China opened up outbound tourism in 1990, when the CNTA announced Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand were the first countries to get ADS status. Two years later, Japan and Russia joined the list.

China currently has ADS agreement with 29 other countries, not including the 12 EU countries.

At the Sixth EU-China Summit on October 30 last year, the European Union and China signed a tourism agreement that paves the way for Chinese tour groups to travel to Europe. It extends the ADS status to nearly all EU countries except Britain, Denmark and Ireland. Countries that Chinese will be able to visit with only one visa are: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria and Finland.

Britain and Ireland are expected to soon sign separate ADS MOUs with China. Denmark signed the MOU with China just yesterday.

Norway and Iceland, which are not EU members, do however belong to the Schengen area, will conclude similar arrangements with China soon. The 10 new countries to join the EU in May will also be covered by this agreement, but as they are not yet members of the Schengen area, they will issue national visas for the interim period until they integrate fully into Schengen.

Earlier, Chinese citizens could only travel to the EU on business or family visits.

(China Daily February 27, 2004)