Exhibition on reform, opening-up opens at Deng Xiaoping's hometown

An exhibition on China's reform and opening-up progress opened Friday at Deng Xiaoping's hometown in Guang'an city, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Local tourism authorities said they expect the event to draw a great number of visitors during the week-long National Day holiday from Oct. 1-7.

"The focus (of the event) is on the contributions made by the chief architect of China's reform and opening up drive", said Ma Fu, director of the administration bureau of Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence.

On display at the 2,000-sq m exhibition hall are 2,500 items of culture relics, archives and documents as well as pictures and video programs about Deng's life between 1978 and 1992.

Included is a set of Chinese tunic suit (Chung-Shan suit) that Deng dressed at the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which set the tone for the following massive opening-up.

On Friday, the exhibition attracted more than 1,300 members of the Youth League, students and police officers.

The Exhibition Hall of Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence is so far the only site commemorating Deng Xiaoping and displaying related items about Deng's glorious life.

Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence was ranked as one of top ten revolutionary tourism sites. It received 1.02 million tourists in 2005.

In recent years, more and more Chinese tourists chose to travel to those revolutionary tourism or "red tourism" sites during the National Day holiday.

Many of those sites located near mountains and lakes, such as

Jinggangshan, Ruijin and Zunyi, combining with ecotourism products.

A China National Tourism Administration report predicts that "red tourism" will become even more popular in this year's National Day holiday. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Long March victory.

Source: Xinhua