Beijing received 2,847,000 overseas visitors in the first three quarters of this year, up 6.2 percent on last year, the municipal statistics bureau said on Wednesday.

The bureau said the growth rate was down 0.4 percent from the previous year.

Between January and September, the number of foreign visitors rose 7.4 percent to 2,456,000, while the number of visitors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan was down 0.8 percent to 391,000.

Visitors from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other parts of Asia reached 1,389,000, 48.8 percent of the total.

The United States continues to be the city's biggest source of visitors, followed by Japan and the Republic of Korea. The number of U.S. visitors jumped 8.5 percent to 372,000.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2006)