China will start shooting a 30-episode TV series in August to mark next year's 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a local TV official said?in Hangzhou?Sunday.

The series, "1921 AD," will be about 22 hours long and will air in China in 2011, Cheng Weidong, editor-in-chief of the Zhejiang Radio and TV Group, said.

The series will depict how a number of youths born in the 1880s and 1890s in China - including former Chinese leader Mao Zedong - chose Marxism and worked to unite the Chinese masses, Cheng said.

Cheng said the series will "include some historical facts that have never been revealed to the public before" without elaborating.

The 20-million-yuan series will be co-produced by the China TV series Production Center, the Zhejiang Radio and TV Group, and the Zhejiang Media Group.

The CPC was founded in July 1921 when twelve delegates representing about 50 CPC members nationwide secretly convened the first CPC national congress in Shanghai.

July 1 was later designated as the anniversary of the founding of the CPC.