Ceremonies will be held in Hainan Island Province Saturday to mark the occasion of obtaining soil from Xisha and Nansha Arch., and Sanya City in the province, to put into a Chinese territory map model in Beijing.

A spokesman with the Committee for Organizing Chinese Cultural Link Projects, the initiator of making the soil map, claimed that the special soil map will be the largest map in the world and hopefully be mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records.

According to the spokesman, the map will be made of purified soil obtained from 32 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, as well as Hong Kong and the Macao special administrative regions, and Taiwan in accordance with patented technologies.

Up to now, soil has been collected from Taiwan and Beijing and is being temporarily kept at the foot of the Badaling section of the Great Wall, said the spokesman.

(People's Daily 06/03/2001)