An advertisement promotes local tourism industry in Ningxiang, central China's Hunan Province on Korea Daily, a South Korean newspaper. [Photo: sina.com.cn]

A picture of an ad has gone viral on China's social network Weibo. A farmer in Ningxiang, central China's Hunan Province, paid Korea Daily, a South Korean newspaper, for a full-page advertisement of his hometown in order to promote local tourism industry.

The ad published on Monday says "Come to China! Besides Zhangjiajie, China also has Ningxiang!"

The farmer named Xiang Xiaguang admitted he ran the ad for his hometown Ningxiang, hoping that by doing this he can help boost the local tourism.

The idea came to Xiang a few months ago when he had a trip to Zhangjiajie, a famous tourist attraction which is not far from his home county. He saw many South Korean tourists there, and started to think why not attract them to Ningxiang.

So Xiang told his son this idea and gave him 230,000 yuan to help run the ad on newspapers in South Korea.