The festival, jointly sponsored by the National Tourism Administration and the city government, will include some 30 programs to showcase the unique landscape and culture of the old city known as "the Venice of the Orient."

A food fair, a painting show, a dragon boat contest, an international photography exhibition, a tourism trade fair as well as other programs will be staged.

Suzhou is famed for its old Chinese gardens with delicate designs of hills and ponds, pavilions, terraces and towers, which date back to about 514 BC when the city was founded.

There were as many as 200 gardens in the city in its prime period from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Suzhou hosted some 890,000 foreign and 20 million domestic tourists last year, making it the eighth most popular tourist city in China.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2003)