China Central Television will begin filming a seven-episode television travel series on Indonesia to be broadcast around the world. "Traveling in Asia — Indonesia" will be shot from various places of interest in Java and Bali.

China's ambassador to Indonesia, Zhang Qiyue, launched the shooting of the program at Jakarta City Hall on Tuesday. The diplomat said that since 2002, Indonesia had become a major destination for Chinese tourists and that 300,000 of his countrymen had visited Indonesia last year.

"I believe this figure will increase immensely in the next few years," Zhang said.

CCTV is employing nine crew members for filming in Bali, Surabaya, Jogjakarta and Jakarta for 10 days to shoot seven 30-minute episodes. Previous episodes of the series have been filmed in Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

Sapta Nirwandar, the directorat general for marketing at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, also attended the event. He said that the series was a joint effort between both countries to promote each other's culture and encourage tourism.

"Tourism can be the starting point to generate cooperation in other areas," Sapta said, adding that there were about 40 million Chinese nationals traveling around the world and he expected that some 500,000 to 550,000 of them would visit Indonesia by the end of this year. Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said that the series would be a great opportunity to promote the capital.

"I hope that more Chinese people will get to know about Jakarta through this program," Fauzi said, adding that the program was also a good way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and China.

He said Jakarta's culture had some Chinese influences and that he appreciated Ambassador Zhang's initiative to make the travel series about Indonesia a reality.

"We expect to have more Chinese tourists arriving and I am sure that many Indonesians will also be going to China," Fauzi said, adding that the program would also strengthen Beijing’s and Jakarta's relationship as sister cities.

"We have cultural ties that go back as far as a hundred years," Fauzi said.