Tourism officials in Shanghai have no immediate plans to allow overseas tourists spend a night living with local families.

They made the statement yesterday in response to recent media reports that such plans were in the works.

Setting up such a program for foreign tourists would be very complicated, according to Lu Hong, chief of the Shanghai Luwan District Economic & Trade Commission's tourism promotion department.

"We have been talking about it, but it won't happen in the near future."

Before such a program begins, Lu will have to find some local residents willing to let foreign tourists spend a night in their homes.

"It will be quite inconvenient," said Qin Ruchun, a 53-year-old salesman who lives on a lane just off Maoming Road in the Luwan District.

Qin has had foreign tourists into his home for lunch in the past, but says he won't do that again.

"It has a lot of trouble, and we find it hard to handle," admitted Qin. His family has seen two tourism groups, one from France and the other from Japan.

After the 10-member French group left, he and his wife spent a long time cleaning the dishes and tidying up the apartment. "I will only receive the tourists for afternoon tea," he said.

While Qin didn't enjoy the visit too much, the French group found it very interesting, said Weng Weimin, an official with the Ruijin Subdistrict, where Qin's home is located.

"They are quite interested in the way locals live, and it inspired us to develop the program into a special and long-standing one," said Weng, whose subdistrict is polling residents to see if they are interested in hosting foreign tourists in the future.

(Shanghai Daily February 27, 2004)