Shenzhen, a boomtown facing Hong Kong across a river in south China's Guangdong Province, hosted 10.4 million overseas tourist arrivals in the first six months of the year, up 34.4 percent from the same period last year.

The city is placed in the first among the leading tourist cities in the country for the tourism growth rate, noted sources from the tourism bureau of Shenzhen City.

According to the sources, most of the overseas tourists visited this southern Chinese city for purposes of entertainment, sightseeing, vacation and visiting friends or on business trips.

Shenzhen, also one of China's five special economic zones, raked in US$748 million from overseas tourism services from January to June this year, a rise of 27.48 percent year-on-year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2004)