Officials representing over 200 Chinese and overseas tourist cities have met in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou for an International Mayor's Forum on Tourism.During the one day event, they shared their experiences in achieving sustainable development of tourism and explored potential cooperation with each other.Our reporter Xu Weiyi has the story.

Reporter: Many foreign delegates have been amazed by the rapid improvement in China's tourism facilities.

Geoffrey Lipman, a senior official with the UN World Tourism Organization, is one of them.

"On a personal basis, it's simply incredible for me to compare the tourism serving Olympic infrastructure with the basic military terminal and bicycles that I experienced a short 25 years ago, when I arrived China for the first time. The growth of the country and its tourism is nothing less than fantastic."

The officials discussed pressing issues concerning tourism, such as the balance between tourism development and the environment, culture protection, as well as city emergency response systems.

Shao Qiwei, chairman of China National Tourism Administration, called on tourist cities to make tourism development plans that are environmental-friendly and resource conserving.

"We believe that we need to fully respect the cultural traditions and natural conditions of different countries and regions, respect urban civilization and city quality, and respect the rules and models for the evolution of cities. We must ensure the sustainable development of environmental-friendly and resource conserving city tourism programs."

China is now the world's fourth largest tourist destination, and thus many delegates saw the conference as a good opportunity to build relations with Chinese tourist cities.

Mark Chandler is an official from San Francisco, a popular destination for Chinese tourists in the United States.

"I expect to learn more about China's growing tourism market, because for San Fransisco, it will be our future. As visa restriction has lowered, more Chinese people will come to America and San Fransisco."

As a climax to the forum, participants and guests were treated to the Miss Tourism International gala event in the evening to top off the day.

Miss Peru won the crown of this year's competition and Miss China ranked second place.

Xu Weiyi, CRI news, Zhengzhou, Henan Province.