By IANS
Mumbai : China is looking forward to more Indians visiting the country during the current year, which it has declared the ‘China-India Year of Friendship through Tourism’.
The number of tourists from India and China visiting each other is very low compared to the population of the two countries, visiting Chinese Tourism Minister Shao Qi Wei said here Wednesday.
Shao told Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna during a meeting that only 450,000 Indians visited China last year and the corresponding number of Chinese citizens visiting India was even less at 50,000.
“This is a very small number compared to the population of the two countries and also to the number of Japanese and Koreans visiting China,” Shao told Krishna, according to a Raj Bhavan press release.
The Chinese tourism minister, who is leading a delegation to India, told the Maharashtra governor that his country was keen to see more Indian visitors as it was hosting the Olympics next year.
Krishna said people to people interactions could go a long way in strengthening relations between the two countries.
“I would like legislators and students from India to visit China and see the development made by that country,” he said.