Three former American astronauts paid a special visit to the aviation martyrs' cemetery in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province on Saturday.

The three astronauts, Charles Duke, Charles Bolden and Mae Jemison, were on a program known as "Dupont US Astronauts Tour in China", which is organized by the Chinese Society of Astronautics and Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation.

The American visitors presented wreaths to the martyrs, and carefully viewed 30 tombs with memorial monuments inside the cemetery.

The Nanjing Aviation Martyrs' Cemetery, founded in the 1930s, is the final resting place for more than 3,000 pilots from China, the former Soviet Union and the United States, who laid down their lives during China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945).

The former American astronauts also visited prestigious Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Jiangning and planted trees at the campus with its students as the expression of their love for peace there.

Nanjing is the fourth leg of the "Dupont US Astronauts Tour in China". Before their arrival in Nanjing, they also toured Chongqing, Beijing and Xi'an. The tour will also take them to Shanghai, the last leg of the tour, on Sunday.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2005)