The Second China Wutai Mountain Buddhism Festival and Buddhism Arts Expo is scheduled to begin on August 21 in north China's Shanxi Province.

The festival with the theme of "displaying the Buddhist culture and speeding up tourism development", will last one month, said sources with the organizing committee of the festival.

The magnificent opening and closing ceremonies of the festival as well as the serial activities such as Buddhism arts show and theatrical performances are expected to feast the eyes of the visitors, the sources said.

The Wutai Mountain is one of the five most eminent Buddhist sacred places in the world and the top of four famous Buddhist mountains in China, which boasts over 140,000 Buddhist statues and a large number of Buddhist classics and frescoes in its 45 ancient temples belonging to 8 dynasties.

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2005)