Southwest China's Sichuan Province has had its four scenic zones included on the list of state-level tourism zones.

Located at the juncture between Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, the Guangwu Mountain-Nuoshui River scenic zone boasts 128 karst caves in an area of 1,000 square kilometers.

With forest coverage of more than 90 percent, the zone is home to more than 2,300 kinds of plants and over 200 species of animals.

The other three scenic zones are the Tiantai Mountain, Longmen Mountain and Bailong Lake.

Sichuan boasts not only many world natural and cultural heritage sites, such as the Nature Reserve at Jiuzhaigou, Mt Qingcheng, the Irrigation System at Dujiangyan and Mt Emei and the Giant Buddha at Leshan, but also snow-capped mountains and pastureland, attracting many tourists from home and abroad each year.

Sichuan is also home to most of the 1,000 giant pandas living in the wild.

Of China's 120 state-level scenic zones, 15 are located in Sichuan.

The province earned 42.08 billion yuan (US$5.08 billion) in tourism income last year, a year-on-year rise of 10.7 percent.

(Shanghai Daily February 27, 2004)