Sri Lanka targets Chinese tourists

Feb 01, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka is targeting 25,000 tourists from China in 2012 with expectations that arrivals will rise to 300,000 in 2016 making it the second largest source of foreign tourists to the country, an official said.







When he was 11 year old he had been captured by the imperial Chinese Navy, castrated and taken in to service in the royal court.

Under Ming emperor Zhu Di, he had undertaken seven voyages and died in Calcutta in 1433.

According to stone inscription in Chinese, Tamil and Persian found in Galle in 1910 by H F Tomalin, a provincial engineer, he had made offerings to a Bhuddist temple on a mountain, which could be Adam's Peak.

A replica of the stone inscription is now in the Galle museum and the original in Colombo.

He had also visited Upulwan Devalaya in Devundara and donated precious metals, silk and other valuables, Godahewa said.

Godahewa said an exhibition about the Admiral in the Galle maritime museum would help draw more Chinese tourists.

The Chinese embassy in Colombo was also supportive of these efforts he said.

Chairman of Sri Lanka's tourist development authority Nalaka Godahewa said in 2011, 16,000 Chinese tourists came to Sri Lanka, a year which saw total ar