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- Xi urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts
- Chinese leader stressing eliminating poverty in C, W China
- 3,500 kg of ancient coins excavated in N China
- Gas surges through world's longest pipeline
- Xi urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts
- CPC official urges coalition with non-communist parties
- Xi Jinping urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts
- Gas surges through world's longest pipeline
- Xi Jinping urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts
- Beijing opens 4 new subway lines
- Senior CPC official stresses coalition with non-communist parties
- A bright economic outlook for China in 2013
- Snow stymies travel plans of early birds
- Americans worried that 'fiscal cliff' could bite
- China's 2013 GDP growth to exceed 8%
- Beijing puts four subway lines into operation
- Year on a Plate
- Galloping ahead
- Go East, young man
- China's 2013 GDP growth to exceed 8 pct
| Xi urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST BEIJING -- Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged local authorities to escalate poverty-alleviation work during his weekend visit to impoverished villages in north China's remote Fuping County. Braving chilly weather around minus-10 degrees Celsius, Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, reached Fuping, an impoverished county set deep in the Taihang Mountains of Hebei Province, on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning, Xi visited farmers' homes in the villages of Luotuowan and Gujiatai in Longquanguan Township to get a first-hand look at people's lives there. During chats with villagers, Xi paid special attention to difficulties in their daily life, such as problems concerning income, food, education and medical care. He also visited village clinics and shops and talked with village officials. During his visit, Xi said local officials should always bear in mind poverty-stricken groups and work for them with their whole heart and soul. Local Party and government authorities should place more emphasis on the mission of helping people out of poverty, especially people in impoverished regions, he said. Xi also said the authorities should strive to find the right way to bring the people out of poverty by adjusting policies to conditions in a scientific manner. Xi said policies designed to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers and alleviate poverty must be implemented fully, calling the embezzlement of poverty-alleviation funds an "intolerable crime." Statistics show that the annual net income per capita is only around 2,400 yuan ($390) for farmers in natural resource-poor Fuping County, a former revolutionary base 300 km from Beijing. "The most arduous and heavy task facing China in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society is in the rural areas, especially the poverty-stricken regions," Xi said. He made the remarks after hearing officials' reports on local economic and social development Saturday night. A well-off China won't come if people in rural areas can't live a well-off life, he said. Xi said the central authorities are highly concerned about poverty-alleviation work, urging all local Party and government organs to fulfill their responsibilities well to bring people out of poverty quickly. Xi's Sunday visit, which was first reported via microblogging services, has been widely hailed by experts and commentators. "It demonstrates his feelings for people in poverty and in former revolutionary bases," said Ai Yiwei, professor with the Party school of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the CPC. China aims to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society by the end of 2020, with a sharp decrease in the number of poverty-stricken residents in the country, according to a report from the 18th CPC National Congress. The report said China will escalate efforts to boost economic and social development in old revolutionary bases, minority regions, border regions and impoverished regions, deepening the poverty-alleviation drive in rural areas. Achieving this goal will undoubtedly be a long and arduous task, according to experts. Based on the current poverty line of 2,300 yuan in annual net income per capita, China has 128 million impoverished people in rural areas, accounting for 13.4 percent of the population in the countryside. Over the past three decades China has achieved great progress in alleviating poverty, a fact recognized by the international community. However, China has a serious gap between different regions and between urban and rural areas in terms of development levels, which is a pressing issue. Resolving this problem will be a long and arduous task. "We're deeply inspired by General Secretary Xi's visit," said Li Ningtai, secretary of the CPC Fuping County Committee, adding that the county will quicken poverty-alleviation efforts. Meanwhile, he expressed hope that more policy initiatives, regarding government allocations, and personnel training and placement, among others, will be launched to support impoverished regions like his county. Professor Ai Yiwei said China will surely have a better future if the new leadership of the CPC carries out the country's reform and poverty-alleviation drive earnestly and in a down-to-earth manner. As for Xi, he expressed his own vision for change in impoverished regions. "With confidence, people can make yellow soil into gold," said Xi.  | ||||
| Chinese leader stressing eliminating poverty in C, W China Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST WUHAN -- Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang urged more efforts to boost the opening-up and economic progress of poverty-hit areas in central and western China while building a moderately prosperous society. China has the determination and perseverance to eradicate poverty and achieve modernization in its mountainous regions, Li said during a four-day inspection tour in Jiangxi and Hubei provinces that wrapped up Sunday. He also pledged to address problems that occur when migrant workers try to integrate into cities. Migrant workers have become a vital new force for urban construction, he said while chatting with local workers in their residence in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. During the tour, he said the central government will create a fair environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, which have made great contributions to helping economic growth and increasing employment. When inspecting Jiujiang Port, Li called for strengthened efforts to develop regions along the Yangtze River and nurture a new source of growth for China's economy. The Yangtze River, connecting the well-off eastern regions and the less-developed west, is the country's "golden channel" for passenger and goods transportation. | ||||
| 3,500 kg of ancient coins excavated in N China Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST HOHHOT -- Archaeologists have excavated about 3,500 kilograms of ancient coins in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, sources said Sunday. The coins were found in three millennia-old coin pits in the ancient town of Huoluochaideng in Ordos City after police cracked three theft cases, said Lian Jilin, a researcher with the regional Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Most of the coins were "Huoquan," coins commonly used in the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD), said Lian. Archaeologists have also excavated over 100 casting molds from the relics of a coin workshop. The molds are believed to date back to the rule of Emperor Wudi (156 BC - 87 BC) of the Western Han Dynasty and the short-lived Xin Dynasty (45 BC - 23 AD) founded by Wang Mang. Based on its size and cultural relics uncovered there, Huoluochaideng is believed to have been a major town in northern China during the Han Dynasty, said Lian. The through-train method of the coin casting and storage seen in the relics of the ancient town is rarely seen in China and significant in the study of the ancient monetary system and casting technology, he added. | ||||
| Gas surges through world's longest pipeline Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST BEIJING -- China's second west-to-east gas pipeline, the world's longest line, became fully operational when the last section of the line opened on Sunday, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced. The 8,704-kilometer pipeline, including one trunk line and 8 regional lines, will carry natural gas from central Asia to as far afield as Shanghai in east China and Guangzhou and Hong Kong in south China. The 142.2 billion-yuan ($22.57 billion) pipeline traverses 15 provincial regions and will benefit about 500 million people, according to the CNPC. The pipeline's annual natural gas transportation capacity is 30 billion cubic meters. It runs from Huoerguosi, located on the China-Kazakhstan border in northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to Hong Kong. | ||||
| Xi urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST SHIJIAZHUANG - Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping has urged local authorities to escalate poverty-alleviation efforts during a weekend tour to improvised villages in north China. Braving snowy and chilly weather, Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Sunday morning visited farmer homes at Luotuowan and Gujiatai villages in Fuping, a mountain-locked county in Hebei province. During chats with villagers, Xi paid special attention to difficulties in their daily life, such as problems concerning income, food, education and medical care. Xi told local officials to always bear in mind the impoverished people and work wholeheartedly to help them. Local Party and government authorities should place the mission of helping people out of poverty in more important position, he said. | ||||
| CPC official urges coalition with non-communist parties Posted: 30 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST BEIJING - A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official has stressed fully implementing the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress and keeping close ties with the country's non-communist parties. Yu Zhengsheng, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks at a national conference on enhancing the united front work with the country's non-communist parties on Saturday. Yu praised the solid foundation that has been laid for the coalition with non-communist parties since the 17th CPC National Congress. He called on united front work departments at all levels to further study policies and sum up experiences, in a bid to consolidate a united, harmonious and progressive situation. Yu reiterated that the united front is always of great significance in the cause of the CPC and national work . "As China faces the long-term underdevelopment of productive forces, we should strive to coordinate conflicting interests from different sides via cooperation," Yu said. Yu also appealed to non-communist parties to give full play to their supervisory role, and urged party committees at all levels to improve their work style in order to continue united front work. | ||||
| Xi Jinping urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts Posted: 29 Dec 2012 11:53 PM PST Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping has urged local authorities to escalate poverty-alleviation efforts during a weekend tour to improvised villages in north China. | ||||
| Gas surges through world's longest pipeline Posted: 30 Dec 2012 12:52 AM PST China's second west-to-east gas pipeline, the world's longest line, became fully operational when the last section of the line opened on Sunday, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced. | ||||
| Xi Jinping urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts Posted: 29 Dec 2012 11:53 PM PST Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping has urged local authorities to escalate poverty-alleviation efforts during a weekend tour to improvised villages in north China. | ||||
| Beijing opens 4 new subway lines Posted: 29 Dec 2012 11:04 PM PST Beijing put four new subway lines into operation on Sunday, increasing its daily passenger capacity by about 1.5 million. | ||||
| Senior CPC official stresses coalition with non-communist parties Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:59 PM PST A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official has stressed fully implementing the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress and keeping close ties with the country's non-communist parties. | ||||
| A bright economic outlook for China in 2013 Posted: 29 Dec 2012 11:35 PM PST Despite several quarters of slowing growth this year, most analysts and market observers expressed their confidence in China's 2013 economic outlook at the Forum on China's Economic Outlook. • China's 2013 GDP growth to exceed 8 pct | ||||
| Snow stymies travel plans of early birds Posted: 29 Dec 2012 06:39 PM PST Heavy snow swept through central and northern China yesterday, grounding aircraft, halting trains and causing icy conditions on expressways. | ||||
| Americans worried that 'fiscal cliff' could bite Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:35 PM PST Walking out of New York Downtown Hospital, Sheryl Joe, a 65-year-old African-American woman who lost her home in the city due to Hurricane Sandy, was worried about any changes to the Medicare program, a national social insurance package that every U.S. citizen is supposedly entitled to, before the "fiscal cliff" which Obama and the Congress are forced to deal with at the end of 2012. | ||||
| China's 2013 GDP growth to exceed 8% Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:48 PM PST BEIJING - A state think tank expert has forecast China's GDP growth next year will exceed 8 percent and he projected consumer inflation increase to be higher than this year. Lu Zhongyuan, deputy director of the Development Research Center under the State Council, or China's Cabinet, said there is no doubt China's economy will grow by more than 8 percent in 2013 and the government should focus more on promoting sustainable growth and containing imported inflation. China's economy has bottomed out since June of the year, buoyed by the country's economic restructuring, innovation incentive and the market's self-stabilizing forces, Lu said, adding these momentum will continue to drive up growth in the year ahead. The country may face more severe imported inflation next year because of excessive liquidity globally following the loose monetary policies implemented by some major economies, he warned at an economic forum held Saturday in Beijing. China's GDP rose 7.4 percent in the third quarter from one year earlier, slowing for seven consecutive quarters and marking the lowest growth in more than three years. Consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, grew 2 percent in November, picking up from October's 1.7-percent rise. The National Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to announce the fourth-quarter GDP growth rate and that for the whole year of 2012 on January 18. | ||||
| Beijing puts four subway lines into operation Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:48 PM PST
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| Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:48 PM PST
The Beijing culinary scene in 2012 was filled with surprises and excitement. From new restaurants to world-renowned chefs and from new ingredients to new cooking styles, you name it. There was even an internationally acclaimed food documentary. Ye Jun and Fan Zhen give us the roundup. Beijing's chefs and gourmets have stirred up storms on the plate in the past year, bringing new treats and creative thought to the Chinese dining table. Chefs have experimented with new recipes and culinary inventions, offering diners a multi-ethnic and multisensory experience. Chefs have experimented with new recipes and culinary inventions, offering diners exciting choices beyond the ordinary. Expatriate culinary experts have also paid more attention to locally sourced produce such as Yunnan province's black truffles and China's farmed Schrencki caviar. As the capital becomes more cosmopolitan, new Western cuisines have made forays into the culinary scene. Led by the French and Italians, now there are also Argentinean and Greek restaurants offering authentic fare. One of the highlights on this year's culinary calendar was Da Dong's new spring menu promotion, which began right after Spring Festival in late March. At the restaurant's Jinbaojie branch, everything reminded one of spring: from the green etamine that covers the tables to the beautiful bundles of yellow jasmine. Every dish, from the starter to the cold dishes, soup and main course, had flower petals in it, making dining an art to appreciate. The winner for June was a lobster salad at the newly relocated Decappo Italian Restaurant. Italian chef Mario Cittadini, who has experience working in a three Michelin-star restaurant in Spain, used beautiful herbs and edible flowers to decorate the dish, and paved it nicely with orange jelly. Behind the great food and restaurants are the fabulous chefs. In 2012, we witnessed the arrival of many well-known Western cuisine chefs in Beijing. Aria at China World Hotel has David Pooley, a very talented Australian chef. Pooley brings his Michelin-star restaurant working experience, the latest culinary skills and concepts in the world of Western cuisine. It is even more rare to see excellent Chinese executive chefs in Western cuisine restaurants.
French chef Michael Jakovljev recently took over the kitchen at Heritage, the former Le Pre Le Notre. With experience working in five Michelin-starred restaurants, he prepares meats at low temperature, and by vacuum cooking, to preserve the fullest flavor, while keeping the best texture. Kenny Fu at Le Quai continues to make the best beef ribs in Beijing. He has a knack for marrying Western food knowledge with Chinese cuisine, which brings presentation and taste to perfection. Another notable young Chinese chef is Hou Xinqing, Huaiyang style chef de cuisine at Summer Palace, China World Hotel. He adapts Huaiyang style classics - shelled shrimp, sour and sweet yellow croaker - into modern looking dishes. | ||||
| Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:48 PM PST
Among the best-qualified equestrian trainers in Europe, Jeremy Michaels is on a mission to improve horse club standards across China. Zhao Yanrong finds out more. On a snowy windswept Friday night, horse enthusiasts crowd into a room at an equestrian center in the northeastern suburbs of Beijing. The reason they have braved the weather is Jeremy Michaels, one of just 50 people across Europe to have gained a British Horse Society Fellowship, the highest teaching and riding qualification that BHS can offer. "When I came here, people were so hungry for knowledge, which made me enjoy being with them very much," he says. Originally from Gloucester in England, Michaels gained the British Horse Society Fellowship in 1987. Since the early 1990s, he has worked for top equestrian education institutions, including Hartpury College in Gloucestershire and the BHS, where they train the best riders and administer an examination system for trainers and riders in the UK. In China, he was teaching more basic skills, such as how to mount a horse properly, how to get off and how to hold the reins. Michaels may seem overqualified to teach beginners but he believes basic education is essential for the rapidly growing equestrian sports scene in China. His association with China began in 2003 when he worked for Hartpury College as director of its equine department. The Chinese Equestrian Association contacted the college seeking help to develop systems that would govern riding qualifications, horse welfare and riding centers. Hartpury recommended Michaels as the man to help, based on his previous experience as deputy chief executive of the British Horse Society. Since then, he has traveled to China two or three times a year to teach in Beijing and Shanghai, for around two weeks at a time. To develop an equestrian system suitable for China, Michaels visited numerous riding schools across the country. The development of a Chinese riding examination system was eventually suspended by the association, but Michaels' visits have continued and won him many fans among the riding fraternity. Compared to a decade ago, the facilities at Chinese equestrian clubs today are vastly improved. But there is still work to be done, Michaels says. Five years ago he witnessed rats in the feeding room, nails sticking out of walls and dangerous electric wires at one club. "It's not like those people hate horses or want to abuse them," he says. "It's purely that they don't know better. Basic knowledge is so important but there is a big shortage of it in China." Those negative experiences have driven him to concentrate on the basics in China. "Training people is like training horses," he says. "For a young horse, it should start with basic rides. After months and years of basic training, it can start jumping the bigger fences, and then the horse is confident and relaxed, so it will be happy to jump and not feel threatened or worried." | ||||
| Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:48 PM PST
It used to be that the buzzword was "Go West, young man". But in the 21st century, it is China which attracts the young and adventurous. Erik Nilsson and Thomas Hale report. They come for the adventure. They stay for the jobs. Foreigners coming to China for excitement and work is nothing new, but today's imported talent, like 28-year-old American Nick Wester, is younger and higher-caliber. Wester heeded the call of former US national security advisor Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski, who served under Jimmy Carter, who spoke at his university and told graduates to go East. The American was selected immediately after graduation from Brigham Young University to found Eleutian Technology's China branch. For Wester, it was equal parts adventure and career that prompted the move. "Three-hundred years ago, if you wanted to do what was best for your family, you'd sell all you own and move to the USA. "Today, the best thing you can do for your family is to sell all you own and move to China." So, he did, moving to Liao-ning province's Dalian, before settling in Beijing in 2010. But Wester already had an inkling of what he was getting into and why it was a good move. He had done an internship in 2008 with a US furniture company in a village of 200 people outside of Guangzhou "two hours from any McDonalds". "That was my welcome to China experience," Wester says. "It was the moment I realized China is the place to be. That was when I realized what the growth really was. If you go to Beijing or Shanghai, you feel like China is already there. But if you go to the places where the majority of the population lives, you see the growth that will take place." The New World refrain articulated by Horace Greeley in 1865 - "Go West, young man; Go West, and grow up with the country" - persisted to later lure Europeans and people from the economically emerging world. But the direction of human relocation is also starting to stream in reverse. "Go East, young man" might be the new mantra. American Roderick Leung's story demonstrates the U-turn. Leung has inadvertently followed the route his Chinese emigrant parents took to the United States - but in reverse. "We both probably had the same idea, this was going to be the next big thing and we wanted to be on the ground when it hit," he says. But he says it was "100 percent adventure" that originally drew him to China. The 27-year-old Microsoft project assistant says his motivations have changed in the two years he has lived in China. Now, they're about 70 percent career and 30 percent adventure. Canadian Clinton Hendry, who moved to Beijing three years ago at age 23, puts it this way: "China's like the Wild West but on the other side of the world. China has become the destination for the new 'Lost Generation' to seek adventure." He likens it to how early 20th-century Spain lured such global nomads as Ernest Hemingway, who popularized the Lost Generation concept. | ||||
| China's 2013 GDP growth to exceed 8 pct Posted: 29 Dec 2012 07:52 PM PST A state think tank expert has forecast China's GDP growth next year will exceed 8 percent and he projected consumer inflation increase to be higher than this year. |
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