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Tourism authorities have opened up the former residences of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong and Madame Soong Mei-ling -- widow of the late Chiang Kai-shek -- to visitors in Lushan Mountain, a revolutionary base in the eastern Jiangxi Province.

The two historic villas, with the addresses No. 1 Lulin and Meilu respectively, are among a complex of 636 VIP garden villas at the mountain that is known as a "museum of world architecture" and represents the architectural styles of 16 countries.

While most of the old villas still accommodate visitors, the local tourism bureau has opened up some of the old villas so that tourists will have a panoramic view of the traditional revolutionary base.

Six more villas will be ready to receive visitors this spring, including the former residences of the US Nobel Prize laureate Pearl S. Buck and senior Kuomintang officers of the 1930s, said a tourism official.

The tourism bureau has restored the original look of the villas and installed period furniture and decor of the early 1900s at a cost of 35 million yuan (4.2 million US dollars).

Lushan Mountain, located between Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake and the Yangtze River, the longest in the country, covers 302 square kilometers. Mao Zedong held three important meetings of the Chinese Communist Party in Lushan in 1959, 1961 and 1970.

The mountain was listed as a United Nations' World Cultural Heritage Site in 1996 for its scenic landscape and cultural relics.