The Olympics is likely to help people with visiting China in the long-run, a travel agency group has said.

Having seen huge areas of the country closed off for many years, a new era of openness is hoped to come to China after the Olympics.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) has said that travellers wishing to visit Beijing and the surrounding area, will find increasingly better infrastructure to assist them in moving around the country.

Sean Tipton, a spokesperson at ABTA, said: "The idea of travelling to that country is in people's minds [with the Olympics] and also because there is so much money being spent on infrastructure, a massive amount of money.

"It means that places become a lot more attractive to tourists."

China offers some of the most stunning natural scenery anywhere in the world, with the west of the country towards the border with Tajikistan largely untouched by tourists.

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