The seventh international sand sculpture festival will be held from July 15 to October 31 at the Golden Beach of Zhujiajian, an islet east of Zhoushan Islands, east China's Zhejiang Province.

According to the organizing committee on Tuesday, the three-month festival, jointly sponsored by the Zhoushan city government and the INAXI company of the Netherlands, which majors in sand sculpture, has attracted many sculptors from home and abroad and they will complete sand sculptures within an area of about 10,000 square meters.

The sand sculpture show, with the theme of "fairy tales," will feature such classical fairy tales as Snow White, the Story of Fisherman and the Little Mermaid.

A sculpture competition featuring voyages made by Zheng He, an ancient Chinese navigator who lived in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) will be staged during the festival. The event is designed to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyages.

Wu Xiaodong, director of the organizing committee said, Zheng, an ancient Chinese seafaring hero, was viewed as the first man to blaze a direct sea route linking the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean. His voyages are not only a part of cultural heritage of China, but also a marked step in world civilization.

The sand sculpture festival, the first of its kind introduced to China seven years ago, has become a major tourist attraction.

Da Lingzhi, deputy director of the organizing committee said the previous festivals attracted approximately 1 million tourists from home and abroad.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2005)