China beefs up IPR Protection
中国加大知识产权保护力度

The National Intellectual Property Rights Protection Working Group Office has published "China's Action Plan on IPR Protection 2006", in which it lays out the measures it will be taking to protect IPR and to combat and punish infringements. The Action Plan includes plans for supplementing existing IPR legislation as well as to continue some of the government’s major initiatives. Operation Mountain Eagle will maintain the police pressure on trademark violators while a special operation focusing on laser discs hits pirates. Operation Sunshine will continue to improve the business environment for foreign companies, and Operation Blue Sky will be reducing IPR related offences at trade fairs.

NORTH

Cell phone blockers withdrawn
北京考场取消手机屏蔽仪
No mobile phone interference devices will be used in the senior high school or college entrance exams in Beijing next month. The technology has been used in Beijing for national examinations since 2005. The use of the blockers in exams has caused much controversy in the past year, as experts have expressed concern about possible health risks to the examination candidates.

Yangge Dance competition held for the elderly
石家庄为老年人办秧歌大赛

Shijiazhuang held a Yangge Dance competition on the city's Cultural Square on May 25. Yangge dance is a traditional Han Chinese performacne form. The competition was one of the activities available in the city for the elderly residents. 15 groups took part in the competition despite the rain.

Factories punished for pollution
辽宁严惩污染厂
Liaoning environmental authorities have given strict punishments to two factories found to have caused environmentally damaging pollution. The two factories were both blacklisted by the national environment watchdog, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), earlier this year after they caused serious pollution in nearby rivers.

 

 

WEST

zz Int'l expo opens in Chengdu
成都举办西部经贸会
The 7th Western China International Economy and Trade Fair opened in Chengdu on May 25, attracting 15,000 Chinese visitors and 3,000 business people from over 50 other countries. The four-day fair has sections covering real estate, transport, the health industry, tourism and education.

Distance learning for Tibet school
西藏中学建远程教育平台

Over twenty volunteers from a middle school in Beijing accompanied six donated computers to Tingri Middle School in Tibet on May 28. Tingri and Beijing Huiwen Middle School, will work together to set up an internet link for sharing teaching resources and communicating day to day.

 

 

MIDDLE

Rural residents shop indoors
湖南农村大建超市
For generations the farmers in Qingshu county, Hunan have had to be content to shop in an outdoor market, where hawkers selling toothpaste and shampoo jostled for space with meat vendors. However, the newly built Exhilaration supermarket in a converted warehouse, is changing the way farmers shop, trade, and even live their lives. This supermarket is just one of the 71,000 stores that have been built in towns and villages in a nationwide campaign that has brought indoor shopping to 100 million rural residents.

 

 

SOUTH

Shenzhen buses to run faster
深圳建高速公交路线
Shenzhen is set to begin operations on five Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes, with a total length of 130km, by 2010. BRT is a bus service which runs on bus-only lanes and has priority at traffic signals. It will connect with the metro system and conventional bus network. The BRT buses will run at an average speed of 25 to 30 kilometers per hour.

Models compete in Nanning
亚洲超模逐鹿南宁

Models from all over Asia competed during the finals of Asia Super Model Contest in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region May 27, 2006. A South Korean model won the "International Friendship Award" and Yao Lan and Wang Hui, models from China, won the "Best Figure Award" and the "Catwalk Performance Award" respectively.

Hainan faces locust plague
蝗灾又袭海南
The island province of Hainan is facing a plague of locusts again, just a year after suffering its worst locust plague in two decades. Monitors have reported that an area of 13,300 hectares is already infested with between 300 and 750 locusts per hectare. The provincial government began taking preventive measures in April, including furrowing to kill locust eggs.

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EAST

Top eaters compete in final
亚洲食王决战上海

The Shanghai Asian Eating Competition which kicked off on May 21 held its final on May 28. Chang Wing Man from Hong Kong (L) swallowed down 3.796 kilograms of curry-sauced food within 20 minutes and walked away with the second prize.

Free information for foreigners
上海“老外”免费查信息
Shanghai has launched a 24-hour hotline exclusively for foreigners and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan who are working or living in the city, providinig free information and advice on all aspects of daily life in the city over the phone.

Fake FIFA products seized
宁波海关为“世界杯”打假
Ningbo customs has confiscated 600 soccer balls printed with the FIFA logo.Customs officials say they have received orders to keep a sharp eye on World Cup-related products. China has mounted an unusually aggressive campaign to beef up its intellectual property rights protection in the run up to the Olympics in Beijing.

Vocabulary
transit 运输 [yun(4),shu(1)]
locust 蝗虫[huan(2),chong(2)]
blacklist 列入黑名单[lie(4),ru(4),hei(1)ming(2)dan(1)]
infest 扰乱[rou(3),luan(4)]
maneuver 策略 [ce(4),lie(4)]
confiscate 没收[mo(4),shou(1)]
hawker 小贩 [xiao(4)fan(4)]
furrow 开沟 [kai(1),gao(1)]