The activities include a five-km run along the Chang'an Avenue from downtown Beijing's Xidan Cultural Plaza to the Millennium Altar in western Beijing, a mass consulting service with participation of a dozen medical organizations including the Beijing disease control center and You'an Hospital, as well as release of Chinese-version brochures, entitled"Act Now", bearing speeches of leaders from Asian countries and Pacific regions on combating AIDS.

Henke Bekedam, the World Health Organization Representative in Beijing, and Jin Dapeng, director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, were present at the Xidan Cultural Plaza, the start or central point of Sunday's activities.

Beijing has launched a three-step campaign to curb the spreading of AIDS since the latter half of the year, including issue of condoms in public places, methadone maintenance therapy, and establishment of the government-funded needle exchange programon an experimental basis.

The municipal government has also promised to provide economically poor AIDS patients with free medicine, and their children will be exempted from paying tuition fees.

The main theme of this year's World AIDS Day features"paying attention to women and fighting against AIDS/HIV".