A grand ceremony is being held in Qufu, Shandong Province Wednesday in the birthplace of Confucius to mark the 2,556th anniversary of the great Chinese thinker.

The memorial ceremony is part of the activities planned for the 2005 China Qufu International Confucius Cultural Festival that opened in Qufu, a city in east China's Shandong Province, Monday evening.

The cultural festival is jointly held by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), China National Administration of Tourism, and other organizations.

According to organizers, memorial activities are being held simultaneously in six cities in the Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore, the United States and Germany, as well as in China's Taiwan Province and Hong Kong.

Confucius (BC 551-479) was a great thinker, statesman and educator in Chinese history, and founder of the Confucian school of thought.

(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2005)