BEIJING -- A total of 22 tourist attractions, including Beijing's Old Summer Palace, are expected to be added to the 5A category, the highest level in the rating system, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) on Wednesday.

The selected tourist attractions were recommended by local tourism administrations and evaluated in accordance with standards and regulations by the MCT.

Apart from the Old Summer Palace, or "Yuanmingyuan" in Chinese, tourist attractions in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, east China's Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces were also included in the list.

China has a tourism-rating classification system which rates a tourist attraction from one A to 5A for its overall tourism quality.

China now has over 10,300 tourist attractions rated above A level, receiving more than 6 billion visitors a year.