Torrential rains leave 16 dead in China

Torrential rains leave 16 dead in China
Wen vows to promote agricultural co-op with Argentina
At least four dead, over 100 injured in SW China quake
Strides made against viral hepatitis
Shangri-La celebrates anniversary of renaming
China's railways carry nearly 25 mln during holiday
Torrential rains leave six dead in south China
Chinese astronauts to return in days
'Adopted quake pandas' to return home
SW China quake leaves at least 2 dead, 100 injured
Torrential rains leave 6 dead in South China
China to send foreign astronauts to space someday
5.7-magnitude earthquake hits southwest China
Mainland, Taiwan near finishing investment protection agreement talks
5.7-magnitude earthquake hits SW China
Chinese premier arrives in Argentina for official visit
Chinese investment in US set to 'double'
Barrier lake traps 300 on Tibet highway
Barrier lake traps 300 on Tibet highway
Mainland, Taiwan to wrap up talks on investment protection

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 12:55 PM PDT

NANNING - At least 16 people have been confirmed dead after torrential rains battered southern and northern regions of China over the past three days, local authorities said Sunday.

Floods triggered by rainstorms have killed six people, affected the lives of more than 450,000 people, destroyed some 1,000 houses and inundated almost 17,000 hectares of cropland in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions, a government spokesman said.

Direct economic losses were estimated at 128 million yuan (20.3 million U.S. dollars), the spokesman said, adding local authorities have launched relief operations.

Local meteorological authorities forecast that more heavy rainfalls will hit parts of Guangxi on Monday.

Around 8 p.m. Saturday, rainstorm-triggered floods also affected three counties in the Ulanqab city in Inner Mongolia, said authorities with the city government of Ulanqab.

As of 8:40 p.m. Sunday, eight people have been confirmed killed in the floods, which have also cut the road communication and power supply in some regions, said the authorities.

Strong downpours also battered east China's Jiangxi province from Friday,leaving over 734,000 people in disaster, the provincial flood prevention and control headquarters said.

Local governments have relocated about 26,890 people to avoid flood risks.

By 8 p.m. Sunday, ten major reservoirs in Jiangxi have seen their water level rising above the warning levels, said the headquarters.

In south China's Guangdong province, two people have been killed and another three were still missing due to a round of rainstorms, which continuously battered Guangdong from Thursday to Sunday, said the provincial flood prevention and control headquarters.

As of 8 p.m. Sunday, the rainstorms have affected the life of about 312,800 people in Guangdong.

The water levels in several major rivers in Guangdong have surpassed the warning levels.

Wen vows to promote agricultural co-op with Argentina

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 12:55 PM PDT

Updated: 2012-06-25 03:34

( Xinhua)

BUENOS AIRES - Visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed on Sunday to boost agricultural cooperation with Argentina so as to enrich the bilateral strategic partnership.

Wen made the pledge during a meeting with Argentine agricultural officials and representatives at a farm near the capital Buenos Aires.

Both China and Argentina are large agricultural countries, with each boasting different competitive advantages, said Wen.

He pointed out that the two countries' agriculture industries are highly complementary, given Argentina's rich resources, advanced technologies and China's huge market potential.

Bilateral agricultural trade was about 5.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, and most were exports from Argentina to China, according to Chinese customs figures.

China is ready to expand agricultural trade with Argentina, and increase mutually-beneficial cooperation in the investment, infrastructure and research in the agriculture sector, Wen said.

The Argentine officials and representatives said, Wen's visit will give a powerful boost to bilateral ties, especially cooperation between the agricultural sectors.

The visit will also bring more tangible benefits for both countries and further consolidate bilateral friendship, they said.

Wen arrived here on Saturday for his first official visit to the South American state.

At least four dead, over 100 injured in SW China quake

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 12:55 PM PDT

KUNMING - Four people have been confirmed dead and over 100 people injured after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake jolted southwest China on Sunday, local authorities said.

Three residents have been reported dead in the county of Ninglang in Yunnan province and another one in the neighboring Yanyuan county in Sichuan province.

As of 11:30 p.m. Sunday, 102 people have been found injured due the quake in Yunnan. And 20 among them were in serious conditions, according to the Langcang county government.

Two villagers in Yanyuan have been also been found injured in the quake.

The quake was strongly felt in Ninglang, and local authorities have sent rescuers and 1,100 tents, 3,000 quilts and 2,000 cotton-padded clothes to the the quake-stricken area.

The quake happened on one of the regions in Yunnan with high frequency of destructive earthquakes, said Zhang Jianguo, director with the quakeproof institute with the Yunnan provincial seismological bureau.

It was a tectonical earthquake with a complicated geological structure in its epicenter area, which had several faulted structures extending to various directions, he said.

Telecommunications networks and power supply were affected by the quake in some regions of the quake-hit area.

The Yunnan Provincial Seismological Bureau has dispatched a working team to the area to calculate the losses.

The 5.7-magnitude quake struck the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces at 3:59 p.m. Sunday, followed by a 3.3-magnitude aftershock two minutes later, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

The epicenter was located at the border area between Ninglang and Yanyuan, where the Yi ethnic group live.

A spokesman with the Yanyuan county government told Xinhua that the quake was not strongly felt in the county seat, but many houses in the countryside collapsed.

Light to moderate rain will hit the quake-affected Ninglang county through the coming week, and rainfalls would be concentrated from June 30 to July 1, said Pu Guiming, chief weather forecaster with the Yunnan provincial meteorological station.

Rescue teams are urged to conduct the relief work in accordance with the weather conditions.

Strides made against viral hepatitis

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 12:55 PM PDT

Updated: 2012-06-24 21:44

By Wang Hongyi ( chinadaily.com.cn)

Viral hepatitis will be under control in the next 20 years thanks to the fast development of hepatitis vaccines, experts said at an international symposium on viral hepatitis and liver disease in Shanghai over the weekend.

"So far, the number of hepatitis B carriers has dropped from 9.65 percent in 1992 to the current 7.17 percent after the country's series of effective efforts, such as introducing the hepatitis B vaccination into the national immunization program and carrying out safe blood transfusion measures," Wen Yumei, a professor at the medical school of Fudan University and an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

"That is to say, about 30 million Chinese have avoided catching the virus in the past decade," she said at the 14th International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease, which attracted over 2,500 participants from 44 countries and regions.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause acute and chronic disease. It is transmitted through contact with infected blood or other body fluids, not by casual contact, according to the WHO.

According to the Ministry of Health, viral hepatitis ranked first among the 28 officially supervised diseases last year, with 1.37 million cases.

To date, China has achieved the Asia-Pacific regional goal of reducing chronic hepatitis B infection rates to less than 1 percent among children up to age 5, according to the WHO.

At the symposium, researchers and experts in viral hepatitis from around the world provided summary updates on advances in the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, control and treatment of the five forms of viral hepatitis. They reviewed the success of public health measures taken to control and prevent viral hepatitis.

In China, research and discoveries on viral hepatitis have improved greatly in recent years, and more academic articles by Chinese scientists have been published in first-class scientific journals in the world, experts said.

Shangri-La celebrates anniversary of renaming

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 12:55 PM PDT

Shangri-La, a county in Southwest China's Yunnan province, celebrated on Saturday the 10th anniversary of its decision to change its former name.

Once called Zhongdian, the county beat other places a decade ago in a contest to claim the designation of Shangri-La.

Shangri-La was originally the name given to a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by the British author James Hilton. Hilton described Shangri-La as being a mystical, harmonious valley enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains.

A number of places in China sought to take on the name of the fictional location and Zhongdian county won a contest for the right to it. In 2001, the county officially renamed itself Shangri-La in a step meant to attract tourists.

Following the renaming, the number of visitor who travel to the county has increased sixfold.

"The county received more than 6 million Chinese and foreign tourists last year," Liu Zhiguang, head of the county's tourism bureau, told China Daily.

"In 2002, the figure was about one million.

"Ten years ago, you could hardly find a nice hotel in Shangri-La. Today you can stay in a Shangri-La Hotel, a Sheraton or a Singapore Banyan Tree Hotel."

Tourists used to leave the county after seeing its sights. But as the accommodations there have improved, tourists are staying around longer.

The booming tourism industry is also changing local people's lives.

Larong Qilin, a 68-year-old Tibetan man living in a village called Xiagei, spent about 400,000 yuan ($63,000) in Shangri-La in 2007 on a wooden house built in a Tibetan style.

He and his wife are selling crafts and homemade suyoucha, a local specialty made with flour and milk, to tourists and his son and daughter-in-law are working as cleaners at a tourist site.

Last year, millions of tourists brought the county almost 6 billion yuan in revenue, contributing about 40 percent of the county's GDP.

Shangri-La county has five national 4A-listed tourism destinations, including Pudacuo National Park, the Tiger Leaping Gorge, Songzanlin Lamaist Temple and Balazongge. The county is among China's eight most popular tourist destinations.

China's railways carry nearly 25 mln during holiday

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 09:33 AM PDT

China's railways carried nearly 25 million passengers during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, up 7.5 percent year-on-year, statistics from the Ministry of Railways showed Sunday.

Torrential rains leave six dead in south China

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 05:36 AM PDT

Torrential rains have left at least six people dead in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region over the past three days, local authorities said Sunday.

Chinese astronauts to return in days

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 06:25 AM PDT

BEIJING - Chinese astronauts will return to Earth in several days after completing the major tasks, and measures have been taken to ensure a safe return, a spokeswoman of China's manned space program said here Sunday.

"Just like everyone else, I am eagerly expecting their safe and early return," said Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China's manned space program, told a press conference.

They will stay in the Tiangong-1 lab module for another three to four days, and will then manually maneuver the Shenzhou IX spacecraft to part from the Tiangong-1 space lab module and end their space journey within one day, according to Wu.

The three Chinese astronauts, including China's first female astronaut, Liu Yang, have almost completed the major tasks of the space mission, she said. They were sent into space aboard Shenzhou IX on June 16 from a launch center in northwest China's Gobi desert.

But she noted that there could be new situations and problems and promised to give real-time report of the implementation of the tasks.

Measures have been prepared to ensure the safety of the astronauts, who will get back to Earth in a return capsule, she said, adding that the returning technology has been "very mature".

Backups of the key devices aboard the Shenzhou IX spacecraft have been prepared, and engineers have conducted strict quality control and double-checks on the reentry system, said Wu.

The ground search, rescue and medical personnel have repeatedly exercised for the return, who will use helicopters to find and transfer the three astronauts to safe places as soon as possible, she said.

At the same time, digital pictures will be sent to the ground control center in Beijing to report the rescue progress in a real-time manner, she added.

Three Chinese astronauts Sunday successfully completed a manual docking between Shenzhou IX spacecraft and the orbiting Tiangong-1 lab module Sunday noon, the first such attempt in China's history of space exploration.

'Adopted quake pandas' to return home

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 06:25 AM PDT

CHENGDU - More than 60 giant pandas that were "adopted" by different zoos after a devastating earthquake destroyed their Wolong-reserve home in Southwest China four years ago are expected to start returning home in September this year.

"The construction of a new panda breeding center will be completed in September. Then, those pandas living in other places will be able to come back home in batches," Zhang Hemin, director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, told Xinhua Sunday.

The 8.0-magnitude quake struck Sichuan province, where Wolong reserve is located, and neighboring areas on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 80,000 people dead or missing.

Wolong reserve, the world's largest giant panda breeding center that is some 30 km away from the quake epicenter, was severely damaged in the disaster, with panda pens flattened and infrastructure ruined.

The quake left one panda dead, one injured and another missing. More than 60 pandas were left homeless.

In August 2008, half of the homeless pandas were sent to different zoos in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan and other cities, and the other half were transferred to a breeding base in Ya'an, also in Sichuan.

While pursuing higher quality in the artificial breeding of these rare bears, the new center will become more prominent in its role as a training center for pandas that will be released back into the wild after being born in the center, Zhang said.

The center will also serve as a principal public educator in the area of wildlife protection, he said.

"Returning home means not only that the pandas will come back home in Sichuan but also that the pandas raised in captivity will be released into the wild, their real home," Zhang said.

Giant pandas are among the world's most endangered species. Statistics from the State Forestry Administration show that about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, while another 300 live in captivity in zoos around the world.

Zoologists believe releasing giant pandas into the wild will reduce the risk of inbreeding among the animals' wild partners.

SW China quake leaves at least 2 dead, 100 injured

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 06:25 AM PDT

Updated: 2012-06-24 20:46

( Xinhua)

KUNMING - At least two people died and 100 others were injured after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake jolted southwest China Sunday, local authorities said.

The casualties were reported in the county of Ninglang in Yunnan province and the neighboring Yanyuan county in Sichuan province.

The quake was strongly felt in Ninglang, and local authorities have sent 300 tents, 500 quilts and 500 cotton-padded clothes to the county, said Bai Yong, director of the Disaster Relief Section of the Yunnan Provincial Civil Affairs Department.

Telecommunication networks in the county's Yongning township were cut by the quake.

The Yunnan Provincial Seismological Bureau has dispatched a working team to the area to calculate the losses.

The 5.7-magnitude quake struck the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces at 3:59 pm Sunday, followed by a 3.3-magnitude aftershock two minutes later, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

The epicenter was located at the border area between Ninglang and Yanyuan, where the Yi ethnic group inhabit.

A spokesman with the Yanyuan county government told Xinhua that the quake was not strongly felt in the county seat, but many houses in the countryside collapsed.

The spokesman said local authorities are investigating the casualties and property losses.

Rescue teams are urged to conduct the relief work in accordance with the weather conditions.

Torrential rains leave 6 dead in South China

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 06:25 AM PDT

Updated: 2012-06-24 19:58

( Xinhua)

NANNING - Torrential rains have left at least six people dead in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region over the past three days, local authorities said Sunday.

Floods triggered by the rainstorms have affected the lives of more than 450,000 people, destroyed some 1,000 houses and inundated almost 17,000 hectares of cropland, a spokesman with the Guangxi Regional Department of Civil Affairs said.

Direct economic losses were estimated at 128 million yuan ($20.3 million), he said.

Local authorities have launched relief operations, he said.

Local meteorological authorities forecast more heavy rainfall to hit parts of Guangxi on Monday.

China to send foreign astronauts to space someday

Posted: 24 Jun 2012 06:25 AM PDT

Updated: 2012-06-24 19:14

( Xinhua)

BEIJING - It is believed that China will be able to train foreign astronauts with its own space technology and send them to space by Shenzhou spacecraft someday, the spokeswoman of China's manned space program said Sunday.

Wu Ping told a press conference in Beijing that she believed China's aerospace technology will become more and more mature along with the development of its manned space technology.

China has completed limited number of space missions and will continue to conduct numerous manned space technological tests, she said.

According to the plan of China's manned space program, the country is still at the stage of making breakthroughs in fundamental manned space technologies, Wu said.

"China has undertaken active and pragmatic cooperation with Pakistan in the aerospace field," Wu said while answering a question from a Pakistan journalist.

The outer space is the common wealth of mankind, and it is the relentless pursuit of mankind to explore, develop and utilize the outer space, said Wu.

She said that China would like to cooperate and make exchanges with different nations around the world on the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits to push forward the further development of manned space undertakings.

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