Listening to the internet
盲人上网冲浪
Photo by Yao Fan



This year, May 15 was the National Day for Helping the Handicapped, on which the talking books reading room on 11th floor of the Recuperation Center Building officially opened to all the blind people in Xiamen. They can log on the internet by sound instruction and then transfer the net information into sound information.

 

 

Economics

180 mln investment in logistics park
投资1.8亿建物流园
The Xiamen Port authority has issued a statement recently saying that it will invest close to RMB 180 million in the first phase of the construction of Xiamen Xiangyu Free Trade Logistics Park.

Organic tea cultivation succeeds
有机茶栽培成功
After two years of small-scale testing, some experienced experimental techniques for the cultivation of organic tea leaves have begun to take shape. As specialists have recently shown, Fujian, which is a big exporter of tea leaves, has recently been facing increasing "green barriers" to trade. Organic cultivation can bring enormous economic benefits to Xiamen's tea industry once it has been approved and its scale increased.

Taiwan agricultural goods to land in Xiamen
台农产品欲从厦"登陆"
The Xiamen and Jinmen authorities have not yet completed the Xiamen-Jinmen shipping lane (the safe shipping lane at sea), but the agricultural departments of Taiwanese counties such as Hsinchu are already impatiently coming to Xiamen to "explore" the shipping lane. They want to use Xiamen in the future as a transfer station for selling Taiwanese fruit and other agricultural products in the mainland.

Xiamen Port rises in container traffic league table
厦门港集装箱吞吐排名上升
The Xiamen Port authority reports that an authoritative British trade magazine in a recent edition listed last year's top 30 ports worldwide by container traffic. With traffic of 2.87 million TEUs, Xiamen ranked 26th in the world, up three places from two years ago.

Internet scam fools foreigners from 8 countries
网上假公司骗倒8国老外
Talented linguist and university graduate Li Kunyong, fed up with his low wages, designed a website to cheat foreigners out of their money. By the time he was found out, Li had already scammed foreigners from Australia, America, Iran, Belgium, Hungary, Lebanon, Uganda and Malta. The graduate was recently sentenced by Huli District Court to 4 years imprisonment and a fine of RMB 20,000 yuan.

 

 

Society

Refugee camps confirmed
灾害避难场所确定
Xiamen is gradually turning its parks, squares and other large public spaces into refugee camps. The first group of 10 public spaces to have their refugee camp status confirmed including the lawn outside the People's Conference Center, Zhongshan Park and Lianhua Park.

Dangerous old buses decertified
危险旧中巴被扣证
A lot of the medium-sized buses around Xiamen leave people fearing for their safety. In recent on-the-road spot checks, 64 out of 74 buses, or more than 80%, did not meet safety standards. Their relevant certification was confiscated by the police.

More "restaurant centers" this year
拟建多个"餐馆超市"
According to Siming Local Government's development guidelines, in the future if you want to find a small eatery, you will have to go to a dedicated "restaurant center." The council wants to carry out a centralization of the food industry, gradually moving restaurants into dedicated areas, to reduce the problem of restaurateurs pestering passers-by.

Jimei University dragon & lion dance team wins prize
集美大学龙狮队获奖
At the national Dragon & Lion Dance Championships held recently in Nanjing, the Jimei University was runners up in the Dragon Acrobatic dance competition, a testament to their skill and team spirit. The team was made up of students taking the martial arts major at Physical Education Institute of Jimei University.

Gallery exhibits painter under new agreement
画廊出现签约画家
Chinese "strength" school painter Chen Bin has entered into an agreement with Xiamen's Hongbaozhai Gallery under which he will bring his works into the market through the exhibition at the gallery. It is the first time this kind of agreement has been seen in Xiamen.

Street Chinese medicine harms patient
降火中药反害人
Recently, Mrs Yao's husband took a dose of Chinese herbal medicine bought at the market. The medicine was supposed to "cool the liver," but in fact it gave him diarrhea which would not stop. After emergency treatment at the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, his doctor reminded us that in the summer many people sell herbs which they have picked themselves on the streets. City residents who are not familiar with medicinal herbs are better off avoiding these vendors.

Foreign spirit smuggler sentenced
走私洋酒被判刑
Guangdong native Wang Yitong tricked some residents in Dadeng into buying his shares and helping him to smuggle foreign spirits on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, evading taxes totalling RMB 2.22 million yuan. 8 people have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 to 14 years, and they will have to pay large fines.

 

 

City News
Edited by Lily

Beijing 北京

Residents to drink water from Yangtze
居民将喝上长江水
An emergency project to divert water from nearby Hebei Province is expected to be completed next year and water will start to be pumped to this thirsty Chinese capital city in 2007. The new waterway is also part of China's massive project to divert water from the Yangtze River to northern China, which will be finished by 2010. From that time on, 1 billion cubic meters of water will be transported to Beijing through the aqueduct.

Drug users to register with police
勒令吸毒者在警方登记
Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau ordered that all drug addicts in the municipality must register before June 10, and the government will assist them to get rid of their drug habit within a fixed period. Those who fail to report themselves to the municipal government before the deadline will face three to six months of compulsory anti-drug treatment.



Imperial banners back home
流失帝王锦联回家
A pair of hanging brocade banners, embroidered with a couplet and used in an imperial banquet hosted by Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), has returned to Beijing. The banners were obtained in Europe by Emperor's Ferry Auction (EFA), known in China as Tianjin International Auction Co, after having been overseas for over a century, but the company would not reveal how they acquired them. It only disclosed that a Chinese-Danish and Chinese-German found the banners and bought them to end their history of being overseas.



Shanghai 上海

Foreigners give high rating
老外赞许沪生活环境
Shanghai is becoming an increasingly attractive city for foreigners when it comes to comprehensive living environment. But the environment and urban sanitation, especially air quality, are still considered a problem. Topping the list of most satisfactory sectors was the eatery industry and locals' etiquette with their foreign guests came in second.

Development plan layed out
制订发展规划
Shanghai will put technological innovation capacity at the top of the agenda to turn it into an international metropolis and an economic, banking and shipping hub by 2020. It will work to cultivate and allure more elite talents to promote technological progress.The city would also optimize industrial structure and sharpen the industrial competitive edges.
Under the strategy, Shanghai will give preference to the manufacturing and service industries. Shanghai will turn to a recyclable economy in the future and gradually eliminate enterprises consuming too much energy and causing too much pollution. Shanghai, home to about 20 million people, is bracing for an expected 400,000 to 500,000 new citizens every year.

Moonlighting by teachers restricted
限制教师兼职
Senior-ranked elementary school teachers will be stripped of their professional titles if they are caught compiling academic guides or exercise books for personal profit. Educators who participate in designing college or high school entrance exams will also be banned from publishing any exam-related exercise books within three years of their design assignment. Offenders will be prohibited from taking part in all city-level exam design work, textbook writing and editing, as well as giving lectures.

New body to help firms fight piracy
新机构助公司反侵权
An anti-piracy liaison station to be headed by the Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision will open next month. The liaison station will integrate local law offices, quality assessment institutions and media organizations to help companies sort out intellectual property rights (IPR) infringements.

Guangzhou & Shenzhen 广州 & 深圳

Public becomes government watchdog
百姓成为政府监督员
Guangzhou set up a complaint center as part of a government administration system reform. The complaint center was established in 2004 to handle public complaints over government departments and their employees. The government is encouraging the public to monitor and expose malpractice and misconduct of government officials by calling complaint hotlines.

Bad lifestyles sicken elderly
不良生活方式致老人生病
A survey in Guangzhou suggests that more than 90 per cent of elderly people in the city are not healthy. Poor diet, smoking, drinking alcohol and eating spicy food have been blamed for the situation. People who participated in the survey are between 50 and 79 years old. Over 47 per cent of those checked have high blood pressure. The ratio is the highest among all diseases.

Civil servants' work hours adjusted
调整公务员作息时间
Civil servants and those working at public institutions may find it easier to get up in the morning from July 1 when they will start work half an hour later, at 8:30 am. The lunchtime break will be half an hour shorter, making it two hours. Institutions of higher learning and research are free to adopt the new scheme if they want. The change could reduce rush hour traffic in the morning. Under the existing scheme, civil servants and those working at public institutions work from 8 am to 5:30 pm, with a two-and-a-half-hour noon break.

Protected wildlife rescued
解救被保护野生动物
Forestry police rescued thousands of protected animals from markets and restaurants. This includes more than one thousand herons, egrets and 520 kilograms of protected snakes. The police surprised poachers who couldn't hide the large amount of caged snakes. Guangzhou has banned snakes sales since 2003, after the outbreak of SARS. The animals will be sent to the provincial wildlife aid center and eventually released into the wild.

Chongqing 重庆

4000 evacuated to safe areas
4000人撤离至安全地带
Heavy rainfall for several days running caused serious landslides in Wulong County, Chongqing. More than 4000 local residents were evacuated within 10 hours to safe areas by the local government.



Ageing tiger flies in for reunion
老飞虎队员聚首
Two former Flying Tigers who are both in their 80s met for the first time in Chongqing on the 60th anniversary of victory in the Anti-Fascist War. The two airmen shared a hug delayed for more than 60 years.
There are only 14 Flying Tigers still alive now.
The Flying Tigers, the nickname of the American Volunteer Group (A.V.G), were formed by legendary US Army Colonel Claire L Chennault during World War II.
Consisting of approximately 200 pilots, the Flying Tigers lent significant support to the Chinese air force in the fight against Japan.

Hong Kong 香港

World's 2nd in competitiveness
世界竞争力排名第二
Hong Kong has risen sharply in the 2005 World Competitiveness Yearbook released by the Swiss business school IMD, moving from sixth into second place just behind the United States. Singapore's global competitiveness rank fell to 3rd place, Iceland, Canada, Finland and Denmark occupied fourth to seventh place.

Betting duty structure refined
改良赌场税收机制
Hong Kong SAR government reached an agreement with Hong Kong Jockey Club to reform the betting duty structure. The proposed new betting duty on horse racing will be imposed on net stake receipts or gross margins instead of on turnover. The club promised to deliver no less than 8 billion HK dollars (1.1 billion US dollars) plus duty on overseas bets to the SAR government as duty a year for the first four years. The club's turnover on horse race betting has declined steadily and significantly in recent years.

Qing Dynasty treasure may have made it to HK
清代珍宝在港现身
Family heirlooms worth millions of dollars that were stolen in Beijing on February may have turned up in Hong Kong. One of the stolen curios, a porcelain bowl, reportedly appeared in an auction house in Hong Kong last week. The stolen antiques are said to have included nearly 30 blue and white porcelain vases, writing brushes, ink sticks and ink slabs and copper curios.

Taipei 台北

Mainland offers Taiwan more conveniences
大陆为台湾提供更多方便
China's mainland pledged to offer more conveniences to Taiwan compatriots by facilitating their cross-Straits trip, study and employment on the mainland. The mainland will further facilitate the entry and exit of Taiwan compatriots to and from the mainland, cut tuition of students from Taiwan at mainland universities and ease job terms on Taiwan compatriots who are willing to work in the mainland. Those who stay in the mainland for more than one year can be issued residence stamps valid from one to five years.


Vocabulary
recuperation 康复
scam 欺诈
pester 打扰
diarrhea 腹泻
couplet 对联
brocade 织锦
moonlight 兼职
infringement 侵犯
poacher 偷猎者
heron 苍鹭
curios 古玩