Yunnan Becomes Top Tourism Spot for Chinese Travelers

A just-completed survey shows that Yunnan Province in southwest China is the most attractive tourism destination in China.

The survey was carried out by the Beijing-based Meilande Consulting Co. involving 7,000 residents in 14 Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian, Changchun, Harbin, Nanjing, Suzhou, Jinan and Xi'an.

In response to the question asking which city they thought was the most appealing, 25 percent of the respondents choose Yunnan as their No. 1 travel destination, compared with 16.2 percent who chose Beijing.

Yunnan's capital of Kunming was the first choice for Chinese travelers, with 11.8 percent of those questioned listing it as a favorite site. Some 7.4 percent picked Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, and 5.9 percent selected Dalian and Qingdao.

Statistics show that Yunnan received more than 36 million domestic visitors and 1.04 million overseas visitors respectively in 1999.

Yunnan boasts rich tourism resources which include plateau lakes, karst landforms, tropical forests and low latitude glaciers. The province also has 25 ethnic groups with unique folk arts, culture and customs.

The province borders Myanmar, the Laos and Vietnam, and is not far from Thailand, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India.



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