The Republic of Korea (ROK) has become the largest source of overseas tourists to Guilin, one of China's famous tourist destinations.

Among the one million overseas tourists that visited the city in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region last year, over 80,000 were from ROK, more than doubling the figure of the previous year.

The three-hour direct flight between Guilin and Seoul, capital of ROK, opened at the end of 1999. More planes were added to the route last year as a result of the soaring demand.

ROK tourists' enthusiasm about Guilin was further fanned by a tourist promotion gala held in Guilin in May last year.

According to sources with the municipal government of Guilin, a public survey in ROK suggested that 70 percent of those surveyed choose Guilin as one of their overseas travel destinations.

Zhong Xinmin, director of the Tourist Bureau of Guilin, said that the city is expected to greet more than 100,000 tourists from ROK this year.

(People’s Daily 01/12/2001)