China will send the first tour group with an Approved Destination Status tour visa to the United States on June 17, 2008.
The first batch of tourists will be from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
According to the memorandum of understanding on tourism signed between China and the U.S., China-organized tour groups to America will follow the grading principles of time, area, and tourist. The first phase in implementing this action will be for six months, and the areas include Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. From June 17 this year, travel agencies in these nine provinces and cities with the qualifications to operate outbound tour business are permitted to organize tour groups of locally registered citizens to travel to the United States.
Shanghai CITS and Shanghai CTS will operate the first batch of Shanghai tour groups to the United States. These will consist of a total of 80 tourists and have an itinerary covering the east and west coasts of the USA in ten day tours. Next, 38 outbound travel agencies in Shanghai will be able to organize America tours.
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