China's first international habitat festival opened Today(Wednesday) in Weihai, a coastal city in east China's Shandong province.

More than 1000 representatives, experts and officials from China, United Nations and the World Bank attended the opening ceremony.

The theme of the festival is "Habitat Environment and Development". Exhibitions will be held, showing humankind's achievement in planning its homes as well as preserving the ecological environment.

An international forum will also be held during what should become a yearly event in Weihai city.

The city has twice received the recognition of Best Practices for Improving Living Environment by the United Nations, and last year, Weihai received the UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award, which is the highest international honor in the field of improving human settlement.

(CRI September 2, 2004)