Chinese overseas touraism tops 100m mark in 2014

In 2014, the number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad increased by 19.5 percent year-on-year to 109 million, topping threshold of 100 million for the first time in history, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

"China has been the world's largest outbound market since 2012," said the Madrid-based United Nations World Tourism Organization.

During the recent Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, 5.18 million Chinese, 10 percent more than in the previous year, took trips to Thailand, Japan, the United States, and countries in Europe where they were not surprised to see Mandarin-speaking staff in shopping malls and Chinese TV programs in hotels.