Chinese to enjoy 'red' road trips in Russia

About 1,000 Chinese people will enjoy "red" road trips to Russia from June to September, the China National Tourism Administration announced at a news conference on Tuesday.

The trips will kick off simultaneously in Hunan and Shaanxi provinces on June 28, with participants first driving to Beijing for an opening ceremony on July 1.

From there, participants will drive to Manzhouli, a city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region that borders Russia. They will enter Russia on July 5 to attend a welcoming ceremony in Moscow.

After that, the Chinese participants will be divided into three groups for road trips along three routes in Russia: Moscow to Ulyanovsk, a city about 900 kilometers east of the Russian capital; Moscow to Kazan, the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia; and Moscow to St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city.

During the trips, the tourists will visit a series of red tourism destinations, including the former residence and tomb of Vladimir Lenin, the Russian communist revolutionary and politician; Kazan Federal University, which Lenin attended; and a villa near suburban Moscow, where the sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in 1928. It's now a museum.

According to a memorandum of understanding signed in June 2015 by China and Russia, the two countries will boost exchanges and cooperation in red tourism by attracting more tourists from each other's countries.

Data from the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia showed that China was the biggest source of tourists for Russia, with more than 1.07 million visits by Chinese tourists last year, a 15 percent year-on-year increase.

Russians made 1.18 million visits to China last year, up 31 percent from the year before.

Xue Yaping, a senior official of the China National Tourism Administration, said at the news conference that Chinese tourists on the road in Russia will "not only contribute to red tourism but also deepen the friendship between the people of the two countries".

He said the event was supported by the tourism authorities and associations in Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Hunan and Shaanxi, as well as some travel agencies and auto rental companies in Beijing.