News » Politics » China to develop Nyingtri into ‘international tourist destination’
News » Politics » China to develop Nyingtri into ‘international tourist destination’ |
- China to develop Nyingtri into ‘international tourist destination’
- Exiled Chinese author awarded German literary Peace Prize
- China's urban gardening boom creates new e-commerce opportunities
- Taiwanese diplomat Vanessa Shih named vice foreign minister
- Not appy: Program developers feel threatened by new Apple OS
- Plateau Lafite: Boom time over for fine French wines in China
- Inner Mongolia desert control offers insights for Rio+20
- China's banks to lend RMB1 trillion in June
- Price of coal drops in Hebei amid inventory pressure
- 11 staff suffer nitrite poisoning at Shenzhen restaurant
- Poll says Beijing unlikely to announce new stimulus measures
- Investors Muddle Through Mire of Uncertainty
- David Mitchell: You wait ages for a living Asian saint to arrive, then two come along at once…
- Bric nations rocked by aftershocks of eurozone crisis
- Pak's change of guard worries China
- China releasing false data to downplay slowdown?
- China Bets On Tourism In Tibet
- China Rescues 11 Women Abducted And Forced Into Prostitution
- Hong Kong dragon boat competitors make a splash at 2000-year-old festival
- Shandong police and legal chiefs sacked over Chen Guangcheng
| China to develop Nyingtri into ‘international tourist destination’ Posted: 23 Jun 2012 09:07 PM PDT China has announced plans to invest 400 million yuan (US $63.5 million) to develop tourism in southeastern Tibet by building 22 model villages. Chinese official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday that the multi-million dollar plan has been earmarked for Nyingtri | ||
| Exiled Chinese author awarded German literary Peace Prize Posted: 24 Jun 2012 04:43 AM PDT Liao Yiwu, a Chinese dissident author living in exile in Germany, was awarded this year's Peace Prize by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, becoming the first Chinese author to receive... | ||
| China's urban gardening boom creates new e-commerce opportunities Posted: 24 Jun 2012 04:39 AM PDT Concerns over food safety in China have led the country'es urbanites to begin planting vegetables on their balconies or on rented plots of land. The trend has created a huge market for online shopping... | ||
| Taiwanese diplomat Vanessa Shih named vice foreign minister Posted: 24 Jun 2012 03:23 AM PDT Taiwan's former envoy to Singapore Vanessa Shih has been appointed as the country's vice foreign minister, foreign minister Timothy Yang confirmed Saturday. Shih, who served as the head of the now-d... | ||
| Not appy: Program developers feel threatened by new Apple OS Posted: 24 Jun 2012 02:19 AM PDT During its recently concluded Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple launched its new iOS 6 containing a new application called Passbook which is capable of storing boarding passes, membership cards, m... | ||
| Plateau Lafite: Boom time over for fine French wines in China Posted: 24 Jun 2012 01:51 AM PDT A joke doing the rounds a few years ago said that almost all owners of French vineyards were either in China or on their way to China to sell their wine. However, the period when premium red wine was ... | ||
| Inner Mongolia desert control offers insights for Rio+20 Posted: 24 Jun 2012 01:51 AM PDT The ongoing UN Conference on Sustainable Development (the Rio+20 summit) is focusing on environmental protection, and China's experiences in desert control may be able to offer some insight. After 20... | ||
| China's banks to lend RMB1 trillion in June Posted: 24 Jun 2012 01:47 AM PDT China's financial institutions extended loans worth 682 billion yuan (US$107 billion) in April and 793.2 billion yuan (US$124.6 billion) in May, and are expected to lend 1 trillion yuan (US$157 billio... | ||
| Price of coal drops in Hebei amid inventory pressure Posted: 24 Jun 2012 01:47 AM PDT The amount of steam coal held in storage at the port city Qinghuangdao in northern China's Hebei province is approaching maximum capacity and has sparked safety concerns that the pile could combust wi... | ||
| 11 staff suffer nitrite poisoning at Shenzhen restaurant Posted: 24 Jun 2012 01:47 AM PDT Eleven people have come down with food poisoning after eating at a Shenzhen restaurant on June 19, including the owner's family and employees. The hospital says the cause of the poisoning was nitrite,... | ||
| Poll says Beijing unlikely to announce new stimulus measures Posted: 24 Jun 2012 01:47 AM PDT The slowdown of China's economic growth will is predicted to hit bottom in the second quarter of this year, suggesting Beijing will not roll out more stimulus policies, reports our sister newspaper Ch... | ||
| Investors Muddle Through Mire of Uncertainty Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT In Europe, policy makers focus on ailing banks and high bond yields, while China and the United States display signs of economic slowdowns. | ||
| David Mitchell: You wait ages for a living Asian saint to arrive, then two come along at once… Posted: 23 Jun 2012 04:04 PM PDT What have we learned from the visits of the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi? Have you been invited to any meetings this week with living Asian saints? I haven't. I wouldn't normally expect to be. But when I see that the Dalai Lama has met up with everyone from Prince Charles to Russell Brand, while Aung San Suu Kyi has been fraternising with Dave Lee Travis, I start to feel bad about my boring social life. It doesn't help to read that Alex Salmond had the chance to meet the Dalai Lama but was too busy to go. Who else was he seeing? Nelson Mandela? Britney Spears? As David Steel put it, "Alex Salmond normally goes out of his way to be seen hobnobbing with anybody important on the international scene." So perhaps his motives were more sinister. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," as the old Chinese proverb says. And the old Arabic proverb. It's a concept that anyone attempting a bit of realpolitik could probably think up for themselves in under a minute. That's not to be rude about Arabic or Chinese civilisation – all the algebra and fireworks have been absolutely tremendous. But perhaps the fact that this mean-spirited epigram is of Chinese extraction is what led Alex Salmond to avoid the Dalai Lama, when he did have time to meet the Chinese consul-general. Perhaps he was using the Lama-dodge to show Li Ruiyou where his loyalties lie. The first minister seems keen to court powerful representatives of Asia's political status quo by distancing himself from their peace-loving detractors. Well, that's Alex Salmond for you – he's all for the political status quo. Pesky little sub-states seeking self-determination can go hang, according to Alex Salmond. He's all about the imperialists' cash. He'd just rather take it from Beijing than London for some reason. Maybe it's to show he's multicultural. David Cameron somehow managed to find a moment to meet the Dalai Lama last month. Then again, the tough part of politics, as he and the Lama and Salmond would probably all agree, is getting hold of a sovereign state to run. Those are the hard yards, when you have to make all sorts of unsavoury deals with tyrants and their minions. After that, it's mainly chillaxing. And if Salmond is being a hypocrite, he's really only following the lead of his prime minister, who last week condemned tax avoidance as "morally wrong" just a couple of days after saying he would "roll out the red carpet" for French tax exiles. But it wouldn't be the first time Cameron has rolled out the red carpet for the morally wrong: in February, he took eight arms dealers on a luxury trip to Egypt. Fortunately the morally wrong don't have a monopoly on the red carpet; it's been rolled out repeatedly this week for Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The fact that her visit coincides with the Dalai Lama's tour strikes me as bad scheduling – like putting Upstairs Downstairs up against Downton Abbey. That may seem a very ignorant remark – I know they're very different programmes. Or you may even think it's a bit racist. Just because these people are both Nobel peace prize-winners from vaguely screwed-up bits of Asia doesn't mean they're any more alike than Silvio Berlusconi and Björk. But I work in the media, a field in which you get to boast about your personal ignorance as if it's insight into the popular mood. So I repeat: it's an infelicitous clash. It also doesn't help that they keep doing similar things. Wandering round posh places in red robes – Oxford University or Clarence House Gardens – and hanging out with celebrities. As well as holding hands with Prince Charles so affectionately that Camilla practically told them to get a room, the Dalai Lama also did a gig with Russell Brand in Manchester, at which the spiritual leader said of the comedian: "I think your openness transfers wonderfully." Now there's a great quote for the cover of his next DVD. Meanwhile Aung San Suu Kyi met Dave Lee Travis, of whom she is apparently a massive fan: his World Service programme was a tremendous comfort when she was under house arrest (another great marketing quote in the making). You may say that her enthusiasm for the former Radio 1 DJ was somewhat circumstantial – that she might have been less devoted to his show had she been allowed Netflix or to leave the house. But the photo of the now silver-haired cornflake kissing the freedom campaigner's hand last week is even more touching than that of the Lama and the prince copping off on the Clarence House sofa. Both DLT and ASSK seem delighted and I can understand why. They're pretty good for one another's image. Katharine Hepburn supposedly said of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that "He gives her class, and she gives him sex appeal". Well, in the case of the DJ and the pioneering democrat, she gives him credibility – masses more credibility than he can ever have experienced in his career before – and he gives her humanity and makes her seem more approachable. Not just a woman of intimidating courage, drive, focus and righteousness, but also a normal person who likes a bit of easy listening when she's stressed. The media is always desperate to find the "real" person, the unremarkable sandwich-eating, daytime TV-watching, dog-walking mortal behind no matter how important a figure. "Never mind the thing you've done that's amazing – we want to hear about the things you do that we all do." Well, in that world of celebrity Q&As, a Nobel prize-winning champion of democracy with a penchant for DLT is gold dust. He wasn't the only much-maligned acronym to benefit from her visit. She also lavished praise on the BBC, meeting a beaming Chris Patten and Mark Thompson outside Broadcasting House. "I had nothing to give in return, but all the time the BBC was giving me something, every day," she said, in praise of the World Service. Well said, I thought. It takes someone who's been living somewhere without access to the media riches that we take for granted to tell us how lucky we are. Maybe that's what Li Ruiyou was talking to Alex Salmond about. guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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| Bric nations rocked by aftershocks of eurozone crisis Posted: 23 Jun 2012 04:05 PM PDT The devastating slowdown in the European economies has shown that 'decoupling' – the idea that developing nations would go on growing despite problems in the west – is a myth Sitting in an office cluttered with assorted Hindu deities, tea exporter Anurag Gupta does not look like a man too worried about the nosediving rupee. On Friday, the Indian currency plunged to a record low against the dollar, prompting worries about a further slowdown in the once dynamic economy. But Gupta sells his luxury tea to countries such as the US and the UK, and for now, he's reaping the benefits of a cheaper currency. "At the start of the week, there were 55 rupees to the dollar; today, there are 57," he says, smiling. A box containing 10 of his Sunshine Tea Sticks (a patented twist on a conventional teabag) wholesale at $2.50, so the more rupees in the dollar, the bigger his profit margins. Nevertheless, Gupta is expecting hard times ahead. "The recession has not hit us yet, but it is around the corner," he says, the orange bindi on his forehead crinkling as his brow furrows. "We see the turmoil in Greece and the crisis in Europe, and need to prepare for that to affect us," he says, adding that he is considering lowering his prices as a pre-emptive move. Currently, Gupta sells 100,000 boxes a month, almost all overseas. He hopes the high-end market he targets will be recession-proof: any Americans who can afford to pay $8 for 10 teabags are, he believes, not the demographic worst hit by the global financial crisis. After the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008, demand for his tea sticks did dwindle, he concedes, but it bounced back. And, anyway, he is not overly concerned about the foreign market when there is so much potential at home. There was an outcry earlier this month when the latest data showed the Indian economy had expanded just 5.3% in the three months to March, the slowest pace in nine years – but Gupta insists this is still a country on the up. "Just a few years ago, no Indian would imagine going to spend 50 or 60 rupees on a cup of tea or coffee," he says. "But with Costa Coffee and other chains opening up, Indians are prepared to spend that and more." Currently, less than 5% of Sunshine Tea's sales are domestic, concentrated in luxury Indian hotels and food stores. Plunging demand from the markets of Europe, many of which remain deep in recession, and collapsing global confidence in politicians' ability to stop the rot, has ruthlessly exposed the weaknesses of emerging markets – including the so-called Brics of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Rakesh Shah, co-chairman of the foreign trade committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, says exporters whose customers are primarily in the eurozone have already been hit. "I know of many small textile exporters who sold clothes to Europe which have already closed down as a direct result," he reports. He says figures show Indian exports were down 3% between May 2011 and May 2012 – "particularly problematic when you consider the target was for 15%-20% growth". But businesses that rely on imports are those which, arguably, are suffering the most, he adds, giving as an example the Indian gem and jewellery industry, which relies on importing precious stones and gold from abroad. "These raw materials cost 20% more now than they did a year ago." With the economy slowing sharply, and the rupee plunging as investors take flight and head for the safety of the US dollar, the Indian authorities are wrestling with a dilemma: if they cut interest rates to kickstart growth in the face of the eurozone crisis, they risk unleashing inflation, which is already running at 10%, making life hard for ordinary families struggling to afford essentials. "In a nation of 1.2 billion people, a government can fall on inflation," says Shah. India has domestic problems of its own – much of its public infrastructure remains in a parlous state, and businesses complain of being hamstrung by corruption and bureaucracy. But like its fellow Brics, India is also facing up to a new world in which demand from the rich west is likely to be weak for a prolonged period – and as a result, these countries are unlikely to maintain the rampant growth rates of the past decade. Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble told an investor conference last week that it would focus its attention on its core markets, including the US and UK, admitting that it had devoted too much of its resources to emerging economies. "We will continue to expand our developing market portfolio, but we will do it on a more balanced pace," said P&G's chief executive, Bob McDonald. As in 2008, when the sub-prime crisis was raging, many experts began 2012 pinning their hopes on a "decoupling" of the tired economies of the old world and the rampaging Asian tigers of China and India. But just like last time, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers helped to prompt a worldwide recession, the slowdown in the eurozone has had knock-on effects thousands of miles away. Neil Shearing of Capital Economics says: "Decoupling is a bit of a myth: you either believe in globalisation, or you believe in decoupling. The eurozone looks like it's sliding into recession, and that's bound to have an impact. It's just a natural function of greater trade and capital integration." He adds that each of the major emerging economies also has its own specific problems to deal with. China's growth has been extremely investment-dependent in recent years, and became even more so after Beijing unleashed a spending spree in 2008-09 to offset the downturn in the rest of the world. Total investment was an extraordinary 49% of Chinese GDP in 2010-11. High investment levels are not unusual in rapidly developing economies, but few analysts believe China can keep building roads, airports and high-rise apartments at such a stunning pace. Many fear there has been an unsustainable building bubble that is about to pop. "The big problem is that their recovery programme concentrated on this gigantic investment surge," says Charles Dumas of consultancy Lombard Street Research. Growth this year is expected to be closer to 8% than the 10% that has been the norm over the past 10 years. There is also a deliberate effort by the Chinese authorities to shift the balance towards domestic consumption and away from exports. "It's not just about growth, it's about the structure of growth," says Shearing. Commodity prices, including the cost of oil, have already begun to decline on world markets as a response to fears that China's apparently insatiable appetite for raw materials could start to slow – just as growth also declines in the rich world as a result of austerity and financial turmoil. That could create problems for Brazil, which is heavily dependent on trade with China – now its largest export market, having been hoovering up raw materials such as iron ore and copper. One recent estimate suggested 8% of the world's entire production of copper was going into buildings in China. Brazil also has its own domestic worries – it has experienced a rampant property boom in recent years, with house prices in Rio trebling since 2008, and mortgage borrowing soaring, and that raises the spectre of a potential crash. Shearing says: "They've had a credit boom, which has left some households looking overstretched." Kevin Dunning, global economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, warns that Brazilian growth could slow dramatically this year, to 2.2% – a rate more familiar in developed western economies. In the medium term, most analysts expect the radical shift of economic power from the west to the emerging markets to continue, and India and China to lift millions more out of poverty. But the decision by China and India last week to contribute tens of billions of dollars to the International Monetary Fund's war chest for tackling the eurozone crisis underlined how nervous they are about their own vulnerability. As Europe and the US turn inwards to tackle their own crises, it could be a tough couple of years for the Brics. For Gupta, the answer may be to target the growing middle-class at home – and expand beyond his traditional customers in the west, turning instead to India's emerging market rivals. "We've just sent some tea samples to China," he grins. guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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| Pak's change of guard worries China Posted: 23 Jun 2012 03:49 PM PDT The Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) choice of Raja Pervez Ashraf as the candidate to replace the disqualified PM Yusaf Raza Gilani is that of a stranger to China, the country Pakistan refers to as its all-weather friend. 
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| China releasing false data to downplay slowdown? Posted: 23 Jun 2012 03:44 PM PDT As the Chinese economy continues to sputter, prominent corporate executives in China and Western economists say there is evidence that local and provincial officials are falsifying economic statistics to disguise the true depth of the troubles. 
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| China Bets On Tourism In Tibet Posted: 23 Jun 2012 04:20 AM PDT BEIJING -- China will invest 400 million yuan ($63.5 million) to develop tourism in southeastern Tibet by building 22 model villages, the official Xin... Read more: Tibet Tourism, China Tibet Crackdown, China Investment, China Tourism, Tibet, China Tibet, China, Tibet-Tourist-Ban, World News This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||
| China Rescues 11 Women Abducted And Forced Into Prostitution Posted: 23 Jun 2012 03:11 AM PDT BEIJING — State media say police in southern China have rescued 11 Vietnamese women who were abducted and forced into prostitution in a border p... Read more: China Vietnamese Women Rescued, Vietnam Prostitution, Vietnamese Women Prostitution, Vietnam, Vietnamese Women Prostitution China, China Prostitution, China, World News This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||
| Hong Kong dragon boat competitors make a splash at 2000-year-old festival Posted: 23 Jun 2012 05:38 AM PDT Hundreds of people gather at Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong to watch the country's annual dragon boat festival.  | ||
| Shandong police and legal chiefs sacked over Chen Guangcheng Posted: 23 Jun 2012 09:59 AM PDT Shandong police chief Wu Pengfei was relieved of his post on June 21, two months after the incident in which the blind civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng successfully broke free of illegal house ar... |
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