A Chinese cartoon series Wednesday entered the record books - and that's no joke.

With a running time of 7,500 minutes across 500 episodes, "The Blue Cat and Naughty Mouse 3,000 Whys" outruns the original record holder, the US-made cartoon "The Simpsons," which had a total of 242 episodes.

The cartoon, produced by Hunan Sunchime Film Studio Development Corporation, aims to popularize scientific knowledge by answering one scientific question in each of its planned 3,000 episodes.

The announcement was made by the Shanghai branch of the Guinness Book of Records at the opening ceremony of "Kids World 2001 China", also known as the third International Cartoon Exposition, opened yesterday at the Beijing Exhibition Centre.

The five-day exposition aims to promote international exchange and co-operation in cartoon production.

The exposition, attended by hundreds of cartoon producers, publishers and related companies, will show the best cartoons produced in the past two years, the latest production technology and the role of the Internet in the art form. More than 50 cartoons produced will be shown on China's Central Television.

(People's Daily 08/10/2001)