South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region hosted 770,000 overseas tourists in 1999, up 47.14 percent over 1998.

According to local sources, the autonomous region chalked up 201 million US dollars in hard currency earnings last year, a rise of 28.84 percent from 1998.

Located along the southern coast, Guangxi has plenty of tourism resources, including a spectacular karst landscape, famous for its pinnacles and spires, caves and caverns, sinkholes and subterranean streams, and picturesque rocky hills and strangely shaped stone formations.

Beginning last year, the central government decided to treat tourism as the engine for fresh economic growth, and invested more money than ever in this expanding sector.

Guangxi was allocated 30 million yuan to develop its tourism industry last year, and this investment paid off as tourism came out of an eight-year slump in the region to become a dynamic part of the local economy. (Xinhua)