BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China's year-on-year inflation rate was expected to be between 2 to 2.5 percent for the first quarter this year, the country's top economic planner said here Tuesday.The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, would see a "moderate increase" in the first quarter, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on its website.China's CPI rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier in February, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.Food prices would begin to fall as the weather got warmer, said the statement. In February, food prices rose 6.2 percent from the previous year due to the Lunar New Year holiday and poor weather.The Lunar New Year holiday, or Spring Festival, is the most important traditional festival in China for family reunion. People usually spend a lot on food, alcohol, cigarettes and gifts during the period.The February CPI was within normal range, compared with the Spring Festival months in previous years, said Zhou Wangjun, deputy director of the Department of Prices of the NDRC.However, Zhou warned that there were still uncertainties in the price trend, including fluctuation in international commodities prices.China targets a consumer price rise of around 3 percent this year, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at the opening of the annual session of the National People's Congress earlier this month.
BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu was among 13 people who on Sunday became new members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body.Their memberships were approved by a meeting of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, which closed on Sunday.The three-day meeting also appointed Qian Yunlu as secretary-general for the third session of the 11th CPPCC National Committee and 21 others as vice secretary-generals. The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu (front R) attends the 8th National Congress of the China Buddhism Association in Beijing, capital of China, on Feb. 1, 2010.The annual session will begin on March 3.
GUANGZHOU, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- As the bell struck midnight Saturday to usher in the New Year, a real-name train ticket selling experiment ended in southern China's Guangdong Province.The move has turned out to be helpful in easing ticket shortages during a travel peak season before the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, but failed to uproot scalpers.In 15 days, the operation initiated by the Ministry of Railways among nine stations run by Guangzhou Railway Group has benefited 600,000 travellers who went on their journeys home from Guangdong since Jan. 30 to inland provinces of Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou, and Chongqing Municipality.The stations were in cities whose economy heavily relies upon migrant workers, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan and Huizhou, all in Guangdong, known as "Factory of the World".With the real-name ticket selling scheme, gone were those long waiting queues -- which had been ubiquitous before the experiment-- at the entrances of Guangzhou Railway Station where transportation task is usually the heaviest around important traditional festive seasons such as Spring Festival.Xiong Xiaoyan, who was heading for her home province of Guizhou, southwest China, was surprised to find the ticket-checking process taking only 10 seconds."I thought the waiting line would be much longer than normal as the identity card check was supposed to take more time", she said, "I didn't expect it to be so prompt!"Huang Xin, director of the passenger transport section of the Guangzhou Railway Group, attributed the efficiency to the improved ticket check-in infrastructure. "We used to have only seven to eight ticket gates. Now the number has grown up to 108," Huang said.At each entrance gate to the platform, an identity recognition system was put into place. Inspectors could scan a traveller's ticket and his or her ID card separately on two sets of equipment: screens will immediately display the information about a ticket purchaser and the ID card holder with photos. If the names and codes on the ticket and ID card matches, inspectors will stamp the ticket and let go the traveller.Huang said that this year's pre-Spring Festival single-day traffic record had overtaken that of last year to 232,000 people on Feb. 28."I think the pilot operation has successfully passed the ticket check-in test as the extra procedure aiming to secure fairness cut rather than prolong travelers' waiting time," said Huang.Dozens of train stations in Hunan, Sichuan, Chongqing and Guizhou, home to a huge number of migrant workers, started to pilot the real-name train ticket selling scheme on Sunday.Tens of millions of migrant workers go back home before the Spring Festival for often once-in-a-year family reunions. They return to cities after the festival.The scheme runs through March 10.SCALPERS CORNERED NOT UPROOTEDBefore the name-based system was adopted, travellers had long complained about scalpers worsening the ticket shortage problem by stockpiling tickets and reselling them at higher prices as the country's railway transport capacity falls far short of its annual Spring Festival traffic demand.During this travelling season from Jan. 30 to March 10, the railways were expected to transport 210 million passengers, up 9.5 percent year on year, or 5.25 million passengers per day, according to the Ministry of Railways.Migrant worker Wang Xiangneng from central Hunan Province thought the real-name system had put a curb on scalpers. "Anyone can buy a ticket either by phone calls or at ticket booths now. It is really first-come and first-served," said Wang.Taking himself as example, Wang said that a one-way ticket for a hard seat from Guangzhou to Shaoyang priced at 51 yuan used to be sold at least 200 yuan by scalpers in the past."If we were able to secure a ticket from the station or authorized outlets, we could have several days' pay spared. That is not a small amount for us," he said.But there are people always trying to beat the new system to make illegal profits. Police in Guangdong have captured 837 illegal ticket vendors and confiscated more than 2,500 scalped tickets by Feb. 8.In Chongqing, local police have also cracked down on several ticket scalping cases.From two suspects, the police have seized 37 real-name tickets, 115 IDs for ticket booking via phone calls and four household registration booklets. The two suspects surnamed Wang and Gou separately confessed they would charge an extra 20 to 30 yuan for each ticket.Yue Jinglun, director of the Social Policy Research Institute of the Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, said there was much to be done to prevent the real-name system from being taken advantage of by scalpers."No one would deny that the trial operation has been a very positive step in securing fair distribution of scarce train ticket resources. The key is to constantly optimize the system, rather than abandoning it for fear of defects," he said.Huang Xin said the way to tackle train ticket shortage problem from the root was to expand the country's railway transport capacity. "At the core this is supply-and-demand problem," he said.
BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities will standardize all the primary school buses to ensure safety of pupils when they commute between home and school.The school buses refer to those that are able to carry more than 10 children. The set of standards, the first of its kind in the country, require the school buses to bear unified tag, according to the Beijing News on Friday.The tag features two school children on two separate pages of an unfolded book.According to the standards, school buses should have seat belts for each seat and there should be one seat or more for caretakers.Double-deck bus and articulated bus are not allowed to serve as primary school buses for safety concern.The standards also require the bus makers to install a device to record the driving speed, time and mileage of the vehicle.The standards, jointly issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and the Standardization Administration, will come into force on July 1.
BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese leaders joined lawmakers Thursday in discussions on the work report of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.In the deliberation with lawmakers from northwest China's Qinghai Province, Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said he totally agrees with the report.Li Changchun called on Qinghai authorities to further carry out the Scientific Outlook on Development and explore a new path of scientific and leapfrog development for underdeveloped regions.Li Changchun also told the deputies to step up efforts to promote core socialist values and ethnic unity.Vice Premier Li Keqiang joined the the discussion with lawmakers from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in which he underscored the transformation of economic growth pattern.Li Keqiang said the region should improve economic restructuring, reforms and innovation, as the current drive to transform the economic growth pattern offers a new historic opportunity for western regions.Li Keqiang also said he entirely endorses the work report of the NPC Standing Committee.In his discussion with deputies from Jilin Province, He Guoqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said the province should take advantage of national policies to boost its own development.When speaking of fighting corruption, He, also head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, urged more efforts to address the loudest complaints of the people, expand participation of the public, and strengthening the collection and analysis of online information.
上海治疗腋臭多少钱
BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's tourism revenue rose 26.9 percent to 64.62 billion yuan (9.46 billion U.S. dollars) during the Spring Festival, the National Tourism Administration (NTA) said Sunday.China received 125 million tourists during the holiday period from Feb. 13 to 19, up 14.8 percent from the same period last year, a statement on the NTA website said.Of the tourism revenue, 4.6 billion yuan came from airlines while 2.83 billion yuan from railways. The tourists spent 26.51 billion yuan in China's 39 key tourism cities and 30.68 billion yuan in other areas.Among the tourists, 29.92 million stayed overnight and 95.13 million stayed for less than one day.
BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Drought had affected 61.31 million Mu (4.09 million hectares) of farmland in southwestern China as of March 5, according to the latest figure from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).About half of the affected, or 32.95 million Mu (2.20 million hectares), was seriously damaged, according to the MOA.The affected acreage was in Yunnan Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou Province, Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality.The areas contributed to about 16 percent of the country's annual grain output, and thus were important to the country's overall grain output, according to the MOA.
BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Both output and sales values of China's machinery industry exceeded 10 trillion yuan (1.46 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, the China Machinery Industry Federation (CMIF) said here Wednesday.Output value reached 10.75 trillion yuan in 2009, up 16.07 percent from the year earlier. Sales value was 10.48 trillion yuan, up 16.11 percent,said Wang Ruixiang, the CMIF director.From January to November last year, the sector's profits reached 581.6 billion yuan, up 22.8 percent year on year.The auto sector was the "engine" that drove the overall growth of the industry last year, said Wang, adding nearly 30 percent of output value of the machinery industry was generated by automakers.Wang predicted the machinery sector would reach a 15 percent growth in output and sales values this year, with profits likely to grow 10 percent.
BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Sunday China is firmly opposed to the recent moves by the United States that undermined China's core interests and the overall interests of bilateral ties and called for joint efforts to promote a return to sound relations."The responsibility for the current difficulty in Sino-U.S. relations does not lie with China," Yang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's supreme legislature.He said that the China-U.S relationship had a good start after President Obama took office last year.However, the U.S arms sales to Taiwan and U.S leaders' meetings with the ** Lama "caused a serious disturbance to China-U.S ties and posed difficulty to the cooperation between the two countries," he said.