Freshmen arrive
Photo by Yao Fan



September 17 was the first registration day for the freshmen of Xiamen University. The total number of the freshmen this year amounted to 7,000 and all of them are supposed to spend their first two years of study at the Zhangzhou campus. Booths were set up both at the Xiamen University headquarters and its Zhangzhou campus to facilitate destitute students to apply for education loans.

 

 

Society

Gulangyu Islet to have its first 4-star hotel
鼓浪屿诞生首家四星级酒店
On September 16, the Xiamen Marine Garden Hotel held a ceremony to celebrate its rating as a four-star hotel. The hotel is the first four-star hotel on Gulangyu Islet.

Quanzhou crowned "China's Most Glamorous City"
泉州市荣膺"最佳中国魅力城市"
On September 15, the Organizing Committee of City Glamour Contest of CCTV announced that Quanzhou, together with nine other cities in China, was awarded the title of "2004 China's Most Glamorous City".

New bus terminal to open by 2006
2006年在新车站候车
The renovation project of Wucun Long-distance Bus Terminal kicked off September 16. Upon its completion, the new terminal will be a Grade 1 bus terminal with the smallest land area but the largest capacity in China, covering an area of 18,000 sq. m. and handling 20,000 passengers per day. The entire project is scheduled for completion in 2006.

Suppliers engaged in bribery to be put on "blacklist"
到医院行贿将上"黑榜"
Xiamen has taken the initiative to introduce a system which will put suppliers of medical products who have engaged in bribery on a "blacklist". Suppliers whose names appear on the blacklist will be barred from bidding on the city's procurement of medical supplies for two years.

White tigers on display at Haicang
到海沧看白虎去
The Haicang Safari Park recently brought two white Bangladeshi tigers from Weihai city. The two tigers, born last October and weighing 40-plus kilograms each, will be shown to the public during the upcoming National Day Holidays after adapting themselves to their new home here. It's reported that the worldwide population of such white tigers has dwindled to less than 200.

South Music proves a hit in Prague
南音风靡布拉格
At the invitation of the Organizing Committee of the International Music Festival of the "Spring Autumn of Prague" in Czech, a 24-member delegation from Xiamen South Music Art Troupe presented the grand performance of the Song of Eternal Regret at the festival on September 11-14. The performance proved a smashing hit.

 

 

Economics

LNG to become available citywide by 2007
天然气2007年进厦门百姓家
On September 12, five cities, including Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Putian and Fuzhou, signed LNG (liquefied natural gas) procurement contracts with CNOOC Fujian LNG Co., signifying the kickoff of a fresh stage of the long-anticipated Fujian LNG Project. The Phase 1 project is expected to start later this year, whose completion by 2007 will allow local residents to have access to this clean energy at a more competitive price of 2-3 yuan per cubic meter.

Technical workers enjoy quick pay raises
技术工人薪水涨得快
The city's labor security department has recently published the benchmark labor rates for 2004. The new data shows that this year's labor rates for technical workers have risen dramatically, reflecting the strong demand in the labor market for technical workers.

 

 

Education

Local teacher to teach Chinese in Britain
厦门教师上岗英国中学
According to the Culture and Education Section of the British Consulate-General, eight British teachers have arrived in Fuzhou and Xiamen on August 30 to teach spoken English in the two cities for one school year as part of the ongoing educational cooperation and exchange program between Britain and China. In addition, under the "Chinese Language Teaching Assistance" scheme, which was implemented in Guangdong in 2002, Guangdong provincial authorities would send five middle school teachers each year to Britain for lectures on the Chinese language and culture. As part of the scheme, a middle school English teacher from Xiamen Foreign Language School departed on September 10 for Britain to teach Chinese in a British public middle school for one school year.

South Fujian Dialect becomes part of primary school curriculum
闽南语首度进入小学课程
Xiamen Experiment Primary School has become the second local school after the Double-ten Middle School to offer formal courses in basic South Fujian Dialect knowledge, representing the first move of local primary schools to contribute to the preservation and inheritance of the South Fujian culture.

Xiamen to rate school cafeterias
我市拟对学校食堂评级
In a bid to provide better administration and supervision of the hygiene of food at school cafeterias, the local authorities have decided to implement a rating system under which all such cafeterias will be appraised for a rating of A, B, C or D. Those who fall short of the C rating will be disqualified from the annual review and certification. Qualified school cafeterias will receive a conformance plaque later this year.