ChinaDaily[970830-8]

[Chinese News]

China Daily

97 / 08 / 30 /

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1. Bamboo park provides serenity in sea of life
2. Travel Notes (Page 5, Date: 08/30/97)
3. What's on (Page 6, Date: 08/30/97)
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Bamboo park provides serenity in sea of life

"BAMBOO Sea," as it's called by locals, may be the best name for the
National Park of Bamboo in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. What it
has, however, is much more than the name tells.

The scene at the entrance is a palpable allure for many people to the
depth of the green world.

The passage, as enticing as its name, Jade Corridor, is a
10-kilometre-long straight "avenue" covered with red gravel and
flanked by tall bamboo groves. The verdant bamboo and red path, though
a stark contrast, make an agreeable picture, pleasing both the eye and
the mind.

When the sunlight floods through the dense bamboo leaves in morning
mist, a lot of small colourful spots can be seen on the red path. This
scene, joined by nearby farmers' cottages and numerous bamboo-covered
hills, recalls a fairy land emerging from the misty sea.

Located in Changning and Jian'an counties in south Sichuan, the
National Park of Bamboo, one of the top 40 tourist attractions in
China, covers 120 square kilometres. People also call it the bamboo
sea of southern Sichuan. Its central area consists of more than 500
bamboo-covered hills with numerous streams in between.

The bamboo forest has more than 30 species of bamboo. It has an annual
average temperature of 15.8 degrees Centigrade with altitudes from 400
to 1,000 metres.

Entering the bamboo sea, I felt cool and quiet as the entrance avenue
divides into several paths, each seeming to lead to an unexpected
mystery. Strangely, the quietness was intensified by streams
murmuring, birds singing and summer insects chirping. As I fetched
some water to drink from a stream, it tasted like mineral water, and I
felt refreshed.

Soon we arrived in the Sorrow-Free Valley, a major scene of the bamboo
sea.

A bubbling stream winds through boulders beside the path leading to
the deep, secluded gulch. At its end, a silver waterfalls cascades
from a 100-metre-high rock. The water sprinkles from such a soaring
rock that it looks like it's flying from the azure sky. The stream
water becomes vapour before it reaches the bottom of the gully.

It is believed if some water splashes on a person, he will be free
from sorrow from then on. Standing on a jumbo rock near the waterfall,
I closed my eyes and opened my arms to the sky. At that moment,
tranquility and peace filled with my heart.

"Which place is free from the vanity of the world?

"Nowhere better than the Sorrow-Free Valley."

Reading the verses by an anonymous ancient poet carved on a rock
nearby, I felt I was so close to nature that I was part of the
scenery.

With bamboo leaves high above our heads, streams running beside the
path and the breeze combing gently through bamboo leaves, we came to
the Ink Stream, a wide, calm stream with a deep green colour.

Eight bamboo bridges cross over the 8-kilometre-long stream. Irises
bloom on its banks. A few local people paddled their bamboo rafts
downstream, as they transported bamboo out of the forest for sale.

A legend explains the name of Ink Stream. It says Huang Shangwu, a
poet of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), had made the water a
deep colour. Once when he visited the stream, the legend goes, the
beauty of the stream galvanized Huang into writing down "The beauty of
the stream makes me intoxicated" on a nearby red rock with a writing
brush. He then casually threw the brush away and it fell into the
stream. The stream water thus turned as deep as ink.

In fact, the deep green colour of the water is caused by the mosses at
the bottom of the stream.

The bamboo sea has a long history, according to local county annals.
As early as 700, the area of the bamboo forest had become a prefecture
of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). In 1372, the prefecture was turned
into a county and the name of Changning has been used ever since.

The bamboo sea has numerous historical sites such as the tomb of the
Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220), salt wells for producing salt of the
Tang Dynasty, the Fairies' Cave (Temple) of the Song Dynasty
(960-1279), the Dragon's Roaring Temple of the Yuan Dynasty
(1271-1368), the rock carvings of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the
Confucian Palace of the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

At one end of the Bamboo Sea, a temple called Fairies Cave lies on the
top of a steep cliff. It is noted because it is a combination of two
temples, one Taoist and the other Buddhist. The Taoist temple is at
the south gate, while its east gate leads to the Buddhist temple. It
is an important icon of different religions co-existing in the same
place at the same time, and in peace and harmony.

In both temples, the red stone Buddhist statues are life-like and
vivid.

The temple has a bridge linking the Tianbao (Treasures of Heaven)
Stockade Village with well-preserved 18 stone gates as its 18 lines of
defence. The debris of the stockade seemingly tells visitors a legend
of a prosperous nation and its splendid culture.

Not far from the cave are the Dragon's Roaring (Longyin) rock carvings
on the top of the Jiulong (Nine Dragons) Mountain. There are more
Buddha and arhat statues on its cliffs.

For tourists, the bamboo is part of the scenery. For local people,
they are a ready source of money.

Bamboos grow fast. It takes three months for a bamboo to grow up from
a shoot. The total output of Nanzhu alone, the major species of bamboo
local people use, reaches 800 tons annually.

People use the bamboos to make almost everything they need in daily
necessities, house decorations and farming, such as paper, chopsticks,
baskets, mats, chairs, tables, curtains and plates.

As the bamboo sea attracts more tourists, local people have created
plenty of handicrafts with bamboo roots, which they used to cast off,
as souvenirs for tourists. The root carvings are must-buy souvenirs
for many tourists. Artists of bamboo carvings can be found in every
farm family in the bamboo sea.

With help from sculptors of Sichuan Fine Arts University, farmers now
create works of a wider range of subjects and with better
craftsmanship, such as bearded old men, young women and flying eagles.

You can also visit the Bamboo Museum, a building of bamboo where all
species of bamboo, and all kinds of bamboo handicrafts are on display.

Gourmets can have dinner at the Bamboo Sea Hotel, which serves many
delicacies such as fresh bamboo shoots, and even bamboo parasitic
fungus, one of the most popular delicacies in the bamboo forest.

If you have more time, you can stay at the Bamboo Sea Hotel for a few
days. People there are hospitable. It is a rare luxury to walk on the
quiet bamboo-covered paths, breathing the fresh air in the forest,
listening to streams bubbling and birds chirping.

Su Dongpo, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, said, "I would rather eat
without meat than live without bamboos."

Now I have a better understanding of the verses, though I could recite
them when I was a young boy.

It is easy to visit the Bamboo Sea, which is 380 kilometres from
Chengdu, 320 kilometres from Chongqing and 400 kilometres from
Guiyang.

Changning is 55 kilometres from Yibin Airport, which links to Beijing,
Shanghai and other major cities.
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_Date: 08/30/97_
_Author: Li Lin_

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Travel Notes (Page 5, Date: 08/30/97)

Bamboo festival

HANGZHOU -- The 1997 Chinese Bamboo Culture Festival is scheduled for
September 8-10 in Anji County, one of the country's major bamboo
producers in East China's Zhejiang Province.

The event, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Forestry and the
provincial government, is aimed at spreading information about the
history and use of bamboo and help the county develop the industry.

Activities during the festival include a seminar on the use of bamboo,
an exhibition of paintings and calligraphy featuring bamboo, a
photography show and trade fairs.

Anji County, known as the "hometown of bamboo" in China, led 10 of the
country's leading bamboo producers in making 1.2 billion yuan ($144
million) in output value in bamboo-processing last year.

Shaolin Temple

ZHENGZHOU -- Tourists who visit China's famous Shaolin Temple may be
surprised to find that Dengfeng, where it's located, is a clean,
beautiful city.

This was not the case just a few years ago, when the city gave people
the impression of being dirty and dishevelled.

Dengfeng remained a poor mountain city in Henan Province until the
Shaolin Temple became known to the world in a film made in the early
1980s.

Thousands of tourists visit the temple and the Shaolin style of
martial arts every year. They bring a tremendous amount of money to
the backward city and raise questions for the local government about
how to turn the city into a modern tourist centre that meets tourist
needs.

The government has built new tourist attractions, but has decided to
beautify the city as well. It has spent 200 million yuan ($24 million)
on 10 key clean-up, road improvement, lighting and pollution control
projects.

So far, 19 major roads have been built, 850 roads asphalted, more than
300 flower beds built along streets, more than 40,000 trees planted
and 150,000 square metres of lawn planted. Two garden-parks have been
added.

To reduce pollution, the city has also built a sewage treatment plant
with a daily capacity of 5,000 tons, 10 garbage disposal stations and
a non-toxic garbage treatment plant.

The city also opened six scenic areas and is offering several tourist
routes that feature martial arts, religion, geology, archaeology,
astronomy and mountain climbing.

Huangshan

HEFEI -- More than 2 million tourists visited the Huangshan Mountain,
a well-known scenic spot in East China's Anhui Province, in the first
seven months of this year.

This was nearly 68 per cent more than the same period in 1996.

The 114,400 overseas tourists represented a substantial rise of 132
per cent.

Earnings from domestic tourism hit 261 million yuan ($31 million), up
46.6 per cent, and those from overseas tourists shot up 77 per cent to
$21 million.

Huangshan Mountain is best known for peaks shrouded by clouds, unusual
rock formations and unique pine trees. The scenic spot, considered one
of the most picturesque mountains in China, is on the World Natural
and Cultural Heritages Lists of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Local tourism authorities attributed the surge in visitors to the
opening of air routes linking the mountains with other major tourism
cities throughout the country and the recent introduction of direct
train services to the big cities of Shanghai and Nanjing.

Last year's successful listing of Huangshan Tourism Development Co Ltd
on the domestic stock market helped to improve Huangshan's reputation
and has been a major factor contributing to growth in the area's
tourism industry.

Snake exhibition

FUZHOU -- In the mountain area in northern Fujian Province, the new
Snake Culture City is catching the interest of tourists, researchers
and people who buy and sell the reptile.

Located in Shaowu, the snake exhibition hall houses more than 1,000
live snakes of more than 40 species, and more than 100 varieties of
stuffed snakes.

Coastal Fujian in East China is famous for its snakes. Another name
for Fujian, "min," means "breeding snake." Local people worshipped
snakes in ancient times. Some types of snake are served as delicacies
in Chinese dishes.

Yet to be built at the snake showplace are restaurants and a factory
that manufactures tonic made from snake parts.

Desert tour

YINCHUAN -- Zhongwei County in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of
Northwest China plans to set up a Shapotou Tourist Zone in a desert
area and along the Yellow River.

The zone is expected to cover 140,000 square kilometres and give
tourists an opportunity to hear the unique "sand-sound" of the
deserts, and a chance to try their hand at camel-riding,
desert-cruising and river-rafting. The project will cost more than 40
million yuan ($4.8 million) and is scheduled to take shape by 2000.

Shapotou became the country's first national nature reserve with a
desert ecology in 1984, and was one of 500 places in the world praised
by the United Nations for progress in environmental protection.

New complexes

THE Summer Palace, dating to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), recently
reopened two complexes.

Gaichunyuan and Weixianzhai, which occupy 500 square metres on Mount
Wanshou, were destroyed by Anglo-French forces during the 1860
invasion of Beijing.

Gaichunyuan, or All Spring Garden, was built during the reign of
Emperor Qianlong who ruled during the most glorious period of China's
last feudal dynasty. The original facility housed thousands of
invaluable antiques, ancient books and records, and statues of Buddha.

Written descriptions, pictures, sand models and relics on display
provide an overall view of the two complexes during their prime.
Relics on display include charred tiles, fragments of Buddhist
sculptures and carved stones.

Scenic garden

KUNMING -- Southwest China's Yunnan Province has built a large tourist
resort to promote tourism.

The resort, called South Asian Scenic Garden, covering an area of 5
hectares and involving an investment of 150 million yuan ($18.75
million), has hotels, bowling centres and tennis courts.

Buildings in the styles of China's Dai ethnic group and Southeast
Asian countries can be found in the resort, the biggest in the
province.

Yunnan has some well-known scenic spots such as Xishuangbanna. Some 20
million tourists at home and abroad visit the province every year. The
figure ranks fifth in the country.

Ethnic folklore

YINCHUAN -- A gala festival is currently being held around the
picturesque Shahu Lake to display the colourful folklore of the Hui
ethnic group of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Ningxia, located in Northwest China, is the only autonomous region of
ethnic Hui people, known as Chinese Muslims.

Tourists attending the summer event, which runs through August, will
have the opportunity to enjoy traditional Hui songs and dances, see a
wedding ceremony, a performance of the martial arts, dragon boat races
and other sports competitions popular among the Hui.

Other highlights for visitors include camel rides, parachuting,
boating and sliding down a sandy hill on the lake bank.

The lake area is an hour's bus ride from Yinchuan, the capital city of
the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua)
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_Date: 08/30/97_
_Author: _

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What's on (Page 6, Date: 08/30/97)

EXHIBITIONS

Abstract Oils -- The Abstract Oil Paintings Show of Taiwanese Artist
Xie Hongda is running at Kaijie Art Gallery.

Xie's paintings feature remarkable contrasts between curves and
straight lines. As he himself explains "they are just like pervasive
contradictions in our daily life which are two aspects of a harmonious
unity."

Xie also utilizes lucid and lively colours in his works, which gives
the viewers a visual impact with an elegant flavour.

Time: 9am-4pm, through September 15.

Place: Kaijie Art Gallery, 18 Beichen Donglu, Chaoyang District,
Beijing.

Tel: 6494-0517.

Heavy colour paintings -- A Modern Heavy Colour Paintings Exhibition
of Xu Yun and Ju Hongshen will be held from September 6-16 at Sybil
Gallery.

Time: 10am-6pm, September 6-16.

Place: Sybil Gallery, Zhongwei Keyi Building, 34A, Dongsanhuan Beilu,
Chaoyang District, Beijing. Tel: 6501-3874.

BESETO art festival -- The BESETO (Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo) Arts Festival
will be held on September 23-28 at the China National Art Museum.

The exhibition will display 60-plus paintings done by veteran, young
and middle-aged Chinese artists. Also on display are 120-plus
paintings done by more than 60 excellent painters from Japan and the
Republic of Korea. The paintings embody the common flavour of the
Oriental paintings and at the same time show each country's unique
style.

In order to promote the cultural and art exchange among China, Japan
and the Republic of Korea, the BESETO Fine Arts Festival was
established in 1994. It was then held in Seoul in September 1995 and
then Tokyo in 1996.

Approved by China's Ministry of Culture, and sponsored by the Oriental
Art Exchange Society and four other departments, the current
exhibition is held to mark the fifth anniversary of the establishment
of diplomatic relations between China and the Republic of Korea, and
the 25th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations
between China and Japan.

During the exhibition, various activities will be organized including
a seminar, a tea party and a prize-giving ceremony. An album will also
be released. All this aims to promote the mutual understanding of
artists from the three countries.

Time: 9 am-4 pm, September 23-28.

Place: China National Art Museum, 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng District.

Tel: 6401-2252 or 6841-3649

Ornamental stones -- The Six-Men Weird Stones from Southern China
Exhibition are on display at Tanghuawu (Tang Flower House) in
Zhongshan Park until September 10.

In recent years, people have named these grotesque-shaped stones
Strange Stones, Weird Stones, Beautiful Stones, Precious Stones and
Appreciated Stones. The stones are naturally formed from mineral
crystals. Because of the geology and their natural distribution, these
rocks cannot be duplicated.

The exhibition shows various kinds of stones including modelling
stones, veined stones, mineral stones and fossils.

There are about 2,000 stones in 30 categories shown in the exhibition.
Chrysanthemum stones, Taihu stones and pineapple-shaped stones are
among those that delight visitors.

Time: 9 am-4 pm, through September 10.

Place: Tanghuawu, inside Zhongshan Park.

Tel: 6605-4252.

CONCERTS

Piano solo -- International piano contest winner Chi Yalin will give a
personal concert, conducted by Gao Weichun and accompanied by the
orchestra of the Central Opera and Ballet Troupe.

The pieces will include Prelude No 18-24, "Moon Reflected in Springs,"
Sonata and piano concertos.

Time: 7:30 pm, August 30. Place: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie.

Telephone: 6605-5812.

Movie music -- The China Opera and Dance Troupe Chorus will sing
well-known movie songs, both Chinese and foreign, accompanied by the
orchestra of the troupe.

The songs are adapted from the following movies: "Besieged Fortress,"
"My Memories of Old Beijing," "Midnight," "The Red Detachment of
Women," "Sparkling Red Star," "Guerrilla of Honghu Lake," "Shaolin
Temple," "Shanglanling Battle," "Dances with Wolves," "Schindler's
List," "The Sound of Music," "Ghost," and "Waterloo Bridge."

The same concert will be performed again on September 3.

Time: 7:30 pm, August 31, September 3

Place: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie.

Tel: 6605-5812

Sheng's concert -- Violinist Sheng Zhongguo and his Japanese wife will
perform pieces of Chopin, including "Serenade," "Brilliant Waltz," "To
Alice," "Boat Song in Venice," and "Old to Holy Mother."

Time: 7:30 pm, September 2

Place: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie, Xicheng District.

Tel: 6605-5812.

Opera concert -- Presented by the National Opera and Ballet of China,
Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro will meet capital audiences.

Fu Haiyan, Song Xuewei, Li Bing, Zhong Mingda and Sun Yali will attend
the performance.

Time: 7:30pm, August 30.

Place: the Art Salon of Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, 48 Wangfujing Dajie.

Tel: 6512-5063 or 6513-3388 ext 1209.

Japan symphony -- The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra will present
two concerts under the baton of director Otaka Tadaaki in Beijing to
mark the 25th anniversary of the normalization of the Sino-Japanese
relationship.

Sponsored by the China Performing Arts Agency, the concert features
Schubert's Rosamunde, Mendelssohn's Violin Concertos, Brahms' symphony
No.1, Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 and Shostakovich's symphony No
5.

The orchestra was founded in April 1962 by three giants of the
Japanese mass media, namely, Yomiuri Shimbun, the newspaper publishing
company with the largest daily circulation in the world, the Nippon
Television Network Corporation, the first private television
broadcasting station in Japan and the Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation
based in Osaka City.

The orchestra's members were selected from all around the world.

Time: 7:30 pm, September 26-27.

Place: Beijing Century Theatre, 40 Liangmaqiaolu, Chaoyang District

Tel: 6405-5512, 6407-3532, 6405-5510.

STAGE

Short short plays -- Beijing's theatre-goers have been entertained
this summer by watching "short short plays."

Following "Green House," a drama trilogy on urban life, "Romance of
All Seasons" will be performed by the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

It tells three love stories set in three seasons.

To cater to modern tastes, the play borrows techniques from film and
television.

Xia Yu, a promising actor, will star in the play.

Time: August 30-31.

Place: Small theatre of Capital Theatre, 22 Wangfujing Dajie,
Dongcheng District

Tel: 6525-0123

Vietnamese songs and dances -- At the invitation of China's Ministry
of Culture, the Vietnamese State Art Troupe will present
song-and-dance performances on September 1-2 at the International
Theatre of Poly Plaza.

Set up in 1951, the art troupe has created a large number of songs and
dances in praise of heroism, patriotism, and national spirit. It has
toured more than 50 countries introducing the folk arts of Viet Nam.

In Beijing, the Vietnamese artists will perform Vietnamese folk songs
and dances as well as some Chinese songs.

After Beijing performances, they will tour Changchun, Jilin and Yanji
in Northeast China.

The activity is sponsored by China Performing Art Agency and organized
by the CPAA Cultural Entertainment Co.

Time: 7:30pm, September 1-2.

Place: International Theatre of Poly Plaza.

Tel: 6405-5512.

Comedy cuties -- When two women who haven't seen each other for 20
years run into each other again, they have a lot to tell each other --
and the audience -- in the comedy "Women Are Beautiful."

One of the women has worked hard to become economically powerful,
while the other has turned herself into a modern intellectual.

They find their differences do not get in the way of their mutual
understanding.

The playwright, producer and director of the comedy are all young with
overseas professional study experience.

The drama premiered in May and created a sensation in the capital.

Time: 7:15 pm, August 30-September 9

Place: Capital Theatre, 22 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District.

Tel: 6525-0996
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_Date: 08/30/97_
_Author: _

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