TCM, sports prescribed as tourism cure

Beijing plans to use traditional Chinese medicine and sporting events to attract more overseas visitors, an official from the capital's tourism authority has said.

Wang Yue, deputy director of the Beijing Commission of Tourism, said the capital will promote TCM and some sporting events, such as the upcoming 2015 World Athletics Championships, the most important such event in China since the 2008 Olympic Games.

"Visitors stream into Beijing for major sporting events," said Wang. "The 2008 Olympics is an excellent example. Beijing's tourism industry in Beijing benefited enormously from that. So we intend to promote more of these as tourism products."