Exercise, fitness and health
Photo by Yao Fan



On March 5, a performance show titled “Exercise, fitness and health” was held at the City Sports Center. Sixteen teams of female performers from all walks of society attended the show. Here is a scene by the gymnastic team from the Xiamen Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

 

 

Economics

Digital cameras gain popularity
数码相机成新宠
High-end household appliances and telecom equipment enjoy brisk sales in Xiamen. Statistics show that in 2004 Xiamen residents bought a total of 7,921 digital cameras, soaring 230% over the previous year, generating RMB 22 million in retail sales.

RMB 4 billion spent on eating out
下馆子吃掉40亿
An increasing number of local people are getting into the habit of eating out as some eat out even more frequently than eating at home. Statistics show that the local catering industry grew rapidly last year by registering a business turnover of RMB 4.067 billion, accounting for 15.6% of total retail sales and surging 16% over the previous year, with the growth rate being the highest among all industries.

More brands move into local pizza market
众多品牌争入比萨市场
Since late 2004, a number of pizza brands, including Euromax, Manhattan and Yawei, have entered the local market, changing the previous impression among local people that there was only one brand of pizza. Industry insiders point out that competition will bring more tasteful pizzas to local consumers and allow them to enjoy home delivery services.

Piano supermarket debuts in Xiamen
钢琴超市现身厦门
The Holiday Piano Supermarket, located on the 3rd floor of Xiamen Holiday Mall, has recently been opened for business. This is the first time that a supermarket has ever been devoted to selling pianos exclusively. The piano supermarket differs from conventional piano shops, providing higher performance/price ratio, greater transparency in transactions, streamlined sales process, and direct communications with prospective buyers. Compared with previous sales methods, the piano supermarket offers far lower prices.

Luxury yachts exported to US
最大游艇出口美国
Two luxury yachts built by Xiamen Tangrong Yacht Industry Co Ltd have recently been exported to the US. One of them weighs 55 tons, making it the largest Xiamen-made yacht ever exported. Media reports indicate metals required for building yachts are mostly imported. Their massage tubs cost up to USD 4,000.

 

 

Society

Yueyang Corporation to build book supermarket
越洋打造图书超市
Sun Xiaolian, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yueyang Corporation revealed his plan in an interview with reporters that his corporation will spend RMB 15 million to build a 5,000m2 modern book supermarket in Xiamen. The plan is currently under implementation, and the book supermarket is scheduled for official opening before September 2005.

Two local women make it to “Top 10 Prominent Females”
两巾帼当选闽“十大杰出女性”
Two local women have been put on the 4th List of Top 10 Prominent Females in Fujian Province. They are Ye Meilan, Chairwoman of Xiamen Huierkang, and Di Jianxiu, the only female captain with Xiamen Airlines.

Local public order satisfaction rate leads the province
治安满意率全省第一
A survey shows that as many as 92.89% Fujian people are satisfied or basically satisfied with public order and 56.99% of them believe that the party committee and the government are doing a good job in improvement of public order; the two rates stand at 96.35% and 82.54% respectively in Xiamen, exceeding the provincial average by a big margin.

Deadline extended for marathon signing-up
马拉松赛报名时间延长
The original deadline of February 28 for people to sign up for this year's Xiamen International Marathon has been extended until March 15 to allow more college students who have just come back from the winter break to sign up. The procedures to sign up for the half-length marathon and 10km events are the same as those for last year; entrants will be accepted until quotas are filled up.

Phone booth sold for RMB 185
一个电话亭“卖”了185元
An IC-card phone booth brings people great convenience. Three gangsters stole three phone booths and sold one of them for as little as RMB 185. Two suspects have recently been arrested by Zengcuo'an Border Police Station.

One flat converted into five small ones for rent
一套房子改成5套出租
A flat at Fushan Wanhe Plaza with total area of 100 m2 has been converted by its owner into five smaller ones in order to earn more rent. Despite strong neighbor complaints, so far no one can do anything about it, as there is no law governing this issue.

 

City News
Edited by Lily

Beijing 北京

Goodbye to polluting factories
告别污染企业
Factories, mines and other industrial plants in Beijing that spew out high levels of pollution, such as those engaged in mining and iron-smelting, will have to say farewell to the city. The move is aimed at protecting and rehabilitating Beijing's environment, especially in mountainous areas where most mines are located. Other projects include building more green belts around Beijing to stave off sandstorms, protecting the city's water reservoirs and cleaning up rivers. Besides the mining industry, the Shougang Group, China's fourth largest steel maker, will move all its polluting steel-making plants out of Beijing by 2010.

Outsiders allowed to buy cars for first time
外来户首次允许购车
People who live in Beijing, but who don't have permanent residence registration in the city, will now be able to buy cars for the first time. Out-of-town drivers need their ID cards, temporary resident documents, their vehicle purchasing invoice and other documents to apply for a license.
Owning a car is no longer a privilege just for native Beijingers.
It is part of the government's efforts to revitalize the auto market, which has been in a slump since last year.

Giant sturgeon to make new home
巨鲟落户京城新家
A large Chinese sturgeon, a fish believed to be a contemporary of dinosaurs, will spend the rest of its life in the Beijing Aquarium. The 360-cm, 432-kg sturgeon was found in the Yangtze River in November 2004.
The female sturgeon is estimated to be between 25 to 35 years old. Sturgeons live up to 35 years. As the oldest living vertebrate species on earth, the species has roamed the earth for about 140 million years. From October to November each year, Chinese sturgeons swim to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to spawn and then carry their fry back to the sea.

Shanghai 上海

Women PhDs the 3rd type of people besides men and women?
女博士--第三类人?
Three girls look at the screen of a digital camera as they pose in their costumes in front of Fudan University in Shanghai.
Jokes about women PhDs are not rare, for instance: "There are three types of people in the world, men, women and women PhDs” .
There are too many inaccurate perceptions about highly educated women. The very title "Doctor" so prestigious when referring to a man, is a derogatory term when applied to women. People tend to expect that women be lovely and pretty, but they never require a man to look lovely.
When women are negligent about fashion, they are said to have lost their femininity, but people never say a man is not manly if he doesn't pay careful attention to his appearance.



Newborns take hearing tests
新生儿接受听力测试
Shanghai started screening newborns in 2002, and all newborns in the city are supposed to have their hearing checked within three days of birth. Experts say the key periods for language development are between four - nine months and two and three years of age. Children can have serious speaking problems or be left completely mute if they have not received treatment for hearing problems at these stages in their development. Previously, newborns didn't have their hearing checked until they were at least one year old, often only after parents realized something was wrong.

Rule to change way trash collected
新的废弃物回收规定
A new regulation requiring all restaurants, food-processing companies and canteens to let the sanitation bureau collect garbage will start on April 1 in Shanghai.
According to the new regulation, anyone who fails to comply will be fined up to 30,000 yuan (US$3,614).
Many restaurants allow individuals to collect garbage. The restaurants usually do not pay for the service as the garbage collector sells the food waste to pig farmers.
The regulation probably won't affect business much.

Guangzhou & Shenzhen 广州 & 深圳

Guangzhou mulls no-vehicle day
广州试行无车日
Guangzhou is planning to introduce a no-vehicle day in its bid to build a national model city in environmental protection. The no-vehicle day could be held at the weekend, but buses, emergency vehicles and police cars would be exempt on the day. A compensation program will be worked out by the end of the year for owners of cars registered ahead of time.

Flushing out water problem
海水清洁卫生间
Residents in Shenzhen will be the first in China to flush their toilets with seawater as part of an effort to fight worsening droughts.
The United Nations lists China as being one of 13 countries with the worst water shortages in the world. Government figures show 300 Chinese cities are short of water, with 110 of these facing serious shortages.
The proposed use of seawater is aimed at dealing with any severe future water shortage. However, it would be unrealistic to hope the scheme could cover all the city as pipes do not last as long because of the corrosiveness of seawater.

Surgeons control robots
机器人参与做手术
Zhongshan Hospital is the only hospital in the country to introduce a robotic system from abroad to assist with cardiac surgery.
More than 30 heart disease patients have undergone surgery with robotic assistance. All have reported good results.
The technology - developed by the United States - has only been in practice since the late 1990s. Zhongshan purchased the system in 2000.
During surgery, a robotic arm holds the endoscope under the direction of the lead surgeon, who controls surgical tools. Previously, another doctor held the endoscope.



Chongqing 重庆

UK opens visa center
英国开设签证中心
The British Embassy in China has now opened a visa center in Chongqing , the United Kingdom's second visa center on the Chinese mainland.
It will receive applications from Chongqing and the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. Relevant interviews can also be held at the UK's Chongqing Consulate.
The UK plans to establish a nationwide visa application network on the Chinese mainland by setting up 12 visa centers in major Chinese cities including Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Nanjing. The first UK visa center opened in Beijing last month.

Hong Kong 香港

Online notification of infectious disease
网上通告传染疾病
An online reporting system has just been launched to boost the efficiency of the existing surveillance system on infectious diseases. Entitled "CENO On-line", the system enables doctors to report infectious diseases to The Center for Health Protection. They also report communicable diseases of public health concern, poisoning related to heavy metals or traditional Chinese medicine, suspected institutional outbreaks and unusual clustering of communicable diseases. The system is built on a securely designed platform. Each doctor is provided with an individual password to log on to the system to ensure safe transmission of patient information.

Taipei 台北

Access widened for Taiwan farm goods
台湾农产品放宽准入条件
Taiwanese farmers have been lured by the central government's preferential policies aimed at giving the mainland greater access to the island's agricultural products.
The generous offer undoubtedly has great appeal to hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese farmers, who have suffered from declining sales of their products due to limited demand on the island. Export of Taiwan's agricultural products to the mainland will remain difficult unless Taiwan's authorities abandon their passive attitude towards cross-Straits agricultural trade and move to establish direct cross-Straits transport links soon.

Taiwan, mainland trade expands 33.1%
台湾大陆贸易额增长33.1%
Total trade between Taiwan and the mainland in 2004 rose 33.1 percent to US$61.64 billion on the back of the mainland's rapid economic expansion. Mainland accounted for 18 percent of Taiwan's total trade last year. Despite political differences,mainland has been Taiwan's largest export market since November 2002 when it displaced the United States. Under Taipei's ban on direct transport across the strait, all merchandise is trans-shipped through third ports, mainly Hong Kong. Mainland is also Taiwan's leading foreign investment destination., Shenyang, Shenzhen, Wuhan,5.

Vocabulary
revitalize 重振
slump 下跌
sturgeon 鲟
fry 鱼苗
endoscope 内窥镜