Family hotels try to attract visitors during Olympics

Chinanews, Beijing, July 16 – The Beijing Olympic Games are only one year away from us. It is expected that during the Beijing Olympic Games, about one million domestic visitors and 500,000 foreign tourists will come to Beijing. Right now, star-graded hotels in Beijing have made a lot of reservations. Family hotels, which might not be comparable to star-graded hotels for in luxury services, might remain appealing to some visitors for their comfort and cheap price.
Ms. Hu, a Shanghai lady in her thirties, has already reserved a ticket for the Olympic opening ceremony. She has planned to come to Beijing to watch the opening ceremony together with her husband and her parents. The couple have decided that they will let their friends in Beijing to find an apartment with either two or three bedrooms for them to have a short stay in Beijing in 2008.
“We prefer residential houses to hotels. The price will surely be cheaper and residential houses are usually located in quiet places and are comfortable to live in,” Ms. Hu said.
The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee promised that 113 hotels had signed contracts as the Olympic partners in Beijing, the price of their guest rooms would be lower than the price of hotel rooms at the Athens Olympic Games and the Toronto Olympic Winter Games. Even so, some experts predict that the price of hotel rooms might still reach 1,500-2,000 yuan per night during the Games.
As hotel prices will become intolerably high, wage earners like Ms. Hu plans to rent an ordinary residential apartment for her short stay.
As Ms. Hu said, they can do the washing and cooking in these places and the price will be a lot cheaper than equivalent services in hotels. The money thus saved can be spent in touring more scenic spots in Beijing or buying more souvenirs. The trip will surely become economical and pleasant.
At present, an ordinary apartment with one bedroom located in the downtown area of Beijing usually costs around 1,500-2,000 yuan per month. During the Olympic Games, many of these vacant rooms will be rented out. If such room charges at 1,000 yuan per night, it will mean that in less than one month during the Olympic period, the room can make money that is otherwise equal to total rental fees of a whole year.
Although family hotels might become a good way to solve the accommodation problem during the Olympic Games, experts predict that they will not become the main form of hotels during the Olympics.

China draw 2-2 with Iran at Asian Cup

July 16 - China drew with Iran 2-2 in a hard-fought match at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
China got an early lead only six minutes into the game when Shao Jiayi sent the ball home with a brilliant freekick.
Left winger Mao Jianqing doubled the lead in the 33rd minutes when the young talent blasted the ball home in the box.
Iran launched counter attacks and was rewarded at the end of the first half. Midfielder Ferydoon Zandi scored with a pinpointed freekick in the 45th minute.
From the start of the second half, Iran gradually controlled the match. Javad Nekounam equalized for Iran in the 74th minute with a header.
Both sides failed to score again thereafter.
China will face Uzbekistan while Iran is to play co-host Malaysia in the last round group matches.
China need only a tie with Uzbekistan to qualify the group.

Liu takes 110meter hurdles in England

China's Liu Xiang competes in the men's 110m hurdles at Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Sheffield, Britain, July 15, 2007. Liu won the champion by 13.23 seconds.

20 lakes disappear every yr in China

Chinanews, Hefei, July 16 - According to Zhou Shengxian, the director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, lakes in China are fast degrading. It is said that some 20 natural lakes disappear every year, which only worsens China's water security.
Zhou said this at Lake Pollution Prevention and Control Meeting held in Hefei, Anhui Province on July 12, 2007.
China's excessive development of water resources has caused the problem. Besides, China used to claim a great many farmlands from lakes. In the past 50 years, more than 1,000 lakes have gone out of existence. Take Huibei as an example, where there used to be more than 1,000 lakes, but now there are only 300 left.
"We must take immediate action to save the lakes in China by giving them a chance of respite," said Zhou.

China opens sluice twice to ease swollen river

ZHENGZHOU, July 15 - The Flood Control and Disaster Relief Headquarters of central China's Henan Province announced Sunday that it has opened a sluice twice this month to ease pressure on the swollen Huaihe River.
The sluice, located in Zhumadian City of Henan, was opened around 10:40 a.m. Sunday, discharging water from the Xiaohong River, a tributary on the upper reaches of the Huaihe River, to the Laowangpo buffer zone, an official with the headquarters said.
Heavy downpours since Friday have filled three major reservoirs along the tributary, lifting the water to a dangerously high level, the official said.
About 54,000 residents in the buffer zone were evacuated prior to July 6, when the sluice was opened for the first time this year.
The Laowangpo area covers 121.3 square kilometers and can store171 million cubic meters of water.
Chinese residents along the Huaihe River have been urged to gear up for their second tough combat against floods in a week as receding flood water on some branches of the river started rising again on Saturday after torrential rain.
When the last flood peak arrived, eight buffer zones along the Huaihe River were commandeered, including the Mengwa flood reservenear Fuyang in the eastern province of Anhui. The water discharge led to the evacuation of about 157,800 residents.
The Huaihe Flood Control Headquarters said the third flood peak will pass the Wangjiaba, a crucial hydrological station in Anhui Province, Monday afternoon, and they may have to discharge water from the station to Mengwa again if the water level climbs too high.
More than 30,000 People's Liberation Army troops have been helping with rescue efforts along the Huaihe River, which originates in Henan and runs east through Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu.
By Friday, a total of 403 Chinese had been killed as a result of flooding, 105 were missing and 3.17 million people had been relocated as the rainy season coupled with ferocious flood waters continues to batter central and southern China.

Death toll rises to 30 in Anhui, another peak to come

Chinese soldiers make preparation for flood rescue and relief operations at the Yingshang section of the Huihe River in east China's Anhui Province on Sunday, July 15, 2007. [Photo: Xinhua]
July 16 - Disaster relief authority in east China's Anhui Province announced Sunday that floods have killed 30 people and affected more than 15 million residents in 15 cities of the province.
Consistent rainfalls started to pour down Saturday in the southwestern Anhui and northern part of the Huaihe river, with precipitation in 30 townships exceeding 100 millimeters.
By 8:00 a.m. Sunday, 60,000 houses have collapsed, and 585,000 people have been forced to relocate. A total of 300,000 people are suffering from drinking water shortage. Total economic losses have reached 9.17 billion yuan (about 120 million U.S. dollars), latest statistics from the provincial disaster relief show.
The provincial civil affairs department has allocated 5.3 million yuan for the disaster relief work. By Thursday, 44 million yuan allocated by the central government has been sent to the flood-battered areas.
Sources with the Huaihe Water Resources Committee said water level at Wangjiaba, a crucial hydrological station along Huaihe, has been pushed up by fierce downpours in the upper reaches of the river to 28.21 meters by 10:00 a.m. Sunday.
When the last flood peak arrived, eight buffer zones along the Huaihe River were commandeered, including the Mengwa flood reserve near Fuyang in the eastern province of Anhui. The water discharge led to the evacuation of about 157,800 residents.
The committee said the third flood peak is likely to pass Wangjiaba late Monday, and they may have to discharge water from the station to Mengwa again if the water level reaches warning marks.
Nine flood reserve areas along the Huaihe River, with eight in Anhui, have been commandeered to combat the coming flood peak. The Luohewa flood reserve area in Huainan City of Anhui was put to use for the first time of the year at 4:00 p.m. Sunday.
On Friday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited troops and residents fighting the floods in Anhui. He promised that evacuees will get maximum compensation allowed by rules from the government.
By Friday, a total of 403 Chinese had been killed as a result of flooding, 105 were missing and 3.17 million people had been relocated as the rains coupled with ferocious flood waters continues to batter central and southern China.

Chinese people make one new friend every month, poll

Chinanews, Beijing, July 16 - A recent report shows that Chinese residents make one new friend every month on average. The new friends include people they get to know through face-to-face talks, people who left their contact information before, and those they get to know through online chat.
The report was released by the Horizon Research consulting firm.
By closely analyzing the figures, it can be found that 40% of the Chinese people did not make any new friend in the past one month, while 44.6% of the people made less than 3 new friends.
However, the report shows that many Chinese people want to get into contact with new friends, and nearly half of them hope that they can make at least 1-3 new friends every month.
It also reveals that Chinese people keep a hostile attitude towards strangers and are not willing to contact strangers. Although many people would like to have a chat with their housemaids, waiters or taxi drivers, most (60%) are reluctant to respond to a stranger who come to speak with them on streets or at railway stations.
It might be due to the same reason that only 40% of the Chinese people think they “love to make new friends with strangers.” On the other hand, most Chinese think that they feel comfortable only when they are with acquaintances.
In addition, the report shows that the ways that Chinese people make new friends are relatively limited. Most people get to know new people at work or with the help of their old friends. Few Chinese expand their social network actively. Less than 10% of Chinese make friends at bars, Internet cafes, or clubs, which are normally considered as good places to make friends.

Young millionaire gains his wealth via making online games

Chinanews, Shanghai, July 16 - Peng Haitao, 23, was the president of Chengdu Aurora Technology Development Co. Ltd. Now, via selling his company to Shanda Entertainment, he has acquired a fortune of some 100 million yuan. Peng himself has become a pop idol to many other young people of his age in China.
Peng suspended his studies in Sichuan University to start his career 5 years ago, which was a similar beginning of many successful people's stories in the IT industry. In 2003, Peng founded Aurora with 1 million yuan funded by his family. Two years later, Legend Online, the first 3D MMORPG made in China, was completed. JHPOP, a famous software publisher, bought the publishing right of the game at 20 million yuan.
In November 2005, Legend Online was selected as one of the recommended games of the Ministry of Culture, and also the first game made in China on the list. Currently, there are more than 1.5 million active players of Legend Online, while more than 6 million people have registered.
On July 5, Shanda Entertaiment bought Aurora at 100 million yuan.
"I am not good at running business. I would rather develop codes," said Peng.
Peng's development team will be kept when the two companies are reorganized after the acquisition.

DPRK confirms shutdown of Yongbyon nuclear facilities

July 16 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) confirmed on Sunday that it had shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facilities after receiving the first shipment of heavy oil from South Korea.
"We have shut down the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon after we received the first shipment of heavy oil on Friday," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, citing a spokesman of the DPRK Foreign Ministry.
This is the first DPRK official confirmation of the shutdown of its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, which came hours after a 10-member team of UN inspectors arrived in Pyongyang to verify and monitor the shutdown and sealing of the facilities.
The heavy oil provided to the DPRK is compensation for the shutdown of its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, but not any "beneficent aid." And the activities of UN inspectors in Yongbyon should be defined as "validation and monitoring," but not "inspection," the spokesman said.
The DPRK also urged other parties concerned to fulfill their commitments quickly according to the Feb. 13 agreement.
"The DPRK has done what it should do, now it's the time for other parties to abide by their obligation under Feb. 13 agreement," said the spokesman.
At the February six-party talks involving China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the DPRK and the United States, Pyongyang pledged to shut down the Yongbyon reactor within 60 days in exchange for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.
However, the denuclearization process was held up as the DPRK insisted that its 25 million U.S. dollars frozen at the Banco Delta Asia in Macao be returned before shutting down the nuclear facilities and reviving negotiations.
The DPRK announced later in June that the problem of its frozen fund had been resolved and pledged last Friday to start implement the Feb. 13 agreement as it received the first shipment of heavy oil.

Top 100 Chinese private companies released

July 16 - China Minsheng Banking Corp maintains its lead on the list of top 100 Chinese listed private enterprises this year; while Suning, the electronic retailer doing fierce battle against retail giant Gome, gained a little victory over the past year, jumping two grades to second position.
The list, issued for the past four years, has witnessed an annual tax revenue growth rate of 40 percent from the emerging group of enterprises.
"The private economy has enjoyed fast development over the past few years, it has accounted for two-thirds of China's national economy," says vice dean of China Europe International Business School, Zhang Weijiong.
Speaking at a Private Enterprise Development Forum coinciding with the list's release, the expert says private companies in China have shown their vibrancy over state-owned enterprises, with their profitability more than double that of the latter.
Zhang Weijiong encourages more private companies to seek expansion, by going public on overseas bourses.

China yuan hits new high against USD

BEIJING, July 16 - China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high against the U.S. dollar on Monday, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.
The value of the yuan, or RMB, went up 50 basis points from last Friday's 7.5731 against the U.S. dollar to open for trade on Monday at 7.5681, the highest rate since the yuan was revalued by 2.1 percent from 8.28 yuan in July 2005.
It is the 51st time that the yuan's value has hit a record this year, climbing by 2,406 basis points from 7.8087 on the last trading day of 2006.
Market observers said the yuan was brought under pressure, with the United States complaining a slow appreciation gave Chinese exporters unfair trading advantages.
China's customs authorities said the country's monthly trade surplus hit a new high of 26.91 billion U.S. dollars in June, up 85.5 percent over the same month last year.
This was mainly because domestic companies, whose export tax rebates were cut on July 1, were rushing exports, said Huang Guohua, senior analyst with the General Administration of Customs.
The government announced on June 19 it would cut or eliminate export tax rebates for 2,831 commodities from July 1 in an attempt to "suppress overheated export growth and ease frictions between China and its trade partners".
With June's consumer price index, China's inflation rate, predicted to remain above three percent, the market expectation for an interest rate hike had also pushed up the yuan's value, according to the observers.
The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said in May thatit would allow the yuan to fluctuate against the U.S. dollar by 0.5 percent a day, up from 0.3 percent.
On Monday, the central parity rate of RMB against the euro stood at 10.4296, up 54 basis points from Friday level, while yuan's value against the Japanese yen went down 232 basis points to 6.2003 yuan against 100 yen.

US meat products banned

July 16 - China has suspended the import of tainted meat products from seven US companies, including Tyson Foods Inc, the world's largest meat processor.
The products that included the main ingredients of some Chinese delicacies such as pig ears and chicken feet contained salmonella, feed additives and veterinary drugs, says the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) website (www.aqsiq.gov.cn).
The other US companies on the ban list are Sanderson Farms Inc, Intervision Foods, AJC International Inc, Cargill Meat Solutions Corp, Van Luin Foods USA Inc and "Thumph Foods", which most likely is Missouri-based Triumph Foods.
The last three firms have been given 45 days to get their products in order. But the suspension period for the other companies has not been specified.
In late June, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would not allow three types of farm-raised fish, as well as shrimp and eel, from Chinese suppliers to enter its market till the companies prove they didn't contain any harmful residue.
AQSIQ chief Li Changjiang called the move "unacceptable", saying China, too, detects many substandard food products from the US every year.
The AQSIQ yesterday said the local entry-exit inspection and quarantine department in North China's Shanxi Province had found excessive amounts of selenium in protein powder imported from US-based Jarrow Formulas Inc. The products have been sent back.
Excessive amounts of selenium could lead to gastrointestinal disorders, hair loss, neurological damage, cirrhosis of the liver and even death.

Water Splashing Festival in Beijing park

Tourists revel in a water-splashing festival at Beijing World Park on Saturday, July 14, 2007. The joyous festival, cooling the summer weather，will last until the end of next month.