News and Updates

Women Members of Foreign Delegations Experience “Beijing Flavour”

        More than 40 ambassador’s wives, women officials or the wives of the consular officials, participated in the “Experience Beijing Flavour Trip” on May 7, 2009, in the Shichahai area, a few days before the Mother’s Day.

        This event was sponsored by the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government, Beijing Foreign Cultural Exchanges Center and Beijing This Month Publications and was organized by the Shichahai Club, to help the participants get acquainted with what is special in Beijing, including traditional delicacies, some of which they made themselves. They also viewed a Peking Opera and qipao fashion show, took a pedicab ride, boated on Shichahai Lake, browsed in a hutong and visited a siheyuan (a traditional Beijing courtyard residence).

 

Badachu China Gardens and Tea Culture Festival Opens

        The Eighth Badachu China Gardens and Tea Culture Festival opened on April 28, 2009. The week-long festival featured many events to entice tourists to enjoy various Chinese teas and the gardens in Badachu Park.

        During the opening April 28, about 1,000 butterflies were released at this scenic spot silhouetted against Beijing's Western Hills. Performers portrayed beauties in the 18th century romance Dream of the Red Chamber and played the Chinese folk tune “Jasmine” to guide tourists to enjoy some tea.

        On the main square, visitors were captivated by martial-art, Korean long-drum and Chinese folk-dance performances.

        There was also an exhibition of tea leaf processing. Longjing tea-making attracted much attention during the opening.

 

Researcher: Buddhism Introduced to China Earlier than Believed

        The first emperor of unified China could go down in history not only for the Great Wall or the terracotta army guarding his tomb, but also for his attempt to crush Buddhism, which was widely prevalent at that time, according to research outlined in a China Daily report of May 11, 2009.

        “China’s first and most influential history book, The Book of History, written by Sima Qian (about 145–90 BC) some 2,000 years ago, indicated that Emperor Shihuang (259–210 BC) of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) banned Buddhism and Buddhist temples,” Han Wei, a researcher at the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, was quoted as saying.

        According to The Book of History, the ban was imposed in line with the emperor's major military strategy, to drive the Huns to the wild steppes beyond China’s north border. It was applicable across China, indicating that the religion was already popular during the Qin Dynasty.

        It is generally believed that Buddhism was brought into China by Indian monks toward the end of the first century. Han's research suggests that the religion may have been introduced to China some 300 years earlier than previously thought.

 

NBA Stars, Coaches Train Young Asian Players in Beijing

        NBA (National Basketball Association) stars and coaches participated in a competitive training camp in Beijing in May to help 47 promising young basketball players from all over the Asia-Pacific Region hone their skills, according to a May 21, 2009, CCTV report.

        The four-day camp involved players aged between 15 and 18. From among them 15 will be chosen to represent Asia at the “adidas under 18 Basketball Experience” in the United States in August. Zhang Junxiang, 15, from China is hoping to be one among them.

        Among the stars were two players from the New Jersey Nets, guard Devin Harris and centre Brook Lopez.

 

Endangered Flower Species See New Life

        Cypripediun macranthum (dahua shaolan), a beautiful flowering species that grows in mountains of Beijing, has been cultivated to produce around 10,000 seedlings after it almost became extinct, the Beijing Daily reported on May 19, 2009.

        To accommodate this endangered species, a centre has been built on Mount Yudu in Yanqing County, 74 kilometres northwest of Central Beijing.

        Since 2004, the Beijing Botanical Garden has conducted research into this rare flowering plant.

 

Italian Super Cup to Be Held in Bird’s Nest

        China’s National Stadium, the Bird's Nest, will host the Italian Super Cup on August 8, 2009, exactly a year after the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games. It will be the fourth time for the Italian Super Cup, inaugurated in 1988, to be held outside Italy. It was held in the United States twice and in Libya once.

        The match, which features newly crowned Serie A champion Inter Milan and Cup winners Lazio, will be the first sports event held in the stadium since the Paralympic Games’ closing ceremony in September 2008, the China Daily reported on May 19, 2009.

 

International Museum Day Celebrated

        “Museums and Tourism” was the theme of International Museum Day 2009. Beijing's museums joined thousands of museums on all continents in celebrating ethical and sustainable tourism, showing how heritage can bring tourists and local communities together.

        Museums in Beijing usually take a day off on Monday, but not May 18, International Museum Day.

This year’s observance explored how to foster a new relationship between museums and visitors. The aim was to deepen heritage awareness for sustainable tourism.

        The Capital Museum and 36 other museums in Beijing opened for free to celebrate the special day.

 

2010 World Tourism Day Coming to Country

        China will host World Tourism Day in 2010, in line with the decision of The 85th session of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Executive Council held in Bamako, Mali in May.

        The theme of the 2010 World Tourism Day will be tourism and biological diversity.

        The session reviewed and assessed the council’s work from 2008 to 2009.

 

Market for Beijing Courtyards Heats Up

        The siheyuan market is thriving thanks to a government decree published in March that encourages groups and individuals to buy this kind of traditional-style courtyard homes.

        Under the new decree that aims to encourage better conservation of siheyuan, owners of a siheyuan home will have a legal right to sell, lease, mortgage or transfer their property, at negotiated prices.

        Developers in Beijing say sales have increased because of the new policy. Over the past five years, the price of siheyuan has soared to 30,000 yuan, or about US$4,500 per square meter. The price is expected to continue rising given that there are only about 1,000 siheyuan courtyards for sale in Beijing.

        According to real estate agencies, most buyers are non-Beijingers seeking a solid investment. Because of the siheyuan’s high cultural value, the profit margin ranges from 100 percent–200 percent per sale.

        The renovation of siheyuan has been hotly debated in recent years. Some say they are cultural relics and the original features should be kept as much as possible. Others say that since most remaining siheyuan were used as mass housing complexes and suffer from a lack of modern conveniences, they should be renovated to suit modern living standards.

        To protect these historic buildings, a long-sought law to protect Beijing’s historical and cultural heritage was passed by the city in 2005. The Regulation for Historical and Cultural City Protection of Beijing, which took effect on May 1, 2005, stipulates the city will not only protect its more than 3,500 listed heritage sites but also its unlisted sites deemed to be of significant historic or cultural value.

 

Rebuilding of Quake-Hit Qiang Museum Begins

        Reconstruction has begun on a museum of the Qiang ethnic minority, which was damaged in the massive earthquake of May 12, 2008, in Sichuan Province, according to a CCTV report on May 22, 2009.

        More than 136 million yuan (about US$20 million) is being spent on the new museum in Maoxian County. The complex will cover four hectares, with a floor space of 10,000 square metres. Work will be finished in two years. More than one-third of the 87,000 people killed or missing in the quake were ethnic Qiangs, about 10 percent of the Qiang population. Eighty percent of the Qiangs lived in the quake-hit counties of Maoxian, Wenchuan and Beichuan.

 

New Excavation Launched at Peking Man Site

        A group of China’s top scientists launched a new excavation at the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, some 50 kilometres southwest of Central Beijing. They said they plan to explore and restore the west side of the site’s cave system, CCTV report on May 7, 2009.

        Excavations that will take place from May to July will involve about 20 square metres on the west side of the cave system. According to the Palaeoanthropology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the excavation is expected to shed new light on the geological structure of the site. Samples collected will supplement the collection of the Zhoukoudian Museum.

        Zhoukoudian is where Peking Man, Homo erectus, is believed to have lived 200,000 to 750,000 years ago. The Peking Man Site was discovered in the 1920s. The earlier excavation produced two Peking Man teeth. Extensive excavations followed, resulting in the discovery of a Peking Man skull.

 

National Zoological Museum Opens

        The National Zoological Museum of China opened to the public in Beijing on May 17, 2009, displaying more than 5,000 animal species in China.

        Located inside the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Chaoyang District, the largest zoological museum in China consists of two parts: a specimen pavilion and an animal exhibition pavilion.

The specimen pavilion contains more than 5.4 million specimens, making it the largest institute in Asia in terms of specimen collection, while the animal exhibition pavilion displays mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects and amphibians. There is also a 4D cinema.

        Zoological knowledge can be obtained via computer presentations in the Learning Zones in each hall.