Jilin's beautiful natural landscape and diverse culture attract millions of visitors from home and abroad.

Cross-border tourism in the Changchun-Jilin-Tumen River area is becoming a new driving force in Jilin province, said local officials.

Last year, the area hosted more than 70 million tourists, 79 percent of the province's total.

It generated nearly 97 billion yuan ($15.84 billion), 82 percent of the province's total.

Figures for this year's tourism have not been released, but the number of tourists in the area is believed to have surpassed 80 million.

Routes from the north Chinese province to Russia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and around the Sea of Japan all feed cross-border tourism in the area.

At the center of Northeast Asia, Jilin has natural and human resources with distinct characteristics and an advantageous location to develop the border tourism. It now has 10 tourist entrepots, one for Sino-Russian tourism and the rest for China-DPRK tourism. The province also has 11 border tourist routes that serve at least 200,000 visitors each year.

Transportation has also become more convenient. Yanji Chaoyangchuan International Airport, the province's second-largest, will add six new international air routes this year including connections to Jeju island in South Korea and Vladivostok in Russia.