Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 61/No. 32 i Beijing Review

UNITED STATES Balloons are seen during the media preview of the 36th QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning on July 27 LAOS Villagers in Attapeu Province row a boat through floods triggered by an under-construction dam’s collapse on July 26 MALAYSIA Kok Soo Chon (second right), head of the MH370 investigation team, speaks at a press conference in Putrajaya on July 30. A report released on that day on the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight in March 2014 failed to determine the cause of the incident YEMEN A man enters a tent for treating cholera-infected people in a hospital in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on July 31. Over 2,300 cholera-associated deaths have been reported in the past 13 months across Yemen amid ongoing conflict ZIMBABWE President Emmerson Mnangagwa…

Around 200 km away from Beijing, Caofeidian used to be a sandy island 8 km long and less than 600 meters wide. In 2003, a highway that would run through the island in the Bohai Sea began construction. Following its completion, a blowing land reclamation project was begun, creating a 210-square-km piece of artificial island from the sea area. The site is where Shougang Jingtang Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. sits, making it the very first iron and steel company with an annual output of over 1 million tons located by a port. More importantly, Shougang Jingtang, established in October 2005 as a subsidiary of the Shougang Group, is essential in the Beijing-headquartered steelmaker’s green transformation efforts. Born in 1919, state-owned Shougang was one of the most important contributors to…

Although Gu Zhonggen’s tea stall is simple, it is hailed as the most impressive one in the Changmingsi Alley Community, Hangzhou, capital city of east China’s Zhejiang Province. It has supplied free herbal tea to pedestrians for 41 years. Every summer, the tea stall opens on the first day of Sanfu—the hottest period in summer—and closes at the end after nearly 40 days. The tradition was started by Gu’s grandmother. Seven years ago, however, Gu’s mother passed away and left him to support the tea stall on his own. Given that Gu is 80 years old, a team of volunteers organized to help him run the tea stall. Students from the China Academy of Art specially designed and modified a cart with multifunctions for him. Nowadays, only when in good…

Just when everyone thought China’s e-commerce market was being dominated by Alibaba and JD.com, a dark horse emerged from the shadows and blazed a trail into the trading spotlight amid a wave of criticism. On July 26, Pinduoduo, an online discount shopping platform, was listed on the Nasdaq at $19 per American depositary share (ADS) and closed at $26.7 per ADS, soaring more than 40 percent on its first trading day. The stellar performance has elevated Pinduoduo into the ranks of top Chinese Internet tech firms like Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi, JD.com and NetEase. Founded only three years ago, the Shanghai-based online group discounter has accumulated 343.6 million active buyers within the 12-month period ending on June 30, with 262.1 billion yuan ($38.38 billion) in gross merchandise volume (GMV). In…

Listen closely. Can you hear that? It’s the sound of millions of feet pounding the roads in China, and it’s getting louder with every step. Marathon fever is sweeping the country. Looking back to the early stages of marathons in China, Huang Weikang, former editorin-chief of Track and Field magazine, said that 10 years ago, despite the bustle on the street, most citizens were mere onlookers during the Beijing Marathon. “At that time, a marathon was simply an ornamental event in China, like a ballet or an opera performance. The public’s participation and passion were not high. But now, it seems the running craze is gradually reaching fever pitch,” Huang said. In China, large-scale international marathons in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, are attracting high…

Plate Magic Students from Laos practice at the Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School in Wuqiao County, north China’s Hebei Province, on July 30. More than 400 foreign students have learned acrobatic skills in Wuqiao, known as “the home of acrobatics” in China, since 2002. Vaccine Investigation The Chinese Government has promised to establish a long-term institutional mechanism for safeguarding drug safety following the exposure of substandard vaccines made by a company in mid-July. At a State Council Executive Meeting on July 30, an investigation team dispatched by the body reported its findings on the case of illegal production of rabies vaccines by Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd., which is located in Changchun, Jilin Province. So far, the investigation has found evidence that the company, in producing rabies vaccines for human use, engaged…

At the end of 2017, the length of China’s railway network was 127,000 km. Of this, there were 25,000 km of high-speed lines with a designed top speed of 350 km per hour, accounting for 66.3 percent of the global total. The length of high-speed railways is expected to reach 30,000 km by 2020, covering over 80 percent of cities with a population of more than 1 million. Zhao Xiaoqin, born in 1984, has worked on eight different types of trains in her 15-year career and has witnessed the great changes on the tracks. From fast to faster Zhao started working on the trains in 2003 with the encouragement of her older sister, who was also a railway worker. She first worked aboard a T97, a passenger train between Beijing…

The peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry is facing waves of crises. In June, a total of 16 Internet-based financial platforms closed their doors, and 63 were found to have serious problems; in July, another two P2P platforms with annual transaction volume of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) shut down. In the meantime, financial technology is becoming essential to enhance financial supervision. Since April, seven local financial supervision authorities have equipped themselves with risk control models similar to the one developed by Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate, and more local financial supervision authorities are preparing to cooperate with financial technology innovation firms. The recent P2P crisis was caused by both the tightened monetary supply and the malpractices of P2P platforms. The risky operations of P2P platforms are the core reason…

The Second Hebei Garden Expo opened in Qinhuangdao, north China’s Hebei Province, on July 16. Under the theme of green development, the expo, which runs through October 18, displays three types of landscapes: mountains and plateaus, forests and grasslands, as well as rivers, lakes and wetlands. In addition, themed gardens at the expo park show distinctive features from different Chinese cities and regions with characteristic architecture and plant species. More than half of the 133-hectare park area is green land, hosting 636 plant varieties. With a total investment of 1.8 billion yuan ($264 million), the expo park represents the largest-ever greening and gardening project in Qinhuangdao. Over 20 activities, including an urban planning and design competition, an ikebana exhibition, a gourmet festival and academic exchange meetings, will be held during…

Energy Consumption China’s energy consumption in the first half of this year grew at a faster pace compared to the same period last year as the use of renewable energy posted steady momentum, official data showed on July 30. Nationwide coal consumption rose 3.1 percent year on year, Li Fulong, an official with the National Energy Administration (NEA), said at a press briefing. China’s use of petroleum remained steady in the first half, up 2.5 percent year on year, while the use of natural gas saw an increase of 16.8 percent year on year, according to the NEA. “China’s energy mix has continued to improve, with the acceleration of greener growth and a low-carbon model,” said Li. According to Li, the share of clean energy has been increasing, and investment…

From New Zealand fresh milk to Canadian seafood to South American fruits, Chinese consumers’ increasingly discerning tastes present enormous opportunities for foreign businesses. A similar trend is noticeable in consumer spending on world-renowned brand items in automobiles, luxury bags and hi-tech devices. To help keep up with the change in Chinese buying patterns, the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), under the theme of New Era, Shared Future, will be held in Shanghai in less than 100 days. “The CIIE should be on par with the most renowned expositions in the world, combining country- and enterprise-specific exhibitions and business forums to form a comprehensive international influence,” Vice Premier Hu Chunhua said at the 100-day countdown in Shanghai for the opening of the CIIE on July 27. Over 2,800 companies from…

For vegetable vendor Xu, a plastic bag is the most convincing invitation to potential customers. Bundles of white and blue plastic bags dangled from hooks tied to the poles of a big tent sheltering his vegetables from rain or sun. Upon spotting a visitor who stopped and glanced at his vegetables, Xu handed her a new plastic bag. She grabbed it and began to fill it with tomatoes. Xu and his wife operate a stall at the entrance of a residential community in Beijing’s northern Haidian District. “Many residents pass by the entrance every day, and for those who make impromptu decisions to buy, the plastic bags are handy,” Xu told Beijing Review. More than convenience, customers also like Xu’s plastic bags because they are free and are the right…

Gao Yuning finds it hard to explain to his students who were born in the 1990s and beyond why Chinese people used to “buy” products with food stamps. “My young Chinese students may have heard from their parents about what life was like in that period, but for my students from the West, they have no idea at all,” Gao told Beijing Review. “The use of food stamps was based on a shortage economy.” Gao, in his late 30s, received his PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge in 2011 and currently works for Beijing-based Tsinghua University as an associate professor. Beginning in the 1950s and lasting until the 1980s, China suffered severe shortages of food and goods as the country focused on post-war reconstruction after the founding of…

In front of a shopping mall along Yanta Road in Xi’an, capital city of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, a walking lane recently appeared exclusively designed for phubbers—slow-moving smartphone users with their eyes glued to their phone screens. The lane is painted red, green and blue and is 80 cm wide and 100 meters long, with visible pictures of smartphones so that phubbers can quickly identify it. Some think this special lane will make phubbers’ travel on city streets safer while making it better for those who do not use smartphones on the streets. Others believe the lane is encouraging phubbers to go even further on the road of smartphone addiction and thus puts them at greater risk. A considerate method Fan Zijun (www.voc.com.cn): There is a loud voice against having…