CHENGDU - About 3.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas deposits have been discovered in southwest China's Sichuan Basin, with verified exploitable reserves topping 600 billion cubic meters. The reserves were discovered in Dazhou, a gas-rich city in Sichuan Province. By 2010, the newly found deposits will raise the city's gas output to 24 billion cubic meters and sulphur to more than 4.3 million tons, according to a Dazhou official at the on-going Western China International Economy-Trade Fair on Saturday. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's biggest oil and gas producer, and Sinopec Corporation, China's largest refiner, plan to build five purification plants in Dazhou and are expected to purify a total of 74 million cubic meters of natural gas a day by 2010. Dazhou City, located in eastern Sichuan, covers an area of 16,600 square kilometers with a population of 6.46 million.
Effective preparations and accurate weather forecasts greatly reduced the number of casualties caused by typhoon Wipha, Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), said on Thursday."Up to now only five people have died from landslides triggered by the heavy rain. The number of casualties is rare in history," said Zheng.The fact that the central government has paid great attention to natural disasters was one of the reasons for the few casualties, while meteorological authorities stepped up forecasts to allow local governments to have time to evacuate people, Zheng added.A total of 2.67 million people in Zhejiang, Fujian, Shanghai and Jiangsu had been relocated by Wednesday, said the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The typhoon destroyed more than 9,600 houses and damaged 42,000 others.In Zhejiang alone, 1.79 million people were evacuated before Wipha struck, the largest mass evacuation in the history of the province. More than half a million were evacuated because their houses were in poor condition.Typhoon Wipha hit Wenzhou, in Zhejiang Province, at 2:30 am Wednesday but was later downgraded to a tropical storm.It turned into a temperate depression at noon on Thursday in the Yellow Sea, and was still weakening, according to the Liaoning Meteorological Observatory.
NANCHANG - He Guoqiang, a senior leader of the Commuinst Party of China, said the needs of the people must come first during a visit to the snow-hit eastern Jiangxi Province.He Guoqiang visits Miaozhi Village in Jiujiang where technicians have been repairing an electricity transmission line for eight days and nights, January 31, 2008. [Xinhua] "The disaster in Jiangxi is still developing. We are facing a tough task," said He, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's Political Bureau. "It is our most urgent task to fight the disaster and carry out relief work."He, the eighth top leader of the CPC to venture into the field to join the relief efforts, has been in Jiangxi since Wednesday. He has been entrusted by Chinese President Hu Jintao to direct disaster relief work and condole local residents."Party and government leaders of all levels shall be on the spot of the most-affected regions," He said. "They shall put the people's needs first."In the past two weeks, unusual freezing weather, icy rain and heavy snow have hit most of Jiangxi, affecting traffic, power supply and people's daily lives.A new round of heavy snow has fallen in northern Jiangxi since Thursday evening. By Saturday morning, 66 provincial counties were blanketed by at least two centimeters of snow. The snow was thicker than 10 cm in 21 of the counties.He visited the airport and the Nanchang railway station in the provincial capital upon arrival and inquired into the operation of flights and trains.Noticing a newborn baby carried by his mother waiting to board a train, He talked with the woman, Tan Xiaohui, and helped her with the child's woolen cap.He told Tan to take care of the child and herself and the other passengers to keep warm while wishing them a safe journey home.His second stop was the bridge across the Yangtze River in Jiujiang, a major juncture of a trunk road.He shook hands with soldiers and police who were de-icing the road and keeping traffic order. He also talked with drivers and passengers who were waiting to pass the bridge and handed out food.A relief camp has been set up beside the bridge, providing food, drinking water and medical service for stranded drivers and passengers.He was glad to learn the camp is running around the clock."I hope, through your work, passengers will not suffer cold, hunger, thirst and illness," he said.Disastrous weather has cut off several sections of the provincial power grid. On Thursday, He visited Miaozhi Village in Jiujiang where technicians had been repairing an electricity transmission line for eight days and nights."You have made great contribution to restoring power supply to the people. Take care of yourself," he said while holding the hands of a technician.At Lianhua and Jiangxiang townships, He dropped in on several rural families whose business had suffered from the storms.He asked Yin Zhongming, a strawberry farmer, and Liu Chunjiang, who raised ducks, about their damage. He encouraged them to restore production as soon as possible with assistance from the local government.The local government shall try its best to guarantee supply of power, gas, water and daily necessities, he said."We shall also start planning rehabilitation as early as possible and offer people preferential policies, and financial and technical assistance."
BEIJING - The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, on Thursday asked its local offices to ensure cash supplies amid persistent snow to meet demand for the Spring Festival, which falls on February 7.Snow has disrupted transportation, making it hard to deliver cash to the branches.The central bank, in a circular, urged its local offices to help commercial banks in getting or storing cash.The heavy snow that has fallen since mid-January, the worst in 50 years in much of China, has paralyzed transportation, frozen the power grid and caused serious economic losses.It showed no signs of abating as forecasters warned of three more days of snow and sleet.
NEW YORK - The overheating of the Chinese stock market is a structural problem that will be resolved by developing more financial products and cracking down on illegal activities, a Chinese securities regulatory official said Thursday. Hu Bing, deputy director-general of the market supervision department at the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at a conference in New York that authorities are seeking to roll out more products to broaden investors' options, such as real estate investment trusts, or REITs, as well as listed infrastructure funds. Other eventual offerings will include derivatives products such as stock-index futures and warrants. These products will be launched "when conditions are ready," Hu said at a China Investment Forum sponsored by Merrill Lynch and Institutional Investor. He said he couldn't provide a clearer timeline for when those products would be ready. Hu acknowledged a "liquidity surplus problem" that is contributing to the overheating of the Chinese stock market and noted that hot-money inflows coming in through illegal channels are exacerbating the problem. Tackling the liquidity issue is a long-term project that "cannot be resolved just by (raising) the interest rate," Hu said. "So the structural problem has to be resolved using structural measures." Earlier this week, the Chinese government tripled its stamp tax on stock trades in an effort to rein in the equity market. The Shanghai Composite Index more than doubled in 2006 and is still up around 50 percent so far in 2007. Hu said China's capital markets are still young and face a "golden opportunity" to develop their depth and breadth. The majority of individual investors rely on rumors or inside information to make their decisions, leading to speculative gains in stocks, he said. Hu said authorities are stepping up efforts to crack down on insider trading, "but because this is a transitioning society in an emerging market, it will take a long time."
Chinese once associated tattoos with criminals and misfits; today, they are redrawing the lines around how they think about ink. The growth of China's emerging tattoo culture was evident by the more than 2,000 visitors who attended Saturday's opening of the country's largest tattoo gathering, Tattoo Show Convention 2007, which ends today. Attracting more than 100 artists from all over China and the world, the show at the Sanshang Art Beijing Gallery was intended as a platform for interaction among Chinese from around the country, their international counterparts and the public. "We hope to give them a platform so they can learn from each other," said Xiao Long, who founded the non-profit convention in 2001. Tattooed Chinese photographed each other's ink, while artists displayed their works and even tattooed visitors at their booths. German artist Frank Kassebaum, of Bremen, said he was surprised by what he saw. "Before I came here, I thought that China wasn't so far along in its tattoo culture, but from what I see here, I really think that, in 10 years, they'll be better than the United States, Japan and Europe," he said. "The boom in Japan was 10 years ago; now, the boom is here." Co-organizer Chris Wroblewski, of New York City, said one of the major purposes of the show was to educate Chinese to be prudent about getting tattoos. He said that during China's "Tattoo Renaissance", many shops were opening up, offering "mass production stuff" drawn by "artists who learned in two weeks and are just plowing needles into skin". He explained that as tattooing developed in China, there would be a proliferation of both "high art and low art". YZTattoo parlor model Qi Xuan, 26, said she believes the convention showcases the progress made by China's "high-art" tattoo artists. "In recent years, Chinese tattoo artists have become more skillful in design, technique and use of color," the Beijinger said. "Now, you can see more tattoo artists who can make very international designs. Because artists come to this show from every part of the country, we know what they are doing outside of Beijing." Wroblewski said that because Chinese tattooing was "still in its infancy", it often emulates the West. "But the Chinese are beginning to pick up on their roots and will start demanding more of their own culture." Student Wang Hao, of Beijing, said he came to the show because he was considering getting a tattoo and wanted to learn more about them. "I'd like to get a traditional Chinese tattoo, because I love China," the 22-year-old said.
厦门补全瓷牙多少钱
BEIJING - China welcomed Sudan's acceptance of a joint African Union- United Nations peacekeeping force for the country's troubled Darfur region. A Sudanese diplomat in Ethiopia confirmed on Wednesday that Sudan has accepted the mission after receiving assurances that a "hybrid" AU-UN force of 17,000 to 19,000 troops will not be open-ended and Sudan will remain in control of its borders. "China welcomes the deployment of a hybrid AU-UN force in Darfur and the joint statement," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site late Wednesday. "The facts have shown that dialogue and equal negotiation is an effective approach to political solution of the Darfur issue, and the consultation between AU, UN and Sudan is an effective mechanism," Qin said. China recently appointed a special representative for Africa to focus on Darfur, and has publicly urged Khartoum to give the UN a greater role in trying to resolve the conflict. The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudanese leaders are accused of unleashing the pro-government Arab militia, the janjaweed, to fight them - a charge they deny.
International community should work together to support a "fast and smooth" implementation of the newly-announced agreement on sending hybrid peacekeeping troop to Sudan's Darfur region, China's special representative for Darfur Liu Guijin said on Friday. Meanwhile, political process with all parties involved should continue in order to help restore a lasting peace in that troubled area, he said after discussions with South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad and other foreign ministry officials in the South African capital on Friday. South Africa is part of Liu's trip to Africa for consultations after the Sudanese government on Tuesday accepted the deployment of a hybrid African Union-United Nations force of between 17,000 to 19,000 troops in Darfur. Liu said both Chinese and South African governments welcomed the decision, which was announced after a closed-door meeting of the UN, AU and the Sudanese government in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia, early this week. "China and South Africa hold similar view with regard to the Darfur issue... We need to give encouragement to the flexible attitude demonstrated in the recent meeting in Addis Ababa," Liu told a media briefing. The newly-appointed Chinese envoy, who made a fact-finding trip to Darfur last month, said this was achieved thanks to efforts of the international community. "Now the Sudanese government has responded positively," he said. The deployment of the hybrid peacekeeping troop is the final part of a three-phase support plan, also known as the Annan plan as it was put forward by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, with aims to end armed conflicts in Darfur. The AU, the UN and the Sudanese government agreed last November on the plan. With the first phase of the plan already underway, Sudan announced on April 16 that it approved the inauguration of the second phase, which involves the deployment of 3,000 UN troops and six attack helicopters in Darfur to support the 7,800-strong African force, as well as preparation for the next phase. The Sudanese government has been accused by the United States of delaying the deployment of the hybrid force. But Khartoum strongly requested that the joint force must be predominantly African one. Liu said the international community should now concentrate on how to support the deployment of the hybrid peacekeeping troop. He said China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has been closely cooperating with the UN, AU and the Sudanese government on the Darfur issue, including the commitment to send 275 engineering troops to Darfur to support the second phase of the Annan plan, as well as 10 million U.S. dollars and other humanitarian support to Darfur. "We have been playing a role of bridge... We have been trying to give advice and to persuade Sudan to be more flexible to accept the UN plan," he said. Liu said he would also hold consultations with the AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare in Addis Ababa, with officials of the Arab League during his visit to Egypt, and make another visit to Sudan. Liu said China opposed the move to put sanctions, which the United States threatened to use on Khartoum. "We do not need to rush to put more sanctions," he said. "It's not a proper time now. Peace has a future. We need to work together, make efforts and help with the newly deployed AU-UN hybrid operation." The Chinese diplomat also shrugged off the accusation on China' s failure to exert pressures on Khartoum, allegedly due to China's oil interest in Sudan. "Pressure cannot solve anything," he said. "No matter how many troops you send, without a political presence and cooperation of the government, we cannot find a long-lasting solution." "I think up to now we have been quite successful," he said. He said China's normal ties with Sudan have been "unnecessarily politicalized," which were "unfair and irrational." He said China will continue to be actively involved in projects, such as water-supply and establishing agriculture technology demonstration centers in Sudan, to help Sudan realize social and economic development, which "we regard as the root cause of the armed conflicts and humanitarian crisis."
BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- China has published a draft management regulation on lotteries and is asking for the public's opinions. If officially issued, it would be the country's first national management regulation on lotteries since the country gave the green light to its lottery industry in 1987. The solicitation of public opinion will last through March 28, and the regulation will be issued later this year. There is no fixed date so far. "The regulation will enhance supervision of the fast-growing lottery industry and stamp out fraud, which has been on the rise since the country launched its first lottery two decades ago," said a report on the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council website. Currently, China has a provisional regulation on the management of lottery distribution and sales. It was issued by the Ministry of Finance in 2002. According to the proposed draft, carried by the website, no individual, organization or government department could sell lotteries without permission from the State Council. The China Welfare Lottery Administrative Center and the sports lottery administrative center of the China General Administration of Sport, both state-run, are the only two legitimate lottery outlets. Public hearings will be held along with expert consultation before new lotteries are set up. The draft requires lottery vendors to keep the identity of lottery winners confidential. It also demands transparency of money taken in and how it is spent on a regular basis. Lottery funds should cover lottery prizes and management funding for lottery sellers. The rest, should be spent on the improvement of public welfare, according to the draft, quoting that a percentage of the revenue would be decided by State Council financial departments. Individuals or government departments violating the regulation by selling lotteries unauthorized by the State Council would be fined and face criminal charges. Their illegal gains would be confiscated, it said. Lotteries have generated huge economic and social returns in China over the past two decades. The country had issued 363 billion yuan (49 billion U.S. dollars) of lottery tickets through 2006. More than a third of the proceeds were spent on public welfare, such as the development of public sports facilities, education and health care for the handicapped.