CCTV to air beauty pageant for Chinese cities

Thirty-two cities in China will compete in a large-scale culture tourism TV program Charming Cities in China, which will be broadcast on CCTV 2 from June 16 to Dec 8.

They include Inner Mongolia's Alxa League, Shaanxi province's Yan'an city, Tibet autonomous region's Linzhi and Jilin province's Tonghua.

The 32 cities were considered to represent 32 forms of distinctive Chinese culture, selected from more than 330 counterparts.

They will go through four rounds of challenges in the program and the one receiving the most votes from the audience worldwide will be named the charming tourism city of the year.

The show is a joint effort between the China National Tourism Administration and CCTV, and aims to boost cultural tourism development and help the public better understand Chinese cities.

"The main purpose of the program is to display city culture image and brand," says Zhao He, deputy director of the CCTV 2.

It will display tourism opportunities and the unique culture of those cities.