China has become the largest source of foreign tourist to Mongolia in the first half of 2019, the country's tourism department said Friday.

Chinese tourists accounted for 36.4 percent of total foreign tourist arrivals, holding a monthly leading position since January.

"Mongolia has nowadays relied more on China to drive its tourism businesses," Urjinkhand Byambasuren, a specialist of Ulan Bator's tourism department, told Xinhua.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism said it hopes to attract more Chinese tourists to bolster growth in the mining-dependent economy.

Mongolia has set itself a goal of welcoming 1 million foreign tourists and earning 1 billion U.S. dollars from tourism in 2020.

The Asian country attracted a total of 529,370 foreign tourists in 2018, up some 11 percent from the previous year, according to the ministry.

(Cover: Horses run on the grassland in Orkhon Valley, central Mongolia. /VCG Photo)