Pingtan, an island county in Fujian province, recently made the list of Favorite Tourist (Marine) Destinations of Young Chinese, Xinhua reported on Jan 20.

The annual list was compiled by China Youth Daily and the China Tourism Association for the eighth year, and involved online voting, expert evaluation and a survey of college students.

Other destinations on the list include: Xisha Islands, Yalong Bay (in Sanya), Beidaihe (Qinghuangdao city), Silver Beach (Beihai city), Yalu River (Dandong city), the Ends of the Earth (Sanya), Yandang Mountain (Wenzhou), Liugong Island (Weihai), and Changli Gold Beach (Qinghuangdao).

In addition, the cities of Xiamen, Beihai, Sanya, Shanghai, Sansha, Hangzhou, Zhoushan, Yantai, Ningbo and Dandong were named "ideal tourist cities" of China.

Tourism is a great way to cultivate one's maritime sense and adapts to China's ocean strategy, said Zhang Linyun, deputy dean of Tourism College of the Beijing Union University.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman