The 2010 Shenyang International Tourist Festival will be held from July 15th to August 5th at Shenyang Imperial Palace.

With the theme “refreshing rhyme, flourishing Shenyang”，the Festival will consist of 13 activities, including an opening ceremony, International Tourist Day, International Tourist Joint Exhibition, the “Bright Shenyang” Gala, Taiwan Food Festival, Beer Festival and Zero-carbon Summer Tour.

It gives people a chance to experience Shenyang’s scenery and traditional customs, while at the same time enjoying food and landscape at home and abroad. Dozens of national performance teams and minority performance teams from Sichuan, Fujian, Guangdong, Qinghai, Tibet, Tianjin and Hebei will take part in the festival.

This tourist festival attracts tourist organizations and companies from 23 countries and regions.

A grand opening ceremony will be launched for the 2010 Shenyang International Tourist Festival on July 16th at the Dazheng Hall of Shenyang Imperial Palace.

Ning Xiangwei, general director of the opening ceremony, said: “To achieve terrific effects, we have employed acoustic and lighting equipment which was used during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The audience will see 7500 stars made of LED bulbs, which represents Shenyang’s 7500-year-long history.”

He also revealed that tickets to the opening ceremony will not be available at the ticket office and the government will grant them as gifts. As to who will receive the tickets, he did not specify.

By Xie Fang & Wu Wei