Chinese tourists seeking "mysterious" Israel

On September 25, 2008 forty Chinese tourists traveled from Beijing to Tel Aviv. The group was the first of many that are expected to be traveling to the Holy Land beginning this fall, as a result of an agreement sealed last October between the foreign ministers of Israel and China and which officially went into effect on September 15 of this year. The agreement gave Israel an "Approved Destination Status" for Chinese tourists. Hopefully, this will prompt many Chinese tourists to travel to Israel, a destination many Chinese describe as "mysterious". Currently, much of the Israel-China traffic consists of Israeli businesspeople and tourists traveling eastward while the Chinese travel market to Israel is primarily business. El Al has three weekly flights to Beijing and five to Hong Kong. The company is considering adding a fourth flight from Beijing or possibly switching to larger planes due to the high load factors. The Chinese have very strong links to Christianity and there are approximately 80 million Christians living in China, up from less than 5 million, 25 years ago.