A gold inscribed Chinese-English bilingual version of Master Sun's Art of War was released Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The Art of War was written by famous ancient Chinese strategist Sun Wu, who wrote about the fighting experience up to the latter part of the Spring and Autumn period (770 BC-476 BC). The book has been translated into a dozen languages including English, French, Japanese and Spanish. It is known as a "classic of strategy."

The 40-page book contains the annotations on Master Sun's Art of War by military strategists in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a portrait of Master Sun, pictures of his former residence and a map of the Warring States (475 BC - 221 BC).

The pages of the book was made of gold with 99.9 percent purity, using nanometer technology. It can be preserved for about 10,000 years due to the distinctive features of gold pages, such as high purity, anti-oxidation, anti-humanity.

Only 5,000 copies of the book will be published at home and abroad.
 
(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2004)