Donating for the victims
市民为海啸灾民捐款
Photo by Yao Fan



More than 160,000 people lost their lives and millions became homeless in countries around the Indian Ocean after the devastating tsunami. The government and people of China made great efforts to aid the tsunami victims.Here are Xiamen citizens gathered at the Bailuzhou Park last Saturday to donate money for the tsunami-hit victims.

 

 

Economics

Local property market boomed last year
我市去年商品房买卖火爆
The local property market continued to boom in 2004, with the transaction volume of both commodity housings and second-hand housings increasing by a big margin.

Contractual foreign capital leapt past USD 1 billion
合同利用外资首破10亿美元
Xiamen's utilization of foreign capital reached a record high in 2004, with the contractual foreign capital leaping past the USD 1 billion mark for the first time.

Xiamen named one of "Top 10 Cities with Balanced Development"
厦门入选十大协调发展城市
Xiamen appeared on the list of China's Top 10 Cities with Balanced Development, which was released recently by the People's Net; Xiamen is the only city from Fujian Province to have earned a place on the list.

Xiamen becomes transit hub for Asian passengers
厦门成亚洲旅客中转口岸
The latest statistics indicate that Xiamen has become a transit port for Asian passengers. Last year, the immigration officers at Gaoqi port handled nearly 1.23 million inbound and outbound passengers and 11,973 flights, jumping 7% and 22% respectively over those of 2002.

 

 

Society

Island Ring Road to build calligraphers' square
环岛路将建书法家广场
The design scheme for the planned Calligraphers' Square on the Island Ring Road as another major cultural and leisure area in Xiamen has recently got the go-ahead. Xiamen Roadway Bureau, the sponsor of the project, says that construction of the square will commence immediately after the Spring Festival and will be completed before September 8 this year.

Number of destination countries for local tourists rises to 63
市民出境游目的地达63个
The number of destination countries open to residents of Xiamen will rise to 63 in 2005. Local travel agencies are planning to offer new overseas tours of India, Nepal, Cambodia, Burma, Brunei and nine African countries in the new year, in addition to the existing European, North Asian and Southeast Asian tours.

Paid parking lots must be approved
设停车场所收费须报批
Effective immediately, all newly established parking lots must be subjected to the survey and approval of the local public security traffic administration department, with rates to be approved by the local price bureau. No entity or individual will be allowed to operate a parking lot without authorization.

800 pangolins slaughtered
800只穿山甲惨遭宰杀
Xiamen Commodity Inspection & Quarantine Bureau recently cracked a major smuggling case involving endangered animals. The bureau intercepted a large shipment of pangolin scales, weighing 107.5 kilograms. It was estimated that around 800 pangolins had been slaughtered for their scales, representing the largest shipment of endangered animals ever intercepted by the local inspection and quarantine authority.

Xiamen marathon race accepts participants
厦门马拉松开始报名
On January 10, the 3rd Xiamen International Marathon Championship started accepting participants. To be in line with international practices, the organizing committee of this sports event will, for the first time, charge runners for entry fees at RMB 10, RMB 25 and USD 20 for different categories. To sign up for this event online, please log onto its website at http://www.xmim.org.

Local authorities to charge fees for domestic waste disposal
我市将开征生活垃圾处理费
Under the Measures for the Administration of Urban Domestic Waste in Xiamen, which will be implemented on March 1 this year, local residents will have to pay for the disposal of their domestic waste. The amount of waste in Xiamen has been increasing at a staggering rate, with 1,504 tons generated every day, making it necessary to legislate waste disposal and implement segmented administration.

Housewives learn to surf Internet
家庭妇女学上网
The Home Internet Surfing Initiative was recently launched at Punan Neighborhood Committee in Wucun's sub-district to give free lessons to residents on how to access the Internet. Most learners in this initiative are housewives and female migrants in this area. This initiative will soon be implemented throughout the district.

 

 

Transport

Civil motorcycles on island face compulsory expiration
岛内民用摩托强制报废
All licensed civil motorcycles on the island will reach the end of their validity this year. Motorcycles from off the island will be barred from entering the island.

Stroll on a "Rainbow" and enjoy nice views
漫步"彩虹"赏美景
Two steel pedestrian bridges will be set up over Bailuzhou Park during the upcoming Spring Festival, with one in the north and the other in the south part of the park. Tourists will be able to walk right into the heart of Bailuzhou Park by crossing the bridges, while local residents on both sides of Yuandang Lake will also enjoy easier transportation.

 

 

City News
Edited by Lily

Beijing 北京

Host benefit for survivors
艺术家为海啸灾民义演募捐
Chinese artists and 20 media organizations in Beijing are joining forces to help victims of the South Asian tsunami.
Recently, they staged a large-scale benefit at the Capital Gymnasium.
"Love From China" ran for four hours with many performers on the list.
Tickets were 100 yuan (about 12 US dollars), and all revenue and donations will be handed over to the Red Cross Society of China.
800 members of the staff bought two tickets each, for a total donation of 160,000 yuan (19,000 US dollars).

Cautious about spending money
北京人谨慎花钱
A survey of personal finances in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou reveals that Beijing citizens are the most cautious with their money. In contrast, while inhabitants of Shanghai strike a balance between income and risk, Guangzhou citizens favor highly risky investments.
Beijingers prefer not to take risks. Many have savings in the bank, and only invest in value-assured goods such as gold.
Shanghai citizens are shown to be good at pinching pennies and they prefer short-term investments. In contrast, Guangzhou citizens like to run risks at everything from buying lottery tickets to investing in real estate and get-rich-quick schemes.

Restricting construction in 2005
控制2005年房地产建设
The municipal government of Beijing will restrain the structure and scale of real estate development in the city in 2005.
The municipal government will impose strict limitations on the construction of office buildings, apartments, hotels and big shopping malls inside the Third Ring Road. The government will also control land supply and increase commercial housing projects of middle quality to maintain a steady real estate market.

KFC and Pizza Hut raise prices
肯特基和必胜客涨价
KFC and Pizza Hut have raised their prices in Beijing. Prices of vegetable soup and salad are all up, as well as pizzas.
A staff member at Pizza Hut says the rise was unavoidable. Part of the reason is the falling exchange rate of the dollar, compared with the Euro. The ingredients are mainly imported from the US and New Zealand.
Also, the increase of workers' salaries in Beijing also contributed to the raise in price. However, customers say the higher prices won't kill their appetite for their favorite fast food.
Rival food chain McDonald's has not raised its food prices since it did so in 2003.

Shanghai 上海

Residents get survival brochures
分发手册提高市民自救力
A brochure on survival skills is available now from the Shanghai Civil Defense Office.
About 5.7 million Shanghai families will receive the free handbook "Citizen's Required Manual On Preventing Catastrophe."
Officials said the brochure was aimed at enhancing citizens' awareness of catastrophe prevention and how to improve their personal survival skills. In light of the recent tidal waves that killed thousands in Southeast Asia, civil defense officials said they were considering including information on what to do in the event of a tsunami in the booklet.

Ready for peak traffic season
备战春运高峰期
Shanghai local transport authorities have launched their preparation work to satisfy the massive traffic congestion expected during the upcoming Spring Festival.
The Shanghai Urban Transport Management Bureau expects 468 million people to use the city's urban transport network, including buses, taxis and rail transport during the peak period that runs from January 25 to March 5.
The administration is also considering setting up several temporary special bus lines connecting railway stations, airports and wharfs, so people can reach these key transfer points more easily.

Three hospitals take SMS reservations
医院接受手机短信预约
Three local hospitals in Shanghai announced that they will begin to set up out-patient appointments, offer medical consultation and take patient complaints through short messages from cell phones.
This is the first time that local residents have been offered such medical services via text messages.
After a two-week trial, the three hospitals did note, however, that only a few patients used the service during the trial, some of whom failed to show up for the appointment they had booked.

GuangZhou & ShenZhen 广州&深圳

Power limits imposed
实施用电限制
Guangzhou began to impose power restrictions on some users after the city's power grid overloaded three times in the first week of 2005.
The city is experiencing a shortage of 500,000 to 600,000 kilowatts a day. According to supply plans for 2005, hotels, stores, restaurants, company offices and other businesses in the service industry will have to cut electricity use by 15 to 30 percent. However, suppliers said that electricity needed for households would not be restricted and there would be no blackouts in residential areas.

Urge for flu prevention for residents
督促市民防流感
Guangdong Province's health authorities are urging people to get vaccinated against the flu before the coming spring since the illness was most prevalent for the first three months of the last year.
Receiving the flu vaccine is a simple and efficient way to prevent infection of the flu virus. Seven groups of people have been identified as at high risk of contracting the disease - including old people, young children, chronic patients, medical staff, kindergarten staff or people in the service industry.
It's recommended that people be vaccinated between March and October. The department was careful to issue warnings to pregnant women, infants and people who are allergic to eggs, not to receive the vaccine.

Gold medals for blood donors
多年献血获金牌
A Shenzhen couple last week became the first husband and wife in China to receive gold medals for donating blood over the past seven years.
Since 1997, the husband Pan has donated 17,800 milliliters of blood, and his wife has so far given more than 10,000 milliliters.
Pan was also China's first bone marrow donor not related to the recipient. The couple said they disliked people who gave blood to seek attention, citing two men they met who claimed they wanted public attention to improve their lives.

Chongqing 重庆

Three Gorges Reservoir Administration founded
三峡水库中心成立
Chongqing Municipality officially founded its Three Gorges Reservoir Administration recently, which will deal with affairs concerning the huge water control project's of the Chongqing section.
The administration will make policies to preserve the water quality of the reservoir, protect the environment, control exploitation and development of area resources and draft plans for an emergency.
It is expected to play a crucial role to guarantee the construction and safe running of Three Gorges Reservoir's Chongqing section, and the protection of the environment of Three Gorges will be significant to the sustainable development of the area.

Hong Kong 香港

People open their wallets
慷慨解囊援灾民
Hong Kong people are opening their hearts and wallets to provide millions of dollars for tsunami victims. So far they've donated 500 million Hong Kong dollars, the most ever collected in Hong Kong's history, and the most generous offering from any city in the world.
It amounts to 73 Hong Kong dollars from every resident. Weekend concerts featuring Canto-pop superstars boosted the fund but the donations have also included 210 million to the Red Cross Society, 35 million to UNICEF, 76 million to World Vision and 26 million to Oxfam. It's an unprecedented show of generosity.

Ninth warmest year in 2004 on record
2004年为香港史上第九个最暖年
In Hong Kong, 2004 was the ninth warmest year and the 17th driest year on record. The annual mean temperature was 23.4 degrees, 0.4 degrees above normal.
In June, 2004, the rain-bearing monsoon trough spent less time near the South China coast, resulting in more sunshine and hence, higher temperatures in Hong Kong. This made June 2004 the eighth hottest June on record. Three tropical cyclones affected Hong Kong this year - about half the normal figure. The monsoon trough also brought less than normal rainfall to Hong Kong in May and June. And 2004 was the 17th driest year in Hong Kong since records began in 1884.

Property sales up 40 percent in 2004
房地产销售上扬40%
Hong Kong recorded 123,480 sale and purchase agreements for all types of building units for registration in 2004, up 41.4 percent compared with 2003.
A total of 135,106 assignments of building units were lodged for registration in 2004. This was up 22.8 percent compared with the 110,052 recorded during 2003 and up 12.8 percent compared with the 119,734 recorded in 2002. Inquiries of land records made by the public totaled 3,664,730 last year, up 29.7 percent compared with 2003 and 30.2 percent compared with 2002.

Taipei 台北

Credit-card penetration growth keeps slowing
信用卡持用量下降
Although the penetration rate of credit cards in the Taiwanese market has seen slower growth since 2001, the ratio of consumer loans to personal consumption expenditure is rising steadily. In contrast, the number of credit cards issued is rising at a slower pace.
A popular marketing strategy adopted last year by various retailers is to offer zero-interest installment programs, which have successfully stimulated consumption. From a long-term point of view, as more and more women have the final say over household finances, businesses will have to tailor-make marketing activities to create consumer demand.

Taiwan left out of donor summit
无缘赈灾委员会成员
Taiwan has not been invited to a summit of major donors to the relief operation in the wake of the tsunami which devastated countries around the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26. This is in spite of Taiwan being one of top 10 donors, having pledged US$ 50 million to the relief effort. Taiwan has concentrated its relief efforts on Thailand and Indonesia.
So far US$ 2 billion has been pledged to relief efforts in the 11 countries hit by the Dec. 26 quake just off the western coast of Indonesia that triggered waves causing deaths as far away as East Africa.