The city played host to a total of 805,900 foreign tourists last year, tourism officials said Friday.

About 30 percent came from Japan with 245,265 Japanese visiting Shenzhen in the year.

The United States ranked second, followed by South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Canada and France.

The numbers of tourists from Thailand saw the fastest growth of 60 percent in the year, while U.S. tourists rose more than 30 percent.

The 144-hour visa-free entry offered by Shenzhen and some other Guangdong cities has been credited as helping trigger the boom in foreign tourists.

Analysts say a better-known, fast-growing and peaceful China is attracting a growing number of international tourists at an unprecedented rate.

China's earnings from foreign tourists in 2002 rose 14.6 percent to more than US$20 billion, according to the Xinhua news agency. The number of foreign tourists to China increased 20 percent year on year.

China welcomed some 13.75 million foreigners last year, up 22 percent from 2001.

The latest statistics released by the World Tourism Organization include the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong among the 15 most popular tourist destinations worldwide.

The rapid increase in inbound tourists would enable China to become the world’s top tourist destination by 2020, experts have predicted.

(Southcn.com March 10, 2003)