China's Henan province promotes tourism in Nepal

KATHMANDU, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Henan province, also known as the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu, has promoted itself as an attractive tourism destination for Nepali travelers here.

Various tourism destinations in the province were displayed along with a performance by Kung Fu artists on Wednesday evening, attracting Nepali tourism officials and entrepreneurs.

Song Liping, chief of Henan provincial department of culture and tourism highlighted the province as the birthplace of Chinese civilization, with five world heritage sites and many relics related to China's ancient capital.

Connectivity in Henan is also great. Many tourism sites could be reached through high-speed railway in a short period of time, she said.

Henan is willing to collaborate with the Nepali tourism authorities on promoting tourism to each other as Henan's over 100 million population is a major tourism source market too, she noted.

On the occasion, Nandani Lahe Thapa, senior director at Nepal Tourism Board, the main tourism promotion body of Nepal, said that there was great potential for Nepalis visiting Henan as increasing number of Nepalis visiting abroad as their incomes are rising.

She also sought support from the Chinese side as Nepal has been organizing visit Nepal Year 2020 when the Himalayan country aims to attract two million foreign tourists. China has been a second-largest source market for the last several years for Nepal's tourism.