56 million Hong Kong tourists who stayed overnight last year, accounting for more than 70 percent of overseas tourists, eastday.com reported today.

The travel industries in Hong Kong and mainland are always depend on each other, said Chen Yousheng, vice chairman of the China Travel Association in Hong Kong yesterday. Chen led a large tour delegation to Hong Kong to attend the Hong Kong International Tour Show.

Hong Kong received more than 13 million tourists, with the travelers from the mainland up to 3.4 million, taking a lead, Chen said. The mainland has much tighter cooperation in travel with Hong Kong, and both of them have built large-scale cooperation system, such as joining hands to conduct overseas promotion.

As the special geographic connection between Hong Kong and Guangdong province, the travel industry between the both sides has developed very quickly. Since 1994, the Hong Kong-bound tourists can enjoy 72-hour or 144-hour convenient periods to take a journey to Shenzhen Special Administrative Region (SAR). Since March last year, such activity has expanded to ten cities such as Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Fushan.

The mainland and Hong Kong will strengthen its cooperation in the near future, Chen said.

(Eastday.com.cn 06/08/2001)