Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang is set to make a three-day visit to South Korea, where promoting tourism and commercial ties between the two nations will be high on the agenda, China's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

Wang will arrive in Seoul on Thursday and launch the "Year of Visit to China," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters during a regular press briefing.

Wang is also scheduled to hold talks with South Korean Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan during the visit.

Fueled by a growing popularity of Korean pop music and TV dramas and a gradual appreciation of the Chinese currency, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea soared 46 percent from a year ago to 6.33 million people last year, the South Korean Embassy in Beijing said last week.

Last year, the number of South Korean visitors to China, excluding Hong Kong and Macau, grew 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 4.1 million people, the embassy said in a statement. (Yonhap)