A range of activities will be held at Mount Hengshan, Jiangxi Province, a well-known Buddhist shrine in central China's Hunan Province, to herald the arrival of the new millennium.

According to local sources, 100,000 people will climb Mount Hengshan on December 31 and stay overnight at the peak, ringing bells at sunrise.

Some 108 senior Buddhist and Taoist monks will gather at a temple built at the foot of the mountain at midnight of New Year's Eve to pray for world peace, reunification of the motherland, prosperity for all businesses and happiness of the people.

Tourists visiting the mountain can see a Buddhist treasure believed to be a vessel containing the ashes of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. The vessel is housed at the Nantai Temple near the mountain.

A large vessel inscribed with 10,000 identical Chinese characters "shou," which means longevity, will be placed at Zhurong Peak, the highest part of Mount Hengshan. The vessel will be unveiled later in 2000.

And Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, will host a large New Year's Eve party and a parade on the New Year's Day.