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Cao Weili, a teacher from the Beijing Language Institute, is planning a trip to Europe in September to celebrate his fifth wedding anniversary.

From Sept. 1, Chinese citizens will be allowed to travel to 32 European nations, which has made airlines, local hotels and department stores very busy in order to welcome the first Chinese tourist groups.

"We believe China will be another crucial market after Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK)," said Wolf Sjaeger from Bad Kissingen, who came to promote her famous spa village in Germany. Earlier than other European nations, Germany began to welcome Chinese tourists from February 2003.

In 2003, the number of outbound Chinese tourists reached 20.2 million, up 21 percent over the previous year and surpassing Japan for the first time.

Rail Europe established the first office in Beijing right after learning the good news, in order to sell the "Eurail Pass" in China which can enable people to travel within the continent with one ticket.

Since opening a representative office in China, Switzerland believes China's rapid economic growth and huge population will provide at least 10 years of strong momentum for European tourism growth, acknowledged the chief representative of the nation's tourism bureau Zhang Wenjia.

China has already become the pillar source for the Southeast Asian market and began to swarm in the places which are even expensive for European holiday makers, such as the Maldives.

According to the World Tourism Organization's prediction, China will become the fourth biggest tourism source nation by 2020, with outbound tourists reaching 100 million.