Experts imagine Olympic image
Around 100 of the country's top designers joined forces in Beijing over the weekend to discuss the images to be used for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The formal logo of the 29th Olympics is expected to be released by the end of the year or in January following a global logo-designing conference in July, and a 2008 Olympics symbol design competition from July to October, according to Liu Jingmin, vice-mayor and deputy executive president of BOCOG.
Designers and Olympic experts present at the seminar agreed that Beijing should have an Olympic look particular to itself by blending the Olympic spirit with the characteristics of the Chinese capital. The Beijing Olympic logo should be of innovation, artistic value and full of national characteristics, International Olympic Committee member He Zhenliang suggested at the seminar.
back to top
Northeast Palace Eyes World Heritage List
Shenyang Imperial Palace, the only integrated royal architectural complex in China besides the Forbidden City in Beijing, will undergo full-scale renovations in its effort to be listed as a World Heritage Site.
Built in 1625, Shenyang Imperial Palace was the residence of Nurhachi (1559-1626) and Huangtaiji (1592-1643), the founders of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Shenyang was later used as an "accompanying capital" after the Qing Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing in 1644.
Zhi Yunting, director of the palace, said the renovation project, which will run from next month to October, will restore the original flavour of the palace by refurbishing the historic buildings and cleaning up the surrounding environment. About 22.7 million yuan (US$2.7 million) of World Bank loans will be put into the project.
Shenyang has decided to get its Imperial Palace, Zhaoling Tomb (Beiling Park) and Fuling Tomb (Dongling Park) onto the World Heritage Site list kept by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Formal applications will be made to UNESCO before February.
back to top
Hangzhou Hosts Tea Festival
A major Chinese Tea Festival opened recently in Hangzhou, a scenic lakeside city, which is noted for its "West Lake Longjing" tea.
Organized by the city's tourism committee and the government of the West Lake District, the event will put on a series of tea ceremonies, performances and rites in accordance with folk customs and traditions in the area.
Since China was one of the earliest tea producers in the world, tea-drinking has a long tradition in the culture of the Chinese people, experts said.
East China's Zhejiang Province, of which Hangzhou is the capital, is the center of tea production in China. "West Lake Longjing" tea was drunk by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) as his imperial tea.
A tea museum was built on the shores of the West Lake in 1991.
back to top
Beijing Not Worried by Increasing Number of Cars
Beijing is facing the pressure of an escalating number of private cars but the city is confident that transportation will not be a problem at the 2008 Olympic Games, an official of the municipal government said here recently.
Beijing, which now owns over 1.7 million automobiles, is likely to see more cars as cars are to be bought at lower prices after China's admission of the World Trade Organization.
With the GDP per capita over 3,000 US dollars last year, Beijingers are buying several hundred new cars a day. It is expected that automobiles in Beijing are going to increase by over 100,000 annually.
As part of solutions to ease the pressure, Shan revealed that subway and light rails will be the essential means of transportation during the 2008 Summer Olympics. The upcoming construction includes Beijing Urban Light Rail, Bawangfen-Tongzhou Subway Line, Subway Line No.5, Subway Line No.4, Olympic Subway Line and an express railway linking the Beijing Capital International Airport with the city's downtown section.
By 2008, subway lines will be extended by 148.5 kilometers to a total length of 202kms. The future subway is expected to carry 10percent of the daily traffic, according to Shan.
back to top
Beijing Invites Designs for Olympics Facilities
An activity to collect designs for two large sports facilities for the 2008 Olympic Games, to be hosted by the Chinese capital, kicked off April 2, according to a news conference held here recently.
The Olympic Park and Wukesong Sports and Culture Center, now under construction, will not only serve the Olympics but also cater to the long-term development of Beijing.
The Olympic Park, located in northern Beijing, covers a total area of 1,135 hectares and will provide half of the facilities for the 2008 Olympic Games. The park is expected to become a public venue thereafter, providing a complete set of sports, cultural, exhibition and tourism services.
The Wukesong Sports and Culture Center lies in western Beijing and covers an area of 50 hectares. Upon its completion, the center will become a public urban center mainly serving citizens in western Beijing.
Participants can take part in both or either of the two design activities, and bidding documents will be available from April 2, 2002. The winning design for the Olympic Park will be worth 250,000 US dollars, and that for the Wukesong center will be worth 80,000 US dollars.
back to top
Beijing-New Delhi flight takes off
Two of the world's most populous countries are now connected by air for the first time in their history. The landing of a China Eastern Airlines passenger plane from Beijing at India's New Delhi Airport Thursday marked the occasion when direct flights between China and India took off.
China's aviation officials and business representatives became the first customers of the new air route. Another air route linking Shanghai and New Delhi will be launched next week.
Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines was appointed by the Chinese Government to operate the two weekly flights along the routes.
The Beijing and New Delhi flight will be available each Monday. It takes off at 20:00 Beijing time, and arrives at New Delhi at 0:25 local time. The plane returns to Beijing at 10:15 in the morning.
On the Shanghai route, the aircraft leaves for New Delhi at 22:00 and arrives at 2:20 local time each Thursday. It returns to Shanghai at 12:30 on Friday. An Airbus 300 airplane is flying the route.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said the first direct flight between China and India is a major event in bilateral relations. Ye Yigan, president of China Eastern Airlines, agreed with Zhu's prediction, saying his company is quite optimistic about India's market.
back to top
China Saving Ethnic Culture in Preservation Drive
King Gesser, a Tibetan epic about a legendary national hero, has been passed from generation to generation storytellers. Now, however, the tale known as the "king of the world's epic chronicles" can be read in over 70 volumes containing nearly 300 collected hand-written and woodcut versions.
Three million copies of the legend have been published after the Chinese government established a special working group to collate the Gesser chronicles for prosperity. King Gesser is just one of the many projects in the drive to preserve the traditional culture of China's 55 ethnic groups over the past 50 years.
Many ethnic cultural treasures, including documents, dictionaries and ancient books, which were on the verge of being lost have been successfully saved and published. A great number have won state prizes for outstanding ethnic books. China started establishing special organizations to save ethnic culture in the 1950s. To date, over 120,000 ancient ethnic books have been saved and more than 5,000 have been published.
China has over 50 Tibetology research institutes with more than 2,000 researchers and a dozen Tibetology academic periodicals are in publication. The central and Tibet autonomous regional governments have poured nearly 300 million yuan into repairing and protecting Tibet's important relics and sites including the famous Potala Palace.
More traditional cultural treasures of China's ethnic groups are stored in museums. There are over 50 museums featuring ethnic culture in the southwestern Guizhou Province, inhabited by a dozen ethnic groups.
back to top
China Rises as Switzerland's 2nd Largest Tourist Source in Asia
China has become Switzerland's second largest source of tourists in Asia after Japan, as tourists from the Chinese mainland alone surged 15 percent in 2001 to hit nearly 100,000, a senior Swiss tourism official said.
Michel Ferla, deputy head of the Swiss federal bureau of tourism, said his country was doing every thing to explore the Chinese market, including expanding his bureau's Beijing office set up in 1998 and enhancing exchanges with the Chinese tourism industry and tourists.
The Swiss Alps, its unique and colorful small cities and its clock and watch-making reputation were expected to draw more and more Chinese business travelers and tourists to Switzerland in the years ahead, the official said at the 2002 Swiss tourism exchange fair attended by Swiss travel agents, airline and railway operators. Chinese tourists who find themselves in any European country could very conveniently and easily have access to Switzerland, he said.
back to top
New Air Route Linking Shanghai and Vietnam
A new air route connecting Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and China's largest commercial center Shanghai will open in July this year. The air route, the first between the two cities, will be operated by Shanghai Airlines. There will be two Boeing 737 flights on the route every week.
According to local transportation officials, operation of the route will promote economic exchanges as well as business and tourism between China and Vietnam.
back to top
First Int'l Traditional Chinese Medicine Exhibition to Be Held
The first international exhibition on the science and technology of traditional Chinese medicine will be held in November in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan Province, southwest China.
Business people from more than 30 countries in Europe, America, southeast Asia and Africa have applied to take part, according to organizers. Exhibits showing the growth and processing of medicinal herbs, Chinese medicinal crops, machinery for processing traditional drugs and health products will be included in the exhibition.
China developed its traditional medical science as early as the 5th century BC. Traditional Chinese medicine has its own system, consisting of basic theories, diagnostic methods, and specific treatment based on different signs and symptoms.
The rapid development of traditional Chinese medicine has brought greater international recognition and it now plays an important role in the global medical market. A growing number of foreigners come to China to study traditional Chinese medicine.
back to top
More Overseas Tourists Visit China in First Two Months
China's tourism market witnessed a steady growth this year with more than 14 million overseas travelers visiting China in the first two months, a rise of 9.23 percent over the same period last year.
Figures released Tuesday by the China National Tourism Administration show China earned 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in foreign exchange from the tourism sector during the period, up 11.84 percent on an annual basis.
The number of tourists from some Asian and European countries made double-digit growth during the first two months, despite a dip by those from Thailand, Indonesia and France. Among the growth countries, the number of tourists from Korea jumped by 45 percent, Mongolia by 29.58 percent, Russia by 24.78 percent and the Philippines by 21.36 percent.
back to top
Beijing plans large repair project for Forbidden City
Beijing's world-famous Palace Museum will soon get its biggest facelift in nearly a century ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. A monumental repair project, estimated to be the largest in over 90 years, is aimed to restore the grandeur and magnificence of the Palace Museum.
The Palace Museum was founded in 1420 and many of its timeworn buildings are in great need of renovation due to natural erosion and destructive human activities, said Jin Hongkui of the State Bureau of Cultural Relics.
The Palace Museum has a collection of millions of treasures in the imperial palaces of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, but only a small part of the huge collection has been displayed, due to the limited space in the current exhibition halls.
The construction of new exhibition halls would solve problems such as the lack of space and poor exhibition and storage conditions.
back to top
County in Yunnan Becomes a "Shangri-La"
Shangri-la is no more just a distant imaginary haven. The paradise has been brought to earth, as Zhongdian County in western Yunnan Province has renamed itself "Shangri-la".
With its snow-capped mountains, dense forests, turquoise-green lakes and charming Tibetan atmosphere, the region has long been considered the perfect match for James Hilton's Shangri-la in his novel "Lost Horizon," which was first published in 1933.
With the theme of folk arts of the province, the festival will promote dozens of cultural, sports and tourist events to visitors from home and abroad, including a local food festival, a gala night of Yi ethnic people in Stone Forests near Kunming (the capital of Yunnan), a flower festival in Danan, a trade fair of tour products, and international golf and tennis competitions.
back to top
Shaanxi Hosts Farmer Painting Exhibition
An exhibition of paintings by farmers opened Sunday in Huxian County in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. A large number of paintings by artists from 13 countries and regions as well as Chinese farmers from 47 counties nationwide, which are well-known for rural art, are on display during the three-day exhibition.
Huxian County is 38 kilometers southwest of Xi'an. Its population of 500,000 contains at least 2,000 farmer painters. Depicting the landscape and the farmers' new way of life, 2,000colorful exhibits of farmers in the county have been collected by museums and art galleries at home and abroad.
Exhibitions of the paintings have been held in France, the United States and Singapore in recent years, and have received an enthusiastic response from viewers.
back to top
Lugu Lake to Be Considered for World Heritage Listing
China's renowned Lugu Lake is to be considered for world heritage status for its cultural and natural aspects by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Lugu Lake is located in the Yi Autonomous County of Ninglang between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in southwest China. It is famous around the world for its beautiful scenery and the maintenance of the unique matriarchal system observed by the indigenous Mosuo people.
Mosuo means "yak herders" in Chinese and the people are a branch of the Naxi ethnic minority. They preserve the "marriage-by-visit" tradition, where married couples live in separate homes with the husband only visiting his wife in her family home at night. The system is closely related to their unique matriarchal family system.
Under the Mosuo courting system, when a man and a woman meet each other and fall in love, the man will ask a matchmaker to send tea, candy and garments to his sweetheart's home. In return, the young woman's mother will give the man linen trousers that her daughter has made herself, and send the man's gift of candies to her neighbors. After that, the man and the woman will begin their "marriage-by-visit" life. If one of the couple finds that something between them has changed and suggests stopping their contact, they will stop their "marriage-by-visit" life and resume their search for new partners.Chinese experts described the phenomenon as a well-preserved anachronism in international marital history.
back to top
Xi'an-Bangkok Route to Be Launched
A regular air route between Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province and Bangkok will be launched by the end of this month.
Following Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming and Chengdu, Xi'an will become the sixth Chinese city that has direct flights to Bangkok.
Xi'an is a world-famous ancient city with many tourist attractions, many relating to Buddhism, the prevalent religion in Thailand.
The new air route is expected to greatly improve economic cooperation and cultural exchanges between the two countries.
back to top
World Expo Site Design Portrays Shanghai's Future
The miniature currently exhibited in the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center vividly demonstrates the design plan for the site construction for World Expo 2010, for which Shanghai is vigorously bidding.
Shanghai will put the World Expo site in the old area of the city, with "A Better City, A Better Life" as the theme for her bid,which completely meets the IEB's demands and wishes, said Wang Junyi.
If Shanghai wins the bid, the World Expo will greatly propel its structural readjustment, old district reconstruction and ecological improvement in the riverbank areas. The site is expected to be a new landmark symbolizing the city's image, said Tang.
Shanghai has spent 700 years developing from an obscure fishing village into the current charming metropolis. She is now yearning for the opportunity of holding the World Expo 2010, which will make her more beautiful and prosperous, Tang said.
back to top
| 
