The first nine-day Ningxia International Festival featuring Desert Tourism is going on at Shahu Tourist Zone in Ningxia, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

A variety of activities including cross-desert race, sand sculpture show, beer-drinking contest, children's painting competitions and photo show will be held during the festival, which opened last Saturday.

An eye-catching sand sculpture portrays Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), which is erected 12 meters tall and 50 meters in diameter, believed to be the largest of its kind ever built in China. The gigantic sculpture was surrounded by his subordinate ministers, warriors and terra-cotta warriors and horses, all made of sand.

The majesty figure of great stature is to be built by two brothers from Zhoushan City in east China's Zhejiang Province in two weeks with a total of 3,000 cubic meters of sand.

Zhang Chunjiang, deputy general manager of the Shahu Tourism Co. Ltd., predicted that the festival would attract approximately 100,000 visitors, both from China and overseas.