Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Cai Run has said 13 percent more Portuguese visited China in the first quarter of this year than a year earlier, the Hangzhou Daily reports.
The Chinese newspaper fails to say how many Portuguese visited.
Mr Cai was speaking at a tourism promotion event in Lisbon arranged by the authorities in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
Mr Cai said the potential for Sino-Portuguese exchanges of tourists was “huge” now that direct flights link Hangzhou to Lisbon via Beijing.
Lisbon has become a stopover for Latin Americans on their way to China since direct flights between China and Portugal began last July, the Hangzhou Daily reports.
