China International Travel Service (CITS Head Office) was established officially in Beijing on April 15, 1954 with the concern and instruction of Premier Zhou Enlai. In the same year, its branches were established in 12 cities including Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou.

CITS Head Office was established as a reception unit for foreign affairs under State Council. After the reform and opening, it became a real independent-operation enterprise. It is the biggest and strongest international travel service group, with a registered capital of RMB 280 million and 2,300 employees.

As a leading enterprise of introducing customer source for Chinese tourism, CITS Head Office has made contributions for developing the Chinese tourism, cultivating tourism talents, promoting the friendship between peoples of China and countries in the world, earning more non-trade foreign exchange income for the development of the national economy, expanding the internal demands and promoting the development of local tourism. Over the years, CITS Head Office has solicited and received over 10 million man-times of overseas tourists and earned over US$ 3 billion of foreign exchange, sharing over 10% of the international tourist market of over 1300 Chinese international travel agents. With 50 years of efforts, the enterprise has developed to become a large state-owned trunk corporation with the assets of RMB 3 billion and gross profit of RMB 200 million.

With generations of CITS people's hardworking, "CITS" has become a well-known brand at home and abroad. In 1999, it was certified by State Administration of Trademark as the only Chinese famous trademark for Chinese tourism and has been registered in more than 60 countries and regions all over the world. CITS Head Office's contribution and notability has made it the only Chinese corporate member of WTO (World Tourism Organization) and the presidency unit of China Association of Tourism. Meanwhile, it has also successively joined PATA (Pacific Asian Travel Association), IATA (International Air Transport Association), ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) and other international organizations. In 2000, CITS Head Office passed ISO9001 International Quality System Certification.

Since the 1990s, to obtain a long-term and steady development, CITS Head Office has started to invest in other circles and carry out the multi-dimension operation and expand the scale. Successively, it has invested in Bank of Communications, Hainan Airline, Taikang Life Insurance, Jiade International Auction Company and other enterprises with high social notability and big influence to become their respective shareholders. As a sponsor, CITS Head Office controlled the shares of CHINA UNITED TRAVEL Co., Ltd, which is the first listed company under CITS Head Office. CITS Head Office cooperated with World Top 500 Enterprise, American Express in establishing the joint venture CITS American Express Travel Services Ltd. and CITS American Express Air Services Ltd., of which it is controlling the shares. Additionally, CITS Head Office has also invested on over 20 domestic sole-invested and shareholding enterprises. Entering the new century, China International Travel Service has possessed several parts of CITS Head Office, CHINA UNITED TRAVEL,CITS Industry, CITS Property and CITS American Express, with the total assets of over 2.3 billion Yuan and primarily formed the corporation framework with mutual supports.

Over the years, CITS Head Office has shown fine operation performances. Since the year when China National Tourism Administration started to rate the tourism enterprises, in terms of main business indices, CITS Head Office has always taken the first place and has continued to hold the first position of "China Top 100 Travel Agents" and has been awarded with such prizes as "Best Enterprise Prize", "Prize for Travel Agent Earning Highest Foreign Exchange", "Prize for Travel Agents with Most Foreign Tourists", etc. In 1994, CITS Head Office was included as one of the State Council 100 Modern Enterprises System. In 1998, it was included as one of the 520 National Key Enterprises. In 2001 and 2002, it was included twice by National Bureau of Statistics of China in China Top 500 Enterprise (ranking respectively 219th and 243rd and the 1st for tourism) and was elevated by Ministry of Finance as the central-government enterprise for fine state-owned assets and value-keeping.

With its high-quality service and scaled management, 14 offshore branches and over 1,400 steady customers in America, Europe, Japan and Australia and 150 subsidiaries and chain enterprises in China, CITS Head Office has become a large travel service group known at home and abroad.

CITS Head Office became a large enterprise managed by the Central People's Government in 1998, and an enterprise managed by State-owned Asset Supervision and Management Commission of State Council in 2003. By end of 2003, upon approval of State Council and State-owned Asset Supervision and Management Commission, CITS Head Office was restructured with China Duty Free Group. Under the new situation, CITS Head Office will continue with its efforts to create more glory and make more contributions for the Chinese tourism.