Overseas Chinese leaders arrive
海外侨领莅厦
Photo by Wang Xieyun



The 3rd Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations took place in both Beijing and Fujian. The bulk of the three-day events of the Conference in Fujian took place mostly in Xiamen. On May 21, about 400 overseas Chinese leaders from 80-plus countries and regions flew in a special plane to Xiamen after concluding the events in Beijing; many of them were visiting Fujian and Xiamen for the first time.

 

 

Economics

Agricultural taxes to be totally exempted
将全面免征农业税
The local authorities have recently issued to a circular, announcing that effective this year, all agricultural taxes and their surcharges will be exempted in Xiamen. With this exemption, farmers in the city's rural areas can rest assured that their financial burden will be significantly reduced, and the resulting shortfall of over RMB 30 million for township and village operating funds will be provided by the city government.

Cross-Straits cooperation in hosting book fair
两岸将首度合办图书交易会
The 1st Cross-Straits Book Fair will take place from July 28 to 31 at Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center. The organizing committee plans to extend invitations to bookstores and publishers in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asian nations and to attract readers and institutions in Xiamen and neighboring areas.

FDI increases
利用外资增长
Over this year's January-April period, the city's FDI (foreign direct investment) continued its growth momentum, with 121 newly approved FDI projects and contracted foreign capital of USD 397.27 million, surging 28.46% over the same period last year and accounting for 36.78% of the USD 1.08 billion target set for this year.

Local mobile phones venture out
本地品牌手机远征海外
Amoi, VK and Lenovo, the top three mobile phone brands in Xiamen, are not only enjoying brisk sales in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also making inroads into the international marketplace. Statistics from Xiamen Customs show that in the first four months of this year, Xiamen Customs Area exported 245,000 mobile phone handsets, representing a 170% increase over the same period last year.

Xiamen Port receives rapidly increasing coal imports
厦门口岸进口煤激增
Statistics from Xiamen Inspection & Quarantine Bureau show that as of mid-May, Xiamen Port has received 402,500 tons of imported coal this year, worth USD 24.1078 million, with both weight and value rising 10-fold over the same period last year.

High-end color TV exports increase
高端彩电出口增长
In the first four months of this year, Xiamen Customs Area exported a total of 1.856 million color TV sets, worth USD 197 million, jumping 154% and 146% respectively over the same period last year, of which, the increase of high-end color TV is remarkable.

Restaurants open outlets outside island
餐饮业加速向岛外扩张
Recently Zhenbin Great Restaurant with 26 years' history opened its 4th outlet in the Tong'an District, the largest restaurant outside the Xiamen Island. Previously the Jiali Seafood Restaurant also opened its outlet in Haicang, which shows that the renowned Xiamen restaurants are speeding up their extension toward outside the island.

 

 

Society

Local digital home system leads the world
数字家居领先全球
You can monitor and control all household appliances in your home at any time anywhere through your mobile phone or computer; an alarm will automatically go off if there is a fire hazard or intruder in your home; as you walk into your home, the air-conditioner, the light, the home cinema system and even the curtain will be automatically switched on or off ...... Leelen Technology, based in Xiamen Torch Hi-tech Zone, has recently unveiled its digital home system, which represents the culmination of its five years' R&D efforts; this system, featuring state-of-the-art technologies, leads the world in this field.

Average life expectancy to extend by 2 years in 15 years
15年后人均寿命多2岁
The initial draft of Xiamen Ecological Urban Development Plan has recently been completed. According to the plan, by 2020, the ecology industry will contribute more than 60% of the city's GDP, per capita public green surface in urban areas will reach 18 square meters, and the average life expectancy will rise to 79 years, an increase of 2 years over the present 77 years.

First shipping route for river-sea through transport opened
江海联运直通航线启动
Container vessels departing from Chongqing can reach Xiamen directly via the first shipping route for containerized river-sea through transport between the two cities; the new route covers four regions along the way.

English name invented for commodity
杜撰商品英文名
In order to disguise its products as "imported commodities", a Tong'an-based enterprise used invented English names for its trademarks without knowing their exact meaning. The local administration of industry and commerce recently confiscated the illegally-named products of this enterprise and imposed a fine.

Xiamen and Taiwan join hands in promoting Taiwan tour routes
厦台联袂包装台湾游线路
The decision to allow mainlanders to tour Taiwan has been warmly welcomed by Xiamen residents and people in the tourism industry. Several local travel agencies have made full preparations for Taiwan tours and have joined hands with Taiwan travel agencies in offering several Taiwan tour routes, including the RMB 6000/7000 seven-day tour and the RMB 8000/9000 ten-day tour.

 

 

City News
Edited by Lily

Beijing 北京

Olympic Broadcasting Committee set up
成立奥运会传媒中心
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) set up a broadcasting coordination committee to ensure the successful broadcasting of the world's premier sporting event. The committee will work with different government departments to formulate favorable policies for the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co. Ltd. It is estimated that during the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, more than 4 billion people will watch the games worldwide.

Beijing mulls easing firecrackers ban
考虑取消烟花燃放禁令
Beijing municipal authorities are considering allowing firecrackers during the Spring Festival, a major traditional Chinese festival of family reunion, after a 12-year ban in the national capital. According to draft regulations, lighting firecrackers will be allowed in the city for a 15-day period beginning on the day of the Spring Festival. Firecrackers will be allowed in suburban districts and counties from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. all the year around.

Direct Continental flights between Beijing and NY
北京纽约开通直航
Continental Airlines, the world's sixth largest airline, will launch direct flights between Beijing and New York from June 16. Direct flights are 13 and a half hours, five hours faster than previous flights out of Beijing that traveled via Tokyo and other cities. To coincide with the new flights, Continental has opened a new office in Beijing for sales, marketing, reservations, ticketing and cargo services. Continental is determined to stay ahead of the competition with services like special menu choices and Chinese-speaking staff.

Airport calls in baggage experts
机场需要行包专家
Beijing Capital International Airport inked two contracts totaling US$300 million to scale up its passenger transport and baggage-handling abilities. The two contracts were signed with the Canada-based Bombardier and the German company Siemens.
The move, a critical part of the airport's expansion project, aims to primarily meet the surging air transport demands during the Beijing Olympic Games in three years.

Shanghai 上海

Clean energy over coal
用清洁能源代替燃煤
Facing an increasing power shortage, Shanghai is seeing an urgent need to optimize its coal-based energy structure and is encouraging the development and use of clean energy. A building demonstrating the use of clean energy will be a showcase in the World Expo Park in Shanghai in 2010 where visitors may see vehicles using fuel cells, a hydrogen-power center to provide clean energy for air-conditioning systems, warm water and other functional uses. At present, about 62 per cent of the total energy consumption in Shanghai is derived from coal, and about 91 per cent of power generating capacity is based on coal-fired power plants.

Catching up with "world cities"
追赶世界城市
Having already become China's economic engine after its efforts in the past two decades, Shanghai is undoubtedly eager to step into the world city parade. Shanghai got an "A plus" among the 23 Chinese cities in a recent survey on investment environments by the World Bank. More than 300 of the world's top 500 enterprises have made investments in Shanghai.
Another survey shows that Shanghai is at the 13th position in World City ranking list, a similar position to that of Rome, but still lagging behind cities like San Francisco.

US university establishes office in Fudan
美大学在复旦设办事处
The University of North Carolina (UNC) from the United States established an office in Fudan University in Shanghai. The idea of the office is to build a framework around all the activities of North Carolina universities that focus on China. The agreement reaffirms the desire of both UNC and Fudan to pursue joint degree programs, facilitate student and faculty exchanges, pursue joint grants to support activities in research, teaching and training of primary and secondary education students, and so on.

Guangzhou & Shenzhen 广州 & 深圳

Passengers carry bird flu virus in eggs
乘客携带蛋类含禽流感病毒
Guangzhou quarantine officials found a deadly bird flu virus in 45 eggs carried by air passengers from Vietnam, the first time China had found the H5N1 virus in an airport checkpoint since the end of 2003. Quarantine officials disinfected the location where the eggs were found.
Vietnam has culled more than 40 million birds since a bird flu outbreak in the country at the end of 2003. Thirty-two people were killed by the virus.

New subways planned
筹建新地铁
The construction of a number of subway lines will either continue or start in Guangzhou this year, marking a busy year in the plan to open nine lines by 2010, when the Asian Games are held in the city. Construction is expected to start full scale on lines 4 and 5 this year, and the city will strive to start building experimental sections of lines 6, 8 and the airport line. Preliminary work will continue on the line linking Guangzhou and the neighboring city of Foshan. When all the lines are completed by 2010, the subway network in Guangzhou will be about 255 kilometers long.

McDonald's opens 1st China drive-through
麦当劳将开中国第一家汽车餐厅
McDonald's, the U.S. fast food chain, is to open its first China drive-through restaurant in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, in October. McDonald's plans to open about 100 restaurants a year in China to lift the total number of restaurants in the country to 1,000 before the 2008 Olympics. The company currently has about 660 restaurants in China.

Int'l matchmakers spring up
涌现国际婚介
A new type of international internet matchmaker has been set up in Guangdong Province, providing services for women looking for foreign partners. Once a match has been found the matchmaker translates the love letters exchanged between the two.
When they start dating, the matchmaker is also responsible for helping the couple communicate. Compared with traditional matchmakers, International matchmakers are paid much higher, with an income of over 3,000 yuan per month.



Chongqing 重庆

Tremor monitoring network for 3 Gorges Reservoir
三峡建立震控监测网
A tremor monitoring and early warning network for the Three Gorges Reservoir area was set up combining a local earthquake monitoring station with the city‘s GPS monitoring network. With the new network, even the slightest movement in the reservoir area can be detected, providing the local government complete first-hand information. Geological disasters like land slides, collapses and muck-rock flows were very common before the construction of the Three Gorges Project, sparking fears about possible calamities after the water storage.

Hong Kong 香港

Int'l children's film carnival
今夏举办国际儿童电影狂欢节
An array of fun characters including homesick Dorothy, curious Cheburashka and naughty Martha will all be featured in Hong Kong International Children's Film Carnival 2005 from July 16 to August 21 in the annual summer extravaganza of "International Arts Carnival" (IAC). This year's carnival will showcase many outstanding feature films as well as animated and short films from around the world.



Palm oil smuggling syndicate smashed
两地警方联手挫败棕榈油走私
Police in Hong Kong and mainland China have smashed a syndicate that smuggled thousands of liters of palm oil through an underground pipeline. Hong Kong police discovered the 1,000-meter-long pipeline linking Hong Kong and Shenzhen. After launching an investigation, Chinese police discovered an underground oil tank in a village car park. The price of palm oil-widely used for industries on the mainland, has jumped since the beginning of the year, making smuggling a highly profitable business.

Taipei 台北

Taiwan invests in Guangdong
台资流向广东
Taiwan has become one of the most important sources of investment for Guangdong. Guangdong is now stepping up efforts to encourage business people in Taiwan to play a more active role in the economic development of the region. It will encourage Taiwan business people to invest in labor-intensive projects, projects related to resource development, agricultural product processing and tourism in the eastern and western parts of the province as well as in rural areas elsewhere.

Call for protection of coral reefs
呼吁保护珊瑚礁
Local environmental activists urged the government to introduce more effective measures to protect the Taiwan's coral reefs saying it has failed to promote the concept of oceanic culture and instead promoted "seafood culture." Coral reefs along Taiwan's coastline are more accessible than most popular ecotourism attractions in other countries and action should be taken to prevent the reefs from threats such as pollution and physical damage.


Vocabulary
circular 供传阅的文件
hazard 危险
ecological 生态的
venture 冒险
disguise伪装
mull 深思
showcase 展出
extravaganza 滑稽剧
paralympics 残运会