Ancient county face lift attracts foreign merchants

Tangshan (CNS) -- Luan County, a community with 3,000 years of recorded history in Hebei Province, started to welcome domestic and foreign visitors this May 1 after its architectural "face-lift."

About one hundred merchants from Thailand, Myanmar, South Korea and other countries flocked to the ancient city, opened stores here and put their special products on display for visitors.

An investment of five billion yuan was used to rebuild Luan's ancient Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings and structures, work that started in 2010 and targeted a total area of 1.3 million square meters. Thousands of buildings in the zone are slated for refurbishment and so far 400 are making excellent bases for commercial enterprises.