A screengrab of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Official Weibo Account.
Days before his visit to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has debuted on the country's popular
social media platform Weibo.
"Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo," PM Modi posted a message in Mandarin on the platform often described as China's twitter.
The prime minister is the first Indian leader to join Weibo, which has accounts of politicians like British Prime Minister David Cameron.
PM Modi, who is among the world's most followed politicians on social media, registered over 7,000 hits in the first hour after setting up his Weibo account.
There were many reactions from bloggers. One post praised PM Modi as "handsome" and another said, "One more international personality joined Weibo."
Mr Modi will visit China from May 14 to 16, for the first time as prime minister, and is expected to travel to President Xi Jinping's village.
He is known for his social media outreach to countries he visits.
International services like Google, Facebook and Twitter aren't available in China, and local services that have similar features have become immensely popular with the people of China.
Sina Weibo has over 500 million users.