With Jiangmen international youth hostel in south China's Guangdong Province going into business Saturday, the number of youth hostels in the country has increased to 23.

Guangdong also led the nation by opening three international hostels for students in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, Zhuhai and Zhaoqing cities, in late 1998.

At present, nine of the country's youth hostels are located in the south China province. The rest are in such popular tourism destinations as Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Yangshuo, Kunming, Lijiang and Dalian.

It is learned that youth hostels are also planned in a dozen other Chinese cities, including Xi'an, Chengdu, Dali of Yunnan, Sanya, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Huangshan, as well as northwest China' s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Youth hostels have proper sanitation facilities but cost less than hotels. They first appeared in Germany in 1909. The International Youth Hostel Federation now has listed over 4,500 youth hostels in 80 countries and regions and has grown into the world's biggest accommodation organization.

The federation's membership totals 3.5 million people.

(People's Daily 09/28/2001)