12 henanspecial Friday, September 2, 2011 CH I N A d a i L Y Cultural heritage alluring to tourists

By Xia Rongtie, Gui Yanwei and Guo Qiangwei

Ruzhou, with 1,400 years of history, has a great cultural heritage. • Pottery One priceless piece of art in Chinese History Museum — a pot decorated with a stork holding a fish in its mouth — was discovered in an archeo- logical dig, in the city. This early pottery painting, believed to have come from provided to daily the New Stone Age, is the larg- Ruzhou’s cultural legacy: pottery, porcelain, rubbings from GUI YANWEI / China daily est piece of its kind in China stone inscriptions, and a horse made of ru stone. Cement factory at an industrial zone in the south of Ruzhou, where the resources are putting the city on a fast growth track. and represents the achieve- ments of art from that period. selected 109 examples of ent dynasties, as well as the • Porcelain ancient calligraphy and had renowned poets Su Dongpo Ruzhou’s porcelain has been them carved in stone. and Ouyang Xiu. valued by collectors since The stone inscriptions rep- About nine kilometers Historic city finds new early times. During the Song resent a variety of Chinese art northeast of Fengxue Temple Dynasty (960-1279), when forms and are treasured by cal- is the magic slopes, more than ceramics-making reached its ligraphy lovers. 2,000 meters long, where a highest point, Ruzhou’s por- • Ru stone rider can ascend without ped- ways to promote growth celain was one of China’s five Another uniquely local item aling. most famous types. is ru stone, a type of lava that One not-to-miss site is the Today, the traditional por- has been likened to jade. geopark with its moraine and By Xia Rongtie, with the more famous miner- Its sewage treatment plant celain firing skills are on the The special stone also con- clearly revealed strata. Gui Yanwei als springs in Vichy, France, can handle 40,000 tons of national cultural heritage list. tain various microelements The city’s rich tourism and Guo Qiangwei 8 in quality, so they are ideal waste water daily and it has • Stone inscriptions that are beneficial to health. resources are expected to healthcare spots. an eco-friendly garbage-treat- Ruzhou is also known for • Scenic sites attract more tourists from This historic city in million tons This resource wealth helped ment system. rubbings from early stone These include the Fengxue around the globe, so it wants province in central China is in coal output, annually the city’s industrial develop- inscriptions. Temple and local hot springs, to develop its tourism and pro- finding new ways to reinvent ment in the energy, chemicals, Friendly environment Over 800 years ago, one which attracted emperors mote its image, local officials itself — as a good place to machine, food processing, With its forest-coverage local official, Wang Caicong, and empresses from differ- say. invest — thanks to its resourc- It also has an abundance of metallurgy, and construction running to 28 percent, Ruzhou es and industrial foundation . 46 types of known minerals, sectors. has improved its environment Ruzhou sits in the center of 26 of which have been devel- Naturally, local companies dramatically. the province’s five major cit- oped, including coal, bauxite in related businesses have It has also improved its ies: the capital ; and limestone for cement. grown and have gradually administration and invest- the popular historic, tourist Ruzhou sits on an estimated gained influence nationwide ment policies to attract inves- destination ; coal-rich 3.55 billion tons of coal, which and even globally. tors from China and abroad. ; and the other has given it the nickname Ruzhou is now the world’s These include the US’ KKR, historic cities of and “50-km-long sea of coal”. It is third largest producer of a private equity member of Nanyang. one of 50 key coal-mining cit- L-tryptophan, which is used the Fortune 500, and the It covers a 1,573-square- ies in China, with an annual in a number of ways to treat International Finance Corp, kilometer area and is a region- output of 8 million tons. attention deficit-hyperactiv- a member of the World Bank al hub because of its network ity disorder, insomnia, even Group. of railways, expressways and Hot springs depression. The investment has helped highways. Another underground The city tops in Asia in its the local economy and put It is less than two hours by treasure is its hot springs, a alloys and wheels for heavy Ruzhou in 154th place last car from Zhengzhou, Luoy- geothermal resource with a high-speed locomotives, and year, in competitiveness, out ang and Nanyang airports, temperature between 57 and a major producer of cement. of 2,001 county-level cities. and five hours from the port 75 C, and which contains Ruzhou is also a major It has also taken a number of Rizhao, in the neighbor- many elements beneficial to national wheat, grain and of awards for its innovation, GUI YANWEI / China daily ing coastal province of Shan- health. meat center, and, a producer startups, tourism, private Fengxue Temple, originally built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220), has a variety of dong. The springs can compete of cornstarch and biscuits. economy, and environment. classical architecture styles added during subsequent dynasties.

热烈祝贺第二届中国曲剧艺术节2011年9月6日-9日中国汝州举行

第二届中国曲剧艺术节将举办六项主题活动，分别为：开幕式；曲剧优秀剧目展演；中国曲剧艺术发展论坛；评授 "当代中国曲剧艺术家"；招商引资经贸洽谈会；闭幕式。

诞生于汝州的中国曲剧，是全国第八、河南省第二大剧种，被国务院列为全国首批非物质文化遗产保护名录。曲剧质 朴通俗、贴近民众，具有浓郁的地方特色，以其优美、抒情、细腻而又明快活泼的音乐唱腔广为流传，《卷席筒》、《寇 准背靴》、《屠夫状元》等经典剧目唱响全国。曲剧著名艺术家张新芳、王秀玲，曲胡著名演奏家宋喜元等，都是从汝州 走出去的。曲剧以其独特的艺术魅力，不仅从汝州走向河南，而且走向全国，在河北、安徽、湖北、陕西、新疆、内蒙古、 台湾等10多个省（区）和地区，曲剧都广为流传，在海外华人社会也声名远播，具有广泛而深远的影响。