Trudeau, Sophie Gregoire and daughter Ella-Grace at the Great Wall of China
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a break from meetings today to tour the Great Wall of China.
He arrived with his wife, Sophie Gregoire and their daughter Ella-Grace.
Before walking along the wall, Trudeau oversaw a quick ceremony to mark an agreement signed today between Parks Canada and its equivalent in China, the National Development and Reform Commission on the establishment, conservation and management of national parks systems.
Canada's ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, said it will help China improve how it manages its parks, like the Great Wall.
This is Trudeau's third visit to the Wall, and when he was leaving he said, "it's beautiful. It gets more beautiful every time I come."
As Trudeau and his family were leaving, they popped into a gift shop. There, they bought Chinese meditation balls for their oldest son Xavier, and a small stuffed panda for their youngest, Hadrien.
Saint-Jacques said one point of Trudeau's visit is to encourage more Chinese citizens to visit Canada. To that end, the Canadian delegation will announce new measures to make it easier and faster for Chinese citizens to do so.
"We are going to open seven additional visa application centres in China," said Saint-Jacques. "As of this summer, you can fly to Canada from 11 cities in China, and therefore that is why we need more visa application centres," he added.
The ambassador pointed out that the number of Chinese tourists coming to Canada is up by 24 per cent over the first six months of this year.
"Right now, Chinese tourists are the third-largest source of visitors to Canada after the Americans and the British. The Chinese over took the French last year," he said.
