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EXTRACTS FROM PRESS REPORTS
TOURIST SERVICES IMPROVING
(South China Morning Post: June 23)
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"The main aim of developing tourism in China is to promote mutual understanding." Mr. Wan* said. But he quickly added: "It can also make a (financial) contribution to the building of socialism in China."
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The China Travel Tourism Administrative Bureau was turned into the more powerful General Administrative Bureau of Travel and Tourism in China under the State Council (Government).
China International Travel Service comes directly under this Government organ and is steadily expanding its offices through the country as more and more places are opened to foreign travellers.
Four new provinces, Szechuan, Yunnan Kansu and Anhwei, and two autonomous regions, Sinkiang and Inner Mongolia, have been opened this year. This leaves only Fukien, opposite Taiwan, Ningsia, Kweichow, Tsinghai and Tibet still closed to tourists.
Mr. Wan said the main problem now facing tourism in China lay in the facilities. There are also plans to build hotels in various parts of the country, but the bottlenecks of Peking, Shanghai and Canton the three main entry and exit points should get priority.
(* Mr. Wan Fu is deputy managing director of the China International Travel Service).
(Hongkong Standard: June 28)
fruit
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China's lychee orchards are not only producing a bumper harvest of delicious they have also started a mini-tourist boom.
Special tours are being organised to take Chinese residents in Hongkong to southern counties in Kwangtung province, where they can eat as much fruit as they want after picking it from the trees.
(Ta Kung Pao Weekly: June 29)
It takes 45 minutes from Shumchun to the lichee farm at Nam Sen brigade, Nam Tou commune in Po on county. Since June 16, groups of Hongkong residents organised by their unions or societies have made special trips there every day just for a feast of lichee, at the total cost of $50 each, including a return ticket on the Kowloon-Shumchun Railway. On an average there are Hongkong visiting the lichee farms every day, the brigade leader said.
More people go on Sundays, when visitors could amount to 500. The last batch of visitors will be due on July 2.
(South China Morning Post: July 5)
More than 2,000 Hongkong holiday-makers have flocked to the Chinese commune of Nam Tau across the Shumchun border in the past fortnight to feast on lychees.
(Hongkong Standard: July 10)
The Chinese government will launch a five-year multi-million dollar project later this year to develop Shumchun, a village near the border, into a holiday resort.
The sources said the move to develop Shumchun was aimed at tourists from
Hongkong.
At present, those wishing to visit Shumchun must apply both to the Hongkong and Chinese authorities.
The sources said that when the Shumchun tourist centre was completed, the Chinese authorities would simplify the visa system.
Besides opening Shumchun for overseas tourists, the Chinese authorities also hope to encourage Hongkong residents to spend their weekends or holidays there.
The sources said the Shumchun tourist plan includes opening Chinese painting classes and children care centres for those who wish to take their children with them.
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