The country has been decorated with flowers and flags. People are expressing their happiness and excitement through the beating of drums, singing and lion and dragon dances.

Celebrations in China's capital city of Beijing reached their climax on the eve of the upcoming 21st century. Some 2,001 students, representing the year 2001, climbed up to the Great Wall, which was built to defend the nation from intruders in ancient dynasties. The bright candles in their hands formed the shape of a dragon, blessing the country with more strength and prosperity in the next century.

"Embracing the new century", a grand performance held in the China Centenary Altar in Beijing, a symbolic architecture completed last year to greet the new millennium and the new century, attracted artists from all over China.

Shanghai, a city aiming to become a world center of finance, trade and information services in the next century, is immersed in flowers this evening. Thousands of jubilant local residents were singing and dancing outside Huangpu Park, where the sign saying " No entrance for Chinese and dogs" was once hung by foreign colonists.

People of all sorts relished in the festive atmosphere in the Pudong District. With over 6,000 overseas investors and nearly 50 foreign financial institutions, the district has become one of the most active investment areas in the world.

The Longhuagao drum, China's largest, measuring 3.2 meters in diameter, has been placed in the ancient Longhua Temple and will be struck at the turning point of the century.

It is not an exaggeration to describe the changes in Shanghai as "earth-shaking", said Tang Dongmei, an 85-year-old women who witnessed Shanghai's history in the 20th century.

Dramas, music, dances and other kinds of performances are underway in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, known as the "city of flowers". Many people here have dressed up in splendid attires and will spend their time in theaters to welcome the new century.

People of Chongqing municipality in west China organized a gala in the center of the city. Xian Xuefu, academician of the Academy of Engineering of China, who specialized in mine engineering physics, handed a golden key representing the door of the new century to two middle school students, hoping that the younger generations of China bear the responsibility of building a modern country.

Though Wenling and Linhai in east China's Zhejiang Province have been calculated to be the first places in China to see the first ray of sunshine, some 21 cities across China, including Dalian, Zhoushan, Xiamen and Beihai, are also waiting for the first light of the new century in different festivities. Bonfires, firecrackers, balloons and releasing of doves, will last overnight till the dawn of the new century.

Some major media organizations of China reported today that the turning point of the century is a significant moment for Chinese people. China successfully got rid of poverty and realized prosperity in the 20th century, and in the upcoming 21st century, the national revival of China will occur.

In President Jiang Zemin's new year message today, he expressed the cordial hope that the new century will be a century in which people of all countries live in peace, seek common development and civilizations of all kinds make progress simultaneously.

"The primary tasks of the Chinese people in the new millennium are to push ahead with the modernization of the country, achieve the reunification of the motherland and safeguard world peace and make simultaneous progress," he said.

The ringing of the bell from the China Centenary Altar, Dazhong Temple, Longhua Temple, Jingci Temple and some other places at the turning point of the century, will officially announce the start of a new round of history of human kind.

(Xinhua 01/02/2000)