The 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope. [Photo provided to China Daily] GUIYANG - This is the quietest tourist site in China -- no phones, cameras and cars are allowed inside. Even planes have been rerouted to avoid disturbance, but still, it draws thousands of tourists. Since it began operation in September last year, the world's largest radio telescope, located in southwestern province of Guizhou, has received 240,000 tourists, according to local authorities. The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a single-dish telescope, with a diameter of half a kilometer. It was built in Dawodang depression, a natural karst basin in Pingtang County, an impoverished area in mountainous Guizhou. The telescope is used to probe space for the faintest signs of life and is sensitive to any electromagnetic interference. Nearly 10,000 residents living in the core zone, within five kilometers of the telescope, have been relocated. All phones and cameras must be handed in if visitors want to enter the core area, said Liu Xingwu, a local tour operator. Vehicle engine ignitions also produce electromagnetic waves, so all sightseeing vehicles which enter the core zone have been modified to remove magnetic interference, said Liu. With a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan (about $188 million), the telescope has also created a boom in tourism for the county, which is home to around 330,000 people. An astronomical and cultural park is being extended. New theaters and exhibition centers will open ahead of the National Day holiday in October, said Shi Bangze, director of the county tourism bureau. Shi said that any increase in tourist numbers must not interfere with scientific studies underway at FAST. Scientist are using FAST to probe space, and they do not want any disturbances, so tourism can only be developed on the condition that the research functions are not impeded, he said. The county has instigated a daily cap of 2,000 visitors within the core area. Most travellers come on weekends and holidays. We use manual film cameras rather than digital ones to take photos of the visitors. The cameras have been tested for interference, Shi said. Once the daily limit is reached, we divert tourists to other scenic areas further away from the telescope, he said. children's id wristbands uktrio spinnersthe wristband factoryrubber arm bandsrubber wristbands
WANG WENJIN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE More than 80 people with the surname Zhang traveled from Taiwan to Xiamen, Fujian, in August to discover their roots. People are studying their family trees and age-old stories in the hope of reconnecting with long-lost relatives. Zhang Yi reports from Xiamen, Fujian. On June 9, Huang Ching-hsiung woke at about 3 am in his hotel bed in Xiamen, Fujian province. He was too excited to sleep. At daybreak, he was one of a group of 11 members of his family that set out to visit Pujin, a village two hours from downtown Xiamen by road. The settlement has the same name as Huang's home village in Lugang town, Changhua, Taiwan, and most of the residents are named Huang. The Huangs on Taiwan are direct descendents of settlers who arrived on the island centuries ago. Several batches of Fujian residents moved to Taiwan during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in the hope of making their fortunes, and those who were members of the same family banded together as they fought to make new lives. They named the places they settled after their hometowns and retained the customs they had brought from the mainland. Roughly 80 percent of Taiwan residents share blood ties with people from Fujian. About 110 settlements on either side of the Taiwan Straits that share the same village and family names have established official exchange programs, according to the Fujian-Taiwan Compatriots' Association. In the 1980s, the descendants of those early settlers started visiting the mainland to discover their roots, inspired by family histories passed down through generations. Place your feet on the land our ancestors came from, Huang's father told him, shortly before he died 12 years ago.
