A team of 81 World War II veterans and their entourage arrived in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province Sunday for a two-day tour of this provincial capital city.

The veterans from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and five other countries came on the sidelines of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-fascist War.

The veterans, who once fought along with the Chinese in the province against Japanese invading troops in 1945, laid wreaths at the monument to the Soviet Red Army soldiers in downtown Harbin.

"It was a war field 60 years ago, but I'm so glad to see that it has been turned into a beautiful city now," said 84-year-old Basil Ivanov, first deputy president of the Sino-Russian friendship association.

They are scheduled to visit the museum exhibiting evidence of the Unit 731 of the Japanese army which is notorious for their brutal germ warfare, and some other cultural and tourist sites.

(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2005)