China Ocean Cultural Festival Kicks off in Zhoushan

The China Ocean Cultural Festival, has begun in east China's Zhejiang province. The Hopes to promote the concept, of living in harmony with the ocean and the nature. Our reporter He Fei has the details.

The theme of this year is to promote oceanic cultures and to realize the harmonious development in the ocean areas.

The month-long festival is sponsored by the State Oceanic Administration and the provincial government of Zhejiang Province.

Gan Songzhang is the director general of Zhoushan tourism bureau.

"The festival will last for a month, during which we'll hold about 19 themed activities covering oceanic cultures, tasty sea-food and oceanic tourism, to name just a few."

Among various festive activities, the national oceanic culture forum is one of the most important, which is also the first to kick off. Director-general of State Oceanic Administration Sun Zhihui has briefed the audience on the latest developments of China's oceanic culture.

Experts specializing in oceanic culture studies and cultural industry as well as mayors of other coastal cities were on hand at the forum to discuss how to promote and develop the oceanic culture in this country.

Besides the academic field, the festival also has some drawing and photo exhibitions. Qiu Pinghai, one of the organizers, says they would like to let people know more about the ocean through a cultural way rather than a science lesson.

"Through the pictures and eyes of the artists, we not only see the beauty and power of the ocean but also learn about the environmental protection of the ocean. We'll invite college students to visit these exhibitions so that they could learn some basic concept of the ocean. In June, a group of popular Chinese composers and lyricists will tour in Zhoushan. They'll also focus on the protection of the ocean and their works will be introduced in textbooks in schools."

Other activities include seafood-feast week and sea-fishing competitions.

The first ocean cultural festival was held in 2005 in Zhoushan as a local event and it is the first time the festival has gained national attention, becoming a nation-wide ocean cultural festival.

China to Build Small Hydropower Plants across the Country's Rural Areas

China will build small hydropower plants across the country's rural areas.

The project aims to provide rural residents, with affordable electricity, to replace firewood for cooking, in the country's key ecological reserve areas.

Small hydropower plants, refer to those, with a power-generating capacity, below 50,000 kilowatts.

The Water Resources Ministry's Tian Zhongxing, says the government will fund these projects.

"People will feel the benefit when they find the prices for electricity supplies from those small hydropower plants are about half of what they normally pay. And they will be willingly change their way of life. They don't have to cut wood for fuel anymore."

It's estimated that by 2020, ten million rural households, in fragile ecological areas, will stop wood burning.

China started the pilot electricity for wood project, in more than 100 counties in 2003.

230 thousand hectares of forests, have since been saved.

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