Tourists from different countries rank the country's myriad attractions differently, Yang Feiyue finds.

Ardi Pulaj from Albania has visited roughly 30 places across China.

"China offers so many options for traveling, and each of them is unique in what it has to offer," says Pulaj, a freelance journalist now living in Beijing.

"There are so many places that I consider as my favorites in the country, such as Sanya (in Hainan province), Dalian (in Liaoning province), and Shanghai."

He loved the weather and beaches in Sanya, which allowed him to get away from the fast pace of big-city life.

Dalian made his list because he considers the city very nice and clean and a great getaway from the hot weather in cities such as Beijing, while Shanghai is also his cup of tea: "a convenient city with true metropolis structure".

A list of 10 Chinese tourism destinations popular with tourists from outside the mainland was unveiled by the Shanghai-based tourism-consulting service Gold Palm during an industry meeting in Kunming, Yunnan province, earlier this month.

While US tourists frequent Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou, Japanese visitors choose to visit Shanghai and Beijing first, the South Koreans love Zhangjiajie, and Thai tourists have eyes for Fenghuang, according to Gold Palm.

Different tastes among tourists from outside the mainland shape the list.

Those from the US favor places offering leisure, while spots featuring challenging and even grotesque landscapes appeal to tourists from South Korea, says Gold Palm executive director Liu Dan. South Korean tourists choose Zhangjiajie, Huangshan, Fenghuang and Hangzhou because of the magnificent scenery.

"Leisurely lifestyle and distinctive cuisine - and pandas - have made Sichuan very attractive to the American tourists," Liu says.

The Japanese like urban scenic spots, so their footprints can be found almost all across the mainland, while Europeans embrace cultural elements, which takes them to places like Leshan in Sichuan and Xi'an in Shaanxi province for ancient historical heritage, adds Liu.

Approximately 128 million tourists from outside the mainland flocked to such attractions last year, including 26 million foreign tourists. However, the bulk of the visitors were mainly from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Inbound tourism saw 7-percent growth in the first 10 months as compared with the same period last year, says Liu, adding that the number of such tourists is expected to hit 130 million this year, thanks to the increasing number of tourists from Japan and South Korea.

The number of South Korean tourists to the mainland has surged 48 percent year-on-year so far this year.

Beijing alone drew in more than 300,000 visitors from the country in the first nine months. ROK is the top country when it comes to inbound tourist numbers visiting Beijing, followed by Japan, bringing in 190,000 tourists to the municipality. Last year, more than 828,000 Japanese tourists visited Shanghai, accounting for 10 percent of all inbound tourists to the mainland, Liu says.

Cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an, remain the all-time favorites among foreign tourists, says Yu Liangbing, vice-general manager with the Beijing-based China Youth Travel Service Co.

But areas with splendid landscape scenery are luring more visitors thanks to word of mouth and the impact of the movies. He partly attributes the popularity of Zhangjiajie to the film Avatar, which had some scenes shot there, and adds that Yichang is popular due to the Three Gorges Dam spanning the Yangtze River.

The route from the upper reaches of the Yangtze, starting from Chengdu or Chongqing across Jiangxi and Hubei provinces to Shanghai is one of the most popular among inbound tourists.

Silk Road-themed trips featuring Xi'an and going all the way to Dun-huang in Gansu province, or journeys tracking the Grand Canal from Beijing across Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Shanghai are also gaining ground, Yu says.

One of the agency's classic tours is an eight-day trip that includes Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai for about $1,000.

"Some tourists have begun to warm up to places in northwestern China, such as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Inner Mongolia," Yu says.

Yu's company arranged for a total of 40 US tourists to drive themselves from Sichuan to the Tibet autonomous region this summer.

More tourists from the US are expected to visit the mainland as the China-US Year of Tourism is launched next year, he says.

As a veteran traveler in China, Pulaj has tips to share for those touring the mainland. One: Never travel during national holidays, he says, because there are so many people on the move it is impossible to enjoy the beauty of travel destinations.

Pulaj has just seen "gorgeous" photos of landscapes in Tibet, and hopes to visit the place. He also wants to go to Yunnan, where places like Lijiang, Dali and Shangri-la give "the perfect sense of natural beauty".