It was impressive that Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi took the time to visit Hawai'i en route to trade talks in Washington. The stop shows that China takes seriously Hawai'i's interest in trade and tourism possibilities between the two entities.

But it will take far more than good will and a memorandum of understanding signed during the vice premier's brief visit here to make those possibilities a reality.

The key is to ease red tape restrictions that make it difficult for Chinese citizens to visit the United States, particularly for pleasure or tourism travel.

The United States requires hard-to-get visas before Chinese citizens can travel to Hawai'i or anywhere in this country.

For its part, China has strict rules on overseas travel for its citizens, although those rules have been eased somewhat for tourist travel to selected nations in Southeast Asia.

When those conditions ease, as they should, the prospect of a more robust travel-and-tourism relationship between Hawai'i and China will become a reality.

In the meantime, the memorandum signed by Gov. Linda Lingle and Shao Qiwei of the China National Tourism Office paints the outlines of a positive and productive relationship.

It envisions professional training opportunities here for Chinese who are entering the tourism field as well as expert advice and consultation from experts here for tourism enterprises in China. Joint China-Hawai'i tourism-related partnerships are also envisioned.

This memorandum formalizes what is today a small but growing relationship between booming China and tiny Hawai'i, which has an international reputation for tourism expertise.