Hangzhou on Wednesday became the first Chinese city to open a tourism office in Taiwan, with the aim of tapping into fast-growing Taiwan tourist market. Speaking at the opening ceremony in Taipei, Hangzhou City Deputy Mayor Dong Guili said that last year her city attracted over 53 million tourists, 2.3 million of whom were from abroad. A total of 420,000 Taiwanese visited the city in Zhejian province in 2009, which was the largest of number of overseas tourists to Hangzhou, and that figure has been climbing steadily, she said. From January to April this year, more than 150,000 tourists from Taiwan visited Hangzhou, accounting for 20 percent of all overseas visitors, the deputy mayor said. At the same time, Taiwan is also seeing more tourist arrivals from Hangzhou. In the first four months of this year, 90,000 Hangzhou residents visited Taiwan, which represents a 92 percent growth rate compared to the same period last year. At the new Hangzhou tourism office, which was opened in collaboration with Taiwan's Lion Travel, there are displays of Hangzhou's indigenous tea, silk products and old rare books. Visitors can also surf the Internet on computers provided by the office, to obtain information about the Chinese city. Taiwan's Travel Quality Assurance Association said that other Chinese cities in Shangdong and Jiangsu provinces are also expected to set up similar offices in Taiwan in the near future. 