promoted by the fast growing economy, china has witnessed the prosperity in other aspects as well in the past few years, esp. in foreign-related tourism. as can be seen from the graph, from 1995 to 1997, the number of the foreigners traveling to china, mainly including americans, japanese and others, remained level. with the development of the economy, however, in 1998 it rose sharply and reached 260,000. from 1998 to 1999, there was a rapid increase and more and more people from different countries began to travel in china.

　　it was the open door policy that brought about the prosperity in tourism, especially after 1997, when more chinese cities opened to the outside world to encourage foreigners to visit china and to promote cultural exchanges, as a result, more and more foreigners take interest in china's development and its traditional culture, which attract them to china.

　　it is well known that china has decided to open her door wider than ever before to the world. the government will adopt a series of new policies to encourage more travelers to visit china. steady increase in the number of foreign visitors will be expected in the near future.