China's Tibet autonomous region saw a tourist surge last month, with the number of tourists from home and abroad rising to a new monthly record of 1.22 million, according to the National Tourism Administration.

The peak-season tourists generated more than one billion yuan (US$146.39 million) in tourism revenue for the region, the administration said Friday in an online statement.

The number of tourists more than doubled that in last July, when tourism in the region was still shadowed by the March 14 riot last year in Lhasa, capital of Tibet.

In the first seven months, the region in Southwest China welcomed 2.7 million tourists, 3.8 times the figure of the same period last year and up 58.6 percent from the same period in 2007.

Tourism revenue, from January to July, also jumped 3.5 folds from a year ago to 2.29 billion yuan, or up 35.3 percent from the same period in 2007.

(China Daily August 24, 2009)