Rail network to be finished by 2015

By 2015, China will have a high-speed railway network that will encompass almost all its cities with a population of more than 500,000, the State Council said on Tuesday.

The State Council issued a plan for building a comprehensive transportation network.

The plan says China should complete the construction of a high-speed railway network with a total operating length of more than 40,000 km by the end of 2015.

China will initially establish a comprehensive transportation network with a total length of 4.9 million km, mainly including railways, roads and inland waterways, said the plan.

Beijing appoints acting mayor

Wang Anshun was appointed vice-mayor and acting mayor of Beijing on Wednesday.

The appointment was announced at the 34th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th Beijing Municipal People's Congress, the local legislative body.

The meeting also accepted the resignation of Guo Jinlong from the mayor post.

Previously, Guo was elected the capital's Party chief on July 3.

Wang, born in December 1957, is a native of Central China's Henan province.

He has served as deputy Party chief of Beijing since March 2007.

Hainan

Fishing fleet departs for Sanya

A 30-boat fishing fleet casting nets in the South China Sea left Meiji Reef on Wednesday evening for Sanya Port in the southernmost province of Hainan, bringing a 13-day voyage to an end.

The fleet, including a 3,000-ton lead boat, left Sanya Port on July 12 and arrived at Yongshu Reef, Zhubi Reef and Meiji Reef of Nansha Islands.

The fleet is 615 nautical miles (1,139 kilometers) from Sanya and is expected to arrive at the city within four days.

Jiangxi

2 dead, 5 missing in boat accident

Two people died and five were missing after a boat capsized in a reservoir in East China's Jiangxi province on early Wednesday, the local government said.

The victims were all technical workers from an electric engineering company in Wuyuan county. They were en route to fix irrigation equipment for a local village, the county government said in a news release.

It said the boat capsized at around 7 am in Gongchanzhuyi Reservoir in Wuyuan's Zhenzhushan township. Five people on board were rescued, and rescuers were searching for the five still missing.

Shanxi

Expressway pileup kills 8

Eight people were confirmed dead and five others were injured in an expressway pileup involving a heavy truck and several cars on Tuesday in Shanxi province, police said on Wednesday.

The truck rear-ended the cars that had pulled over near the Renyi Toll Station in Lingshi county on a pivotal expressway linking Beijing and the southwestern city of Kunming, at around 5 pm.

The truck driver had apparently failed to notice a traffic ban on the Lingshi section of the expressway after a tanker caught fire around 4:10 pm, an officer with the county's traffic police said.

Seven people were found dead at the scene. Another one died later at a hospital.

The five injured were in stable condition, the provincial public security department said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Zhejiang

Airplane lands after smoke seen

A passenger airplane made an emergency landing at around 5 pm on Wednesday at an airport near East China's city of Hangzhou after fuselage smoke was detected, and no injuries were reported, local authorities said.

The plane was traveling from Daqing, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, via Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province.

Smoke was detected soon after the plane took off from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport. The plane returned to the airport and made an emergency landing, airport staff said.

An investigation is under way.

Xinhua China Daily