Taiwan opposition leader on mainland

Frank Hsieh, the highest-level member of Taiwan's opposition party ever to visit the mainland, met State Councilor Dai Bingguo and the mainland's top cross-Straits negotiator Chen Yunlin on Sunday.

Hsieh said he and Chen discussed the difficulties that Taiwan businesspeople, especially those from small enterprises, have met on the mainland, Phoenix TV reported.

The meetings were held in Beijing, following another high-level meeting between Hsieh and Wang Yi, director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, on Saturday evening.

Hsieh, the island's former "premier" from the Democratic Progressive Party, is visiting the mainland in an individual capacity as the chairman of the Taiwan Reform Foundation to attend an international cocktail contest as a guest of the International Bartenders Association.

Fujian

Scaffolding collapse kills two

Two workers were killed on Sunday morning after construction site scaffolding collapsed in Fuzhou, in East China's Fujian province.

Four workers were buried by scaffolding at the Silver Bay construction site in the city's Mawei district, said a local government spokesman. Two workers were seriously injured and died in hospital. Another two are being treated for their injuries.

The scaffolding collapsed at 7:24 am as the workers were cleaning the walls of a building.

Shaanxi

Police say scalpers stabbed couple

Police in Huayin, Shaanxi province, said they had arrested two scalpers over the stabbing of a couple at Huashan Mountain on Tuesday, but said they had been mistaken in not allowing the injured tourists to identify the suspects.

Thousands of tourists were trapped on the mountain on Tuesday due to the huge numbers visiting the famous scenic spot over the national holiday.

When they returned their tickets to demand a refund, Dong Liwen and his wife were beaten and stabbed by a group of people. The victims claimed that security guards at the mountain were responsible for the attack.

But local police denied this and said they caught the two people on Friday based on descriptions from the witnesses, adding that the two scalpers had confessed. An investigation into the incident is continuing.

Henan

No more tolls on Yellow River bridge

Vehicles traveling on a major bridge across the Yellow River will be exempt from toll fees from Monday, the first time since the bridge was opened 26 years ago, according to road authorities in Central China's Henan province.

No company or individual will be allowed to continue to collect fees on the 5,549-meter-long bridge in Zhengzhou, according to the authorities.

Although the loans for building the bridge were repaid years ago, a company authorized by the local government continued collecting tolls.

Hubei

Renewable energy institute opens

The China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy was formally established on the campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Saturday.

The institute aims to educate post-graduate students in the field of clean and renewable energy and provides a master's degree.

The EU will provide a 10 million-euro ($13.03 million) support fund for the program and scholars from leading European academic institutions will be involved, said Michel Farine, the institute's EU director.

Jiangxi

Ceramic expo in china capital

The 2012 International Ceramic Expo will run from Oct 18-22 in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China's ceramic capital, attracting thousands of porcelain makers and traders from across the globe.

More than 1,700 exhibition booths will be set up to display ceramic work from China and abroad, according to a local government spokesman.

A symposium on performance testing and evaluation techniques for inorganic materials will also be held for the first time at the annual event, which launched eight years ago.

Singapore

Chinese tourists flock to Singapore

Chinese tourist numbers visiting Singapore doubled and expenditure tripled from 2002 to 2011, according to the Singapore Tourism Board.

The rise in numbers has made China Singapore's second largest source of tourists, with around 1.57 million Chinese visitors coming last year.

According to Edward Chew, the board's regional director for the greater China region, "The growth in numbers has continued this year. Between January and May 2012, we received 856,000 visitors from China, registering a year-on-year growth of 30.7 percent compared with the same period last year."

China Daily - Xinhua