Nearly 4,000 Vietnamese tourists have passed by Pingxiang, the border city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and entered China for sightseeing in the first two days of the week-long holiday.

"Now more and more Vietnamese would like to choose China as their tourism destination, especially during the holiday time," said He Shaolin, official with the ports and harbors management office of Pingxiang City of Guangxi.

In order to cope with the sharp increase of foreign visitors, Guangxi's Friendship Pass linking China and Vietnam has set up two more passageways to deal with the passing procedure, He said, noting that the passageways may be increased further with the constantly soar of foreign visitors.

Statistics showed that more than 140,000 Vietnamese visitors were received by Guangxi in 2005, and nowadays, Guangxi has gradually become the first station, not the only station, for the Vietnamese tourists.

More and more Vietnamese tourists would pass by Guangxi, and then visit other cities of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

China's rich tourism resources, either the natural scenery or modern cities, with its comparatively lower traveling cost, are very attractive for Vietnamese tourists, according to a Vietnamese guide.

The domestic tourism agencies of Vietnam would strive for attracting customers to travel to China on festive and holiday occasions, the guide said.

The convenient transport network at the China-Vietnam border, including the highway and sea route connecting the two countries, has played an important role in the craze for travel to China, according to experts. 
 
(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2006)