China is expected to earn 156.5 billion US dollars from tourism in 2010, says Liu Kezhi, a senior official with the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).

Liu says the number of foreign tourists who will spend at least one night in China is expected to jump to 68.8 million in 2010, when domestic tourists are expected to take 1.78 billion overnight trips.

According to the CNTA, both the number of tourists and the money they spent hit record highs last year. China's travel industry catered to 1.363 billion tourists last year, up 10 percent, while tourism revenue hit 97.8 billion US dollars, a year-on-year growth of 12.4 percent.

Editro: Donald