RALPH FIENNES - FIENNES PLANNING CHINA TRAVELS

British actor RALPH FIENNES is planning a tour of China, after falling in love with a rural community in a south-western province.

The RED DRAGON star, who turns 43 tomorrow (22DEC05), spent three months shooting his new movie THE WHITE COUNTESS in Shanghai, but he admits the highlight of the shoot was a trip to Yunan.

He says, "It has lots of ethnic minorities there, and they are extraordinary. Totally agrarian and still ploughing with oxen and sowing their crops and building their stone houses by hand. Weirdly untouched by modern, aggressive development.

"I would love to go further afield in China to more rural places."