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Inaugural trip to start off with big bang

By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-17 10:10

More than 200 Chinese mainland tourists will leave today and tomorrow to join a celebration on Thursday in Washington DC, specially held for China's inaugural leisure tour group to the United States.

The tourists will leave from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to join the event seen as marking a new era in Sino-US relations.

Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, who has arrived in Washington for the fourth China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue, and US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, are also expected to attend the celebration.

The inaugural tour group is expected to attend welcome ceremonies in New York City and Los Angeles in their 11-to-12-day tour as well.

The trip follows a memorandum of understanding China and the US signed last December, which allows Chinese tourist groups to travel in the US after a decades-long restriction.

"It is exciting to be part of the inaugural group and witness history," said Zhang Xiaorui, 52.

"I just cannot wait to see with my own eyes the architecture of America that we often see on TV, such as the White House and Capitol Hill," she said.

The retiree signed up for the 24,800-yuan ($3,590) inaugural tour organized by the China International Travel Service (CITS) head office with her two older sisters last month, as soon as she heard about it.

"This tour must be memorable. We were told that the inaugural tour group will enjoy unprecedented treats, like the welcome ceremonies and visits to Capitol Hill and the Empire State Building, which are not included in ordinary tour groups," she said.

Based on the agreement between the two countries, only 240 tourists can join the inaugural tour group by applying to one of the six designated tour agencies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Each city gets a quota of 80 tourists.

"We have received more than 90 applicants, but we finally chose 32 people," said Lin Kang, deputy general manager of the outbound tourism department with CITS.

Lin said two tourists have been denied visas, with the final group comprised of 30 tourists. Similar situations reportedly occurred for another group in Beijing, while one applicant in Shanghai did not get the required visa.

The reasons for not getting a visa are not known. But those with abundant outbound travel experience and the aged are seen as "favorable" tourists, Lin said.

Most members of the inaugural tour group are in Zhang's age group. Among the 30 Beijing tourists going with CITS, 80 percent are aged above 50.

Li Pengyuan, the leader of the group with CITS, said US-bound Chinese tour groups will see this trend for a while, because those aged around 50 have the money, time and energy to travel.

The inaugural group is schedule to travel in six smaller groups on different itineraries, but all will cover the east and west coasts of the US mainland, as well as Hawaii.