Visitors take in the sights on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on June 9. The United States is set to receive more tourists from the Chinese mainland as it has won "Approved Destination Status" under a recent Sino-US memorandum of understanding.(Photo Source: China Daily/AP) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, June 17 -- Beijinger Meng Xuegen's retirement dream is to see the world.

    From France to Switzerland to Russia, the 67-year-old has traveled with his wife to every destination on their must-go list except for one: the United States.

    But that country too will soon be crossed out.

    Setting off tomorrow, Meng is among the first group of Chinese tourists going to the United States after the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last December, which allows Chinese tourist groups to travel in the United States.

    The MOU saw the United States granted "Approved Destination Status" after years of negotiation, making it the 134th country on China's approved list.

    "I am going to the States to see the 'paper tiger'," Meng joked.

    "After all, America is the most developed capitalist country in the world, so I want to take a look at it."

    For ordinary Chinese citizens, the MOU has eased a decades-old restriction on travel to the United States and opened the door of popular U.S. tourist attractions to people like Meng, who have the money, time and desire to travel the world.

    "New York is the city I most want to visit. I am also excited about the trip to Pearl Harbor of Hawaii," said Meng, who was born in 1941, the year when the Japanese attacked the US Pacific fleet at the harbor and pushed the Americans into World War II.

    In the past, most Chinese who traveled to the United States were either students or business people. Under the latest tourism agreement between the two countries, the balance is expected to shift to more leisure travel.

    As the agreement takes effect today, travel agencies in both countries expect a new wave of Chinese traveling to the United States for leisure.

    Chinese travel agencies can now actively advertise and market U.S. leisure tour packages. Under the agreement, they are able to run commercials and organize events such as the US Tour Week to promote products and services.

    "It would have been against the law in the past," said Lin Kang, deputy general manager of the outbound department of the China International Travel Service (CITS). The company is one of the authorized tour agencies to operate Chinese tour groups to the US.

    Lin said the outbound travel market has had a difficult time this year. Faced with domestic inflation, a falling stock market and the upcoming Olympic Games, many people have been choosing to stay at home rather than travel abroad.

    Domestic travel agencies like CITS hope the opening up of the US market will turn the situation around.

    "As the world's largest economy, the U.S. market possesses huge potential unmatched by any other country. We hope the newly opened U.S. destinations can help boost the weak outbound travel market this year," Lin said.

    The U.S. market currently makes up only about 10 percent of total profits of the company's outbound tourism, Lin said. He hopes that the proportion rises to a third of the total profits in the future.

    Similarly, the impact of a rapidly growing Chinese tourism market is starting to be felt on U.S. shores.

    Amid talk of an economic recession, many top U.S. destinations are looking to the tourism industry as a bright spot for the local economy.

    "A strong tourism industry is critical in seeing any city through tough economic times, not only because of hotel taxes, sales taxes and local employment, but also purely because of visitor spending," said George Fertitta, chief executive officer of the NYC & Company, the official marketing and tourism organization of New York.

    "With Chinese tourism at a steady annual increase, we think the MOU will only continue to strengthen this trend, and I think we will find that China will be one of our top travel markets in the next few years," he said.

    Tourism experts predict that Chinese tourism to the United States will expand by 46 percent between 2005 and this year. The number of Chinese visitors to the United States will also reach 579,000 by 2011, the U.S. Department of Commerce has projected.

    To keep up with the demand, hotel development has been rising throughout the city of New York. By the end of this year, the city will boast an increase of more than 3,000 new hotel rooms, and more than 13,000 by 2010, the NYC & Company has said.

    The city has also gone on to print a guide in simplified Chinese and started to hire more Mandarin-speaking representatives at its tourist office to accommodate the growth of Chinese visitors.

    The tourist dollars brought into the US by Chinese travelers have already been boosting the economy. On average, Chinese travelers spend about 6,000 dollars a visit to the US, more than tourists of any other country, figures released by the US Department of Commerce showed.

    Meng said his shopping budget for his upcoming U.S. tour is 2,000 dollars.

    "I made only 50 yuan (7.20 dollars) a month in 1970s. Now I can easily afford a 12-day tour to the United States, which would be unimaginable 30 years ago."