As people in Beijing returned home as early as possible Friday to prepare for the most important dinner of the year on Spring Festival Eve, 52 foreigners were arriving after a long trip to China to attend a celebration at the Great Wall in Beijing.

These special visitors from 44 countries are winners of the global competition "Meet China in 2000" which attracted more than one million foreign participants from June to November last year.

A campfire party on the Great Wall, the oldest part of which is believed to have been built 2,500 years ago, was exciting to the foreigners clad in down overcoats provided by the local government.

Far away from the Great Wall, bright lanterns decorate Lhasa together with colorful fireworks on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Legqog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, came to the Lhasa Telecommunications Bureau to greet staff members who were still at work.

Legqog expressed his appreciation and presented them with hada, a ceremonial silk scarf regarded as a token of respect in Tibet.

"We didn't expect the chairman's visit and greetings," said Gesang Lobu, a national model worker with the post office, "We all feel warm and encouraged, and we'll do our best at work."

The Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant in east China's Zhejiang Province is rather quiet compared with other places bustling with celebrations.

The nuclear power plant is now undergoing the third phase of its construction project, and workers have forgone their Spring Festival vacation, the most important season for family reunions in China.

"We must finish the work as scheduled," said Yu Fajiang, who is guiding workers as they cautiously pour cement stirred with warm water because the temperature is rather low, "we'll join our families tomorrow and return here three days later because a new process will start then."

Wang Yongxiao from Beijing is now in charge of the exchange of documents and blueprints between the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant and Canada. While his son joined him in Qinshan, his wife is also busy, working abroad.

"We expect a real family reunion when the nuclear power plant is completed," he said.

Guilin, the famous tourist destination in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is greeting the new Year of the Dragon amid grand-scale urban construction, and more than 1,000 workers are in full swing around many construction sites.

The scenic city is putting on a new face by renovating its old streets and buildings. Mayor Li Jinzao said that Guilin will become a large park with clean water, many bridges, trees and flowers, and sculptures by renowned Chinese and overseas artists.

Shenzhen, a city of immigrants, used to see more than half of its residents leave during the Spring Festival. But tonight this city next to Hong Kong is filled with a festive atmosphere.

Mayor Li Zibin has invited 1,000 immigrant workers to a dumpling feast to celebrate the season. Thanks to the contributions from people in other places, Shenzhen has witnessed admirable development over the past years.

In the ancient city of Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the results of a special competition have disappointed most participants who are eager to bring home an orphan from the children's welfare institute during the Spring Festival.

One hundred and twenty people applied to be "acting mothers" of six orphans within three days after the institute published a story titled "Who Will Parent the Orphans on New Year Eve" in a local newspaper.

The institute had to choose six out of the 120, and those six turned out to be a laid-off worker, an official, a worker, a teacher, a self-employed person, and a special team of 11 male soldiers.

To Yang Changfen in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, the most exciting thing about this Spring Festival is that she made all her festival purchases via the Internet.

Yang had trouble one time amid the throngs of shoppers in the stores, and this new "electronic supermarket" enabled her to choose what she wanted at home and avoid the crowds.

In Chongqing, China's newest and largest municipality, in the southwest, Wang Sufang, 72, is spending the last Spring Festival she will spend in her wood-column room near the Yangtze River branch of the Jialing River, where she has lived for nearly three decades.

A hot topic at the dinner table is the upcoming move into a new apartment. The dark and damp rooms will be demolished soon after the Spring Festival, and Wang and her family will move into a new apartment in about two months.

Toasting with a glass of Coke in hand, Wang said that she expects to decorate the new apartment in a way that will make it a cozy new home.

(Xinhua)