Hebei Promotes Spring Outing Tours

Zunhua City in Hebei Province has provided tour programs centered around the tour route of the East Qing Tombs in the east of Beijing. Participants to the tour will be satisfied with the special luting in the spring.

Zunhua, located at the foot of the Great Wall, boasts both natural and man-made sightseeing sits. When the Qing Emperor Shunzhi(1644-1662) was in power, he chose Zunhua as the resting places of emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). That is why the mausoleums of emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, Dowager Cixi, Express Xiaozhuang Wen and the Concubine Xiang were located here. The East Qing Tombs are noted for their largest size and well-kept imperial tombs in China.

The ancient cultural tour program of holding sacrificial rites promoted by Zunhua City presents visitors the splendid scene how Emperor Kangxi(1662-1723)took all his princes and high officials in worshipping Emperor Shunzhi. The Imperial Grand Opening Ceremony of Welcoming guests depicts the grand scene of Emperor Kangxi in offering sacrifices to its ancestors after the Qing court took over Taiwan in the 22nd year of his reign. Others include scenic tour to Jiufeng Mountains, holiday-making and hunting tour, and folklore tour of the Great Wall. Over the past five years, Zunhua City has put 210 million yuan of investment in building new scenic spots, renovation the olds, and in improving the infrastructure facilities of water and power supply, and telecommunications.

Subtropical Rain Forests Open to Tourists

Letu Subtropical Rain Forests Tourism Area in Nanjing, Fujian Province is the smallest ecological forest natural reserve in China. The first phase of construction in the area has finished, ready for receiving visitors.

Nanjing County is right located at the triangle area of southern Fujian, only 110 kilometers away from Xiamen, provincial capital of Fujian. The county is not only famous for man-made landscape and its unique natural scenery, but also for 1,300 ancient adobe buildings in various shapes and sizes. The most ancient one is Yong'an Building.

Letu Subtropical Rain Forests Tourism Area covers mere 0.22 square kilometers, becoming the only primitive plant community along China's southeast coast. The area has more than 1,100 varieties of plants, a dozen kinds of rare plants and over 80 species of animals in addition to well-dept vegetation and tall and ancient trees in the forests.

According to Dai Kunjiang, the head of Nanjing County, Nanjing will be developed into a tourist resort which combines sightseeing with pilgrimage and holiday vacation. And hopefully, it will become the extended golden tour in Xiamen.

Mild Seven Outdoor Quest Returns to Dali

The Mild Seven outdoor quest, Asia's premier adventure race, returns to Dali, Yunnan Province, from July 29 to August 1.

Twenty-four teams will compete in this year's event, billed by race organizers as longer and tougher than last year's race. "Dali is the ideal location for the MSOQ," says Don Baker, race course designer, "This beautiful town has the infrastructure, mountains, altitude, climate, and the support of the people--all things that made the 1988 MSOQ the one competition the world's top endurance athletes flocked to --but this year's event will push competitors even further."

The 1999 Mild Seven Outdoor Quest is a four-day team competition. Four-person teams,each having at least one woman, compete in such events as mountain biking, off-road in -line skating, trail running, kayaking, lake paddling and adventure skills. The teams race together at all times. Unlike traditional adventure races that run non-stop, the ground-breaking MSOQ follows the same format as the Tour de France. Teams compete on different courses and in different events each day, the one with the lowest elapsed time after four days of competition is declared the winner.

Confucius's Analects Printed on Silk

The Lun Yu, a collection of major doctrines and sayings of Confucius(551-479BC), the prominent educator and philosopher of ancient China, has been printed on sild with English and Japanese translations.

The 2,550 copies of the special silk edition of the Lun Yu were published to mark the 2,550th anniversary of Confucius's birth.

Confucius did not write any books himself; the Lun Yu is comprised of notes taken by his disciples when the master was giving lectures, and his students' discussions of his instructions after his death.

Remains of Ancient Capital Discovered

A team of archaeologists have discovered the remains of old Kaifeng, an ancient Chinese capital, which was flooded by the Yellow river some 300 years ago. The team has found outlines of something they believe to be a building buried five meters underground. It has also uncovered bricks and tiles, and pieces of pottery dating back to the Ming Dynasty (14th-16th century).

In addition, the archaeologists have discovered traces of another building in use during the Song Dynasty (10th-13th century), when Kaifeng was the capital of China.

These are important discoveries concerning the ancient capital, following the excavation of a city gate in 1996, the archaeologists said. Kaifeng, in central China's Henan Province, is listed as one of the six ancient Chinese capitals. The city was rebuilt several times because of Yellow River flooding.

Tibet Strengthens Protection of Cultural Relics

Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has launched a drive to further protect its historical relics against smugglers and thieves.

Over the past four months, local police have cracked 17 criminal cases involving cultural relics, seizing 25criminals and recovering more than 400 rare relics.

Concurrently, the cultural relics department has created files for historical articles in 500 temples in Tibet.

In addition, the region is providing abundant security devices including alarm systems and fireproofing devices in some major temples.