The mobile phone contest is motivating British travelers to see a side of the country that many may not have experienced before

The Geely Cup 2015 Amazing China Mobile Phone Photo Contest has been successful not only in showing Britons a side of China that they may not have known, but also is expected to motivate them to visit the country, says Wendy Wu, the owner of Wendy Wu Tours. The leading China and Southeast Asia specialist travel agency joined China Daily to help sponsor the event.

The contest motivated people from all over the world to use their smartphone cameras to share their experiences and images of China.

"The photo contest no doubt has improved British people's understanding of Chinese people and Chinese culture, and it definitely can attract more British people to travel around China to experience more," Wu says.

The gold and silver award-winning photos in different categories have been exhibited in China and the UK, with the winning photographers invited to the UK to attend the award ceremony. Gold award winners are given the right to use a Geely Borui, new flagship model of the auto company, for a year. The silver award is a 10-day tour package to China for two, provided by Wendy Wu Tours.

Some of London's famous black cabs were given a makeover for Chinese President Xi Jinping's UK visit, with 100 pictures from the contest displayed on 50 London taxis.

In terms of her interpretation of "Amazing China", Wu says one thing that amazes her the most would be the speed of development.

"We have some British tourists who travel many times with us, and they are all astonished by the change that has happened in China in recent years. Even the tourists who stay in the same hotel on different visits, say, in Beijing, often say, 'Oh gosh, the view out my window is so different from the last time I saw it.'"

Wu noticed that many of the shortlisted photos from the photo contest were of beautiful rural villages. "Many of our British clients tell us that they would like to see the natural landscape in addition to the big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, etc. They would also like to visit Guilin and Yangshuo."

According to Wu, 90 percent of her British clients vote Yangshuo as their favorite place after their tours to China. The popular area near Guilin, in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is a place of karst mountains and scenic rivers.

"What Yangshuo offers is more than just its stunning scenery, which the British people are familiar with. Its rich cultural heritage is another highlight that attracts British tourists. Therefore, more and more British tourists discover that the amazing side of China is not only in the Forbidden City, the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Museum of Terra-Cotta Warriors, but it also is in the mountains in Yangshuo and even in the desert in northwestern China."

She adds: "We would like to do a good job in connecting China and the UK as travel experts, and I'm glad that the relations of these two nations are getting closer and better. I believe that the more people communicate with each other, the more they share, the more they like each other. I hope there will be more British tourists choosing China as their travel destination in the future, because China is really amazing."