| Features & Service |
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Salvadoran Cruz Hernandez, who is registered as being 128
years old on her national identity card, talks in her home in the village
of San Agustin, about 100 km (62 miles) east of San Salvador
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China planted 5.23 million hectares of trees in 2006, bringing
the country's forest acreage to 175 million hectares, according to a report
issued by the State Forestry Administration (SFA) on Sunday.
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| Journeying to Grand Jiuzhai (1) |
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2006-08-21 10:39:14
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Lying in southwestern China, the northwestern Sichuan Plateau is noted for its picturesque and idyllic natural beauty. One of the best scenic areas is the Grand Jiuzhai Tourist Region, located in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in northwest Sichuan Province. Covering an area of 84,000 square kilometers, the tourist region is especially famous for its plateau landscapes and ethnic customs. The tourist region encompasses two world natural heritage sites, three state-level scenic spots and eight provincial-level nature reserves and scenic areas. The most famous are the Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area, Huanglong Scenic Area, Mt. Siguniangshan (Four Maidens‘ Mountain) and Wolong Panda Nature Reserve.
A Wild Wilderness Beauty
Jiuzhaigou‘s attraction lies in its primitive and mysterious beauty. According to a beautiful legend, long, long ago, the brave mountain deity Da Ge fell in love with the charming goddess Se Mo and gave her a mirror burnished by wind and cloud. Carelessly, Se Mo accidentally smashed the gift. The segments sprinkled down into the world, changing as they fell into the 114 magnificent alpine lakes of the region.
The average altitude of Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area is between 2,000 and 4,760 meters, and the area enjoys cool summers and warm winters. With an average temperature between 13 and 21 degrees centigrade, summer here sees the abundant greenery in its prime, with gentle gurgling streams and crystal clear waterfalls cascading down from tall mountain peaks. Primitive, unspoiled, and uninhabited, it is an idyllic nature getaway.
Visit Mountains or Lakes, Trek Through Forest or Wetland
The major scenic sites are concentrated in the seven-kilometer-long and 300-meter-wide Huanglong Valley. At the foot of Mt. Xubaoding, the main peak of the Minshan Mountains, the valley is named after the Huanglong Temple. Due to the fascinating patterns formed by natural layered calcium carbonate deposits, the valley resembles a golden dragon winding its way through the stone mountains, thus giving rise to its other name of the "Hidden Dragon Mountain." As the legend goes, a yellow dragon came to help Yu the Great (a legendary character in Chinese mythology famous for controlling floods) to control floods in ancient times. The dragon helped him by carrying boats up stream through Maozhou (today‘s Maowen County), and the Minjiang River was thus created. Therefore, later generations built a temple here in commemoration of these legendary characters. Well known for its colorful lakes, snow clad mountains, valleys and virgin forest, the area also has the only well preserved plateau wetland in China. This is home to many endangered animal species-some on the brink of extinction-such as the giant panda and Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey.
The area‘s unique and charming natural scenery is known throughout the world, and the Huanglong Scenic Area, and the Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area are the two shining pearls of China‘s Northwestern Sichuan Plateau.
Mt. Siguniangshan and the Tibetan and Qiang Ethnic Customs
Situated on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Mt. Siguniangshan (Four Maidens‘ Mountain) is noted for its unusually shaped landforms and abundant eco-environment plateau vegetation. The natural environment is extremely well preserved in the area and it offer ideal habitats for approximately 100 rare animals. Because of the vast quantities of raw natural resources, the area is praised by experts as being a "Gene Bank" of southwestern China.
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