Russian tourists rushing back to China

After four years of decline, there was a huge increase in the number of Russian tourists visiting China in January, new figures show.

In total, 144,200 Russians visited in the first month of 2016 - up 46.9 percent on the same period last year, according to a recent report released by the China Tourism Academy, a think tank under the China National Tourism Administration.

Russia is the fifth-largest source market for China's tourism industry after the United States, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea, but over the past few years a weak ruble has dampened Russians' enthusiasm for travel abroad.