China, Russia, Mongolia boost cross-border tourism

HOHHOT - China, Russia and Mongolia have signed a string of cross-border tourism cooperation agreements as part of the efforts to push the construction of the economic corridor among the three countries.

The ten cooperation projects, worth 1.4 billion yuan (220 million US dollars), were signed by government authorities and enterprises during the first China-Mongolia Expo which opened in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Friday.

They include cross-border tourism route development, tourism personnel training as well as hotel and resort zone construction. The trilateral cooperation involves a tourism route which links Hohhot, Ulaan Baatar, Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk.

"Cross-border tourism is an important part and platform of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor," said Wei Guonan, head of the Inner Mongolia Tourism Administration.

In 2014, Inner Mongolia received 810,000 tourists from Mongolia and 630,000 from Russia, statistics with the administration show.