2018 is Canada-China Year of Tourism

It was named so in September 2016 by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The year 2018 would reportedly enable the two countries to share deep bonds of friendship and facilitate Canadians to celebrate its unique history.

Although nearly 10,000 km separate, more than 610,000 Chinese tourists visited Canada in 2016 and Government of Canada's goal is to double the number of Chinese tourists coming to Canada by 2021.

The fact that about 5 percent of Canada's population accounting for more than 1.7 million Canadians have Chinese ancestry, Canada is ready to welcome record numbers of Chinese visitors, and Canadian tourism operators are ready to show off all the excitement and adventure that the country has to offer.

Today the most spoken languages in Canada after English and French are Mandarin and Cantonese.

Currently Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States is China.

In recent years Canada opened seven new visa application centres in China to speed up the arrival of Chinese visitors to Canada.