Heilongjiang Provincial Tourism Bureau says that the province's inbound tourist numbers increased dramatically in the first 6 months of this year, and nearly 80% of the inbound tourists are from Russia.

In the first half of the year, Heilongjiang received 445,200 inbound tourists and achieved US$179 million income, which was an increase of 17.81% and 29.06%, respectively, compared with that of the same period of the previous year.

Among that number, 353,600 tourists were from Russia, accounting for about 80% of the total, increasing by 16.86% this year from last year. Moreover, the number of Japanese and Korean tourists also increased by 27.33% and 35.77%, respectively.

The domestic travel market was also very hot during this period. The province received 25.2 million domestic tourists in the period, up 13.46% compared with the same period of 2005, and achieved RMB15.1 billion in domestic tourism income.

With such new travel elements as its traditional folk culture integrated into the tourism market, Heilongjiang which is known as a snow and ice destination, is hoping to also get tourists to the province during the summertime.