Yesterday the 4th Guilin reading month started in the Guilin’s Central Square. This years theme is: “The most beautiful landscape, the most enjoyable reading”. From now until May 2011 there will be 13 themed activities.

The festivals activities include: “Books Drifting”(whatever that means), “Browsing through Guilin’s Culture”, Speech Competitions, Youth Animation Competitions, Youth Scientific Knowledge Competition, Good Books Recommendations, Book Collectors Advice, National Book Donation Drive, Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition and so on.

After the official opening ceremony, Guilin Central Square will hold more activities such as book and video exhibitions, promotion of intangible cultural heritage, philatelic exhibitions and author book signings.

Source: Guilin Evening Newspaper, 24th June, p.2

According to the Bureau of Parks, Guilin will build four new free park, called Jingpingshan Park, Maoershan Garden Park, Lidong Park and Guilin Garden and Plants Park. The project is already in progress and planned to be finished in 2012. They are build to improve the ecological environment in the Wayao Area, Qintan Area, West of Putuo Area and in the north of Guilin city. They are also planned to be leisure places for residents.

Each of these four parks have their own characteristics. They are different from the other parks in Guilin. The Jingpingshan Park will be made an island park including Douji Mountain, Jingping Mountain, Dazhou and 10 small islands. The park will be located in the Wayao Area in the south of Guilin.

Maoershan Garden Park will be a future flower park. With the Maoer Mountain as the center, it divides into an Orchid viewing area, an Orchid historical and cultural district, a Green Mountain Recreation Area and an Orchid cultivation and breeding area.

Lidong Park will include the Dongjing Nursery and some of the land of the Garden Construction Company. As there are a lot of universities close by it is planned to be a “sports park”. It will include many fitness equipments for the youth.

Guilin Garden and Plants Park will be build as a exotic and friendly “Garden City Style”.

These four free park and another 17 new roads will frame the outer city from all four directions. They are also believed to increase the value of land at the outskirts of the city for possible development.

source: http://news.guilinlife.com/news/2010/06-19/116079.html

With the ending of Gaokao school examination and summer holidays coming, the summer peak air-travel time will start. China Southern Airlines plans to add a connection from Guilin over Zhengzhou to Qingdao starting on the 1st July to remove pressure from other airline routes.

The flight number will be China Southern CZ6307 and the scheduled departure time 08:05am to12:10am on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The return flight is CZ6307 from 1:00pm to 5:00pm.

The airline expects that the opening ceremony of Qingdao beer festival at the end July will become another hot travel destination after the Shanghai World Expo.

original chinese article: http://news.guilinlife.com/news/2010/06-20/116224.html