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Since China adopted an open-door policy in 1979, it has tripled the size of its economy (Purves, 1993). China's gross domestic product (GDP) has been steadily increasing at a 12 percent annual rate while foreign exchange reserves increased dramatically from US$19.4 billion in 1992 to US$73.6 billion in 1995 (People's daily, 1997). 2006, Chinese outbound tourist reached 34.52 million, a record high in history. China become the fastest growing source of tourists in Asia. Chinese tourists traveling abroad changing the tourism pattern in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the pattern throughout the world. The history is quite short. That is a decade ago, people only traveled to Hong Kong and Macau to see their relatives. In 1992, only 2.93 million Chinese travelers went abroad, most of them were government delegations. Civilians began traveling abroad just ten years ago and the rate of travel has been growing rapidly. Whenever golden weeks between May 1st and 7th and October 1st and 7th occur, there have been more people who want to travel abroad. |
