DENVER - As thousands of Colorado travelers flocked into the Colorado Convention Center for the 2017 Travel and Adventure Show, Joe Sinisi looked on and smiled.

Sinisi started Access China Tours 21 years ago with two Beijing English professors, when China was just beginning the soaring growth that amazes tourists today.

"Access China's growth parallels the sophistication of China's evolution," Sinisi told Xinhua on Saturday. "We have enjoyed the journey with China into the 21st century."

Sinisi, 52, talked to Xinhua from Access China's booth - one of 200 - that filled the packed convention hall and was located next to the China National Tourist office booth.

Today the agency crafts some 200 specialty tours and sends 1,000 tourists to the world's most popular destination each year.

More than 2 million Americans joined 100 million global visitors to China last year, and Chinese tourism officials see those numbers doubling in the next few years to 5 million.

As 2017 began, the China National Tourism Administration launched a large-scale thematic advertising campaign called Beautiful China - 2017 Year of Silk Road Tourism.

The campaign was unveiled simultaneously in more than 20 countries, including the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

"We are hopeful the amazing destinations along the historic Silk Road will continue to draw record numbers of Americans," Ning Wu, director of the China National Tourist office in Los Angeles, told Xinhua.

Wu was in Washington last November for closing ceremonies for the China-USA Tourism Year, a high-level event that brought Vice-Premier Wang Yang.

The historic Silk Road winds through western China, dips into southeast Asia, and continues north another 2,000 miles up the east coast past the biggest cities in China today, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Qingdao and Dalian.

The history of the European trade route dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and became famous during the Yuan Dynasty when it was used by the Italian explorer Marco Polo.

China Highlight online Director Victor Shu predicted the next decade would see record number of tourists each year, if global economic conditions hold, as people across the planet flock to China.

"I remember a trip in 1997 when China had 'so-called' 5-star hotels where guests couldn't exchange money, where nobody spoke English, and where there wasn't hot water all the time," Sinisi smiled.

"But that's not the case anymore - China has the finest hotels on earth, and the Beijing Ritz Carleton is as good as any in the world, even Paris," Sinisi said.

(China Daily USA?03/20/2017 page1)