In the works are efforts to repair and retouch everything from the Great Wall, originally built to isolate China from the rest of the world, to the Forbidden City, whose imperial rulers once threatened capital punishment for uninvited visitors.

Many of China's historical buildings and relics were targeted for destruction after the Communist Party took power in 1949, as well as during the chaotic, 10-year Cultural Revolution that ended in 1976.

But over the past quarter-century of market reforms and opening to the world, there has been a growing consensus among Mao Zedong's successors that palaces and parks have the potential to attract cash-rich tourists.

'A monumental renovation project to restore the grandeur of Beijing's Forbidden City will soon get under way,' says Jin Kongkui, senior official at the State Bureau of Cultural Relics.

'The project will be the largest restoration undertaken in China over the past 90 years, and is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2008 Olympics.'

Huang Yaocheng, a Shanghai tourism official, says senior Chinese leaders are banking on the Olympic Games to be one of the main engines of economic growth for China.

The Olympics, together with Shanghai's bid to host the 2010 World Expo, if successful, 'could promote China's tourism and overall economy well into the 21st century', he says.

Although China is expected to pour billions of dollars into projects ranging from transforming the Forbidden City to a 'tourist-friendly city' to building a rapid train link to Shanghai's Pudong airport, the investments are seeking big returns. Tourism is seen as a potential Superman of China's economic expansion. Back in 1978, when China began to open its gates to the world, tourism generated about US$263 million (HK$2.05 billion) a year in revenue. By the turn of the millennium, the annual figure had soared to more than US$16 billion.

But China's leaders say hosting the Olympics and bidding for the 2010 World Expo are not aimed only at making profits. Implicit is the need to raze the great walls of China's isolation as the nation integrates into the global system.

In a letter to the International Olympic Committee requesting that the Games be held in China for the first time, Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin said the move would be 'of extremely great significance to promoting and carrying forward the Olympic spirit in China and across the world and to facilitating the cultural exchanges and convergence between East and West'.

China and the United States are headed towards competition on the less dangerous fronts of trade and tourism, despite disagreements on other issues.

He Guangwei, who became China's tourism tsar after acting as a member of the secretariat of the Communist Youth League, wrote: 'As China quickens steps towards internationalisation and gears up the development of tourism facilities, there will be more opportunities of co-operation between China and the US in the field of tourism.'

In one sign of the changing times, the head of the China National Tourism Administration has tapped the Web site of China's embassy in Washington to plug for more US investment in the Chinese tourism industry.

Mr He said that at the end of the 20th century, China ranked fifth among global competitors for tourists and seventh in terms of tourism-generated revenue.

At the commencement of the new century, China had worked out its strategy for tourism development for the next 20 years, setting itself a goal to become the world's leading tourist destination, he said.

Last year Beijing attracted 110 million domestic tourists and 2.86 million overseas visitors, says Wang Zuguang of the Shanghai Tourism Administration Commission. By the time of the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing hopes to be hosting 160 million domestic tourists and 4.6 million overseas tourists, he says.

The Chinese capital has its work cut out for it. First-time visitors to the centre of one of the world's oldest civilisations complain about Beijing's coal dust-saturated skies, traffic-clogged roads and polluted waterways.

But the city has vowed to banish the worst air polluters over the next several years, while rapidly expanding its mass transit system and building a 'green belt' around the capital to protect it from the increasing threat of sandstorms and industrial pollutants.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, more tourists see China as a safe destination.

'Tourists from the US and Western Europe who initially planned to visit Egypt, Israel or other Middle East destinations are coming to China in bigger numbers because they think the country is immune to international terrorist groups,' an official says.

Beijing, which had long hidden its pervasive security network behind a veil of secrecy, is now advertising that same network to attract tourists fearing terrorism in the rest of the world.

'Although China has never been threatened with international terrorism, security planning for the Games is designed to cover every contingency,' says the Beijing Olympic bid committee.

According to the committee, China is working with Interpol and its global intelligence-gathering network of nations to minimise security risks to the Games.