Interesting news from China

[JSCh]

Magical: Heritage Building to Be “Transported” 90-meters in Whole in C China
(People's Daily Online) 05:02, March 10, 2016

Photos taken on March 9, 2016 show that a heritage building of over 100 years has been scaffolded for a parallel transport of 90 meters in Wuhan, capital city of central China’s Hubei province.​

The foundation of the building has been hollowed and six concrete slideways are built to help with the moving. According to head of the construction team Li Liangliang, the most significant part of the project is the reinforcement of the building, so as to make sure it does not fall apart.

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The three-story red building is a cultural relic from China’s Republican era (1912-1949). During that time, merchants in Wuhan decided to raise fund to set up a fire department to protect the area. The building was where the headquarter of the department resided. After 1949, the building was handed over to the Wuhan Public Security Bureau. Now, as land of this area was sold to real estate developers, the heritage building has to be moved out. Parallel transport is the best moving scheme chosen out of several others.

 

[JSCh]

Jaw-dropping Kung Fu Displayed on Cliff in Central China’s Mount Song
(People's Daily Online) 04:27, March 18, 2016

Photos taken on March 17, 2016 show that monks display Chinese Kung fu on the mountain cliff of Sanhuang Village Scenic Resort at Mount Song in Central China’s Henan Province.

Home to the Shaolin Temple, Mount Song is one of the Five Great Mountains in China. Located on the south bank of the Yellow River in Henan province, it is traditionally considered the birthplace of Zen Buddhism.

​

 

[JSCh]

China sets new subsidy standard for families with deceased or disabled only children
(People's Daily Online) 17:33, April 18, 2016

Parents of disabled or deceased only children will now receive a monthly state compensation of 270 yuan and 340 yuan respectively, according to a document recently released by the Ministry of Finance and the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC).

Under a rule incorporated into the one-child policy in 2008, couples that did not have a second child or legally adopt another child before the female spouse turned 49 were entitled to a monthly allowance in an effort to alleviate the financial pressure of everyday expenses, health care and more. The amount used to be 80 yuan for parents of a disabled child and 100 yuan for parents of a deceased child when the policy was first created. In 2012, the amounts increased to 110 yuan and 135 yuan per month respectively.

At the end of 2013, the NHFPC and other authorities decided to differentiate subsidies for urban and rural residents. Urban families with a disabled child were to receive 270 yuan, and those with a deceased child 340; rural resident in the same situations would get 150 and 170 yuan. Now the amount has gone up once again.

 

[JSCh]

China Approves Document Regulating Business Operation by Relatives of Officials
By Zou Luxiao (People's Daily Online) 23:10, April 18, 2016

File photo: Xi Jinping​

The deepened reform that China is implementing must be "people-centric" and just, President Xi Jinping said at a meeting of the Leading Group for Overall Reform on Monday. The meeting approved a document regulating business operations by relatives of officials, including spouses, sons, and daughters, as well as sons and daughters’ spouses.

A trial of this regulation will be conducted in Shanghai, and the trial would then be extended to Beijing, Guangdong, Chongqing, and Xinjiang.

The meeting has agreed that details and criteria of such regulations should be specified, and, once so, sternly reinforced. “When the regulation work is basically done, it will be normalized.”

The president, also head of the leading group, was joined at the meeting by deputy heads Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli, as well as other senior officials.

 

[JSCh]

Feature: Giving China's poorest children a better start in life
Source: Xinhua 2016-04-19 20:59:51

BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Ten years ago, Feng Zhaoxiong's first child was born during a bumpy journey through the mountains to a county hospital - no prenatal checkup, no doctors. Fortunately, she and her son came through safe and sound.

Feng lives in a remote village in Gansu Province, northwest China, a two-hour ride on mountain trails to the county seat. At that time, Feng, suffering from rickets, was one of the few women in the village who wanted her child born in a hospital. Because of poor transport and a lack of information, most women gave birth on their own brick beds at home, just like their mothers before them.

Last year, Feng fell pregnant again. This time, the village doctor persuaded her to go to a health center in the town for prenatal checkups as well.

Feng was illiterate and couldn't really understand. "What is the sense of so many examinations?" she asked. But when the doctor explained that she could receive a cash subsidy, Feng was persuaded.

The subsidy was available under the conditional cash transfer (CCT) project, which aims to increase Maternal and Child Health (MCH) in China's poor rural areas by increasing the use of MCH services. It falls under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Since 2013, the CCT project has been set up in Yunnan, Gansu and Sichuan provinces. It provides incentives for poor mothers to take advantage of MCH services.

In April 2013, a CCT pilot project was launched in Yeliguan Town, Chengguan Town and Yangsha Township, all in Lintan County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province.

Lintan is on the national priority poverty relief list. More than 60 percent of the 45,000 people in the three pilot locations are farmers, and many households have an annual per capita income of less than 3,500 yuan.

With the help of the village doctor, Feng received a subsidy of 100 yuan immediately. She duly completed five regular prenatal checkups at Lintan Maternity Hospital and successfully gave birth to a girl in November last year.

After completing her post-delivery visit, Feng received another 640 yuan. If she keeps breastfeeding for half a year, and her daughter undergoes four physical examinations and seven vaccinations in her first year, she will receive 1,000 yuan in total.

Feng learned more than how to claim subsidies. "In my first pregnancy, I felt uncomfortable, but I didn't know what was wrong. This time, I realized that most of what I thought and did before was wrong," Feng says. "During the late term of my pregnancy, I was diagnosed with anemia. The doctor advised me to eat more nutritious food and take better care of myself."

Li Junfa, who has worked in Yangsha Township Health Center since 2010, has been touched by the changes in individual behavior and in community attitudes.

"When I first came here, pregnant women didn't realize they should undergo examinations, and if they did come here, they were ashamed of being checked by a doctor," Li said.

"Seventy percent of elderly people are illiterate, and most of the adults only went to elementary school or middle school. If we intend to impress on them the importance of maternal and child health, we need to educate not only the young women, but also their parents and husbands.

"For example, only 88 percent of women came back to the health center for post-delivery visits 42 days after giving birth, which can be explained by two reasons: first is the tradition of a 45-day confinement after delivery, which means we need to persuade the older family members who take care of the new mother; second is the poor transport, and if family members of the new mother have all gone out to work after her delivery, she may have nobody to accompany her to an examination," said Li.

"However, people's thinking is changing. Now they attach greater importance to the health of pregnant women and their unborn babies. Even pregnant women who live in very remote villages come to the health center in the township or the county seat for prenatal checkups. Some even want a few more examinations."

Wang Yanqin, deputy head of Lintan Maternal and Child Health Station, said 898 pregnant women had registered for the CCT project in the three designated locations in the first three years, accounting for more than 85 percent of the total.

"And in Yangsha Township and Yiliguan Town, the registered proportion is above 95 percent," said Wang. "Disease rates for women and children have significantly decreased. Since 2013, no parturient woman has died during delivery or given birth at home or on a mountain trail."

"We spread the concept of health, and the women and children here have developed healthy habits."

Shi Chunfang, who lives in Xijia Village near Yeliguan Town, still recalls her panic in pregnancy and delivery. She suffered from pregnancy hypertension. Approaching her due date, she was diagnosed with antepartum eclampsia after she fainted with cramps. If she hadn't stayed in hospital for monitoring, the outcome might have been too dreadful to contemplate.

"I didn't know it'd be so dangerous to get pregnant," Shi said. "Thanks to the prenatal checkups, my hypertension was brought under control. I was treated promptly in the hospital and I had a caesarean operation."

Now, Shi's daughter is 18 months old and runs around the family's brick home. Shi received a subsidy of 950 yuan from the CCT project, all of which she spent on nutritional food and toys for her daughter.

At the beginning of this year, Shi got a job as a waitress in a hot-pot restaurant with a monthly salary of 1,500 yuan. Despite not finishing middle school herself, she has plans and expectations for her daughter's future. She hopes her daughter will study hard and go to university.

Lin Fei, child development specialist in the UNICEF Office for China, is the chief designer of the CCT project. She said more frequent use of MCH services will lead to improved maternal and child health and nutrition.

As of March 31, the CCT project had distributed 5.66 million yuan in total in the pilot areas, helping 13,134 women and children.

"We hope that the CCT can be used in other settings and for other programs outside the project area and across China and help improve conditions in the remaining pockets of hard core poverty in remote, mountainous area of the county," Lin said.

 

[JSCh]

Xinhua Insight: Chinese power plant replaces coal with straw
Source: Xinhua 2016-04-23 21:52:47

JINAN, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The freshness smell of crops is not a smell usually associated with power plants -- but this plant, 60 km southwest of Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, is no traditional power station.

It uses such fuels as wheat and cotton straw, corn cobs, plant stems, branches and leaves to generate electricity, pioneering renewable energy in the region.

"We burn everything -- from crop straw to forestry residue -- that has calorific value," said Ding Jin, general manager of Jinan Weiquan Biomass Power Generation Company, which owns the plant.

PIONEERING USE OF BIOFUEL

The plant consumes around 300,000 tonnes of biofuel annually.

In 2015, it generated 230 million kilowatt hours of electricity while using 170,000 tonnes less coal, and producing 1,500 tonnes of sulfur dioxide and 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide less than conventional power plants.

The raw material comes from farmers within 50 km who would otherwise burn up the straw themselves, causing air pollution or even wildfires. The company collected 131,000 tonnes of straw last year.

"We use green and environmentally-friendly resources which benefits the local people," Ding said.

Yang Rongmin, deputy head of the Publicity Department of Pingyin County where the company is based, said, "It is a win-win situation where villagers earn money for their straw and the environment improves," Yang said.

Su Shuqin, 52, from nearby Dong'e Township, said her family has been supplying straw -- mainly wheat and soybean -- on a regular basis, bringing in an annual income of up to 60,000 yuan (9,300 U.S. dollars.

LEADER IN RENEWABLES INVESTMENT

Weiquan is just one example of such plants not only in Shandong but also across China.

Fu Bing, deputy general manager of Weiquan, said four plants owned by rival companies are being built this year in Shandong, and that Weiquan's parent company, Shandong Qiquan Group, has affiliates in Hong Kong and the southwestern province of Guizhou.

Globally,renewable energy still relies heavily on government subsidies and for the first time in 2015, investment in renewables was higher in developing countries than in developed ones, mainly attributable to China's investment, a March UN report showed.

According to the report, Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016, investment in renewable energy hit a record 286 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. China invested nearly 103 billion U.S. dollars in clean energy, up 17 percent from 2014 and 36 percent of the world total.

Yet the ultimate goal of a "carbon neutral" economy enshrined by the 195 nations attending the UN climate talks "COP21" in Paris last December is "still a long way off," said the report. Actual electricity generated by renewables only accounted for some 10 percent of the global total in 2015.

 

[JSCh]

Feature: China ranks fifth job creator in Kenya
Source: Xinhua | 2016-04-24 19:16:10 | Editor: huaxia

Chinese engineer Zhang Qingchun (2nd L) works with his Kenyan colleagues at a constructing site of the Mombassa West Station under a standard gauge railway (SGR) project, in Mombassa, Kenya, on April 9, 2016. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei) ​

NAIROBI, April 24 (Xinhua) -- In the outskirts of Nairobi along Limuru road, an upcoming mall that is under construction is an architectural beauty that will automatically raise Kiambu County's ratings once complete.

Its appearance is reason enough for tourists to troop in to have a piece of it. The mall, which is conveniently perched right at the heart of Runda, has brought both poor and rich together for a course.

James Gitau, 27, a school dropout from Gachie village in Kiambu County, is one of the young men who will go into history as having played part in giving Kenya such a prestigious mall.

Gitau is the first born in a family of six and having lost his dad when he was 17, he assumed his role as the head of his family.

He was forced to drop out of school to give his other siblings a chance as his mother, a city council worker in Kiambu Municipal Council, could not raise enough money to keep all of them in school.

"My mum was struggling a lot, so I had to drop out of school to help her. At least I had a chance to go up to form three. If I didn't do what I did may be my sisters and brothers wouldn't be in school, I thank God just about that time, this project kicked off and I was lucky I got a chance as a worker," he says.

The mall, which will be known as Two Rivers Mall is estimated to cost close to 15.1 billion shillings (about 150 million U.S. dollars) and will be built in phases by Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic), which is the main contractor.

Avic is among other Chinese companies that have given Kenyan youth a chance to rewrite their life stories.

Ngure Njoroge, 32, also from Gachie in Kiambu County says he is still alive, thanks to this project.

"I had engaged in lots of bad things before due to job scarcity but I thank God now I have a clean job. I don't have to steal or engage in dubious businesses. I was informed about the Two Rivers Mall by my friend who sells chapatis and tea to the casual labourers. She told me to go try my luck and I got a job," he told Xinhua.

Ngure and Gitau's stories are proof that Chinese firms operating in Kenya hire more locals compared to foreigners in contrast to popular belief that the opposite is true.

In its Policy Research Working paper titled "Deal or no Deal; Strictly Business for China in Kenya?" the World Bank says China ranked fifth job creator through her foreign direct investments in Kenya.

"Contrary to the popular belief that Chinese companies only hire Chinese workers, 93 percent of companies report hiring Kenyan employees; private enterprises are more likely to hire locals than state enterprises," says the report.

"In addition, larger firms are more likely to hire Kenyans than smaller firms. Of the companies surveyed, Kenyans represent 78 percent of full-time and 95 percent of part-time employees," the report says.

Kenya currently hosts around 400 Chinese firms spread across every sector.

The firms have an average of 360 local employees with 70 percent hired on part time while the rest on full time.

Those in the services sector hire 71 percent full-time employees, but the manufacturing and construction sectors hire only three percent full-time employees.

Ninety percent of manufacturing employees are local, and 82 percent of service sector employees are local.

In February 2014, the Sino-African Centre of Excellence (SACE) foundation launched the Business Perception Index (BPI) survey to learn the views and experiences of Chinese companies in Kenya.

China constructed 905.5 km of road in 2006 and invested 227 billion shillings (about 2.2 billion dollars) to rehabilitate the Nairobi-Mombasa road.

Many Chinese firms have been pre-qualified by the government to develop 2,000 km of road in various counties, according to the World Bank report.

China Road and Bridge Corporation is building a 609 km section of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) linking Nairobi and Mombasa for 3.6 billion dollars, and the China Communication Construction company is building three berths at the port on Lamu Island for 467 million dollars.

The SGR has employed thousands of Kenyan youth who had been jobless, giving them a fresh chance in life.

Apart from those directly employed by the Chinese companies, many more Kenyans and especially women who sell food to the labourers have benefited.

"I earn approximately 600 shillings (about 6 dollars) per day from selling tea, porridge and mandazis to the labourers. We feel very good whenever such projects kick off because we know we cannot sleep hungry," says Grace Odhiambo, one of the women who have benefited from the Two Rivers Mall project.

 

[JSCh]

Feature: African farmers reap fruits from South-South cooperation program
Source: Xinhua | 2016-04-25 17:40:33 | Editor: huaxia

File photo shows Tanzanian farmers toiling at the Demonstration Center of China Africulture Technology, located in Dakawa, Morogoro region, about 250 km from Dar es Salaam. (Xinhua/Zhang Ping)​

WINDHOEK, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Albertus Viljoen, a Namibian farm manager and agricultural extension officer, is one of the many Namibians who are getting the technical experience and know how from Chinese experts.

Namibia, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and China signed a tripartite agreement on the South-South Cooperation (SSC) program in Namibia in 2014.

Through the program, small-scale farmers and agribusiness enterprises are benefiting directly through hands-on training and on-farm demonstrations.

Namibia was allocated 1.5 million U.S. dollars from China through the agreement, and a recent visit in March by a South-South Cooperation field backstopping mission to all several projects across Namibia was testament that a significant number of the agricultural projects are flourishing.

File photo shows Togo's farmers at a agricultural center aided by China. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)​

Viljoen, like his other Namibian counterparts, is currently working hand in hand with the 15 Chinese experts, who arrived in 2015 and were deployed in the Omusati, Kavango East, Kavango West, Zambezi and Khonmas Regions.

FAO Representative in Namibia Babagana Ahmadu said in an interview that good results were achieved in the areas of development of rice production in Namibia, horticulture crops as well as an improved understanding and mutual exchange on veterinary policies.

"Watermelon grafting technology was introduced, showing high yields in Mashare and Etunda. Compost fertilizer technology was demonstrated by using local resources and animal manure was also tested in maize and cultivation," he added.

As local food production is critical for Namibia to become self-sufficient and ensure food security, Ahmadu said that many parts of the country have been benefiting from these experts, notably the Kalibeza rice projects where they taught the locals the technology on selection and cultivation of rice.

"60 ha of rice cultivation technology were established through rice seedling mechanical transplanting with improved productivity. While a drip irrigation technology was introduced at Etunda for tomato production," he added.

File photo shows Namibian farm workers posing with Chinese agricultural expert in Kalimbeza Rice Research and Production Station in northeast Namibia. (Xinhua/Yu Zongyao)​

Khaiseb Siegfried, an extension officer and head of virology, is also benefiting from the improved understanding and mutual exchange on veterinary policies.

The outcome in this specific project is of great importance to the Namibian livestock sector as it aims to address the Chinese importing requirements of meat and meat products from other countries.

Currently China has been supporting more than 25 developing countries over the last decade, in collaboration with FAO.

 

[ahojunk]

Feature: African farmers reap fruits from South-South cooperation program
Source: Xinhua | 2016-04-25 17:40:33 | Editor: huaxia

File photo shows Tanzanian farmers toiling at the Demonstration Center of China Africulture Technology, located in Dakawa, Morogoro region, about 250 km from Dar es Salaam. (Xinhua/Zhang Ping)​

WINDHOEK, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Albertus Viljoen, a Namibian farm manager and agricultural extension officer, is one of the many Namibians who are getting the technical experience and know how from Chinese experts.

Namibia, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and China signed a tripartite agreement on the South-South Cooperation (SSC) program in Namibia in 2014.

Through the program, small-scale farmers and agribusiness enterprises are benefiting directly through hands-on training and on-farm demonstrations.

Namibia was allocated 1.5 million U.S. dollars from China through the agreement, and a recent visit in March by a South-South Cooperation field backstopping mission to all several projects across Namibia was testament that a significant number of the agricultural projects are flourishing.

File photo shows Togo's farmers at a agricultural center aided by China. (Xinhua/Zhang Gaiping)​

Viljoen, like his other Namibian counterparts, is currently working hand in hand with the 15 Chinese experts, who arrived in 2015 and were deployed in the Omusati, Kavango East, Kavango West, Zambezi and Khonmas Regions.

FAO Representative in Namibia Babagana Ahmadu said in an interview that good results were achieved in the areas of development of rice production in Namibia, horticulture crops as well as an improved understanding and mutual exchange on veterinary policies.

"Watermelon grafting technology was introduced, showing high yields in Mashare and Etunda. Compost fertilizer technology was demonstrated by using local resources and animal manure was also tested in maize and cultivation," he added.

As local food production is critical for Namibia to become self-sufficient and ensure food security, Ahmadu said that many parts of the country have been benefiting from these experts, notably the Kalibeza rice projects where they taught the locals the technology on selection and cultivation of rice.

"60 ha of rice cultivation technology were established through rice seedling mechanical transplanting with improved productivity. While a drip irrigation technology was introduced at Etunda for tomato production," he added.

File photo shows Namibian farm workers posing with Chinese agricultural expert in Kalimbeza Rice Research and Production Station in northeast Namibia. (Xinhua/Yu Zongyao)​

Khaiseb Siegfried, an extension officer and head of virology, is also benefiting from the improved understanding and mutual exchange on veterinary policies.

The outcome in this specific project is of great importance to the Namibian livestock sector as it aims to address the Chinese importing requirements of meat and meat products from other countries.

Currently China has been supporting more than 25 developing countries over the last decade, in collaboration with FAO.

Very good of China which is still a developing country helping other developing countries.

Well done China!

 

[JSCh]

Men on wire: Power workers walk in the clouds to repair lines
CCTV News

Published on Apr 25, 2016
From the north of Zhejiang Province in eastern China to Fuzhou in the southeastern Fujian Province, there is a large uninhabited area of endless mountains, crisscrossed by ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission lines that can weigh more than 270 kilograms. After first entering operation in 2015, the North Zhejiang-Fuzhou UHV AC project underwent its first series of safety checks earlier this month. The power workers need to walk on wires no thicker than bottle caps with only a thin wire on either side to hold on to, with a deep valley directly below their feet. The breathtaking moment that saw them walk in the clouds was captured by CCTV, let’s take a look.

 

[ahojunk]

China's Tibetan Legislators Meet U.S. Congress Minority Leader
2016-04-29 16:34:08 | Xinhua | Web Editor: Guan Chao

A delegation of China's Tibetan legislators headed by Qizhala (R, 2nd), deputy to China's National People's Congress and secretary of the Lhasa Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, exchange views with experts of Brookings Institution, in Washington on April 28, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua]

A delegation of China's Tibetan legislators met with U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi here Thursday, exchanging views frankly on issues including China-U.S. relations and the Chinese central government's policies on Tibet.

The delegation was headed by Qizhala, deputy to China's National People's Congress and secretary of the Lhasa Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. Lhasa is the capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

During the meeting, Qizhala said China will work with the United States to enhance the two countries' mutual understanding and cooperation at the bilateral, regional and global levels.

Through continued joint efforts, more tangible results can be achieved in the China-U.S. relationship, bringing greater and better interests to Chinese, Americans and people from all over the world, he said.

Responding to the issues concerned in the U.S side, Qizhala urged the United States to keep its promises, to avoid offering platforms for anti-China activities by the 14th Dalai Lama and his group, and to block Dalai's future visits to the country and meetings with American politicians.

Pelosi, for her part, welcomed the delegation's visit to Capitol Hill, sharing with them memories about her impressed trip in the Tibet Autonomous Region last November as the head of a group of U.S. lawmakers visiting China.

Such exchange of visits has built a bridge of friendship between the two countries and helped them enhance mutual communication and understanding, she noted.

The United States admits Tibet is part of China and will adhere to the one China policy, she added.

Earlier in the day, the Tibetan legislators also exchanged views on Tibet's development in various fields with experts and scholars at the Brookings Institution, a well-known U.S. think tank based in Washington D.C.

The delegation left for China later in the day after concluding its visit to the United States and Mexico.

A delegation of China's Tibetan legislators headed by Qizhala, deputy to China's National People's Congress and secretary of the Lhasa Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, exchange views with experts of Brookings Institution, in Washington on April 28, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua]

 

[ahojunk]

What? Lhasa alone has 1,123 villages. It is pretty big place.

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Lhasa passes a law to protect ancient villages
Xinhua, May 25, 2016

Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, has passed a law to protect its ancient villages, authorities said Wednesday.

The law, effective June 1, stipulates principles on ancient village protection and restoration, funds, responsibilities and building a long-term protection mechanism. It also demands a "supervisor mechanism" and encourages volunteer groups to help with protection efforts, according to the regional government.

Lhasa has 1,123 villages, which boast unique landscapes, cultures and traditions. As the local economy speeds up, many ancient villages have yet to be restored, and the law was enacted to address this, the government said.

"The law will enhance protection efforts for precious cultural resources in Lhasa," said Zhang Hui, vice director of the standing committee of the Lhasa municipal people's congress.

 

[TaiShang]

Rare summer snow in NW China's Gansu



Photo taken on May 26, 2016 shows a Buddhist building after a rare summer snow in Hezuo City of Gannan Tibetan Prefecture, northwest China's Gansu Province. (Xinhua/Hou Zhiliang)

Residents walk along a Buddhist building after a rare summer snow in Hezuo City of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 26, 2016. (Xinhua/Hou Zhiliang)


Children walk on a road after a rare summer snow in Hezuo City of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 26, 2016. (Xinhua/Hou Zhiliang)

 

[TaiShang]

'Gold hotel building' in Sichuan Province

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The 99.8-meter-high Jinhui International Hotel in Huaying City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 28, 2016. The building has an eye-catching glittering golden-glass outer wall. [Photo by Qiu Haiying/China.com.cn]

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The 99.8-meter-high Jinhui International Hotel in Huaying City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 28, 2016. The building has an eye-catching glittering golden-glass outer wall. [Photo by Qiu Haiying/China.com.cn]

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The 99.8-meter-high Jinhui International Hotel in Huaying City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 28, 2016. The building has an eye-catching glittering golden-glass outer wall. [Photo by Qiu Haiying/China.com.cn]

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The 99.8-meter-high Jinhui International Hotel in Huaying City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 28, 2016. The building has an eye-catching glittering golden-glass outer wall. [Photo by Qiu Haiying/China.com.cn]

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The 99.8-meter-high Jinhui International Hotel in Huaying City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 28, 2016. The building has an eye-catching glittering golden-glass outer wall. [Photo by Qiu Haiying/China.com.cn]

 

[ahojunk]

This is clever, even though it is not the first.

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Robot finishes news story in 6 seconds after earthquake
2016-06-01 10:43 | Ecns.cn | Editor: Mo Hong'e

(ECNS) -- When a magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit Mianyang City in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 29, a robot at the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) generated a 560-Chinese-character news report within six seconds, Chengdu Business News has reported.

The story includes a headline, basic data about the quake and two pictures of the location and topography. It also provides background data such as quakes in the past five years and information about villages and towns within 300 kilometers of the epicenter.

The article was created and published automatically, according to CENC under the China Earthquake Administration. Two minutes after the quake shook the ground, CENC was able to share the information on China's Twitter-like Weibo social network.

Development of the robotic writing system started in the second half of 2015 and will be put into official use after more experiments. Depending on the scale and damage of the earthquake, the robot can generate short or long stories by selecting relevant information.

On March 17, 2014, the Los Angeles Times was the first media outlet to report on a temblor with an automated system pre-programmed for the task. The Associated Press and China's Xinhua News Agency also employ robotic systems in reporting.