Interesting news from China

[ahojunk]

More of this story. This man is a hero, he is concerned for the safety of others.

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Chinese driver risks his life to drive truck on fire out of tunnel
(People's Daily Online) 11:36, November 09, 2015

A truck spontaneously combusted inside a tunnel in Guizhou province, Southwest China on Friday morning.

The potential disaster was averted by the driver who risked his own life driving the truck all the way out of the tunnel before abandoning the vehicle running for his safety.

Firefighters arrived soon afterwards and fortunately no casualties were reported.

 

[JSCh]

Across China: "Bird man" story tells lake's revival in C China
English.news.cn 2015-11-10 09:15:33

WUHAN, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Shengyuan is a "bird man". The 57-year-old lives in a double-decker boat inside the Yangchaihu section of Honghu Lake in central China's Hubei Province. Every day, he patrols the lake in a canoe, watching birds and noting species and population numbers, and, more importantly, protecting them against hunters.

However, more than a decade ago, Zhang was a poacher himself, and maybe one of the best of them. In 2001, Zhang and his villagers secretly prepared 23 shotguns to hunt birds, but he was nabbed by local officials on site. He was fined 18,000 yuan (2830 U.S. dollars), more than his total annual income.

Zhang said at that time he had no choice but to hunt for birds. In the 1990s, Honghu Lake, the seventh largest lake in China, was nothing but a giant, stinking fish pond.

Propelled by the soaring price of crab, people flocked to Honghu Lake to farm freshwater crabs. Extensive crab cultivation took up as much as 70 percent of the lake area, with bamboo poles and nets protruding everywhere.

Zhang and some of his relatives also jumped on the bandwagon. To intensify crab production, they threw everything from food leftovers to processed fish feed to the pond, which quickly eroded the lake's ecosystem.

After a couple of years, the crab boom went bust, so Zhang started his career as a bird-hunter.

Zhang said he would have never resorted to killing birds if there had been other ways to earn his bread. The Zhangs have been living along Honghu Lake since his great-grandfather. He still vividly remembers the beautiful scenery from his childhood, when flocks of wild geese would cloud the sky.

However, the massive crab cultivation left the lake's ecosystem deteriorated so much that few migratory birds could be seen when Zhang first aimed his gun at a wild duck near his home in 2000.

When he was caught, Zhang finally realized the damage they had inflicted on the lake.

In 2003, the Hubei provincial government launched a Honghu Lake wetland reserve restoration project. The local government decided to recruit crews to patrol the lake. Zhang was the first to sign up.

Over the years, people occasionally joined Zhang in his patrols. But eventually they left because days on the lake with no one but birds and fish seemed tedious and lonely.

But Zhang has stayed. The work is both redeeming and fulfilling for him.

"I think the birds can recognize people. Truly. At least, they know me," he said, his face wrinkling with joy as he discusses his winged companions.

Once he saved a wild goose trapped in a net. The goose hovered over his head for a while before flying away. "I think it was expressing its gratitude," Zhang said.

In 2005, the local government announced plans to curb aquaculture on the lake and build a tourist industry.

The government compensated fishermen with water fields near the lake's banks to farm fish and helped them find alternative livelihoods, especially in tourism. Meanwhile, nets were dismantled and fishing is now banned from April 1 to July 31 every year.

Millions of yuan has also been channeled to reintroduce underwater plants and release fish, according to Zhu Junhua, chief of Honghu Wetland Natural Reserve Administration Bureau.

The conservation efforts have paid off. The water of Honghu is visibly clearer, and more species have returned to the lake, including birds.

In 2004, researchers sighted less than 2,000 migratory birds during the winter at one section of Honghu. In 2014, about 45,000 birds were observed at the same site. They estimated that the total number of migratory birds in the lake area would eventually surpass 100,000.

Zhang said he is seeing more types of birds these days. Though the ecosystem might not be equal to that in his childhood, he believes the progress is still significant.

"Our generation destroyed the lake, so we have to pay the price," Zhang said. "But hopefully, things will become better through our efforts. Then my grandchildren will see a completely rejuvenated lake. And I believe that day is not so far away."

 

[TaiShang]

Massive bridge set to be replaced in 1 day
November 11, 2015

Beijing will replace an aging overpass with a new one weighing 1,300 metric tons within 24 hours starting on Friday.

If the job is completed as planned, it will set a record in China for the shortest replacement time involving such a large structure in heavy-traffic downtown areas, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said on Tuesday.

The replacement will take place at the Sanyuanqiao overpass on the northeast section of the Third Ring Road, which links the city with Beijing Capital International Airport. It is one of the busiest traffic hubs in the city.

This will be the first time in China that special dollies - low, wheeled platforms - that are able to carry 1,000 tons each will be used to move giant prefabricated bridge pieces and install them fully intact, said Hou Xiaoming, deputy director of the road management department of the commission.

The original overpass was completed in 1984.

The overpass and the section of the Jingshun Highway beneath it will be closed from 11 pm on Friday until midnight on Saturday. Detour lanes for buses have been under construction since September. Automobiles will be prohibited.

Workers have prepared buttresses inside and outside the Third Ring Road to prop up the new bridge span and old sections.

They will cut the old bridge into 18 pieces and move them to the buttresses. The new bridge will then be moved into place, taking over the spot using two specially designed dollies, each able to carry the extremely heavy load - up to 1,000 tons each - and rejoining the exposed two ends of the road.

When the overpass is finished and traffic resumes, the old bridge sections will be hauled away.

In the past, building an overpass in downtown areas has taken months to complete. This project will be fast because of sophisticated engineering and careful preparations, Hou said.

Beijing has more than 200 overpasses inside its Fifth Ring Road, the most in the country. Sanyuanqiao is four times the size of the Xizhimen overpass in downtown Beijing, which was replaced six years ago using older engineering technology.

"If successful, it will serve as a good example for other cities to follow in downtown areas troubled by traffic jams," Hou said.

As one of the country's largest overpasses and one of the busiest traffic hubs in Beijing, Sanyuanqiao every day sees more than 200,000 automobiles, along with buses from 48 routes carrying 726,000 passengers, according to Qin Dahang, an engineer at Beijing General Municipal Engineering and Research Institute Co.

The short construction time means less inconvenience for residents, he said.

 

[ahojunk]

Dinosaur remains are found all over China. This is another one.

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Rare giant dinosaur footprint discovered in SW China
2015-11-11 11:10 | Ecns.cn | Editor: Gu Liping

A giant dinosaur footprint is seen in SW China's Sichuan province. With a diameter of 60cm and a depth of 20cm, it is among 70 footprints found by researchers from the China University of Geosciences at three spots in Guhua village, Gulin county.


(ECNS) — A rare giant dinosaur footprint has been discovered in SW China's Sichuan province, local media reported on Wednesday.

With a diameter of 60cm and a depth of 20cm, it is among 70 footprints found by researchers from the China University of Geosciences at three spots in Guhua village, Gulin county.

Xing Lida, a PhD candidate, said the specific type of dinosaur that the footprint belongs to is still unknown, and that further research will be carried out.

The latest find also includes footprints of sauropod, bird-footed and theropod dinosaurs, Xing said. These have provided evidence of herbivorous dinosaurs acting in groups, he added, and we have identified dense distribution of middle- and small-sized carnosaur footprints from 100 million years ago.

More than 500 dinosaur footprints have been discovered during two former explorations in the area, including the longest track of predatory dinosaur footprints in East Asia.

Experts have demanded effective preservation of the footprints, and suggested building a national geological park there.

 

[TaiShang]

Retailers pray to Alibaba CEO, take to horses ahead of China's November 11 shopping spree
Source:Global Times Published: 2015-11-11 20:08:01

Back in saddle for Singles’ Day dash

November 11 marked Singles' Day in China, which over the past seven years has evolved into a record-setting online shopping phenomenon. While millions of buyers waited anxiously to click away, vendors scrambled to prepare for the tidal wave of orders set to come in at midnight. Some prayed at altars to Ma Yun, the head of e-commerce giant Alibaba, in the hopes the shopping gods will grant them fortune on what has become China's most important sale day of the year.

Students at a university in Hangzhou ready for the shopping spree at midnight Tuesday. Photo: IC

Photo: IC

Online store owners pray to portraits of Ma Yun, head of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, for Singles' Day profits in Panyu, Guangdong, on Tuesday. Photo: IC

Employees at an online shop in Hefei, Anhui Province, line up with their boss (on horseback) in Native American-esque garb, while shouting, "Prepare for Singles' Day, We'll be No.1!" Photo: IC

A customer signs for a delivery by a courier on a horse Sunday in Hohhot. Photo: IC

When authorities in one North China city enacted a temporary vehicle ban to alleviate traffic as ahead of China's largest online shopping day, local couriers took to their trusty steeds.

Photos of the mounted deliverymen trotting through Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region went viral as shoppers hit the Net for the mega spending spree Singles' Day, which fell on Wednesday.

"It's amazing that it takes only half a day to get a package," a resident surnamed Zhang told news portal youth.cn. "I was worried about possible delays."

The ill-timed regulation, put into effect October 16, aimed to curb unlicensed three-wheeled electric vehicles from roads - the same used by couriers to scoot around town - but instead resulted in the delay of more than 50,000 packages, the Shanghai-based Dragon Television reported Wednesday.

As a way to buck the ban, some local companies rented teams of horses from a farm in the nearby grasslands.

"We got approval from the head office to use horses, and were able to equip around a dozen riders," said a district manager for Suning, a national electronics retailer. "These two days we've delivered all our orders."

In response to mounting concerns over undelivered parcels, authorities have since loosened the reins. About 4,000 vehicles from 45 delivery companies will be permitted on roads between 7 pm to 7:30 am through December 30, Hohhot government spokesman Li Hong announced Saturday.

"Couriers don't have it easy. They have to know how to ride a bike, motorbike, trike, drive a car, and now, ride a horse," wrote Weibo user "weiboshangdelazhu."

"This is ridiculous. E-trikes are environmentally friendly, but horses are rather dangerous. They have no brakes. What if it loses control on road," posted a social media user.

Newspaper headline: Back in saddle for Singles’ Day dash

 

[ahojunk]

Retailers pray to Alibaba CEO, take to horses ahead of China's November 11 shopping spree

No kidding!

They actually use horses to deliver parcels.

And they pray to Jack Ma.

What the heck?

 

[LowPost]

Tibet plateau as clean as North Pole: report

BEIJING - Several data revealed by a global research endeavor showed that the Tibetan plateau remains one of the world's cleanest regions despite pollutants discharged by surrounding regions.

"The environment background value of pollutants in the Tibetan plateau, which is similar to that of the Arctic, is remarkably lower than that of densely-populated areas," said an environment change evaluation report organized by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Pollutants in the air of the plateau, such as black carbon and heavy metal, have increased by two times since the 1950s, the report said.

Citing lake and ice core records, the report said South Asia and Central Asia are the two major contributors to the plateau's black carbon, a climate forcing agent which heats atmosphere and warms the Earth.

The average deposition of black carbon in southeastern and central parts of the plateau from the beginning of this century was three times the average in the period between the 1950s and the 1980s.

"Black carbon on the plateau is now at its highest level in nearly 100 years, which is lower than that in the Alps in France and similar to the Arctic," the report said.

Though the level of heavy metal recorded in ice and lake cores of the plateau is higher than or similar to the south and north pole regions, it is much lower than that in densely-populated areas.

In addition, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the air remain at a relatively low level, which is close to or lower than that in the Arctic region or the Alps.

The plateau's disaster risks increase as climate is warming and human activities are increasing.

If humans continue to exert a positive influence on environment and improve disaster early warning capability, the low environment background value as one of the world's cleanest areas could be maintained, the report said.

The CAS institute describes the Tibetan plateau in its report as the areas mainly in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters.

Tibet plateau as clean as North Pole: report[1]|chinadaily.com.cn

 

[TaiShang]

Italian women apply to be Chinese airline stewardesses

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An applicant introduces herself during a recruitment event held by Chinese carrier China Eastern Airlines, in Rome, Italy, Nov 17, 2015. Chinese carrier China Eastern Airlines on Tuesday held its first recruitment event in Rome, hoping to provide better customer service on its Rome-Shanghai route with Italian flight attendants. [Photo/Xinhua]

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Applicants wait during a recruitment event held by Chinese carrier China Eastern Airlines, in Rome, Italy, Nov 17, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

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An applicant speaks during a recruitment event held by Chinese carrier China Eastern Airlines, in Rome, Italy, Nov 17, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

 

[JSCh]

Tibet to raise life expectancy to 70 by 2020
Xinhua 2015-11-22 08:43

Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China plans to raise its average life expectancy by two years to 70 in five years, a local official has said.

Medical services in rural areas will be greatly improved to achieve this goal, Zeng Wanming, head of the region's organization department, said at a meeting on Tibet's medical sector.

The average life expectancy in Tibet was 68.2 years in 2013, up from 35.5 years before its peaceful liberation in 1951, yet still eight years behind the inland, due to the high altitude and difficult access to medical service in the scarcely-populated region.

"In high-altitude areas, even a cold can be lethal to the infirm," said Tashi, a doctor in Tsewugarmo Village in Ngari Prefecture, adding that before the arrival of village doctors, many rural Tibetans had to travel miles to see a doctor.

Every village in Tibet now has a clinic and an average of two medical practitioners, thanks to a 4 billion yuan (627 million U.S. dollars) funding injection from the central government over the past five years.

 

[JSCh]

4,000-year-old ginko tree in North China(1/4)
2015-11-23 08:25 Ecns.cn Editor:Yao Lan




Leaves fallen from a 4,000-year-old ginko tree blankets the ground in a temple in the early winter in Hanzhong, North China’s Shaanxi province, on Nov. 21, 2015. (Photo/CFP)​

 

[JSCh]

Photo taken on Nov. 23, 2015 shows a distant view of Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world which stands at an altitude of 8844.43 meters, in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Photo: Xinhua/Bai Yu)​

 

[JSCh]

China's rural preschool education investment grows tenfold: report
Xinhua, November 24, 2015

Investment by the Chinese government in preschool education has increased eightfold overall from five years ago with investment in rural areas growing over ten times.

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday released an interim evaluation of a ten-year development plan for education -- the Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020), saying that the total fiscal funds earmarked for preschool education in China reached 205 billion yuan (32 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014.

Public spending on rural preschool education in 10 sampled counties rose by 1011 percent over the same period, the report said.

Also, the report said that gross enrollment rates in kindergartens has grown from 50.9 percent in 2009 to 70.5 percent last year.

China had about 210,000 kindergartens in 2014, a 51.9-percent increase from 2009 and the total number of children in kindergartens has reached 40.5 million, the report said, adding that the number of teachers and their educational backgrounds have also improved.

Over the last five years, China has provided training programs at national or local levels to all three million kindergarten teachers and staff members, said Zheng Fuzhi, an official with the education ministry.

 

[TaiShang]

Village that moved to protect just 1 tree
November 27, 2015

For generations, Chen Jiafen's family lived in the shadow of a 4,700-year-old ginkgo tree in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

But they and their neighbors had to move in 2011 to make room for the 50-meter tree whose vast roots were undermining nearby buildings.

Despite now living about a kilometer away, Chen, 60, says she often returns to the area to pay the "Tree God" a visit.

"The great tree answers our prayers and protects our village. We had to return the favor," Chen said.

Yang Ping, deputy chief of Changshun County's forestry bureau, said the county spent 2 million yuan (US$313,000) on new homes for the village of 18 Miao families and sought expert advice on how to care for the tree.

It is not just in Changshun that people have gone to great lengths to protect trees. A total of 70 billion yuan was spent by 78 cities in 2014 on forestry, Zhang Jianlong, chief of China's State Forestry Administration, told an urban forestry conservation meeting in east China's Anhui Province yesterday.

A campaign that is aimed at "bringing forests into cities and surround cities with forests" is combining successful experience from abroad with Chinese reality, Zhang said.

He said the administration was trying to move away from the enclosed management of green spaces and "bring forests into communities and people's lives, to make forests more accessible and enjoyable to people in both urban and rural areas."

A total of 21 cities were awarded the title of "State Forest City" at the meeting, increasing the number of such cities to 96.

 

[JSCh]

Banks improve services for farmers and nomads
China Daily 2015-12-02 09:24

Banks in Sichuan province participating in a wide-scale poverty alleviation endeavor want to upend entrenched notions about lending to the poor.

Banking services that once required farmers and nomads to travel long distances to larger towns are being offered in villages.

And nine of the province's 12 impoverished cities and prefectures now have their own debt financing tools, which focus on bonds, and banks are encouraging businesses in poor regions to participate in the interbank bond market.

"What we are doing is turning the poor into the rich," said Zhou Xiaoqiang, president of the Chengdu branch of the People's Bank of China, at a meeting with the media on Nov 9 in the province's capital, Chengdu.

"A county head even marveled at how we could loan 20 million yuan ($3.33 million) in 2012, and decide to loan 200 million yuan in the future in an abjectly poor region where he supposed few people could do business," Zhou said.

At the end of June, there were 2,970 financial service agencies in 67 poor Sichuan counties, 35 more than at the same period of last year.

"The new financial poverty alleviation method is more self-motivated and sustainable," Zhou said. "It will inevitably transform China's poverty alleviation efforts."

The Postal Savings Bank of China's Sichuan branch plans to create 500 poverty-alleviation service stations in poor villages across Sichuan by 2017, and provide at least 120 billion yuan in financing for Sichuan's four most impoverished areas by 2020.

The service stations will provide a variety of services that once required villagers to go to larger cities, including deposits, withdrawals, loans and even agricultural sales in some locations.

Liu Qiang, vice-president of the postal bank's Sichuan branch, said it also will build an e-commerce network providing fund settlement services for local farmers and nomads selling agricultural products.

The loan balance of Agricultural Bank of China's Sichuan branch in the four main impoverished regions was 54.64 billion yuan at the end of September, an increase of 19 billion yuan in three years. The bank has set up 12,204 financial service stations in Sichuan's poor villages.

Tashi Tsring, president of Agricultural Bank of China's branch in Ganzi prefecture, said its deposits and profits will increase in the long run as the nomads' businesses prosper.

"The Tibetan ethnic group is highly conscious of credit. We have not yet encountered uncollectable debts," he said.

Gelrong Wangtok, director of a rural credit cooperative in Daocheng, Ganzi, said the entire prefecture's deposits in his cooperative totaled 160,000 yuan several years ago. Now, both deposits and loans have increased significantly.

"This is a win-win circulation of financial resources," he said.

According to the People's Bank of China's Chengdu branch, bank loan balances to 67 poverty-stricken counties in Sichuan totaled 246.3 billion yuan at the end of September, double the total at the end of 2012, and an increase of 16.8 percent year-on-year.

New poverty-assistance loans account for about 8 percent of the total new loans in the province, a slight year-on-year increase.


Sichuan to end poverty in Tibetan prefecture
China Daily 2015-12-02 09:45

Sichuan province is pledging to lift 5 million residents living on less than $1.25 a day out of poverty by 2020 by replacing direct assistance with a loan program to help villagers in the remote mountains and nomads on the grasslands start their own businesses.

The provincial authority implemented the new financial assistance program in July 2014, creating a special fund that serves as collateral for interest-free and low-interest loans. Township governments are responsible for helping borrowers choose appropriate businesses.

Daocheng county, in the province's Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, has snow-capped mountains and plateau grasslands. Tourists have begun visiting its remote villages in greater numbers over the past decade, creating new opportunities.

In the county's Yading village, 150 residents once faced acute poverty, and it was jokingly dubbed a place where even hares were reluctant to settle. But that's changing.

"Many of the male villagers remained single all their lives, because few women would marry and move to the destitute village," said Geldol, 50, a Tibetan family inn owner in Rencun village near Yading.

Now Yading village is the most prosperous place in the county, Geldol said, and a family can make about 300,000 yuan ($50,000) a year from housing rentals alone. The township government helped Geldol obtain a 500,000 yuan interest-free loan in 2003 as part of an earlier pilot loan project. He built a 44-room, four-story hotel.

"I paid off the loan in three years, and rented the building to professional hotel managers 10 years ago," Geldol said.

Zeng Guanhe, head of Daocheng county, which counts tourism and wild mushroom processing among its main industries, said the government also is changing the mechanism by which it judges the nomads' financial situations. Currently, it considers the number of yaks they own.

"We will issue the farmers and nomads ownership certificates for their grassland, forests and houses. They can soon mortgage these properties to the banks," Zeng said.

Gala town in Yajiang county, cited as another success story, has one of the largest agricultural cooperatives in Ganzi, producing tons of matsutake mushrooms, plateau pigs and herbal medicine. More than 200 families take part in the co-op, which receives a direct government subsidy and low-interest bank loans, co-op manager Phujadrup said.

Keryon Tashi, a 44-year-old family inn manger in Riji village, not far from the agricultural co-op, is another beneficiary of an earlier poverty-alleviation loan. His family and another 12 neighbors received 200,000 yuan each in government subsidies, and three-year, interest-free loans of 100,000 yuan from the banks, to transform their homes into hotels.

"The officials and bank staff believe we can make a good living by serving tourists, apart from yaks," he said.

He supports three daughters who attend college, appreciating what they learn there. "Knowledge is the permanent bank in their brains that benefits them all their lives," he said.

 

[JSCh]

Glass walkway of 303-meter-high opened to public in S China
English.news.cn | 2015-12-06 20:42:23 | Editor: Mengjiao Liu

Tourists try a glass walkway under the guide of safety coaches on the top of a 303-meter-high building in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Dec. 6, 2015. Located on the 76th floor of the building, the 208-meter-long glass walkway opened to public Saturday. (Xinhua/Li Hanchi)

File photo taken on Aug. 10 shows the aerial view of a 303-meter-high building, on whose top a glass walkway was built, in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Located on the 76th floor of the building, the 208-meter-long glass walkway opened to public Saturday. (Xinhua/Li Hanchi)

Tourists try a glass walkway under the guide of safety coaches on the top of a 303-meter-high building in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Dec. 6, 2015. Located on the 76th floor of the building, the 208-meter-long glass walkway opened to public Saturday. (Xinhua/Li Hanchi) ​