Beijing received 1.6 million tourists from abroad in the first five months, a rise of 11.8 percent from the same period last year, the government statistics showed Tuesday.

 

The figure includes 220,000 tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 7.1 percent, with the other 1.38 million tourists from other countries and regions, up 12.6 percent, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

 

Japan, the United States and the Republic of Korea remain the top three source countries of overseas tourists to Beijing, accounting for 38.8 percent of the total.

 

Beijing received more than 400,000 overseas tourists last month, representing an annual growth of 9.8 percent, statistics show.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2007)