A foldaway map of China's longest river, the Yangtze, was published in this provincial capital of central China's Hubei Province Friday.

It is the first time in China that a map has been funded, designed and published by an individual.

Lu Jiaxiong, a writer, spent seven years creating the map, which is 2,280 cm long and 43 cm wide.

The map contains information concerning almost every aspect of the river basin, ranging from natural resources, population and transportation to tourism sites and modern places of recreation.

An English version of the map will be published this autumn, when a total of 50,000 copies of the map, both in Chinese and English, will be published.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2002)