The 1st Sichuan International Travel Expo opened at Emei Mountain on Friday.

　　The 1st Sichuan International Travel Expo opened at Emei Mountain on Sept. 26. The expo serves as a platform to speed up cooperation between the tourism and service industries in China and other countries, in addition to exhibiting the advantages and achievements of Sichuan's tourism industry.

　　The Expo's four exhibition halls – International Hall, Domestic Hall, Sichuan Hall and Leshan Hall – have a total area of 16,000 square meters. The international hall attracted precious exhibitions from 21 countries including the United States, British, Spain, France and Germany.

　　The Sichuan Hall was organized around seven themed travel packages, including smart travel, pandas, World Heritage sites and the charm of Tibet, Qiang and Yi ethnic cultures.

　　In addition, it features 12,000 square meters of exhibit space and sales floor for travel products, attracting over 100 merchants from countries such as Thailand, Australia, Indonesia and Laos as well as Chinese provinces like Beijing, Fujian, Zhejiang, Yunnan and Shandong.

　　The expo will run through Sept. 29. It is expected that it will attract about 400,000 people and that the total value of tourism, investment and cooperation contracts that result from the event will reach 130 billion yuan (US$21.2 billion).