ID :
138669
Sun, 08/22/2010 - 05:01
Auther :

China may allow Japan travel agents to handle Chinese tourists

HANGZHOU, China, Aug. 21 Kyodo -
Chinese National Tourism Administration Chairman Shao Qiwei hinted Saturday
that China may allow Japanese travel agencies to sell services to Chinese
tourists heading for Japanese destinations.
''We are now preparing to revise (relevant) laws,'' Shao was quoted as saying
in a meeting with Japanese Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister
Seiji Maehara, now on a four-day Chinese visit, according to Japanese officials
accompanying Maehara.
Maehara later told Japanese reporters, ''Japanese companies would be able to
offer a wide range of travel plans to Chinese people who travel to Japan
repeatedly, as they have explored tourism routes most extensively.''
Later, Maehara held a meeting with South Korean Culture, Sports and Tourism
Minister Yu In Chon, who also came to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, to attend a
trilateral meeting among tourism ministers from the three countries, the fifth
of this kind.
He proposed to Yu that the two countries make efforts to increase the number of
visitors to each other by taking the opportunity of the planned joint filming
of movies next year by Japanese and South Korean filmmakers.
Maehara, who flew to Shanghai from Tokyo's Haneda airport earlier in the day,
inspected Chinese bullet train technology by boarding a high-speed train
capable of traveling at a maximum speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour
for his trip from Shanghai to Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Asked how he views the international competitiveness of China's increasingly
sophisticated bullet train technology, he suggested the Japanese technology can
compete with those of foreign rivals effectively in the global marketplace.
The Japanese bullet train system ''provides all in terms of efficiency and
safety,'' he said, adding that he hopes the Japanese technology will advance to
even higher levels through competition with China and South Korea.
''Although expectations are persistent in Japan that the construction of new
shinkansen tracks will start, main trunk lines have been already completed,''
he said, adding, ''It is crucial for Japanese manufacturers to improve their
technologies further as they deploy their business operations overseas.''
Maehara is scheduled to hold a meeting with some senior Chinese government
officials, including Transport Minister Li Shenglin.
He is expected to call for an early resumption of bilateral aviation talks to
increase the number of flights between Tokyo's Haneda airport and China.
==Kyodo

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