Chinese Exports.(tourists)(Statistical Data Included)

On a good day, the wait at the Lo Wu border crossing between Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen can last up to an hour. During holidays or on weekends, the place resembles a churning ocean, with stranded travelers milling together in queues that stretch to the horizon. Hong Kong officials are hoping the lines will soon grow even longer. Beginning this week, the border will stay open another half hour, until midnight each night. "We're getting complaints," says a senior Hong Kong security official. "The guards are saying they don't even have time to eat their meals."

But they're satisfying a different kind of hunger: for the economic benefits of tourism. That extra half hour--and other measures the government is adopting to attract mainland holidaymakers--is expected to generate 3,000 new jobs and an additional $200 million in receipts next year alone. Across Asia, in fact, where economies have been battered by competition from China and sluggish demand in the West, authorities are increasingly placing their hopes on imports of Chinese visitors. Next year, 10 million Chinese are expected to holiday in Asia, spending an estimated $18 billion. In an industry that has been hit particularly hard by the ongoing war on terrorism--airline- passenger traffic in the region has been down by nearly 50 percent since September 11--they represent a lifeline. "Chinese tourists are the only ones who have cash, and they come in large numbers," says Zhang Hanqin, China-affairs coordinator at the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. "They are now seen by most countries as one great hope for economic recovery."

For years Beijing imposed strict restrictions on travel outside its borders. Into the early 1970s, until the Cultural Revolution ended, China was virtually sealed off from the rest of the world. After Deng Xiaoping opened commercial links to the West in 1979, a few Chinese were allowed to travel abroad--usually high-ranking officials on state visits or wealthy businessmen.

But as levels of affluence have risen--especially in the south, where GDP levels more than doubled between 1993 and 1998--ordinary Chinese can now afford overseas trips, at the moment the country itself is seeking a greater role in the world. Having effectively abandoned its communist identity, Beijing is encouraging its newly affluent citizens to travel abroad, blazing a trail for ever-growing trade links. This year, as part of China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the government lifted several longstanding restrictions: Chinese traveling as members of tour groups can now visit 17 designated countries in Southeast Asia, including Australia and New Zealand.

Asian countries have long seen China's 1.4 billion people as a major potential source of tourist revenues. Now they are expected to pick up the slack from more traditional moneymakers. In the last two months, Japanese tourists have virtually stopped traveling outside their country. European and American arrivals are down by almost half in some places. At the same time, in Hong Kong the number of arrivals from China has risen more than 25 percent. That represents more than chump change: mainland Chinese spend only slightly less per day ($625) than their American counterparts ($680).

Those kinds of numbers have pushed open doors across the region. Many Asian countries are relaxing visa requirements for Chinese. Hong Kong has lifted its daily quota of arrivals to 1,500--and is mulling widespread programs to teach Mandarin to taxi drivers. Several regional airlines are opening new routes to China. Malaysia is sponsoring major promotional events in central and western China, has opened up new tourism offices in ...