CHINESE VILLAGERS CASH IN ON LEGEND THEIR ANCESTORS WERE ROMAN SOLDIERS

ANCIENT ROME may have lost a legion, but modern China has found a tourism bonanza: a desert town full of blond haired, blue-eyed Chinese residents claiming to be descended from an historic military disaster.

The remote village of Liqian in Gansu Province on the edge of the Gobi has an odd present which may reflect on its unusual past.

Researches from as long ago as the 1950s have noted the areas Chinese inhabitants have some unusual physical features: Most notably lighter-coloured eyes and hair.

In the 1950s an Oxford University professor, Homer Dubs, proposed the theory that this may be a lingering trace of a Roman legionaries fighting with the Hun tribes in 36BC. It is argued that the captives were marched east to China, then under the rule of the Han Dynasty.

Recently extensive DNA samples were collected from the region's inhabitants in an effort to establish if the tale has any truth in it.

In November 2010, China and Italy jointly set up a research centre on Italian culture in Lanzhou University.

The project aims to track the descendants and evidence of Roman legionaries in the region.

Don't panic ... it's not the Lost Ninth Legion, but a different one.

While the results are not yet in, the town of Liqian ... sitting on the edge of the Gobi desert some 300 km from the nearest city ... is not waiting for the results.

China's Global Times reports a tall pillar has been set up at the town's entrance as a tourist attraction. And the residents have found the Roman spirit still stirs in their veins - donning replica armour and the legionaries distinctive red capes in renactments of Roman military manoeuvres.

"In such a remote place, two great civilisations have merged. We are really surprised," Italian visitor Pamela McCourt Francescone told the Xinhua News Agency.

With a tall stature, deep-set green eyes and an aquiline nose, the villager Luo Ying bears the nickname "Prince of Rome" . "I believe I'm connected to ancient Romans," Luo told Xinhua.

Luo Ying, the most prosperous man in the village, is shown above alongside a bust of Marcus Licinius Crassus, the richest man in Rome.

Tourism opportunists are tapping the Roman craze. There is a Roman hotel and a Roman plaza. The nearby highway has been lined with Roman-like statues.

No actual Roman artefacts have yet been discovered, however.