The Chinese capital, Beijing, is being favored by more overseas travelers, figures from the municipal statistics bureau show.

 

Beijing hosted 3.636 million tourists in the first 11 months of the year, up 7.5 percent year-on-year.

 

 

The visitors included 3.157 million foreigners, a rise of 8.6 percent year-on-year, and 479,000 visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao areas, a slight rise of 0.6 percent.

 

African visitors jumped 56.5 percent to reach 34,000 in the first 11 months.

 

Beijing received 374,000 overseas visitors in November alone, up 9.5 percent from November 2005. The November figure included 331,000 foreign tourists, up 9.1 percent, and 43,000 visitors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 12.6 percent.

 

The United States remained the dominant source of foreign visitors, with 474,000 Americans visited the capital in the January-November period, up 7.6 percent.

 

The number of Japanese tourists jumped 11.4 percent to reach 461,000 in the first 11 months, and the Republic of Korea came in third with 397,000.

 

Sources with the municipal tourism administration attributed the increase in overseas visitors to the city's blend of a long history, rich culture, economic prowess and its status as host of the 2008 Olympic Games.

 

A series of tourism promotion programs Beijing has conducted in Germany, France, Russia, the Republic of Korea and Japan and other countries this year also contributed to the increase in the number of overseas tourists, according to the local tourism administration.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2006)