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News from around the country

Arts Festival in Full Swing

More than 1,000 overseas and local performers have gathered in Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Arts Festival 2005, which ends on March 20 when the curtain comes down on the last of the 124 different shows presented over the month-long event.

The festival is now in its 33^rd year and ranks as one of the top 10 arts festivals worldwide. It aims to combine the best international standards of music and dance with the best of Hong Kong’s local arts scene, and also to bring out strong work from the Chinese mainland. As a reflection of the festival’s status, Hong Kong has also been chosen as the seat of one of the two vice-chairmen of the Asian Arts Festival Association that was formed in 2004.

Impressionist Masterpieces Reach HK

The touring exhibition "Impressionism: Treasures from the National Collection of France” has reached the Hong Kong Museum of Art, where it will be on show until April 10.

One of the highlights of the “Year of France in China", the exhibition features 48 masterpieces of the Impressionist school. It has already been a smash hit in Beijing and Shanghai.

Star exhibits include Edouard Manet's "The Fifer," Edgar Degas' "The Dance Class" and "In a Cafe, the Absinthe," Claude Monet's "Rouen Cathedral, the Portal, Harmony in Brown" and "Water Lilies".

Fujian Geopark Makes UNESCO List

Taining Geopark in east China's Fujian Province has been included on the second geoparks list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Three other Chinese geoparks are also on the new UNESCO list released at the second international conference on geoparks held in Paris in February, increasing China's total number of geoparks on the UNESCO list from eight to 12.

The three other new entries are Yandangshan in eastern Zhejiang Province, Xingwen in southwestern Sichuan Province and Hexingten in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

China hosted the first international conference on geoparks in June 2004, when UNESCO announced its first list of 25 geoparks. Eight are located in China: Mt. Huangshan in Anhui Province, Mt. Lushan in Jiangxi Province, Mt. Yuntaishan in Henan Province, Stone Forest in Yunnan Province, Mt. Danxiashan Mountain in Guangdong Province, Zhangjiajie Nature Reserve in Hunan Province, Wudalianchi (five volcanic lakes) in Heilongjiang Province, and Mt. Songshan in Henan Province.