A church at Mount Lushan, a destination known for its beautiful scenery and historical sites in eastern China's Jiangxi Province, will be open to tourists for three days over the Christmas holidays.

According to Wang Yingchun, deputy head of Mount Lushan's administrative body, more than 100 Christians will gather at the church on Christmas Eve. Over the weekend the church will also be open to non-Christian visitors.

The Roman-style church was built around 1910 with an area of 200 square meters, serving as a classroom for an American school between 1916 and 1922. In 1946 it was transformed into a Christian chapel.

Some very influential people from China's history used it in the 1940s, including Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mei-ling and John Leighton, the American ambassador.

There are now two churches at Mount Lushan, one dating as far back as the late 1800s when Christian missionaries came to the region from the UK, the US, France, Russia and Italy.

Also for the Christmas weekend, the world's biggest single snow sculpture of Santa Claus was created in Jingyuetan National Forest Park in Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province.

Thirty-five ice and snow artists worked on the 80-metre-long and 17-meter-high giant. A snow and skiing tourism festival opens at the park today.

(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2004)