Interesting news from China

[ahojunk]

Farmer recalls day he was finally a free man
2015-10-16 09:28 | China Daily | Editor: Wang Fan

From left: Sonam Dundron and a fellow villager at the village of Kesong in Naidong county, the Tibet autonomous region. (Photo by Zhang Yi/China Daily)

"Your job tonight is to make sure the horses get enough to eat!" the slave master barked at Sonam Dundron.

Being shouted at was routine for the then 17-year-old, but the order perplexed him, because the horses were never fed at night.

As dawn broke the next day in Shannan prefecture, Tibet, in March 1959, the reason for that order became clear: His owner, retinue in tow, had fled. It was the last order Dundron ever received as a slave.

Dundron later learned that the master and his entourage had followed the 14th Dalai Lama, Dainzin Gyaco, also known as Tenzin Gyatso, into exile in India.

"That pitch-dark night I was finally freed," said Dundron, 73, now a farmer in Kesong village.

Under serfdom

In the village's community center, sitting leisurely on a couch, he recalled his nine years as a slave. Under serfdom in Tibet, anyone born to a serf became a serf, and that system of hereditary exploitation endured for 300 years, until the central government of the People's Republic of China finally broke the yoke in 1959.

"Under serfdom, children were shown no mercy," Dundron said. "Everyone had to work as a slave from when they were 8, and if children could not complete their work, debts immediately began piling up against them. Of course, there were serfs who toiled all their lives to pay their debts, in vain, so their children were then born into debt. Some households in Tibet were in debt for generations."

But complying with work orders was no safeguard against the cruelty meted out to slaves, Dundron said. They were required to bow to their owners, and if they cast their eyes anywhere above the owners' knees, even inadvertently, they were whipped. In extreme cases, serfs were beaten to death.

Those days of penury stand in sharp contrast to the relatively comfortable lifestyles those in the area lead now.

Today, the village of Kesong, in the town of Changzhu, Naidong county, Tibet autonomous region, is home to 880 residents whose average income last year was 13,000 yuan ($2,040). This relative prosperity is buttressed by an education system that aims to enroll all children in school.

However, unlike Dundron's freedom from bondage, these improvements to people's lives have not come overnight. They are the product of fundamental and systematic change in the village, which was the first in the region to carry out democratic reform, and the first to establish a committee of the Communist Party of China.

Armed rebellion

Two years after the 1949 founding of the People's Republic of China, when Tibet was peacefully liberated, the serfdom system remained unchanged.

In a 1951 agreement between the central government and the Tibetan local government, the Seventeen Point Agreement, Chinese sovereignty over Tibet was affirmed, and the authority on whether or when to abolish serfdom was left to the local government.

According to a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council in 2009, Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet, the local government attempted to perpetuate feudal serfdom, publicly abandoned the agreement and staged an all-out armed rebellion on March 10, 1959.

The central government took decisive measures to quell the rebellion, in concert with the Tibetan people, and democratic reform started on a mass scale in Tibet. Tibet's feudal serfdom system was overthrown and about 1 million serfs and slaves were liberated, the document said.

Before the democratic reform, Tibet had 2,676 monasteries and 114,925 monks, including 500 senior and junior Living Buddhas and other upper-ranking lamas, and more than 4,000 lamas holding substantial economic resources, statistics indicated.

About one-fourth of Tibetan men were monks. Three major monasteries－Drepung, Sera and Ganden－housed a total of more than 16,000 monks, and contained 321 manors, 9,800 hectares of land, 450 pastures, 110,000 head of livestock and more than 60,000 serfs.

Redistribution of land and other means of production was the major item on the reform agenda.

"My family, with 11 members, which had no possessions before the reform, was allocated around one hectare of land, a horse, two donkeys and a cow when the village was the first to stage democratic reform," Dundron said.

In July of the same year, 443 villagers formed a farmers' association and, for the first time in their lives, elected the head of the organization.

Nyima Tsering, 72, recounted the voting process.

"Villagers could barely read or write at that time. A bowl was put behind every candidate and each villager was given a pea. Villagers put the pea into the bowl for the candidate they supported," Tsering said.

Tsering said he got around 390 peas and was elected as the association's head.

On Dec 2, 1959, a Party committee was set up in the village, the first of its kind in Tibet.

Democratic reform

Jobs undertaken by villagers nowadays are diversified. Dundron's son is a self-employed driver, providing long-distance transportation for his clients. Other households are involved in a wide range of professions, including plantations, retail businesses and restaurants.

The progress achieved in Kesong village is an example of the democratic reform across the whole area.

Data help to illustrate the improvements in Tibet. The average life expectancy has almost doubled in the past 50 years, from 35.5 years to 68 years. The region's GDP soared from 327 million yuan ($51.4 million) in 1965 to 92.08 billion yuan last year, a 281-fold increase. GDP has grown at an annual rate of 12.4 percent on average since 1994, registering double-digit growth for 20 consecutive years.

Major events in modern Tibet

1949: The People's Republic of China was founded. The 10th Panchen Lama, the highest ranking lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, expressed hope for the liberation of Tibet.

1951: A 17-point agreement was reached between the central government and the Tibetan authority reaffirming that Tibet is an integral part of China, and granting the area autonomy. Representatives of the central government and the Tibetan authority agreed to the peaceful liberation of Tibet.

1959: A revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital, and spread to other parts of the region seeking the region's separation from China. The local government was dismissed after the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India. Democratic reform was instituted.

1960: The People's Congress of Lhasa was established and held its first session in Lhasa. A Tibetan "government-in-exile" was set up by the 14th Dalai Lama.

1965: The Tibet autonomous region was formed.

2008: Turmoil motivated by separatists and orchestrated by the Dalai Lama started in Lhasa and spread to other areas in Tibet, resulting in rioting, burning, looting and civilian deaths.

2015: A ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Tibet's founding as an autonomous region was held in the square of the Potala Palace in Lhasa.

 

[ahojunk]

Tough life for rural barefoot doctors. Not easy to fix.

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China struggles to retain village doctors
2015-10-14 10:53 | Xinhua | Editor: Mo Hong'e

After working 13 years in the small, dank room in the only health center of Hebian Village, Xu Chaofen is determined to leave town.

Xu and her rural doctor husband rake in a monthly income of merely 2,000 yuan (316 U.S. dollars) in the rural medical center in southwest China's Guizhou Province, barely enough to cover the family's expenses. When the center is not busy, her husband acts as a truck driver to earn some extra money.

"My son is attending primary school, so our budget is tight," Xu said as she tried to wring out a quilt after rain seeped through cracks in the center's ceiling. All throughout the small center were signs of water damage, accompanied by a damp smell. It rains a lot in Guizhou.

"After years of working as rural doctors, I really can't see us living a better life if we stick with our jobs," she said with resignation. "Maybe we will go to the eastern seaboard to find better jobs."

With 649,000 health centers spread across 589,000 villages, China is in desperate need of village doctors. But the country is struggling to keep rural doctors, as a great number, like Xu Chaofen, are increasingly reluctant to stay at their jobs due to barriers such as low pay, identity crisis and poor career prospects.

Many rural doctors have expressed the desire to leave their jobs, according to a survey by Ma Wenfang, a deputy to the National People's Congress and a rural doctor himself. The survey, reported Monday by the web portal Netease.com, was conducted across 100 Chinese villages in the provinces of Shandong, Henan and Hunan.

Ma found that all 100 doctors surveyed reported low salaries, with their highest monthly income standing at a little more than 1,000 yuan. The lowest was only 60 yuan.

"Their complaints have included 'low income', 'no social insurance' and 'few job prospects'," Ma said.

RURAL DOCTORS' PLIGHT

Established in the 1950s, rural doctors in China once enjoyed high social status and were well paid. But as China's medical system reform gains steam, their earnings have dwindled.

For 55-year-old Huang Aimin, practicing rural medicine has given him the best and the toughest experiences of his life.

"In the past, being a rural doctor was regarded a great honor and I was well respected," said the rural doctor in Laodun Village, east China's Jiangsu Province. "I could also make a decent salary because I was allowed to have up to 50 percent of the commission for each drug I prescribed," he added.

In 2009, China scrapped doctors' commissions from selling drugs by introducing the national basic drug system, cutting Huang's annual income by half to less than 20,000 yuan.

A national basic drug catalogue followed, which decreased the number of drugs. Many commonly used drugs in rural areas were not listed in the catalogue. This has decreased the number of Huang's patients because many rural residents had to go to big hospitals in cities to seek better treatment.

The government subsidized rural doctors after the reforms, but Huang said the subsidies are limited, and that he is still struggling to make ends meet.

"I might have to find another job," he said.

Adding to the woes of rural doctors is an identity crisis.

A national guideline encouraging medical workers in rural areas to get registered, receive training, pass an exam and get a license has been in force since 2004.

Tashi Yang, head of the health bureau in Muli Tibetan Autonomous County in southwest China's Sichuan Province, told Xinhua that many older medical workers were "barefoot doctors" who had difficulty getting a license.

These people were basically students or simple villagers trained in first aid after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. They delivered basic medical services in China's vast, remote rural areas, where previously healthcare had been primitive.

These services were essentially free and were crucial to the doubling of life expectancy in China from 35 years in 1949 to 68 years by 1978.

These practitioners, however, were far from well educated. "They prescribed based mainly on their personal experiences, and didn't know much about medical theory," Yang said.

According to official statistics, almost half of Chinese rural doctors do not have proper school diplomas and most of them are not qualified to take the country's doctor qualification test. That means many village doctors are not officially recognized as "doctors".

Of the country's 1.38 million rural doctors, only around 300,000 have received licenses, government figures show.

In central China's Hunan Province, about 90 percent of local rural doctors are "unqualified", according to the provincial health and family planning commission.

A rural doctor in Hunan told Xinhua that without a license, they are always regarded as "unofficial medicine practitioners" and are susceptible to medical disputes. They are not covered by the social insurance system like their urban and township counterparts.

"If you get involved in a medical dispute, you could be charged with 'illegal medical practicing'," the doctor said. "I've been working as a doctor for decades, but am I officially a doctor? I cannot say for sure."

Poor career prospects are another pain ailing the profession.

In his office in the remote Pingshan County, Guizhou Province, Deng Guangfu frets over the difficulties of keeping doctors for the county hospital.

Deng, an official with the county's health and family planning center, said stories of struggling rural doctors are abound, making new doctors frightened of being stuck in the countryside forever.

"Many of those having been employed by the hospital just walked away after seeing gray-haired doctors still working in the poorly equipped hospital after so many years," Deng said. "Some doctors sent to Guizhou's cities for study never returned."

MORE ATTENTION NEEDED

Experts say more attention should be given to village doctors if China wants to maintain quality medical service in rural areas.

Li Guangyi, a researcher with Guizhou's health and family planning commission, said that the government should step up investment, enhance free medical training and improve welfare of village doctors to provide better services for rural residents.

Authorities have rolled out a series of measures to help rural doctors lead better lives.

In March, the State Council, China's cabinet, released a document for better treatment of village doctors.

The document ensures one doctor for every 1,000 rural residents. These rural doctors will get extra training for free, better opportunities to further education, preference in their future careers, along with higher pay and pensions.

More preferential policies will be rolled out to improve the livelihood of village doctors, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

"I hope that in the future, village doctors can live better lives so that we truly want to stay in our jobs," said Sha Jishu, a village doctor in Guizhou.

 

[JSCh]

School makes big strides for Lhasa
China Daily, October 16, 2015

The Lhasa-Beijing Experimental Middle School last year sent more than 80 percent of its graduates on to higher education, a remarkable feat for a fledgling institution that just opened a year ago.

The bilingual school is a model for educational cooperation between Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet autonomous region, and other cities in China. It received construction funding of 220 million yuan ($35 million) from the Beijing municipal government.

Students from the Tibet autonomous region follow a Tibetan-language lesson at the Lhasa-Beijing Experimental Middle School in Lhasa. [Photo by Zhang Yi/China Daily]​

The school in Lhasa educates 2,427 students, with 96 percent from rural areas who belong to the Tibetan ethnic group, and is a home to them too as most live on the expansive campus.

For these students, both their tuition and accommodation are free, said Zhang Zhihong, deputy principal. Meals and school uniforms also are provided, through funding of about 300 yuan per student per month from the central government.

Beijing, which has been a major patron of Lhasa for more than 20 years, helped build the school last year and contributes considerably to the teaching staff, said Zhang. He was the deputy principal at Cuiwei Middle School, an affiliate of Peking University, before he was appointed to the Lhasa middle school.

Fifty highly experienced teachers from well-regarded middle schools in Beijing account for half of the teaching staff. Other instructors, who mainly teach classes related to the Tibetan language, culture and expertise are hired from within the region.

The work of the Beijing teachers was instrumental in preparing so many graduates for colleges, universities and trade schools, said Ji Yunpeng, deputy head of the Lhasa Education and Sports Administration Bureau.

"The teachers are selected from a wide range of schools in Beijing and are adept at imparting knowledge to students according to their individual capabilities. They helped innovate teaching methods, brought the latest notions in education and greatly improved the students' marks in various exams," Ji said.

Beijing also has invested in about 10 other schools in Lhasa and sent more than 70 teachers to them over the past 20 years.

Seventeen other cities and provinces lend Tibet a helping hand with education.

In addition, 17 State-owned enterprises, 27 institutions of higher education and 15 entities that are part of the Ministry of Education have partnerships with the region. Tibet received 1.4 billion yuan in aid and built 678,000 square meters of educational facilities from 2010 to 2014, the region's educational authority said.

Aid for Tibetan education, which began flowing in June 2001, has played an important role in eliminating illiteracy.

By the end of last year, illiteracy among the young and middle-aged was a mere 0.57 percent and the number of people deemed illiterate was 12,000. Before the region was liberated from serfdom in 1951, it had an illiteracy rate of 95 percent.

The 2013 guidelines for educational assistance in Tibet created partnerships between 27 institutions of higher education and six colleges and universities in Tibet.

One of the chief aims of the central government is to ensure that the families of young Tibetans are not financially burdened by sending their children to school. Nine years of education are required.

In 2007, Tibet became the first place in the country to enjoy free nine-year compulsory education, and in 2012 it was the first place in China where students were entitled to 15 years of free education.

In the years between 1985 and 2014, the exemption of fees for tuition, room and board for the offspring of farmers and herders benefited 550,000 students.

 

[JSCh]

Child prodigy, with IQ of 146, stirs debate
China Daily, October 17, 2015

Parents the world over dream of having a child prodigy, but how will you educate a genius if your child has unbelievably high intelligence?

Parents from Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, faced this problem when they found their eight-year-old son was a genius with an IQ score of 146, just a little lower than scientist Albert Einstein's reported IQ of 160, according to Huashang Daily.

At one stage the gifted eight-year-old boy, Gao Yonghan, had his mother worried as he did not speak a word although he was two and a half years old, an age when most children were already fluently speaking.

However, Gao surprised his family one day by unexpectedly counting out loud, "six, seven, eight, nine, 10", when his grandmother, who was carrying him upstairs, stopped to catch her breath after counting "one, two, three, four, five", as usual.

The little boy showed an interest in math and reading as early as kindergarten, where he chose to read while the other kids took noon break.

Besides memorizing multiplication tables at three years old, the boy quickly showed his talent in math after enrolling in primary school. At the beginning, his math teacher, Zhang Yan, found he understood math problems before she taught him. Later, he beat some sixth grade students in solving some difficult math problems.

It was after this competition that Gao took the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, an internationally recognized intelligence test, and scored 146, which places the boy in the top 2 percent of the population, since most common IQs are between 90 and 110.

Gao's Math Olympiad teacher, surnamed Zhu, said: "He was the cleverest student I have ever met during my years of teaching." Zhu told a reporter the boy usually explores new methods to solve math problems that are beyond many adults' comprehension.

Now the eight-year-old is allowed to study math, physics and chemistry for junior high school students – subjects he is interested in - at home three afternoons a week.

But Gao Xin, the boy's mother, has her worries. She told the reporter that his education is "her biggest concern", because she doesn't want her son to develop at the expense of his childhood, especially when he says he wants to be with his friends.

People have different opinions on the math genius' further education, as evidenced by 3,482 comments and 1,875 reposts that Gao's story on Huashang Daily's official account on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo received.

"For the highly intelligent children, it's recognized at home and abroad that different educational tools should be tailored for these children in case their unusual abilities disappear after being ignored in their daily lives," said Zi Yanyang, head of the admissions office at Xi'an Jiaotong University.

Zi's viewpoint garnered support from many Internet users. Feixue said: "It's necessary to let the child get tailored education, especially when China lacks expertise."

However, some voices asked for all-round development for the eight-year-old boy.

"Just like the growth of vegetables, children also need time to develop themselves to be physically and mentally healthy grown-ups. Growing up shouldn't give way to developing one's talent," said Li, whose son is a fifth grade student.

Li went on to say, "Individual quality, good personality, physical and mental health, all these constitute the most key factors for a child's growing up."

Many Internet users voiced support for Li's opinion. For example, web user changsang said,"It's good enough to teach him to be a good person", which got 6,099 supports.

Anyone who wonders how the child prodigy Gao thinks about math problems can challenge themselves with this problem, which Gao solved. Have a try! You can compare your solution with his.

Question: There are 170 students in Tiantian Kindergarten, and if three-fourths of the number of boys equals two-thirds of the number of girls, then how many boys and girls, respectively, are in the kindergarten?

Zaizai's solution: 3/4+2/3=9/12+8/12=17/12

170 ÷ 17/12=120

120 × 8/12=80（the number of boys）

120 × 9/12=90（the number of girls）

What's your solution?

 

[TaiShang]

China's "Hawking in Literature": ALS patient writes 150,000-character book by blinking her eye.

Gong Xunhui, an ALS patient sits in her home in Southwest China’s Chengdu on October 19, 2015. Gong, an ALS patient, has written Beautiful Frozen Person, her autobiography. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a rare and incurable neurological disorder which gradually causes muscle weakness and atrophy throughout the body.

Gong was diagnosed with ALS 13 years ago, and she has been in a wheelchair since 2006. The incurable disorder has paralyzed Gong, 62, but with her husband’s support, a special eye-tracking device and incredible willpower, Gong published the 150,000-character book Beautiful Frozen Person in her home town of Chengdu this year.

 

[TaiShang]

***

ALS Sufferer “Writes” 150,000 -Word Autobiography by Blinking Billions of Times
October 20th, 2015

Meet Gong Xunhui, a 62-year-old Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patient who recently wrote a detailed autobiography using only her eyes!

Gong Xunhui has been suffering from ALS for the past 12 years. She’s been confined to a wheelchair since 2006, but despite her almost complete paralysis, she has actually managed to write a 150,000-word book on her life – something that even able bodied people might struggle with. And she did it with the only part of her body she still has full control over, her eyes.

It all started about three years ago, when Xunhui’s family bought her an eye-tracking assistive device that she could use to communicate and also control a computer. After it was installed, the first line she typed was: “I am very happy today, and after I get better at typing with my eyes, I will probably write an autobiography.”



A year-and-a-half later, with considerably better typing skills, she began work on the book. She would sit in front of her computer every day, blinking from 8 am to 11 pm, and imputing about 3,000 characters a day. She wrote about her childhood memories, her young adult life, and her struggle with the disease since she hit middle age. And finally, in November last year, after billions of blinks, the 150,000-word book, titled ‘Beautiful Frozen’ was ready.

The book is special because it recounts Xunhui’s 12-year journey with ALS, while most people with the disease only survive three to five years. “I want to use my personal experience to let all ALS patients know that, although we suffer from the incurable disease, there is still a lot we can do to enrich our lives,” she said.



After writing the book, Xunhui started building an online presence to interact with ALS sufferers worldwide. She joined online groups and started micro-blogging as well. And when she learned that many patients couldn’t afford 20,000 yuan ($3,000) respirators, and would eventually die of suffocation, she decided to use all the proceeds from her book sales to donate respirators. She posted a short message on her blog, asking for people to help her with advance funding to get her book published.

“I am an ALS patient and I can only move my head,” she wrote. “I type with my eyes – six characters per minute. In the past 10 months, I wrote an autobiography, and I would like to publish it. I want to use the earnings to buy respirators for other ALS patients who cannot afford it and are awaiting death. Could you help me to realize my dream?”



The post got several responses, and after a local newspaper picked up the story, there was no looking back. According to Yang Cunrui, Xunhui’s husband, more than 1,000 people ordered the book in advance. The couple added another 54,000 yuan to get the book published, and the expenses were later covered by the Jinjiang District Government. As of this month, Xunhui is aiming to sell about 3,000 more books to be able to buy six more respirators.

Despite all that she’s achieved, she’s quite a modest woman. “I am not a good writer,” she said. “It’s just sincere feelings from the bottom of my heart.”



Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS causes the death of all the neurons in the body, causing muscle stiffness and twitching, gradually worsening to complete paralysis. You might remember the incurable diseases from the ice bucket challenge that went viral on social media last year.

 

[JSCh]

Xinjiang to train more farmers to boost employment
Xinhua, October 21, 2015

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will train more than 320,000 farmers during the slack farming season from October to April 2016, local authorities said Tuesday.

Surplus rural labors who are willing to seek employment in towns and cities can participate in the six-month training which involves language and working skills, such as decoration, vehicle repair, dress making and hand knitting, according to the regional department of human resources and social security.

After training, they are able to work in factories and enterprises in coastal provinces, or find a job in local plants, restaurants and hotels.

Yang Fuqiang, an assistant researcher with the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said addressing employment of the autonomous region's surplus labor is key to Xinjiang's social stability and economic development.

As part of efforts to address poverty and improve people's livelihood, Xinjiang provided job training for more than 420,000 farmers last year.

 

[JSCh]

Palace Museum to be free for five groups
CRI, October 25, 2015

The Palace Museum. [File photo]​

The Palace Museum will be open free to five groups of people on the first Wednesday of each month from November to March each year.

These people include medical workers, volunteers, active duty soldiers, police officers, public transportation drivers, teachers, college students, and sanitation workers.

Shan Jixiang, curator of the Palace Museum, explains the idea.

"The Palace Museum will be free of charge to those who are financially dependent, such as college students, and those who are quite busy with their work, like primary school and secondary school teachers. We wish to bring them to the museum as well."

These people shall go to the official website for the Palace Museum and register as group visitors.

The limit for each group is 200 people at one time. The official seal of the applicants' institution is also required as part of the application.

The total number of visitors is limited to 10,000 each day.

 

[JSCh]

Seven Buddha halls renovated in 300-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monastery
Source:Xinhua Published: 2015-10-27 19:38:02

Seven halls have been restored in Labrang Monastery, a prominent Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the northwestern province of Gansu.

Founded in 1709, by 2012, when the restoration project began, the monastery was showing the signs of age, with the mud and wood structure suffering from erosion, cracks, leaks and subsidence.

The central government promised 305 million yuan ($ 48 million) to support the extensive renovation project, with more than half of this amount channeled to heritage renovation work.

Labrang Monastery has six Buddhist schools, 48 Buddha halls and over 500 residences for lamas.

The renovation work focused on reinforcing structural elements, repairing paintings and frescos, as well as improving security and fire protection.

The renovation work will serve as a model for projects in similar circumstances, said Sonam Je, who is in charge of relic protection at the monastery.

Eight specialists were on hand to provide advice and guidance.

Sprawling over an area of more 800,000 square meters, Labrang Monastery is famed for its architecture.

It was listed as a national cultural relics protection site in 1982.

 

[JSCh]

Water resources increase in NW China's Qinghai Province
Source:Xinhua Published: 2015-10-28 19:05:20

Strict environmental protection measures have helped increase water resources in northwest China's Qinghai Province in recent years, according to the local water resources authority.

In the last 15 years, water resources have stayed above 70 billion cubic meters, far more than the average of 62.93 billion cubic meters in previous decades, the Qinghai Provincial Water Resources Department said in a statement.

Water resources reached 79.39 billion cubic meters in 2014, it said.

Liu Xining, director of water resources at the department, attributed the growth to consistent environment protection measures. However, he also pointed out that climate change and global warming resulting in increased rainfall also helped with the growth.

Qinghai, located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, is the source for many of the country's major rivers, including the Yangtze, Yellow River and Lancang River. It is an important water conservation area that influences the overall environment, Liu said.

Qinghai has adhered to high standards in water resource management, and many policies have been adopted across the province to save water, Liu said.

In 2014, Qinghai used 2.63 billion cubic meters of water, less than the target of 3.7 billion, he added.

A major salt lake, Hoh Xil Lake, in the province has more than tripled in size, threatening the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest. It has prompted local workers to closely monitor the expansion.

 

[JSCh]

FYI, Congenital heart disease is one of the most common birth defects. It is especially prevalent in high-altitude regions.


Campaign on birth defect intervention held in Tibet
Xinhua, October 28, 2015

A campaign against birth defects, including free medical consultation and dietary supplements for pregnant women, was held in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region this week.

The event on Tuesday and Wednesday was organized by the regional health and family planning commission and the government-backed March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation of China.

A group of doctors from Beijing's PLA General Hospital provided consultations on complicated cases in Lhasa, the regional capital.

In addition, the doctors visited Doilungdeqen County, giving free consultations to villagers and folic acid supplements, milk powder and probiotics.8 "We hope the activities would help people know more about birth defects and help prevent them," said Guo Yucheng, deputy secretary-general of the foundation.

During the event, the foundation donated 4 million yuan (about 630,000 U.S. dollars) to genetic disease detection for 20,000 newborns in Tibet and will fund some critical cases.

According to a 2012 report, newborns with defects accounted for 5.6 percent of the total births in China. About 35 percent died soon after birth and 40 percent suffered lifelong disability.

 

[ahojunk]

There must be lots of rich people with large compounds and travel long distances in Chengdu, Sichuan.

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Private aircraft store opened in Chengdu
2015-10-28 15:47 | China News Service | Editor:Li Yan

Oct. 27th, Chengdu, a private aircraft store started in Chengdu, this store will supply "aircraft show, test driving, selling" to customers. It is the first private aircraft store in the southwest of China. (CNS photo/An Yuan)

 

[ahojunk]

Some things in China never fails to amaze me!

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China builds Venice-like city
2015-10-29 09:32 | CNTV | Editor: Mo Hong'e

The development project, named "East Montage", covering over 400 thousand square meters, has cost a total of 8 billion yuan, or 1.26 billion, U.S. dollars. (Photo/Xinhua)

The development project, named "East Montage", covering over 400 thousand square meters, has cost a total of 8 billion yuan, or 1.26 billion, U.S. dollars.

With a canal, European-style buildings, and frescoes reminiscent of renaissance-era Italy, the developer, Dalian East District Corporation, not only aims to build commercial real estate, but also a to build a landmark for Dalian city itself.

Zhang Juan, a local resident queuing up for a ride on the gondola, says the East Montage has already attracted a significant crowd of tourists as of late October.

"This is a good thing. This is an opportunity for people who could not go abroad to enjoy the same scenery as that in foreign countries, and expand their vision to learn more about foreign customs and practices. This is really good."

Many tourists believe that east Montage has provided a pleasant blend of nature and classical occidental architecture.

According to Yan Wei, Vice General Manager of Dalian East, four kilometres of a Venetian-style canal have been constructed.

"We took architecture from Venice and France as blueprints. We channelled sea water to the 4-kilometre-long canal to create what is for China an unprecedented kingdom on the ocean and architectural development complex. Proudly, our East Montage project, since the start of its construction, has made room for the capacity of an urban culture with iconic buildings."

Yan said that the city is not a direct copy of a classical European city, but is a combination of western and local culture.

"Each building has its own prototype design. I'm not saying that we copied these designs, but we have integrated the maritime and regional cultures of Dalian together with its humanistic principles, and further expanding, innovating, and improving them. It combines the western and Dalian's features, integrating Dalian's ideals and maritime culture."

Most of the completed development in East Montage has already been sold, but plenty of the other unfinished buildings in the city are still up for sale.

Development projects such as East Montage are not uncommon across China. In 2007 Shanghai built its own "mini Paris" complete with a small scale Eiffel Tower, and a detailed building-by-building replica of an Austrian village was finished in southern Guangdong province in 2012.

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More pictures below.

 

[JSCh]

China offers free senior high education to poor students
CRI, November 3, 2015

Students study to prepare for the national college entrance exams due early next month, at Lianyungang High School in Lianyungang, a port city in east China's Jiangsu Province, May 18, 2015. [Photo: Xinhua]
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China is gradually providing free senior high school education to more poor students.

Vice president of the National Institute of Education Sciences Zeng Tianshan pointed out that China's senior high school enrollment rate is still lower than that in developed countries.

He said in face of the rapid development of higher education, senior high school education remains a weak link in the whole education system.

"The expansion of senior high school enrollment will not only help enhance the quality of higher education but increase the average years of schooling. Now the average is just 10.1 years. The development of senior high education is of great importance to improving the quality of the population."

By 2020, China will provide free senior high education to all students in the country, with the gross enrollment rate expected to reach 90 percent.

China has adopted a double-track model for senior high education: the normal senior high education and a secondary vocational education.

Experts said enhancing the quality of senior high education in remote rural areas should be a top priority.

According to the communique of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee, China will gradually exempt tuition fees in secondary vocational schools and give priority funding to poor students.

The exemption of tuition fees will benefit nearly 20 million secondary vocational students, nearly half of the population receiving free senior high education.

 

[JSCh]

Man drives a burning truck out of a tunnel
China Daily, November 9, 2015

If your moving vehicle suddenly catches fire in a tunnel, what would you do? Report the fire? Or leave it, at the risk of it exploding in the tunnel? A Chinese driver did a lot more and prevented a major accident.

A burning truck rushes out of a tunnel in Southwest China's Guizhou province on Saturday. [Photo/weibo.com]​

A man, surnamed Xiao, drove his fully-loaded truck through a more than 3-kilometer tunnel in Southwest China's Guizhou province when it suddenly caught fire on Saturday. He tried to extinguish the blaze but failed. Worried that the burning vehicle might explode in the tunnel, the driver risked his life by choosing to drive the "burning ball" out of the tunnel.

Smoke blackened his body by the time Xiao and firefighters finally put out the flames with the truck parked outside the tunnel. The vehicle was seriously damaged, with eight rear tires and the truck's cargo totally burned.

Xiao said that the accident was unexpected because the vehicle passed its annual inspection last month. But he guessed that a malfunction of the water spray on the brakes caused the tires to catch fire.