China and South Korea pledged to boost people-to-people exchanges on Thursday, eyeing a target of 10 million people by 2016. To achieve this goal, both sides agreed to promote a visa-free policy.

As each other's largest source of tourists and overseas students, the two countries have maintained frequent people-to-people exchanges in recent decades.

On Thursday, President Xi Jinping laid out a more ambitious future, which observers said would encourage a new wave of public exchanges between the two neighbors.

On the first day of his visit to South Korea, Xi called for exchanges involving the younger generation, saying that China would extend 100 more invitations to South Korea's elite youngsters each year from 2015.

zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn