Demure actress takes a bold step in Coming Back

Taiwan actress Annie Yi presents the boldest performance of her career, by playing a cruel killer and robber in Coming Back, a crime drama to be released on Friday.

The 42-year-old has thus far always played pretty and elegant women, and has studiously avoided kissing on screen.

But in this film she challenges herself, seducing the lead actor Simon Yam, and even appearing with a bare back.

Coming Back focuses on the battle of wits between Yi's robber team and Yam, an art restoration expert.

Sex and the City star to visit China

Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker is visiting China for the first time, as VIP guest of the Artistry on Ice performance on July 22 at Shanghai and July 24 at Taipei.

The Hollywood actress is fashion consultant for the show. The first Artistry on Ice performance was held in Beijing in 2010, whose theme, "Love and Beauty", saw the wedding of Olympic champion couple Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo.

This year the show will be themed "Art and City". The Olympic couple will take part in with a figure skating performance. Other international skating stars include Alexei Yagudin from Russia and Shizuka Arakawa from Japan.

Heilongjiang fest promises adventure and music

The 11th Heilongjiang Forest Ecological Tourism Festival, is now running in Yichun, Heilongjiang province, and will end on Aug 31.

It opened on July 5 with an orchestra concert in Hinggan National Forest Park. More than 100 artists performed classic red (revolution-themed) songs and folk songs.

During the festival, tourists can adopt a Korea Pine, join a city cycling contest, venture deep into the forests and go river rafting. It will also showcase the talents of tour guides, wait staff, and include folk music concerts, and exhibitions of paintings, calligraphy and carvings on birch boards.

Besides, real estate experts will gather to discuss the development of tourist sites and the construction of a tourism brand.

Located in the Lesser Hinggan Mountains, Yichun has a forest coverage of 86 percent and is home to the Korea Pine, a national protected plant.

Yang Mi thrills once more in Mysterious Island

Young actress Yang Mi stars in another thriller, after her impressive performance in The Door, a 2007 horror film by director Li Shaohong.

The new film, Mysterious Island, follows a group of youngsters on an island. As the team members die one after another, a secret unfolds.

Yang says it is pure coincidence that her two big screen works are both horror films, although she is a fan of the genre.

Yang also sings the film's theme song, produced by Jane Zhang, a winner of Super Girls, the Chinese version of American Idol.

The film premiered on July 8.

Plato's thoughts popularized for kids

The Chinese version of I Am Plato, the first novel of the young Plato series for children aged between 11 and 16, by United Kingdom-born Greek author Alexandra Mangos, was released on Tuesday at Trends Bookstore in Beijing.

Set in Athens, Greece, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the book casts Plato as a 12-year-old boy, who sets out with his classmates and eccentric tutor Socrates to defeat the Ring of Gyges, that can render its wearer invisible.

With a mixture of history and fantasy, the book tries to elaborate the philosophy of Plato and how it changed history.

Mangos is embarking on the second novel of her young Plato series.

China Daily