Tourists from China accounted for the highest number of foreign visitors to Russia last year, according to Chinese Ambassador Li Hui.
“The number of Chinese tourists in Russia reached 1.5 million in 2017. This is the largest number among all countries for Russia. China, for its part, ranked second among the countries visited by Russian tourists,” said the Chinese envoy at a board meeting of the Russian Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East in Vladivostok.
According to Li, 32 tourist routes were established between the Heilongjiang province and Russia’s Far East. Vladivostok was the second favorite Russian city among Chinese tourists, with Moscow topping the list. The introduction of electronic visas for the Primorsky Region has made travel easier for Chinese citizens.
Russia and China have been working on boosting tourism. To accommodate growing number of visitors from China, Russia has introduced visa-free travel for Chinese tour groups and hired Chinese-speaking staff at airports and train stations.
Industrial tourism is also popular with Chinese tourists coming to the Urals region. They visit the Uralmash factory, which served as a model for the construction of China’s largest heavy machine production facility in 1958.
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