Chinese Map to Be Made of EarthOn Saturday, underneath the Great Wall, a special earth collecting ceremony was held to bring Chinese people around the world closer together. A map of China is to be made, using earth collected from various places around the country.The activity is co-sponsored by the state council's Taiwan affairs office, the overseas Chinese office and other relevant organizations. It is one of a series of events aimed to enhance ethnic solidarity of all the Chinese people around the world. The earth is being collected from places of historical and cultural significance. It will then be cleaned and purified, and finally used to form a map of China. During the ceremony, earth collected from underneath the Great Wall and various temples in Beijing were mixed together, and divided into three parts. One part will be taken home by the Taiwanese delegates. In exchange, the Taiwanese delegates distributed earth collected from Taiwan's Ali mountain under the Great Wall. In an effort to boost Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, delegates from all of China's ethnic groups wrote down their names to wish the city good luck. The groups also performed various dances in an expression of China's cultural diversity. |
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