China Publishes Administrative Districts Encyclopedia ����An inauguration ceremony for the publication of an encyclopedia on China's administrative districts was held in Beijing on September 26. ����The encyclopedia, the first of its kind in China, was compiled by the Ministry of Civil Administration and published by the People's Publishing House of Zhejiang Province. ����Li Peng, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, wrote a preface for the encyclopedia. ����The encyclopedia systematically introduces China's current administration system, evolution in history, geographic locations, economic situation and cultural characteristics, scenic spots and sites of historical interest in these regions, ranging from provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, special administrative regions, to 300-plus prefectures, 2,800-strong counties and over 50,000 townships. ����Thousands of people have joined in the three-year compiling and editing work of the encyclopedia, which is composed of more than 14 million Chinese characters and divided into five volumes. ����China is one of the earliest nations in setting up a rather complete administrative system, which was introduced some 4,000 years ago in the Xia Dynasty (B.C. 21th century - B.C. 16th century). (Xinhua) HomeNews 1999-09-26 Page1 Full Story in Chinese