It was learned from National Tourism Administration (NTA) and the EU Commission's Delegation to China that the ten countries including Poland, Hungary, Czech, Slovak, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta and Cyprus have become destination countries of Chinese tourists at the same time they became the official members of the European Union on May 1.

According to an official at the foreign affairs department of NTA, from May 1 the ten new EU members have now acquired "Chinese citizen tourism destination country" status. Among them Hungary and Malta have gained the status in 2003. But as in the case of the twelve countries, who signed an agreement on February 12, before the NTA circulates an official document Chinese tourists must wait for a while before planning to visit the other 8 countries. By then it is very likely that these ten countries will be approved together with the 12 countries.

Li Mingxia with the EU Commission's Delegation to China said the twelve EU Shengen countries, which have signed the agreement, will issue the Shengen visa which will enable Chinese citizens to travel across the 12 countries without any difficulty. The ten new member countries will still issue their own visas to tourists, but their embassies (consulates) will try the best to simplify the procedures.

By People's Daily Online