■Tour of Cultural Relics and Historical Sites

The cultural interests of Jilin Province have their own characteristics in the northeast of Ｃhina. Those historic sites silently recorded the histories and the stories that had happened in this area. The most stirring one is the ruins of Konguryo, which can be seen as full of zone culture characters and blending of diverse cultures. It is a special testimony of Konguryo kingdom’s civilization, which had vanished in the history.

The remains of the ancient Konguryo Kingdom are located in Ji’an City, including the Internal Town, the Wandushan Town, the Tomb of Great King (14) and the Aristocrat Tomb (261). They are the remains of the slave Konguryo kingdom that existed from the 1st to the 7th century. Under the plains of Ji’an City, there are more than 100,000 tombs of Konguryo Kingdom, this is the famous “cavity and chimb tomb group”. Among these tombs, the Taiwang Tomb, the General Tomb, and the Qian Qiu Tomb are of great size. The General Tomb is extolled as the “Pyramid of the East”. The length of the foundation is 31.58 meters, and the height is 12.4 meters. The whole tomb looks like a pyramid, has seven ladders, and all of the ladders are constructed by giant granite that were carved delicately. Also the roof of the tomb is made by one big rock. The whole tomb constructed with majesty, looks bright and grandeur. The General Tomb is a masterpiece of stone-made architecture art of Konguryo Times. The colorful and exquisite paintings with abundant contents and legendary color were still well-preserved many tombs of the Tomb Group.

On the foot of a mountain on northeast of Ji’an City, there is a Hao Taiwang Stele. It is a precious treasure of China no matter in its constructed style, or in its epigraph style. Hao Taiwang Stele was constructed for the commemoration of the 19th King by the 20th King. The height of the stele is 6.39 meters, made by carving an entire giant gravel tuff. The shape of it is an anomalous square pole. The epigraphs were carved on the four sides of the stele. There are 1775 words in 44 lines. The epigraphs that were written in Chinese note down the achievements of the Hao Taiwang and the stories of the origins of the Konguryo Kingdom and how the people established their regime. It is the longest precious written data preserved by the Konguryo.

On July, 1st, 2004, at 1:18 p.m., it was decided by the 28th meeting of the World Heritage Committee that the Konguryo kingdom ruins, tombs of the general and the king of China were listed in The World Famous Heritage List. This is a big event in Chinese culture developing history; it verified that China, as a civilized ancient country, has its specific charm.

Moreover, the exquisite carvings and paintings in the buildings of the ancient Yehelana city in Siping are paragons of Manchu culture; today the city has been converted into a folklore attraction. The Palace of Puyi, the “emperor” of the puppet Manchoukou regime, is now a national centre for education in patriotism. All these historic sites or remains, including the ancient Liao Tower in Nong’an County, the stone-carvings of dragons and tigers at Hunchun, and the Wen Temple, embodied the hardworking and the brightness of our ancient ancestors. At 15: 2’’36’ on March 18, 1976, a meteorite shower hit the northwest suburbs of Jilin and Yongji County. The Jilin meteorite shower gave us a biggest stone aerolite in the world. And this made the following construction of Jilin Municipal Meteorite Museum become possible. It is the only one of its kind in China.

■Ice and Snow Tour

Ice and snow, bring cold to the northern people, but also bring many specific and charming interests to Jilin’s winter.

Jilin Province enjoys exceptional advantages in developing ice-snow tourist industry. The winter here is long, and the average temperature is under 15°C. The suitable temperature, long snowy period, good snow quantity and more snow field add the comfort of skiing, and reduce the time limit of the outdoor sport in winter.

Although the exploitation of the ice-snow tourist industry is a little late, it has its great potential. The Changbai Mountains areas have its special advantages. Now, the main spots of ice-snow tour include Changbai Mountains--- the Snow Kingdom, Rime Fog of Jilin--- one of the four wonders in China, the chief matching fields of Asian Winter Games in 2007. Some skiing fields located around the big cities of Jilin province, like Jilin’s North Big Lake skiing field, Jilin’s Lotus Hills skiing field, and Changchun’s Jingyue Pool skiing field.

Ice and snow tour is perfect colorful in Jilin province. Ice and snow travel festival has been successfully held ten times by the various cities. At the beginning of 2007, the sixth Asia winter games were held in Changchun. Changchun is one of the earliest cities to develop the ice and snow tour. Since 1998,Changchun city has held ice and snow travel festival 9 times. In the past few years, along with the success of the national ice and snow games, ice and snow has been the advantage of Changchu. In 2006 Changchun Vassar Ice and Snow Festival, the attendance figure has increased to nore than 10000 from 700 in 2003. During the festival, Jilin province received 1,560,000 tourists, increased 8.5%, the income of tourism reached 735,000,000 Yuan, two times the volume of the previous year. In addition, many ice and snow festivals are famous in Jilin province, such as Ice and Snow Studded Pines Festival in Jilin city, Changbai Mountains Ice and Snow Festival in Yanbian and so on. In Jilin province, you can enjoy ice and snow studded pines, hotspring, skee, skating, sledge, snow slide, motorcycle in snow field, rope way, winter fishing and the other colorful ice and snow games.