(Photo: Global Times)

BEIJING, April 14 -- Tiantai county in Zhejiang Province has decided to designate May 20, 2010, Tiantai Mountain Tourism Day on which tourists can visit Tiantai Mountain for free.

Tiantai Mountain is a national scenic area and is the base for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhism; and it is also the origin for Southern Taoism. In addition it is also the hometown of Living Buddha Ji Gong and the destination of the Tang Poetry Road in Chinese culture.

The tourism day is said to be related to Xu Xiake, a noted traveler and geographer of the late Ming Dynasty. Xu traveled throughout China for more than 30 years, documenting his travels extensively into The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake, and the first entry is Traveling in Tiantai Mountain on May 20, 1613.

The tourism day is not only to commemorate of Xu Xiake, but is a measure to foster the travel and leisure awareness of tourists and to encourage people to involve in travel to improve quality of life.