Huangshan, a scenic city in east China famous for its imposing Huangshan Mountain, has chosen Seoul, capital of the Republic of Korea (ROK), for its first overseas tourism office.

"We are setting up the office in Seoul with the aim to attract more tourists, and we have already signed a cooperation agreement with Korean Airlines," said Wang Xin, of the city tourism department, on Monday.

The ROK has become the biggest foreign market for Huangshan, which drew 100,000 Korean tourists last year.

The city government had erected road signs in Korean at popular scenic spots on the Huangshan Mountain and major highways, and tour guides were being encouraged to learn Korean, Wang said.

Huangshan city and the mountain were in the international spotlight last month thanks to a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who praised the protection measures put in place on Huangshan, including ecological toilets.

He also named a pine tree shaped like an open umbrella along the mountain path as "Umbrella Pine".

Shrouded in cloud about 200 days a year, Huangshan Mountain is popular with traditional Chinese landscape painters and is listed as a World Heritage site.

Huangshan hosted a record 10 million tourists last year, taking in tourism revenue worth more than 6.1 billion yuan (US$762.5 million).

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2006)