Innholdsfortegnelse for April 9, 2015 i Beijing Review

SWITZERLAND Foreign ministers from all P5+1 countries, namely the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany and the EU top envoy, gather in Lausanne on March 29 to discuss Iranian nuclear issues SOUTH KOREA A staff member displays the Royal Seal of King Deokjong during a return ceremony held in Seoul on April 1, when the U.S. Seattle Art Museum gave the treasure back OUTER SPACE This still image from NASA TV shows Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka entering the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station on March 28 after blasting off from Kazakhstan, launching a year-long mission on the orbiting outpost JAPAN Visitors appreciate the spring cherry blossom at a scenic spot in Tokyo on March 31 IRAQ Security forces celebrate in front…

For 51-year-old Chen, director of a resident committee in Beijing’s Shijingshan District, no household matter is trivial. She em-phasizes that her job is to serve local residents and solve their problems. The resident committee that Chen heads serves nearly 10,000 households. The problems she handles include roof leakages and domestic disputes as well as disagreements between neighbors. However, she also provides services including issuing certificates, ordering meals for elderly who live alone, mobilizing people to clean up streets and staircases, taking care of green spaces and reminding square dancers not to disturb neighbors. Chen was elected as director and has served in the position for several terms. According to China’s law on the organizing of resident committees implemented in 1990, the director, deputy director and staff members of a resident…

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More than a quarter century after its foun-dation, which arose from an attempt to resist the building of a McDonald’s in close proximity to the Spanish Steps in Rome, the international Slow Food movement has finally caught the slow boat to China. “With its vast culinary culture, wealth of plants and animal diversity, and with the choices of Chinese consumers impacting the entire planet, Slow Food needs to be present in China,” said Sharon Aknin Sheets, Press Officer of Slow Food International. The Slow Food China initiative was launched in Beijing on January 27. The formation of the organization links China to the rest of the global Slow Food network, which consists of over 100,000 individual members in more than 150 countries. Many may be under the impression that the…

Anniversary in Tibet Some 3,000 people gather at Potala Palace Square in Lhasa, capital city of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, on March 28 to watch a national flag raising ceremony. In 2009, the regional legislature established March 28 as a day to commemorate Tibetan Serf Emancipation Day, which marked an end to the feudal serf system in 1959, freeing 1 million serfs; 90 percent of the region’s population at that time. Rural Resources On April 1, China’s central authorities rolled out plans to support rural teach-ers, to overhaul public hospitals and to improve a people’s juror system, in a latest effort to comprehensively deepen reform. The plans were adopted at the 11th meeting of the central leading group for deepening overall reform on April 1. The meeting approved a…

Swathes of multicolored containers decorate the shore as ships sail from the Shanghai Port, one of the busiest ports in the world, which has seen the world’s largest container output since 2010. Located at the rendezvous point of the Yangtze River and the East China Sea, the port serves the whole Yangtze River Delta, the country’s economic powerhouse, which includes Shanghai, south Jiangsu Province and north Zhejiang Province. “The Shanghai Port boasts a huge hin-terland economy and an advantageous geographical position,” Ding Songbing, General Manager of the Strategy Research Department of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co. Ltd., told Beijing Review, adding that the vital role of the hinterland economy has been proved by the birth and development of other major international shipping centers like London, Rotterdam and Tokyo. The establishment…

Dear Readers, Forum is a column that provides a space for varying perspectives on contemporary Chinese society. We invite you to submit personal viewpoints on past and current topics (in either English or Chinese). yanwei@bjreview.com Please provide your name and address along with your comments Ever since the amended Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests took effect to mark World Consumer Rights Day on March 15 last year, there has been a surge in professional fraud fighting. According to statistics from courts at various levels, at least 90 percent of all consum-er rights cases are lawsuits from professional fraud fighters. However, these consumer advocates have seen their own legitimacy called into question, with some arguing that making money represents their final goal. These fighters deliberately buy counterfeit…

Making Good Visitors observe a desktop 3D printer during the China (Changchun) International Equipment Manufacturing Exposition in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province,on April 1. Approximately 500 equipment-manufacturing enterprises from 10 countries and regions took part in the three-day expo which kicked off that same day PMI Rebound Chinese manufacturing bounced back into expansion territory in March after two months of bad news. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a key measure of factory activity, posted at 50.1 in March, up from 49.9 in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). A reading above 50 indicates expansion. The index dropped below 50 in January for the first time since October 2012. The March figure was slightly above market expectations and offers hope that the world’s second largest…

Visiting the tiny tropical island of Boao in south China’s Hainan Province, it would be hard to imagine a more picturesque or conducive venue for large-scale gatherings. The island boasts an abundance of coconut trees and sunny beaches cooled by the area’s customary gentle ocean breeze. The overall atmosphere is one of tranquility. Against this enviable backdrop, an array of elites drawn from a wide spectrum of society both in China and abroad gathered from March 26 to 29 to pool their wisdom and share their insights on a broad range of topics during the annual Boao Forum for Asia (BFA). Numbered among them were over 2,000 political leaders, business tycoons and globally renowned academics. Held under the theme of Asia’s New Future: Towards a Community of Common Destiny, this…

Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall Pearl Peng, General Manager of the Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall, has about 20 years’ experience in hospitality and has been a member of Marriott International for nearly 15 years. With her strong sales and marketing background, she was awarded the Special Achievement Leadership Award from Marriott International while she was Director of Sales and Marketing of the Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall. After Peng came back to the hotel as General Manager, she led the hotel to exemplary service last year. Peng first joined the Marriott Global Sales Office Beijing in 1999. When she started her career at Marriott, she was responsible for the global sale strategy for Greater China as the Director of Sales and Marketing. Pearl then moved to Courtyard by Marriott…

Japanese guitarist Hiraku Tanimoto per-formed at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Wuxi International Cherry Blossom Week on March 10. It was Tanimoto’s first visit to the city, one of the most scenic in east China’s Jiangsu Province. Tanimoto’s music has taken him to a number of stages around China, a popularity made possible by his integration of Chinese elements. “I found Chinese people love my music,” Tanimoto told Beijing Review. Friendship in bloom Tanimoto, 30, used to be session guitarist for pop singers including Shinji Tanimura and has gained some popularity in Japan. In 2010, he was listed by the Japanese magazine Swing as one of the 20 most popular guitarists in Japan. Tanimoto said he loves Chinese culture and Chinese food. He loves to go to Chinese restaurants…

A long-anticipated insurance system for bank deposits will take effect on May 1. Superficially, it can insure savers’ deposits; on a deeper level, it can caution savers to care more about avoiding risks instead of blindly pursuing high yields and awaken commercial banks to hold back from engaging in high-risk business and disordered competition. Given the special role of commercial banks in the modern financial system and the possible destructive impact on savers’ assets and the financial market caused by commercial banks’ bankruptcy liquidation, the banking supervisory system should not only stimulate competition and business innovation but also reduce ethical risks to prevent banks from excessively raising interest rates or becoming obsessed with high-risk businesses. In this way, financial risks will not pile up and erupt. Under competitive circumstances, com-mercial…

Remember the days when people used to have a phone, a computer and a camera? I do, simply because it wasn’t that long ago. However, as technology hurtles along at the speed of light, it might have escaped some people’s attention that these three devices now come together in the form of a smartphone. There’s no need to carry all three devices when visiting a tourist site or monument— your handy smartphone can take a picture, log onto the Internet to post your picture on social media and then use the calling function to tell your friends about the pictures you’ve just posted. The point I’m heading toward is that nowadays, when people visit popular tourist sites—not just around China, but also around the world—they spend too much time on…