The United Kingdom on Wednesday opened its new flagship visa application center at Beijing Inn in Dongshuijing Hutong, Dongcheng district, Beijing, to provide a better and more comfortable service for the ever increasing number of Chinese residents travelling to the UK.

In the first 9 months of this year, the demand for UK visit visas in China has grown by nearly 50 percent compared to the same time in 2009. With more Chinese opting to travel abroad, the UK is keen to continue to grow as the tourism destination of choice. More students come to the UK from China than from anywhere else in the world. Between January and September this year, nearly 420,000 student visas were issued to Chinese nationals, a 20 percent hike from 2009. Around 85 percent of those visas were issued to students going to universities, underscoring the very high caliber of Chinese students.

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