News

The 2008 Olympic Tourism Forum in September

 

2008 Olympic Games Tourism Development Forum will be held in Beijing on September 16–18. Sponsored by Asia-Pacific Tourism Organization (APTO) and the Academy of Tourism Development at Beijing International Studies University, professionals attending the forum will discuss how to improve tourism development in China.

Participants will include experts, officials from national and city tourism departments, representatives from scenic-spot managements, travel agencies, hotels and embassies.

According to the organizing committee, the forum will focuses on the opportunities and challenges facing China’s tourism industry in its sustainable development. Promotional activities on tourism resources will be held by provinces and cities during the forum. A 2008 tourism guidebook will also be launched. More information on the forum can be found at: www.cngdcm.cn.

 

Beijing TV Centre near Completion

 

According to Beijing Youth Daily, the Beijing TV Centre project, one of 60 key construction projects in Beijing, is nearly finished, including its studio and life service buildings. It will be a main broadcasting centre for the 2008 Olympics.

Among its nine studio halls, the largest occupies 1,000 square metres; it will be outfitted with lighting and sound equipment and related facilities. The service building has been built and its studio-hall interiors are 90 percent decorated, making it ready for equipment installation.

Construction of the Beijing TV Centre began in 2002. Located in Beijing’s Central Business District, the Beijing TV Centre is modern media centre that will satisfy the development needs of a bustling Beijing.    

 

Stress-Relief Sought by White-Collar Workers

 

Stressed out white-collar workers are scaling skyscrapers, camping on rooftops, smashing up restaurants, pretending to be children and even visiting cemeteries in a bid to relieve the pressures of modern life, according to China Daily.

As the country’s economy continues to steam ahead, popular forms of entertainment, such as karaoke, card games and even boxing bars that once relieved pent-up emotions appear to be losing their appeal.

A recently opened restaurant in Beijing encourages customers to smash plates—as long as they are willing to pay to replace them. Though there has been some debate about the extravagance of such services, some psychologists say the activity reflects the desire of some white-collar workers to vent their angst.

Some workers even appear eager to return to their childhoods. This May, hundreds of people took part in a festival in which adults pretended to be children. It was an adults-only event, and participants could read comics and eat sweets all day.

“Roof-camper” Chen Bin, an IT marketing professional, said she has camped out on a skyscraper rooftop about 30 times. When she’s not sleeping out under the stars, she also has several other adrenalin-fuelled interests, such as downhill racing and paragliding. “Pressure may bring us distress, but it doesn’t mean we can’t find ways out,” Chen says. “Life should be imaginative.”

 

Car Number Beginning with "L" to Hit Beijing

 

Car plates numbers beginning with letter “L” are expected to hit the streets in September to meet the licensing needs of the fastest ever growth in car ownership in the capital.

According to an August 9 Beijing News report, 1,000 cars per day have been sold in the capital in 2007. A vehicle management officer said license plates issued have reached “KX,” meaning the number sequence beginning with letter “K” is nearing an end.

Plate numbers beginning with letter “L” are likely to debut a bit earlier than expected as they may be distributed simultaneously with those beginning with “K” for a time, until the others are used up, according to the report.

The beginning number of vehicle license plates has on average been up-dated once a year over the past three years in Beijing. Whereas in the past, number plates beginning with letter “A” took over a decade to be used up.

The car license plate sequence in China is composed of letters of the alphabet and Arabic numerals. The capacity of each beginning letter is for a maximum of around 330,000 vehicle plates. Some letters like “O” and “I” are not used because of their confusion with Arabic numbers.

 

Aromatic Plants Added to Beijing Greening Projects

 

Lavender, rue flowers, thyme and many other aromatic plants will soon be found growing in community green spaces, at schools and along roadways. The Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau on August 18 said the planting of aromatic plants will be a highlight of Beijing city construction.

Daxing Forestry Bureau spokesmen said experimental plant nurseries in Daxing District are being used to raise 465 hectares of about 18 kinds of aromatic plants. Plantings of about 2,000 square metres are being readied for use in urban Beijing.　　

In addition to their enjoyable aromas, aromatic plants can be used to supplement rural incomes and agricultural development, for instance, as objects of sightseeing. The plants can also be used for greening; oil can be extracted from them; they can be consumed as food; and they can be used in the cosmetics industry. Aromatic plants have played an important role in European gardening; some gardening departments and fans collect all kinds of aromatic plants for their own gardens. 

 

Int'l Expo to Highlight "People's Olympics"

 

The Second China (Beijing) International Cultural Creative Industries Expo will be held in Beijing from November 7–11, highlighting the “People’s Olympics” concept, according to the organizer.

The exposition is sponsored jointly by Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and the Beijing Municipal Government; it is being organized by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Beijing Sub-Council.

The exposition, with the theme of “Cultural Originality and People’s Olympics,” aims to promote the country’s cultural creative industries by taking advantage of the forthcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, the organizer said.

The event will feature a series of programmes like exhibitions, forums, trade talks, theatrical performances, and creative experiences, with a focus on the “People’s Olympics” concept.

According to official explanation, the “People’s Olympics” is part of the three fundamental concepts of 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the other two are “Green Olympics” and “High-Tech Olympics.”

Nurturing the Olympic Spirit is part of the “People’s Olympics” concept, which is also marked by its humanism, demonstrating the magnificent Chinese culture, promoting cultural exchanges between East and West, and promoting the harmonious development of man in nature, human society, and the human spirit and body.

 

Hottest 2007 Blog Topics 

 

163.com’s new search engine, youdao.com, released its latest “hot topics on Chinese blogs” for the first half of 2007. Based on data from millions of blog entries, Mother’s Day has become the hottest of topics, beating Super Boys, the hottest of singing shows in 2007.

Among the top ten topics found in Chinese blogs, six are related to festivals. Mother’s Day is mentioned in 300,000 entries, three times those of the Super Boys, which has surpassed other entertainment shows to be the second hot topic.

Other shows, like My Hero and Dream of the Red Mansions, a reality show used to pick the cast for the new TV version of the famed novel by the same name were not as hot as expected.

These results were followed by festivals like: April Fools Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Father’s Day.

The shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, a university in the United States, was the only non-Chinese topic in hottest world news topic category on Chinese blogs. The UEFA Champions League was the most popular ongoing sports event among Chinese bloggers.

Other topics included the 0.3 percent stamp duty rise for stock trading, the blue-green algae pollution at Lake Taihu in East China’s city of Wuxi, the sudden death of Chen Xiaoxu, the actress famous for her role as Lin Daiyu in the hit TV series Dream of the Red Mansions, and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

English Absorbed by the Chinese Language

 

Does technology pose a threat to the purity of the Chinese language?

Many Chinese use instant messenger tools such as MSN or QQ, listen to music on MP3 players and log on the Internet using ADSL—most without knowing the literal Chinese translations of the abbreviations. But they don’t have to, as many English letters have become part of the local lexicon.

A dozen abbreviations including GDP, NBA, IT, MP3, QQ, DVD and CEO are among the 5,000 most-frequently used words in the Chinese-language media last year, according to a report on the 2006 Language Situation in China released in Beijing.

The report said some parents are so keen on English letters that a couple tried to name their baby “@”, claiming the character used in e-mail addresses reflects their love for the child.

While the “@” is obviously familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word “at” to pronounce it—which with a drawn out “T” sounds something like ai ta, or “love him,” to Putonghua speakers.

The study collected more than a billion language samples from newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and Web sites last year. The annual report is jointly compiled by the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission.

“Nowadays, more and more English abbreviations are being used in Chinese, making them an important part of the contemporary language,” said Hou Min, a professor at Communication University of China.

However, excessive use of foreign letters might cause reading obstacles, especially for ordinary people, said Wang Tiekun, deputy director of the language information management department affiliated with the Ministry of Education.

 

Women: One-Third of Chinese Scientists

 

One-third of the scientists in China are women, according to an international seminar on women in science held in Beijing on August 17.

“More than 70 women are academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) or the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE),” said Deng Nan, vice-president of the China Association for Science and Technology, at the seminar.

“However, the proportion of women technicians and engineers are significantly lower in the engineering field,” said Shi Liying, deputy secretary-general of the CAE.

“The CAE has 38 women academicians, accounting for only 5.4 percent of the total,” Shi said.

The China Association for Women Scientists was officially established during the meeting, with the aim of helping women scientists give full play to their roles in socio-economic development.

The seminar, which attracted scholars from some other developing countries such as Egypt, India and Mexico, focused on five topics including the relationship between women and science, how to attract more women into the field of science and major factors behind the success of women scientists.

 

More Museums Coming 

 

Beijing has 140 registered museums, one for about every 100,000 citizens, according to official statistics.

At least 40 museums have opened to public in Beijing over the past decade. In comparison, 100 museums were established from 1949 to 1997, according to Shu Xiaofeng, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage.

The ratio of the number of museums to population is close to that of the developed countries, said Shu.

Just in the first half of 2007, seven new museums began to receive visitors.

Shu attributed the rapid development of museums to people’s increasing demand for cultural activities and the active role played by more individuals, enterprises and organizations in investment.

In the first half of 2007, non-governmental investors have established museums highlighting Chinese movies, post and stamps, telecommunications, folk customs and China’s imperial civil examination system in Beijing.

 

"Ten Bad Habits on Campus" Hotly Discussed

 

A post named “Ten Bad Habits on Campus” has recently received high clicks and replies on many colleges’ BBS forums.

Among all the hateful bad habits options, “interrupting others’ rest in the dormitory” got 30 percent of votes, occupying No. 1 on the board, followed by “spitting on the ground,” with 15 percent of the votes and “making out in public” with 13 percent.

“Occupying seats but not using them” and “not turning off mobiles [phones] when having class” also got many votes.

Others, like turning up late for class, trampling on grass and cheating on exams, were not considered extremely hateful habits. Many students said those bad habits are not unique on campus and will not bring too much influence on others.

The post triggered hot discussions about uncivilized behaviour at the country's colleges. Experts said bad habits are widespread on college campuses and self-examination will be more helpful to promote self-discipline among students than purely moral education.