The 10th China Mount Huangshan international tourism and local culture festival opened in Anhui Province on Saturday amid folk dances and a parade of festooned vehicles.

 

A brief ceremony was held to mark the start of the festival, with attendance of 20,000 people, including diplomats from 14 countries, representatives on behalf of such international organizations as UNESCO and World Tourism Organization, according to the festival organizers.

 

 

At the ceremony, a special envoy representing Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of World Tourism Organization, read out a message of blessing on Mr. Frangialli's behalf to the festival.

 

Climbing Mount Huangshan, a world heritage site, will run atop of the 24 planned activities during the week-long festival and it is expected that 100,000 tourists will visit the area at the festival, organizers said.

 

Mount Huangshan, with an area of 154 sq km, comprises 72 distinct peaks, including Lotus Flower (Lianhua) Peak, Bright (Guangming) Summit and Heavenly Capital (Tiandu) Peak.

 

Shrouded in cloud about 200 days a year, Mount Huangshan is popular with traditional Chinese landscape painters. It is included on the World Heritage Lists for cultural and natural values, as well as the Global Network of Geoparks.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2006)