One of the agency's classic tours is an eight-day trip that includes Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai for about $1,000.

"Some tourists have begun to warm up to places in northwestern China, such as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Inner Mongolia," Yu says.

Yu's company arranged for a total of 40 US tourists to drive themselves from Sichuan to the Tibet autonomous region this summer.

More tourists from the US are expected to visit the mainland as the China-US Year of Tourism is launched next year, he says.

As a veteran traveler in China, Pulaj has tips to share for those touring the mainland. One: Never travel during national holidays, he says, because there are so many people on the move it is impossible to enjoy the beauty of travel destinations.

Pulaj has just seen "gorgeous" photos of landscapes in Tibet, and hopes to visit the place. He also wants to go to Yunnan, where places like Lijiang, Dali and Shangri-la give "the perfect sense of natural beauty".

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