More foreigners visit China in first half of 2009: Ministry

The last six months have seen 23 percent more foreign visitors entering China, according to a statement from the Ministry of Public Security.

The exit and entry administrative agencies of the ministry had recorded more than 12.55 million foreign visitors to China in the first half of this year, up 23 percent from the same period of last year. The Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan, the United States and Russia were among the top 10 source countries of the visitors, the statement said.

The administrative agencies also processed over 26.86 million cases of Chinese mainland travelers visiting other regions and countries.

The most frequent destinations of the mainland travelers were Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, ROK and Taiwan, the statement said. The total number of exit and entry visas processed by the Ministry increased by 9.1 percent, reaching 184 million.

The statement also said that 1,816 cases of illegal exit or entry and 29,000 cases of other violations of exit-entry rules had been found in the past six months. A total of 399 fugitives at large were arrested at the exit-entry inspection, the statement added.