On the first day of his visit to China on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was kept busy with a carefully planned schedule but still found time to connect with tens of thousands of followers on China's popular micro blog.

"Hello Xi'an. I received warm hospitality and visited the amazing Terracotta Warriors," he posted as he updated his newly opened Sina Weibo account at around 2:30 pm after landing in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.

The post, with a picture of him standing against the backdrop of the Terracotta Warriors, attracted more than 5,300 "likes" within three hours.

He wrote another four posts in the following five minutes, using Chinese language and pictures of him meeting Buddhist monks, as he expressed his appreciation of Chinese culture and the Chinese people.

"Very happy to see the hospitality of the Chinese people. The cultural and people-to-people exchanges are always very special", one of the four posts said.

Many Chinese weibo users welcomed Modi, the first Indian prime minister to reach out directly to them, some posting in English, "Welcome to China" and "Long live the friendship".

But some suggested ways to improve Sino-Indian relations, including facilitating visa procedures for Chinese tourists to India and increasing trust during border talks.

Modi, a 64-year-old avid social media user, joined Sina Weibo ahead of his first visit to China since taking office last year. He followed in the footsteps of more than 200 leaders of foreign countries and international organizations.

The third-most-followed world leader on Twitter had garnered more than 60,340 followers on Weibo as of Thursday.

His inaugural post "Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo," on May 4 drew 12,590 comments and 19,760 "likes".

Zhou Gang, a former Chinese ambassador to India, said the popularity of Modi's micro blog in China showed the importance Chinese people attach to the relationship and their interest in the leader.

Modi's visit to the ancient city of Xi'an, and his posts about traditional culture would help to encourage people-to-people exchanges between the world's most populous countries, Zhou said.

India-China relations have mostly been driven by government relations and the media, and there has been little direct communication between their people, the Times of India newspaper said on Monday.

During Modi's visit, the two countries are likely to sign an agreement to boost tourist arrivals, The Hindu newspaper reported on Wednesday, adding that Chinese visitors constituted more than 2.1 percent of the total inbound tourist traffic to India in 2013.

zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn