Nearly 50 million people have visited the former residence of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong in his hometown of central China's Hunan Province, since it was opened to public in 1950.

A total of 20,000 visitors came on Thursday, also the 83rd anniversary of birth of the Communist Party of China.

The place has turned out to be an outside classroom for patriotism education and most of the visitors are members of the CPC or the Communist Youth League of China.

On Thursday, the residence was full of crowds from all over the country.

(Chinabroadcast.cn July 2, 2004)