China received 21.53 million visitors from overseas in the first five months of this year, up 10.1 percent on the same period last year, according to the country's tourism chief.

China earned US$14.8 billion from the visits, up 13.1 percent, said Shao Qiwei, head of the National Tourism Administration, at a national work conference on tourism held on Saturday in Hohhot, capital city of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

China's outbound tourists numbered 16.03 million in the five-month period, up 14 percent.

Shao said China planned to earn 37 billion dollars from 53.6 million visitors for the whole of 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2007)