With the hopes of boosting tourism and promoting people-to-people exchange, the 2015 Chinese Tourism Year in South Korea was launched on January 23. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang addressed the opening ceremony of the launching event in Seoul.

This partnership began in July 2014 when Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Park Geun-hye held talks and vowed to enrich the bilateral strategic cooperative ties between the two countries.

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For South Korea, 2015 will be the "Year of Visit to China" and 2016 will be the "Year of Visit to South Korea" for China. The program invites 100 Korean journalists to visit popular tourist sites in China and 100 travel experts to evaluate tourism services.

According to a survey released by the Korea Association of Travel Agents in October, around 559,457 Chinese tourists visited South Korea in the first half of 2013. In 2014, there were 982,805 tourists during the same period, indicating a 75.7 percent increase.

The survey only included visitors who traveled through agencies, which comprises only a third of the actual Chinese tourists in South Korea.

This massive growth of Chinese tourists may be attributed to the growing popularity of the "Korean Wave" in Asia.

Entertainment industry exports including K-Pop music and Korean dramas became a huge success overseas, with young fans infatuated with the culture. This phenomenon was referred to as the "Korean Wave" or "Hallyu" that swept across Asia.

Last year, the popular romantic comedy drama "My Love from The Star" started a "chimek" craze in China. "Chimek" is a combination of the Korean words for chicken and beer.

Korean restaurants were filled with people lining up to get their "chimek" and celebrate the first snowfall the way the drama's main character does.

The K-Pop industry had also started expanding business in China. Idol groups and sub-units with Chinese members started forming. Super Junior-M, is the first group to have a member lineup of both Korean and Chinese members.

Its junior labelmate EXO, a South Korean-Chinese band, successfully started with a rapidly growing popularity in China.

In a message posted on the Chinese foreign ministry's website, President Xi said, "Korean people can understand the profundity of Chinese culture, and Chinese people really appreciate the unique charm of Korean culture."

TagsEXO, my love from the star, year of visit to china, korea tourism, Super Junior, super junior-m