Nearly 300 journalists from about 60 media organizations home and abroad are visiting the northern Chinese city of Tangshan to cover the 30th anniversary of an earthquake that killed more than 240,000 people on July 28, 1976, a local official said Thursday.

News agencies, television and radio stations, newspapers, magazines and Internet media, including the Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television (CCTV), Hebei Daily, Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Po and Wen Wei Po newspapers, Agence France Presse, and Germany's ARD radio service, were represented, said Na Dingwu, of the information office of Tangshan city in Hebei Province.

A string of activities are planned for July 28 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the earthquake that measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale.

Na said the city had never seen so many reporters, saying it was "beyond expectation."

"Many people from around China, who joined the rescue operation 30 years ago, have probably come along with their local media," he said.

"The development of Tangshan in the years since is another factor attracting the attention of both Chinese and foreign media," he added.

Tangshan was said to have been erased from the face of the Earth after the earthquake flattened the century-old industrial base. However, after three decades of rebuilding, it stands again as a vigorous city.

It has more than seven million people living in the 13,472 square-kilometer municipal area, including an urban population of three million, according to the official website of the Tangshan city government.

In the past year, its gross domestic product grew by 15.1 percent to reach 202.7 billion yuan (US$25.3 billion).

The per capita disposable income for urban residents was 10,488 yuan (US$1,311) in 2005 and rural residents, 4,582 yuan (US$572.8).

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)