Hot spot spring at plateau

Tourists from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality enjoy hot spring at an altitude of 4,300 meters above sea level in Yangbajing, Lhasa, capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Oct. 4, 2004. During China's National Day holidays, flights to and from Tibet have been all booked up. The unique plateau scenery and the original Tibetan culture in Tibet have become increasingly more preferred by tourists from China's other provinces.

firecracker blast in Guangxi

Picture taken on Oct. 5 shows the damaged workshop of a firecracker factory in Pubei County, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. By 20:00 Tuesday, 31 people died and 57 injured . Further investigation is still under way.

Chinese antiquities exhibit in New York

Gold-overlaid stone statues dated from Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577 AD.) are exhibited at the preliminary exhibition of Chinese antiquities held in Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the United States, Oct. 4, 2004. The exhibition, named as "Full Bloom of Tang Dynasty" is held under the cooperation of China's State Bureau of Cultural Relics and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the largest exhibition of its kind in recent 20 years. More than 400 articles from 47 Chinese museums will be exhibited in this Museum until Jan. 23, 2005.

Three US scientists share 2004 Nobel Prize in physics

US scientists David J. Gross(left), H. David Politzer(center) and Frank Wilczek (right) won the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for explaining how the basic building blocks of nature, quarks, interact to make a coin spin or build the entire universe.

World's largest single shopping mall to fully open to business

Golden Resources Shopping Mall, the largest of its kind in the world, will be fully open to business in October. Located by West Fourth Ring Road (Xisihuan) in Haidian District, Beijing, the mall covers 680, 000 square meters, parks 10, 000 cars and takes shoppers up and down with more than 200 lifts. It is expected that 200, 000 customers would shop here per day.

UN examinations on Chinese peace-keeping troop

Chinese peace-keeping soldiers line up in front of their vehicles to wait for examinations of UN experts in Zwedru, Liberia, Oct. 4, 2004. The Chinese peace-keeping troops engineer unit passed the periodic examination by UN experts on Monday. The United Nations sent experts to examine the equipments, facilities and living conditions of soldiers of peace-keeping troops in Liberia regularly. The results were used to set up corresponding UN allowance standard for the troop's accredited country.

Leaves turn red, travallers come

On October 5, children are waving maple leaves as props at the closing ceremony of the 5th Maple Festival in Hengren County, Liaoning Province in northeast China. The small country with a population of 300,000 attracts travelers from around the country every fall when leaves in the mountains turn red.

Jumping from the highest tower in China

Chinese BASE jumper Ding Jianping displays the national flag after leaping from Jinmao Tower during the 2004 Jinmao Tower International BASE Jumping Show in Shanghai, October 5, 2004. Thirty-seven base jumpers from 16 countries, including six Chinese jumpers are taking part in the event. Ding is the first jumper today.

French aerobatic flight in Beijing

Crew members of the French aerobatic flight team check up the planes parked in the Capital International Airport in Beijing Oct. 5, 2004. A total of 13 planes from France are in Beijing for the coming aerobatic flight.