The city of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province raked in 21.4 billion yuan (2.57 billion US dollars) in tourism last year, up 9.68 percent from 1998.

According to a local source, the city hosted 17.26 million tourists in 1999, of whom 9.16 million stayed for only one night.

The number of overnight tourists from overseas was 446,000, an increase of 17.4 percent. Hard currency earnings from tourism exceeded one billion US dollars for the first time in 1999. The occupancy rate of local hotels was 58 percent, two percentage points higher than in 1998.

Shenzhen has been making conscientious and painstaking efforts to improve its environment in an effort to develop its tourism industry.

China's tourism recorded a rapid growth of 400.2 billion yuan (about 48 billion US dollars) in 1999, a rise of 16.4 percent on a yearly basis.

Tourists from overseas contributed 14.1 billion US dollars in foreign exchange earnings in the past year.