Shichahai Lake in downtown Beijing was decked out with hundreds of dazzling palace lanterns and colorful flags on Saturday evening, to kick off a tourist festival highlighting traditional Chinese culture.

Seated leisurely in a small boat cradled gently in the lantern-lit waters, Wang Lin, a 29-year-old teacher with Beijing Normal University, chatted happily with her companions.

Wang, beaming in the twinkle of colored lights, called the boating a special start for her for the week-long national holiday which officially begins on National Day, tomorrow.

"I traveled during last year's National Day holiday, but got tired of being crammed together with others," she said.

"So I chose to stay home and relax this year. And a rich treat of traditional Chinese operas is not a bad choice for Chinese majors like me."

In addition to large-scale performances by Peking Opera buffs during the Shichahai Cultural and Tourist Festival, top rate Chinese artists in the field will present their best on the stages of the city over the National Day holiday, which runs until October 7.

"Peking Opera has become an indispensable part of our annual National Day banquet of performances," said Liu Lu, an official with the Beijing Municipal Cultural Bureau.

Other kinds of performances are also scheduled.

According to Liu, altogether 111 performances, varying from traditional Chinese operas, through dramas, music concerts and acrobatics to puppet shows, will be put on in Beijing during the National Day holiday.

Among local officials busily preparing for the festival are also those responsible for food.

Beijing's first green food fair, in which all the products are free from chemical fertilizers and other kinds of pollution, will close today. All vegetables, fruits, poultry, fish and meat sold at the fair had to go through strict examinations to make sure they are free of pollution.

(China Daily September 30, 2002)