Monday July 13

High-speed railway on trial run in NE China

A high-speed railway between two cities in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, known for its high latitudes and biting cold winters, began a trial operation on Monday.

A bullet train departed from the provincial capital of Harbin at around 5 a.m. to the city of Qiqihar, according to the Harbin Railway Bureau.

The railway, with the highest latitude among all high-speed railways in China, will be put into official operation in August, more than five years after the construction started on the 281-km route.

With a designated speed of 250 kilometers per hour and eight stops, the rail is expected to carry about eight million passengers annually.

The trains have been modified to adapt to temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius and resist adverse weather, such as strong winds, snow and fog. (Photo 1)

Beijing to use Zhangjiakou's wind power for heat

Beijing and Zhangjiakou are planning a joint project to use wind power for heating as a step toward controlling air pollution.

A pilot plan being launched in Yanqing county in northwest Beijing is expected to begin in 2017.

Yanqing county borders Zhangjiakou, in northwest Hebei province, where there is abundant wind power.

Beijing and Zhangjiakou are required by the National Energy Administration to coordinate related wind power generation companies, power grid sectors and heating companies to initiate a detailed and feasible implementation plan.

China's current energy consumption mainly comes from coal. But coal burning is a main cause of air pollution, which has become a key concern for Beijing and its neighboring regions of Hebei and Tianjin.

As the development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei is integrating, the region's areas should cooperate in making full use of clean energy for heating, the NEA said. (Photo 2)

Tuesday July 14

More heat put on 'Zombie meat'

A crackdown on the illegal trade in smuggled frozen meat is being intensified after reports of expired and rotten supplies being brought into the country and served in restaurants.

On Sunday, the China Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Public Security and the General Administration of Customs said they were stepping up their efforts to combat the smuggling of 'zombie meat'.

The action follows a report by a Xinhua News Agency correspondent in Hunan province that said customs authorities in 14 provinces and regions had broken up 14 criminal gangs involved in smuggling rotten meat. Officials were said to have seized more than 100,000 metric tons of such meat, including chicken wings, beef and pork.

In Changsha alone, officials busted two gangs with 20 members.

Loong Air defends storm flights

Zhejiang Loong Airlines defended its decision to fly in spite of typhoon Chan-Hom, which hit Shanghai and Zhejiang province last week.

Loong Airlines claims they took advantage of the window of time when the weather met the safety standard during heavy rain and wind to complete the take-offs and landings on Saturday.

Loong Airlines said whether or not it is safe for an aircraft to take off or land depends on the wind speed and the rainwater on the runway. Based on their data, their airbuses were able to weather the bad weather when they took flight.

Over 600 flights were canceled that day and all passenger ships also suspended service.

Wednesday July 15

Updated figures on WWII released

Updated figures for Chinese casualties and property loss during World War II and for China's contribution to the victory over Japan were released by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday.

During the 14-year Japanese invasion of China, the Chinese suffered more than 35 million military and non-military casualties, accounting for a third of the total casualties of all the countries in WWII.

Military casualties during the invasion totaled 3.8 million, according to the updated figures.

At the 1937 exchange rate, property losses incurred by the Chinese amounted to more than $100 billion, with indirect economic losses of $500 billion.

The figures also show that Chinese forces killed, wounded or captured more than 1.5 million troops.

New eye in the sky

A satellite jointly developed by China and Brazil became fully operational on Tuesday.

Control of the CBERS 4 remote sensing satellite was handed over to the China Center for Resources Satellite Data and Application at a ceremony in Beijing.

CBERS 4 was sent into orbit by a Long March 4B rocket in December.

CBERS 4 has taken more than 200,000 images of the Earth with its cutting edge cameras, such as the infrared multispectral scanner and wide-field imager.

In Brazil, images taken by CBERS satellites have been used in deforestation control and environmental monitoring in the Amazon region.

The joint program's next satellite in under development and scheduled to be launched in 2018.

Valdemar Carneiro Leao, Brazil's ambassador to China, said the CBERS program has become a symbol of South-South cooperation. (Photo 4)

Thursday July 16

9 foreigners detained over banned videos

China detained nine foreign tourists - five South Africans, three Britons and one Indian - for suspected ties to a 'terror group' after authorities accused them of watching banned videos.

China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the nine were 'criminally detained' - a term meaning the suspects have likely been charged and could be prosecuted - and that 11 others had been deported.

Law enforcement authorities in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, where the group was detained, are in touch with diplomatic and consular officials from their countries.

The group was on a 47-day historical tour of the country when they were detained at an airport in the Inner Mongolian city of Erdos.

After capture, fugitive regrets fleeing abroad

An economic fugitive surnamed Zhuang said he would not have fled abroad if he had known the way things would turn out.

Zhuang, formerly a Guangzhou business representative, and his wife fled to Myanmar in January after they had amassed more than170 million yuan ($27.4 million) by counterfeiting land trading documents in Guangdong's provincial capital.

The two were brought back to Guangzhou under guard on Tuesday.

Zhuang described life on the run as being full of hardship.

Guangzhou police formed a special task force to pursue Zhuang and his wife when it was reported that they had fled abroad.

The couple were just two of the many fugitives who have fled abroad but have since been detained and returned to China, a Guangzhou police department spokesman said.

Friday July 17

China Mobile takes the lead

China Mobile Communications Corp, one of China's three major domestic telecommunications carriers, appears to have gained an upper hand in building a 4g network and in developing the necessary technology to lead the sector.

According to statistics released by the company, China Mobile has become the country's largest 4G telecommunications operator, with its total 4G customer base now topping 200 million, its number of base stations reaching 940,000 and total customer numbers over 1 billion people.

By the end of June, the telecom giant was offering 1,000 different 4G phone models.

During the first six months of 2015, the company's Web browsing business was up 2.6 times.

Since the company started developing 4G technologies, it has sold more than 210 million 4G mobile phones, more than half of which were sold this year.

The company has also started researching the use of a 5G network, China Mobile officials said.

Surrogate birth services face ad crackdown

Health authorities are cracking down on surrogate birth services by stepping up efforts to hunt down and stop anyone advertising such services online.

In Beijing, more than 8,000 such postings have been removed from a wide range of websites since April.

In Shanghai, the Health Department has paid close attention to the advertising of 97 media organizations to prevent surrogacy ads, the national group fighting surrogacy said.

The Ministry of Public Security asked police departments nationwide to take a tough line on surrogacy, and 58 hospitals affiliated with armed police departments were ordered to avoid surrogate pregnancy cases.

A 48-meter-high parking lot, which can hold 250 vehicles, is about to open its doors in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China’s Henan province on July 10. The 25-story building covers an area of 255 square meters and has fi ve units on each fl oor with space for two vehicles in each unit.Provided To China Daily

Tourists take photos of Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River in Ji county, North China’s Shanxi province on March 22, 2014. Lv Guiming / Asianewsphoto

 

(China Daily USA 07/17/2015 page12)