Major travel agencies had cut prices of domestic group tours by an average 30 percent as of yesterday, as the weeklong National Day holiday approaches its conclusion.The discount trips cover some top attractions, including Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province, Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province and some spots in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Costs for outbound tours have also been cut.The prices of tours to Japan and the Republic of Korea have fallen by as much as 1,000 yuan (3), according to www.ctrip.com, a travel service company.The country's tourism market saw a peak yesterday, the National Holiday Office said in a statement.More than 90 percent of the hotel rooms in most tourist destinations were booked, the statement said.The office said the 119 scenic spots in its nationwide monitoring system had received 3.28 million tourists on Wednesday and 3.07 million yesterday.Beijing's mass transit railway system carried 3.74 million people during the first two days of the weeklong holiday, according to municipal metro authorities.The number was almost double the amount on a normal day.An official with the Beijing environmental sanitation group said tourists had left about a third of the garbage at Tian'anmen Square each day that they did last year.Sanitation workers cleared 26.6 tons of garbage from the square in the first two days of the holiday, compared with 80 tons last year.
Major travel agencies had cut prices of domestic group tours by an average 30 percent as of yesterday, as the weeklong National Day holiday approaches its conclusion.The discount trips cover some top attractions, including Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province, Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province and some spots in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Costs for outbound tours have also been cut.The prices of tours to Japan and the Republic of Korea have fallen by as much as 1,000 yuan (3), according to www.ctrip.com, a travel service company.The country's tourism market saw a peak yesterday, the National Holiday Office said in a statement.More than 90 percent of the hotel rooms in most tourist destinations were booked, the statement said.The office said the 119 scenic spots in its nationwide monitoring system had received 3.28 million tourists on Wednesday and 3.07 million yesterday.Beijing's mass transit railway system carried 3.74 million people during the first two days of the weeklong holiday, according to municipal metro authorities.The number was almost double the amount on a normal day.An official with the Beijing environmental sanitation group said tourists had left about a third of the garbage at Tian'anmen Square each day that they did last year.Sanitation workers cleared 26.6 tons of garbage from the square in the first two days of the holiday, compared with 80 tons last year.
Farmers from Taiwan looking to establish a business on the mainland can now benefit from a range of preferential policies, an official with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said Wednesday.Pan Haimin said those who want to set up in one of the cross-Straits agricultural cooperation experimental zones or business incubator parks for farmers, can now apply direct to the appropriate county or city administration for industry and commerce.Speaking at a press conference held by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, he said compared to the general policy on registering Taiwan companies, the system for farmers is extremely simple."Local administrations will approve qualified applicants without them having to get approval from overseas fund administrations on the mainland," Pan said."Also, the new policies have no minimum registered capital requirements," he said.Other Taiwan-based companies seeking to open on the mainland must first get approval from the overseas fund administrations and there are requirements for minimum registered capital, he said.According to the policies, which will go into effect on Saturday, farmers can engage in planting, aquatic breeding, animal and poultry farming, agricultural product processing, export and import of agricultural products, and exchanges and promotion of agricultural technology.Currently, 11 provinces have established cross-Straits agricultural cooperation experimental zones and four provinces and municipalities have set up business incubator parks for Taiwan farmers.Pan said the local administrations of commerce and industry will offer free consultations on the new policies and people can also log on to the website of the state administration www.saic.gov.cn for more information.Also at yesterday's press conference, Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, urged the Japanese government to deal with the release of German Mark bonds held by Taiwan residents more quickly and with greater effort.Fan said the Japanese government is responsible for paying back the bonds that were issued in the 1920s.In 1923, many Taiwan residents were forced by the then Japanese colonial government on the island to buy the bonds, which promised to pay back the principal sums with interest in 50 years' time, Fan said.She said representatives of the Chinese Foreign Ministry met recently with officials from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and insisted Japan pay back the bonds.Xinhua
China will contribute about 10 billion yuan (.4 billion) to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, construction of which will begin in France this year.The figure represents about 10 percent of the project's cost.About half of China's contribution will be spent during the 10-year construction phase of the multination undertaking, sources at the Oriental Science and Technology Forum, held in Shanghai last weekend, said."The goal of the project is to find a shortcut to solve our energy shortage," Luo Delong, deputy director of the ITER China Office, told the forum.He said Chinese researchers will be in charge of building components such as heating, diagnostic and remote maintenance equipment, as well as transporting it to Cadarache in the south of France, where the ITER reactor will be built.ITER, which means "the way" in Latin, is an 11-billion-euro (.5 billion) experiment to study the scientific and technical feasibility of the world's most advanced nuclear fusion reactor. The device is described as an "artificial sun" as it will create conditions similar to those occurring in solar nuclear fusion reactions.If successful, the project could generate infinite, safe and clean energy to replace fossil fuels such as oil and coal, and will be 30 times more powerful than the Joint European Torus (JET), the largest comparable experiment.The ITER project was first initiated by the United States and the then Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. Today, it involves the European Union (EU), the US, Japan, Russia, the Republic of Korea, China and India. China joined in February 2003.The ITER Agreement, signed in November 2006, came into effect last October and has an initial duration of 35 years, though it could be extended for an additional 10 years.Under the agreement, the EU will be responsible for half of the construction costs, while the other five parties excluding India, will contribute equally to cover the remaining expenses.Earlier reports said China would send 30 scientists to France during the construction phase. At the moment, more than a dozen scientists and managers are already working at Cadarache, and more will soon join them.Russia, France and Japan have all developed similar experimental fusion reactors.China became the first country to build a superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device in September, after successfully completing a series of trials in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province. Despite this success, China still faces a shortage of talent in the field. Scientists and researchers have called for increased efforts to train more scientists to improve the nation's research capabilities.
Beijing's top official on cross-Straits affairs Monday condemned a referendum pushed by Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian as a move that is threatening to drag ties into a "high-risk period".Chen Yunlin, minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, called the referendum to join the United Nations under the name of Taiwan as a "scheme" aimed at de jure independence for the island.The Taiwan authorities led by Chen Shui-bian are "attempting to change the cross-Straits status quo that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China " Chen Yunlin said in a signed article published Monday in the latest issue of Qiushi (Seeking Truth) journal, a publication of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.The article came amid mounting concerns from across the Straits and international community over the proposed referendum, which is expected to strain cross-Straits relations and threaten regional stability.In an interview with a German newspaper published Monday, Chen Shui-bian insisted the referendum for Taiwan's admission to the UN will be slated for March as scheduled, along with the island's "presidential" elections.The Taiwan leader was quoted as saying he has no rights to "veto the referendum".Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, rapped Chen Shui-bian in a meeting in Taipei last week, saying the United States is greatly concerned about the referendum and hopes it will be scrapped.He said his remarks represented views from the "highest level in Washington".Once Chen Shui-bian's plot materializes, "it will bring serious consequences cross-Straits relations and peace", Chen Yunlin warned in the article.The minister said the fight against pro-independence forces is becoming more and more intense as their secessionist activities are being intensified.He stressed that "China's sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no division, and any matter in this regard must be decided by the entire Chinese people including our Taiwan compatriots"."The 1.3 billion Chinese people will never swallow the bitter fruit of 'Taiwan independence'," Chen Yunlin said.He reiterated that Beijing will stay on high alert of any desperate moves of the secessionist forces of Taiwan.In the event that "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces should act under any name or by any means to cause Taiwan's secession from China, or that major incidents entailing Taiwan's secession from China should occur, we shall resort to necessary measures without hesitation to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, our core national interests," he said.
KHARTOUM: Chinese peacekeepers were on Wednesday awarded certificates of merit for their excellent performance during their eight-month term in Sudan, a Chinese officer said Thursday.Lieutenant General Jasbir Singh Lidder, commander of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), presented Unit Citations to the engineering, transportation and medical contingents of Chinese peacekeeping troops, and Force Commander Commendations to 22 Chinese troops.The two certificates of merit are the highest honor awarded to peacekeepers from various contributing countries in Sudan, said the Chinese officer.The awards ceremony was held at the base of the Chinese peacekeeping troops in Wau, capital of West Bahr al-Ghazal state in southern Sudan, two weeks before their departure from Sudan to rotate with another batch of Chinese peacekeeping troops.Lidder said it was a great honor for him to serve with the Chinese peacekeepers as they were ending "their very successful term" in Sudan."During the past months, the three contingents of the Chinese peacekeeping troops have done a significant job to be a role model for professionalism, commitment and conduct," Lidder said.The Chinese peacekeepers had also maintained excellent relations with the contingents of other countries as well as the local population, the UNMIS commander said.Li Chengwen, the Chinese Ambassador to Sudan, congratulated all the three contingents, the 22 Chinese peacekeepers as well as the other officers and soldiers. He highly praised their performance in Sudan, especially in the extremely difficult and complicated conditions.The 435-strong Chinese peacekeeping troops, the second batch of Chinese peacekeepers deployed in southern Sudan since China started taking part in UN peacekeeping operation there in May last year and arrived in Wau in January this year.
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WUHAN: The China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) has released its latest list of the country's top 500 companies.State-owned China Petrochemical Corporation, also called Sinopec, was the largest company by revenue, with 1.06 trillion yuan (9.5 billion) in 2006. It was the only company to top 1 trillion yuan.Foreign trade dealer Zhucheng Waimao Co Ltd ranked 500. The Shandong province-based company recorded 7.216 billion yuan.Companies in the list witnessed a 23.7 percent increase in revenue and 25.9 percent hike in profits from the previous year, largely because of continued growth from mergers and acquisitions.However, the money-earning performance of the 500 still falls far behind that of the world's top 500 as compiled by Forbes.China's top performers recorded a modest 4.72 percent on profit margin, lower than the average 7.32 percent of the world's top 500, the CEC report said.The return on equity of the top 500 was 10.1 percent, much lower than the 16.1 percent of the world's top 500."The top 500 China is still mainly ranked in size instead of performance," Li Wei, deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council said."That is a gap between China and developed countries."A total of 22 Chinese companies were among the world's top 500 in 2007. Sinopec, the largest company in China, ranked 17th."China's top firms have still focused their business on traditional industries, mainly manufacturing," Yang Du, professor at Renmin University of China, said.As many as 280 companies, accounting for 56 percent of the top 500 are from manufacturing industries, and less than 30 percent are from service-related industries.China's top 500 have been continually expanding, with 131 of them, merging and acquiring some 408 other businesses last year."But these merger and acquisition (M&A) activities are mainly limited within the same industries and few of the M&A deals are cross-industries," Yang said.Among the top 500, 96 are headquartered in Beijing and 40 are from East China's Jiangsu Province.
The first national-level association of Taiwan-funded enterprises held its inaugural ceremony in Beijing yesterday - a move which experts say will help boost cross-Straits economic integration and peace. "Taiwan business people are all over the mainland now," said Chang Han-wen, the newly-elected chairman of the Association of Taiwanese-invested Enterprises on the Mainland. According to conservative estimates, there are at least 1 million Taiwan business people on the mainland. The national-level association, comprising heads of Taiwan enterprise associations and representatives of Taiwan enterprises on the mainland, aims to serve the island's enterprises, protect their legal rights, boost relations with the ministries in Beijing and strengthen communication with mainland firms. Chen Yunlin, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the island has chalked up a huge trade surplus with the mainland and its trade with the mainland has become an indispensable driving force of Taiwan's economy. "The mainland market provides huge potential for the expansion and industrial upgrading of Taiwan enterprises," he said. Xu Shiquan, vice-chairman of the National Society of Taiwan Studies, said that the establishment of the association coincides with the mushrooming of Taiwan-funded enterprises on the mainland. "Besides their number and scale, more and more Taiwan enterprises are keen to upgrade their industrial structure into the hi-tech sector," he said. "Though they usually forge local associations, faster expansion and a larger scale require a higher level of coordination," he said. Feng Bangyan, director of the Institute of Taiwan Economy at Jinan University in Guangzhou, said the association, which brings together many business heavyweights, would definitely pressure Taiwan authorities to grant more freedom for economic growth. "The secessionists forces on the island can't hinder the ever-increasing economic bonds linking the two sides across the Straits," he said.