Violinist to play first fiddle during wind band tour

Young Chinese-American violinist Gao Xiang and the University of Michigan Symphony Band will tour more than six Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, in May. Acclaimed US conductor Michael Haithcock will hold the baton.

The series will present the latest works of three world-class composers with the University of Michigan, which is widely considered a leader of the modern American wind band movement that was born in 1927.

Gao is the youngest tenured full professor with the University of Delaware and a guest professor of East China Normal University in Shanghai.

Taipei museum's treasures debut at Guangdong fair

Taipei's Palace Museum has, for the first time, participated in the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair, which was held from Friday to Monday in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

The museum brought a variety of collections to the fair, such as part of an invaluable scroll-style painting Dwelling in Fuchun Mountain, created by Huang Gongwang in 1350, according to a museum official.

Tomb of Kublai Khan's daughter gets protection

The family tomb of an ancient princess will come under the protection of the local government, according to the cultural relics bureau in Hebei province, where the ruins are located.

The tomb of the daughter of Yuan Dynasty founder Kublai Khan is located in Guyuan county and is believed to be the only royal tomb from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) ever discovered in the country, a bureau spokesman

said on Tuesday.

Thirty tombs have been found in the area surrounding Princess Yuelie's tomb, archaeologists said, including those of her husband, son and daughters-in-law.

Before being verified as a burial area, the site was believed to be a summer resort for the imperial family during the Liao Dynasty (907-1125).

600-year-old altar found in Hebei province

Chinese archaeologists have found a 600-year-old altar in the city of Baoding in North China's Hebei province.

The altar, covering an area of nearly 100 square meters and about 1.5 to 2 meters high, was discovered in Nanhepo Street in Baoding, a spokesman for the provincial administration of cultural heritage said.

Three small temples once stood to the north of the altar, but they had disappeared, the spokesman said.

The Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) altar is the only ancient altar with an intact plot of land in Hebei, according to Li Wenlong, a researcher with Hebei University.

China Daily-Xinhua