China :: Commentaries

Flash Xijiang, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, is called the ethnic Miao capital. Unique aspects of it's local culture have been attracting more visitors. Inspired by its unique geographical environment and culture, Xijiang began to develop tourism in 2008. Actually, now it is one of the ten most exciting places in China. Traveler from Guangxi said, I came here yesterday, I like this village very much. It's very beautiful. I wish I could stay here, a fantastic place, natural scenery and kind people. Zhang Hua, Director of Bureau of Tourism, said, During the peak travel season, we received about 30 thousand visitors a day. And, tourism revenue in this village takes up one third of the total economy. Tourism provided a quick revenue boost in retail, hotel and other sectors. Wu Di benefits from it. He invested in a street of shops here, managing hotels, bars and restaurants. Wu said, I want to manage franchises, making travelers complet...

BEIJING'S municipal government will close 45 Beijing streets for half an hour late tomorrow to allow the city's citizens to set off fireworks to mark the arrival of the new Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival. The 45 streets will be closed to automobile traffic from 11:45 pm, the government's Fireworks Management Office said in a circular on its website yesterday. Setting off fireworks is a traditional way for Chinese to welcome the start of the new lunar year and spring. The fireworks are believed to scare away monsters and evil spirits. Sanitation workers cleaned up about 80 tons of fireworks debris left on Beijing streets after last year's Spring Festival. Ahead of the festival, municipal authorities mobilized sanitation workers to remove flammable items, such as dry tree branches and garbage, from the 45 streets, to enhance safety. Beijing police said yesterday more than 490,000 civilians have been deployed to patrol the city's streets, to help police mai...

Chinese CCTV Broadcaster Uses Top Gun Footage In Military Drill Related Articles Chinese Scholars Arent Buying Lang Langs Explanations Producer of Tiananmen Square Self-Immolation Video Died Young False and Fiery Propaganda Persists in China (Video) China Central Television (CCTV) reported in its Network News Broadcast that the Chinese Air Force has acquired combat capabilities for distant waters. A video clip of a J-10 Fighter in a live combat exercise was shown. Sharp-eyed netizens quickly noticed a less than two second long clip of an aircraft exploding in midair that was taken from the 1986 U.S. movie hit Top Gun. A frame-by-frame comparison of the CCTV news video and the footage from Top Gun has widely spread on the Internet. CCTVs Network News Broadcast is a 30-minute news program that has been aired every night at 7 p.m. since 1976. A Jan. 27 report by Yunnan Information News said the video in question was aired on Jan. 23. An Internet user by the name of Liu Yi p...

The country is set to resume its development plans for the Nujiang River in Southwest China due to increasing demand for energy. The hydropower project was shelved eight years ago because of environmental concerns. "I think it's certain that the country will develop the Nujiang River," Shi Lishan, deputy director of the new energy department under the National Energy Administration, told a meeting in Beijing on Sunday. "Preparations for the preliminary stages of the project, including research and design, are now under way," Shi told China National Radio. "Based on extensive research and canvassing of public opinion, we hope the construction of hydropower stations on the Nujiang River can start as soon as possible," Shi said. Details of the project have not been decided yet, he added. This is the first time central authorities have shown a clear determination to exploit the resources of the river, the report said. Originating in the Tangula Mountains i...

Footage from the Jan. 23 CCTC report. (Credit: Wall Street Journal) Top Gun, the famed 1980s Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer film about jet fighter pilots, was the source of news footage used by Chinese state-run CCTV recently, according to reports this weekend. A Wall Street Journal blog posted a video that compared scenes from the Tony Scott-directed film and CCTV footage from a news feature about a Chinese air force training exercise. The jet explosions in both pieces of footage look exactly the samedown to the smoke, fire, and debris flying out from the explosion. There are other striking similarities as well. The Jan. 23 CCTV film faux pas was first spotted by a Chinese user named Liu Yi on the Ministry of Tofu blog. The user pointed out that "the jet that the [Chinese] J-10 hit is an F-5, a U.S. fighter jet. In Top Gun, what the leading actor Tom Cruise pilots an F-14 to bring down is exactly an F-5. The Journal reported that CCTV has since removed the clip from ...

China sent two passenger planes yesterday and was sending two more charter flights today to pick up its citizens stranded in Cairo as anti-government protests in Egypt showed no sign of easing. An Air China A330 left Beijing at 11:30am yesterday. The plane, which can carry 265 passengers, was due to arrive in Cairo at between 4 and 5pm local time and is expected back in Beijing this morning "if the ground support work at the Cairo airport goes smoothly," an Air China official said. A Hainan Airlines A330, with a seating capacity of up to 280 passengers, left at noon and is expected back in Beijing at noon today. There are more than 500 Chinese at the airport. Air China is to send two more planes early this morning. A taskforce composed of officials from the Foreign Ministry, National Tourism Administration, Ministry of Public Security and Civil Aviation Administration has also left for Egypt, Xinhua news agency reported. Among the Chinese at the airport are 40 primary school ...

TESTIFYING: Geng He at the Rayburn Building where she gave testimony about the persecution of her husband and family, on Jan. 18. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times) WASHINGTONThe last few weeks have been tough for Geng He, wife of Gao Zhisheng, a celebrated Chinese civil rights lawyer whose case came to the public again on Jan. 11. On that date the Associated Press published an excruciating testimony of his experience being tortured by Chinese Communist Party security forces. Nothing had been heard from him for the eight months prior. Gao was targeted by the authorities in 2006 after he began defending Falun Gong practitioners. He wrote several open letters to the communist leadership detailing the torture of numerous adherents, and demanded they stop the barbaric acts. Then he was himself, over the years that followed, repeatedly kidnapped and tortured. Related Articles Gao Zhisheng's New Article: Speaking from My Heart Gao Zhisheng: Conscience of China Like Gao, Geng He has suffered a lo...

Watch Video Play Video An Air China passenger aircraft is on its way to Egypt to help evacuate Chinese citizens back to China. After receiving the order from the Foreign Ministry, Air China organized some of the most experienced pilots and flight attendents. This is the first time that Air China has run a direct flight from Beijing to Cairo. The aircraft will bring back aound 260 Chinese tourists. It is reported that there are aound 500 Chinese passengers still stranded at the Cairo airport. Related stories Lack of security continues in Egypt 2011-01-31 Iraq to evacuate citizens from Egypt amid unrest 2011-01-31 Canadian government to fly nationals out of Egypt 2011-01-31 New Zealand ministry advises against all travel to Egypt 2011-01-31 China hopes Egypt restores stability, order at early date: FM spokesman 2011-01-31 Editor: Zhang Ning | Source: CNTV.CN

ABC News: China's state-owned offshore oil and gas company is intensifying its search for oil in the western United States. CNOOC Ltd. announced Sunday it will pay $570 million for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s drilling project in an emerging oil field in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming. Chesapeake, an oil and natural gas company based in Oklahoma City, will operate the 800,000-acre project in a pair of basins in a region called the Niobrara shale. CNOOC will pay two-thirds of the project's drilling costs, up to an additional $697 million. In October, CNOOC paid $1.08 billion for a one-third stake in a Chesapeake drilling project in South Texas. Link picked by Danwei.org

Seven people were killed and one person injured when a minibus collided with a heavy truck on a highway in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Monday morning, police said. The head-on collision happened at 6:50 a.m. on the outer ring road of Baotou City. The identities of the six men and one women killed were not immediately known. The woman who survived the accident was seriously injured. The truck driver was unharmed. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

With weibo (China twitter) roaring high in China, Chinese netizens are now more inclined to share their everyday incidents online with photos. Thus they are ready to take snapshots whenever they see something worth sharing or discussion. However, a law student from Beijing University almost got arrested when trying to take a photo of assumingly cadres privilege moment at the train station. The post was first saw on Beijing University BBS , and became topic of the day followed by massive reposting by many others . After the ticket checking in Tianjin railway station, I and other passengers were blocked by police from getting on our train. We were told to wait for a while but no one explained why. I took a look around and found the path from an escalator to the soft berth car was cleared. Then it hit me: this was the so called traffic control in China. My guess turned out to be correct as few minutes later several cadre-looking guys slowly descended from the escalator and strutted to t...

alec74 has added a photo to the pool:

lille abe has added a photo to the pool: If you like my work and wanna show it by inviting me to one of your groups, you are very welcome to do that, but please do not leave any graphic logos! I'll delete them. Hong Kong Walk

A bas relief sculpture of a tiger along a wall of bas relief sculptures depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac at the White Cloud Temple in Beijing. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images) Legends and mythology are a big part of Chinese culture, especially in relation to the Chinese calendar. Chinese people have every reason to be proud of those treasures, although many of them are regarded as myths by modern science. There are three types of calendar systems: solar, lunar, and solar-lunar calendars. A solar calendar counts the time it takes for the Earth to go round the Sun once as one year. A lunar calendar uses the time that it takes the Moon to go round the Earth as one month. A lunar year is about 11 days shorter than a solar year. The ancient Chinese calendar is a solar-lunar calendar. The months are set according to the cycles of the Moon, and the years are set according to the solar year. In order to match the months to the seasons, a leap month is created. T...

Woods | Damien | has added a photo to the pool: Taken in Wangjiazuijiao Street () in Shanghai with a Seagull TLR 4B-1 Roll #17 - Photo 5 - Shanghai GP3 ISO 100 -- Woods

China will carry out strict water resource management measures to fight water shortages, Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said Sunday. The measures will focus on three "red lines," or security lines -- water overexploitation, water usage efficiency and pollution -- said Chen at a press conference after the central authorities Saturday issued its first document of the year. China will intensify efforts to accelerate the development of the nation's water conservancy and promote the sustainable use of water resources, said the document, known as the No. 1 document, which usually reflects government priorities each year. The No. 1 document sets targets to improve China's relatively backward water conservancy situation over the next five to 10 years, Chen said. China suffers a 40-billion-cubic-meter water shortage annually, with two thirds of cities having trouble accessing water, Chen said. Water safety problems have been tackled for 210 million rural residents and ex...

Symposium on Promoting Religious Harmony. [China.org.cn] China's five national religious associations gathered in Beijing on January 28 to issue a Joint Declaration on Promoting Religious Harmony. Representatives from the Buddhist Association of China, the Taoist Association of China, the Islamic Association of China, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the China Christian Council spoke in support of the declaration. The declaration follows a UN General Assembly decision last year to declare the first week of February every year as World Interfaith Harmony Week. Representatives from China's religious groups all expressed their belief in harmony and peace at the meeting. They also called for patriotism, religious freedom and promoting harmony; opposed the distortion and manipulation of religion and emphasized its positive role in the development of a harmonious society. "Today's world is experiencing profound change. A religious revival is taking place. The i...

December 5, 2010, 11:53 pm Sunday night, Leilei was looking for some clothes at home and suddenly stopped her search. Leilei was born in the summer of 1983. From a small town in southern China, 9 years ago she was admitted into a very famous engineering university in Beijing, 5 years ago she started her master’s program and 3 years ago she started working. Currently, according to statistics Leilei’s income is in the top 12 percent of Beijing. (family back home) “How much money does your Leilei make?” “Aiya… only about 10,000 yuan.” “Wow, so much!” Leilei works at Beijing 3.5 Huan, she takes bus plus subway to work, needs about 1 hour and 13 minutes and costs 2.4 yuan. Leilei often withdraws money after work at the company south gate, average time waiting in line for the ATM is 3.5 minutes. There is never any line for the next door China Bank ATM. “That one charges you 2 yuan processing fee.” Leilei rents a one bedroom apartment for 2500 yuan a month. The lease is up next month and the ...

Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap explains why the push to stop the export of scrap electronics may be indirectly damaging the environment by destroying recoverable rare earth magnets. Link picked by Danwei.org

XI'AN plans to build 15 subway lines stretching for 600 kilometers before 2040. Line No. 2 is scheduled to start operating on September 28, said Chen Dongshan, head of the subway construction office of Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi Province. Construction of Line No. 1 is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Construction of Line No. 3 will start in October. Some 4 billion yuan (US$607.9 million) will be invested this year. Seafood Avenue, Hongkong

CHINA will face pressures ensuring farm product supply meets demand over the next five years, the Shanghai Securities News reported today citing Chen Xiaohua, China's vice agricultural minister. Chen said in the five-year period from 2011 to 2015, China will annually consume an extra 4 million tons of grain, 800,000 tons of vegetable oil and 1 million tons of meat. To meet that increased demand, China will boost agricultural development during the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015) period with more policy support, Chen said. The government will provide more funding for agriculture and subsidize technology development for farmers, Chen added. The government will also enhance agricultural market regulation and boost farmers' income, Chen said. In 2010, China produced 546.4 million tons of grain, 39.2 million tons of cooking oil and 77.8 million tons of meat.

China's aviation authorities on Friday started to allow helicopters to fly in low-altitude airspace over the tourist island of Hainan on a trial basis for the first time. The aim is to eventually open a part of the country's tightly-controlled airspace to private aircraft. Four helicopters were manned by eight pilots from Shanghai-based Zhengyang Investment Group, a leading domestic firm in the general aviation industry. They are expected to conduct test flights in the sky, 1,000 meters above the ground in Hainan in the next two months. The flight test will collect data for low-altitude flying and test the ground control system's response to emergencies, said Zou Jianming, chairman of Zhengyang Investment Group. Hainan is the first place in China to conduct test flights of private aircraft in low-altitude airspace, said Jiang Sixian, deputy governor of the province. Domestic and foreign firms are both welcome to invest in Hainan's general aviation sector to develop worl...

After seeing the fastest development worldwide in stem cell research during the past 10 years, China is "on the verge of achieving a breakthrough", says a top scientist in the field. Zhou Qi, chief scientist with the stem cell research project at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), spoke after the academy chose his area of expertise for significant attention. He said Chinese scientists are expecting a major scientific breakthrough to be made within the next decade. "We are now close to the day when we will be able to hail a breakthrough in this important technology," Zhou told China Daily during an exclusive interview. He said China has already succeeded in creating a "stem cell line up to clinical standards", which signifies a major stride toward clinical treatment. "China needs five to 10 years to shift from basic research to clinical application and another 10 years to realize large-scale clinical application," he said. "If there are a...

More than 2.2 million people and 2.7 million livestock are facing a water shortage as the worst drought in decades continues to linger in many parts of China. Sun Minghua, a rural resident of Bozhou in East China's Anhui province, checks out withering wheat seedlings on his farm on Thursday. [China Daily] Some wheat-growing regions, including Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Shanxi and Jiangsu provinces, have received little rainfall since October. More than 4 million hectares of crops across the nation have been plagued by the drought, according to the latest statistics from the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. In Shandong, although some cities had some snowfall on Friday, experts from the provincial meteorological center said the snowfall was too little to help. Water supplies to nearly 1 million residents will cease if the drought in the province lasts until the end of March, disaster prevention officials have warned. The drought is the worst in six d...

Guangdong provincial authorities denied on Friday that they plan to merge nine cities in the Pearl River Delta region into a super-sized metropolis. Guo Yuewen, spokesman for the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, made the remarks on Friday in response to recent overseas media reports that an ambitious urbanization project had been launched by the Guangdong government to merge nine cities in the delta region. "The reports were totally false. There is no such plan," Guo said at a news conference. Overseas media, including Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, reported recently that the Guangdong government had planned the nearly 2-trillion-yuan ($303 billion) project to merge the Pearl River Delta cities of Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhaoqing, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Jiangmen and the rural areas between them. The reports also said the merged megalopolis will cover 40,000 square kilometers and have a population of 42 million. ...

From LWGCW : When ( Chunyun) the mass passenger transportation is occurring around the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), to many people this means after a whole year of busy work, it is time to take a break to relax for a while. Of course, some are happy and some are sad. Unlike other companys year-end bonus being a round-trip ticket, or traveling abroad, the unlucky ones like the employees at Youngor Textile Printing and Dyeing Co. in Ningbo () received the most ridiculous announcement: whoever takes days off around the Spring Festival will have three times salary deduction. However at the end of the year, the words year-end bonus really make us feel awesome. On the Internet, many people began to show off their year-end bonus, like however many tens of thousands or traveling abroad are no longer exciting. And things like getting a pig are just for amusement. What if the year-end bonus is housing? That must be awesome. Things like that is not a myth, it really happened. The news Th...