Beijing (VNA) – Vietnam and
China are set to expand self-driving tours in a border region, heard a
conference co-held by Vietnam’s northern Quang Ninh province and Dongxing city in
China’s southwest Guangzi Zhuang Autonomous Region on May 9.
The tours are currently allowed to run
between Quang Ninh’s Mong Cai city and Dongxing city.
At the conference, the two sides
agreed to expand the area for the tour from Vietnam-China border to Guangxi’s
cities of Fangchenggang, Nanning and Guilin and Quang Ninh’s Ha Long city in
the future.
The Vietnamese government has allowed
Quang Ninh to pilot self-drive tours from China to the province’s Ha Long city
since March.
Self-drive tours through
Vietnam-China border have become a new attraction after the launch of the Mong
Cai – Dongxing route in November 2016. As of April 2018, a total 146 vehicles
carrying 569 visitors travelled between the two cities.
During the four-day holidays from April
28 celebrating National Reunification Day (April 30) and May Day, the border
city of Mong Cai welcomed about 50,000 tourists, with some 10,000 Chinese
holiday-makers travelling through Mong Cai International Border Gate each day.
More than 4 million Chinese people visited
Vietnam last year, representing a year-on-year surge of 48.6 percent.
In the first quarter of this year, Vietnam
served over 1.35 million Chinese tourists, a year-on-year rise of 42.9 percent.-VNA
