It has been decided that the Provincial Government will hold a news conference on the Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China at 9:50, on the morning of May 26, 2007 and a live coverage will be given on Shandong on Internet. Please pay attention to it.
The conference will start at 9:50 and will be chaired by Huang Zecun, director of the Foreign Publicity Office of the Provincial Party Committee and of the Press Office of the Provincial Government.
The conference starts now.
Huang Zhecun: Friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, good morning!
The Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China, sponsored by the Propaganda Department of Shandong Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Department of Culture, the Provincial Tourism Administration, the Party Committee of Linyi City and Linyi Municipal People’s Government, and organized by the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Linyi City, the Party Committee of Yinan County and Yinan County People’s Government will be held from 29 to31 May at Zhuge Liang’s hometown---Yinan County. This will be an important festival for our province to carry forward our excellent national culture, develop advanced culture, further integrate Linyi’s historical and cultural resources, create a historically and culturally famous city, and push forward the construction of a harmonious Linyi.
Huang Zhecun: We have invited some officials concerned to give related briefings. Present at today’s conference and seated on the platform are Mr. Wang Fengsheng, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Shandong Provincial Party Committee and chairman of Shandong Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Ms Li Guolin, deputy director of the Provincial Department of Culture, Mr Wang Yuansheng, deputy director of the Provincial Tourism Adminstraton, Ms Ding Fengyun, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Linyi City and director of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Linyi City, Mr Ma Kun, secretary of Yinan County Party Committee and director of the Standing Committee of Yinan County People’s Congress, and Mr Xu Feng, deputy secretary of Yinan County Party Committee, head of Yinan County, and Chairman of Yinan County CPPCC Committee.

Ma Kun£ºSecretary of Yinan County Party Committee and director of the Standing Committee of Yinan County People’s Congress
Distinguished guests and friends from the media,
Good morning!
Zhuge’s hometown is beautiful and Yangdu is expecting a grand gathering. First, on behalf of Yinan County Party Committee, Yinan County People’s Congress, and the 910 thousand Yinan people, I extend my warm welcome and sincere thanks to you for your presence at the Press Conference on the Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival!
Yinan is Zhuge Liang’s hometown. This outstanding statesman and strategist, revered as ‘wise prime minister’ and ‘perfect man’ was born in Yangdu--- today’s Zhuanbu Town, Yinan county, 1826 years ago. For thousands of years, the common people have regarded him as the epitome of wisdom, government officials of all the ages have followed his example. His spirit of giving one’s all till one’s heart stops beating, his moral principle of honesty in performing one’s official duties and working diligently and loving the people, and his profound wisdom of great learning and resourcefulness have encouraged and inspired people with high ideals of all the ages and have become the Chinese nation’s invaluable asset.
May 30, this year, is Zhuge Liang’s 1826th birthday. In grand memory of this great statesman and strategist, Yinan county will hold the Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China from May 29 to 31, 2007 (from 13 to 15 of the fourth month by the lunar calendar). The theme of the current cultural and tourist festival is “the hometown of the Sage of Wisdom and the Charming Yinan”. We will combine the inheritance of Zhuge Liang culture and the carrying forward of the Yimeng spirit, try to make the festival unique and high-leveled. With the festival as the platform, we will fully display Yinan’s rich resources and the potential advantages for development, further enhance our cultural quality, increase our influence on the outside, pull the invitation of outside investment, tourist development and urban construction, and promote the overall harmonious development of Yinan’s economy and all the social affairs.
In recent years, in accordance with the general plan for “big Linyi, new Linyi”, under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping theory and “the three representations”, with the scientific view of development governing the general economic and social development, in line with the idea of “five general promotions”---invitation of investment, industrial development, garden economy, urban construction and new rural construction--- and the idea of “three major breakthrough”---building high, large and external projects, building leading enterprises and constructing the new unique beautiful county town, Yinan county has insisted on development as the priority, aimed at ranking higher and becoming the city’s economically strong county, taken as its main direction of attack cultivating and strengthening massive economy, garden economy and green economy, brought into full play the “four advantages” of natural resources, industrial base, communications position, and personnel resources. We have given priority to the “five strategies” of outstanding invitation of investment, industrial breakthrough, prominence of groups, rapid change in urban construction, and the enlargement of the service industry, and actively constructed “the powerful Yinan, the energetic Yinan, the charming Yinan and the harmonious Yilan.”. Today’s Yinan has three salient qualities of being “the culturally famous county, ecologically large county and the county with special economy”.
At the same time, in line with the idea of correct positioning, ingenuity, dependence on input and emphasis on management, we have strengthened the concept of the “new unique beautiful” county town, given prominence to one theme and begun a batch of projects each year. On last year’s basis, we will concentrate our effort on and pay special attention to a batch of urban construction projects and a batch of major communications projects, to further extend the county town’s special fame.
As a result of the whole county’s effort, the preparations are basically completed for the Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival. The Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China is sponsored by the Propaganda Department of Shandong Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Department of Culture, the Provincial Tourism Administration, the Party Committee of Linyi City and Linyi Municipal People’s Government, and is organized by the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Linyi City, the  Department of Culture of Linyi City, the Tourism Administration of Linyi City, the Party Committee of Yinan County and Yinan county People’s Government. More than one thousand people including leaders at all levels, experts and scholars both from home and abroad, friends from all levels of media, representatives from various travel agencies and business people will be present at the festival.
The Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival will include nine major events: the opening ceremony and the grand CCTV theatrical performance of Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China, the publicity meeting on the tourist culture of Zhuge Liang’s hometown, sacrificial and memorial activities in honor of Zhuge Liang’s 1826th birthday, the dragon boat race at Zhuge Liang’s hometown, the ceremony of plate hanging for the Zhuge Liang cultural tourist area and the national AAA-class tourist area, the inauguration ceremony of the Han Street, the consultative conference on investment invitation, the exhibition of Yinan electric vehicles and hollow brick machines and the firework display at Zhuge Liang’s hometown.
The current cultural and tourist festival is an important event in the political and economic life of the Yinan people. At present, all preparations are being made in an intense and systematic way. As Zhuge Liang’s hometown, Yinan county will try its best to assure the complete success of the festival with the whole county’s effort and wisdom. We are looking forward sincerely to the presence of all you leaders, guests and journalists.
Thank you!

Huang Zhecun: Then we have Ms Ding Fengyun, member of Linyi Party Standing Committee and director of the Propaganda Department of Linyi Party Committee, give a briefing of the general situation of Linyi City and matters concerning the Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China

Ding Fengyun£ºmember of Linyi Party Standing Committee and Director of the Propaganda Department of Linyi Party Committee
Distinguished guests and friends from the media,
   In this season full of life and blossoming flowers, the Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China will be held in the native place of Zhuge Liang ‘the Sage of the Era’--- Yinan County. Present at the conference are new friends who have been paying close attention to the development of Linyi as well as old leaders and friends who have cared for and given support and unselfish help to the affairs of Linyi over the years. Here on behalf of the Party Committee of Linyi City, Linyi Municipal People’s Government and the Organizing Committee of this year’s cultural and tourist festival, I extend our warm welcome and sincere thanks to your presence!
Linyi, habitually known as the Yimeng Mountain Area, is the southern gate of Shandong Province, adjacent to Jiangsu Province on the south and the Yellow Sea on the east, with a total area of 17,200 square kilometers and a population of 10.18 million, being the largest district-class city in terms of its area and population. It has a long history and brilliant culture. Such historic and cultural celebrities such as Wang Xizhi, the sage of calligraphy, Zhuge Liang, the sage of wisdom, Liu Hong, the sage of mathematics, Yan Zhenqing, the calligrapher, Xun Kuang, the thinker, Zengzi, the sage of source, Kuang Heng, the master of Confucian classiscs, and Zuo Baogui, the national hero, were all born or lived here. The Art of War by Sunzi and The Art of War by Sun Bin excavated in the Han-dynasty tombs at Mount Yinque caused a great sensation throughout the world, solving the eternal puzzle whether Sun Wu and Sun Bin were real persons in history, and therefore were listed as one of “China’s one hundred major archeological discoveries of the twentieth century”. The Jin-dynasty tomb discovered at Wang Xizhi’s hometown was listed as the one of the country’s ten major archeological discoveries of 2003. Here in Linyin the resources are rich and industry and trade are highly developed, with Linyi Wholesale City being one of the largest wholesale markets within the country. Here the beautiful scenery has produced a lot of talent. The second highest mountain Yimeng within the province is praised as ‘the natural oxygen bar’ and ‘mountain for good health and longevity’. The Yi River and the Shu River flow through Linyi. The longest rubber dam in the world has been built on the Yi River, forming an urban water area of 35 square kilometers, and an eighty-kilometer riverside scene. Linyi has been designated as China’s excellent tourist city, a model city of national environmental protection and provincial-class civilized city.
Linyi is also a nationally famous old liberated area, where the world-famous Menglianggu Campaign and the moving story about the Red Sister of Yimeng took place. In the long revolutionary and constructional practice, the people jointly developed the Yimeng spirit of “loving the Party and army, forging ahead courageously, building the enterprise through arduous effort and making unselfish contribution”. What is more, the grand Exhibition of the Yimeng Spirit, which caused a sensation in Beijing and moved the whole nation, gained the national recognition of the Yimeng spirit, which has become the component part of our great national spirit together with the Jingangshan spirit, the Xibaipo spirit and the Yanan spirit. In recent years, under the powerful leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, Shandong Provincial Party Committee, and Shandong Provincial Government, the Yimeng people have been carrying forward the Yimeng spirit, struggling with united strength, forging ahead courageously and making much progress in the city’s economy and all the social affairs. The city’s total output value has topped 140 billion yuan and the local financial income reached 5.83 billion yuan. At the city’s eleventh Party congress held only recently, the City Party Committee and the City Government set forth the strategic aim of “forging an economically strong city in proportion to its population, a commercially strong city with nation-wide logistics, an inhabitable city with an excellent ecological riverside environment and a culturally famous city with the ancient and modern culture enhancing each other”. Linyi’s rapid development is due to the attention and guidance of the leaders at all levels, the joint effort of all the officials and masses of people, and the warm help and energetic support of all the friends present from the news media.
This year is Zhuge Liang’s 1826th birthday. As an eminent statesman and strategist, he has been revered as “the wise prime minister” and “sage of wisdom”. His spirit of giving one’s all till one’s heart stops beating, his moral principle of honesty in performing one’s official duties and working diligently and loving the people, and his profound wisdom of great learning and resourcefulness have encouraged and inspired people with high ideals of all the ages and have become our nation’s invaluable asset. In order to carry on our excellent national culture, develop advanced culture, further integrate Linyi’s historical and cultural resources, and forge Linyi into a historically and culturally famous city, in line with the general idea of “publicizing Zhuge Liang in spring and Wang Xizhi in autumn”, the City Party Committee, the City Government, and Yinan County Party Committee and Government, with the attention and support of the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Department of Culture, and the Provincial Tourism Adminstraton, will jointly hold the Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival in May this year, on the basis of the successful holding of the Fourth Sage of Calligraphy Cultural Festival and the First Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival. We believe that, with the great importance attached to it by all the higher-level departments, with the warm attention of the leaders at all levels, and with the energetic support by the friends from the media, the current cultural and tourist festival will be held with special characteristics, a higher level and a greater influence. And this will push forward the overall development of the whole city’s economy, trade, culture, tourism, science and technology and give new energy to the construction of a more opening-up, beautiful, affluent and harmonious “big Linyi, new Linyi”.
Yangdu will welcome guests from the whole country and Yinan will take on a new look in the favorable national situation. The Second Linyi Zhuge Liang Cultural and Tourist Festival•China will give you a brand-new impression. Here on behalf of the Party Committee of Linyi City, Linyi Municipal People’s Government and the Organizing Committee of the Cultural and Tourist Festival, I sincerely invite you, all the leaders, guests and friends from the media, to attend the festival, to make cultural exchange, carry out economic and commercial negotiations, visit your relatives and friends, go sightseeing, cooperate in a wide range of areas, and seek our common development. The warm hospitable industrious sincere Linyi people are expecting your presence!
Thank you.
 Huang Zhecun: today''s conference is over. Thank you!