Special report: Reconstruction After Earthquake

Residents gather on a tractor to evade earthquake in Bailagu Village, Pingdi Town, Renhe District of Panzhihua City, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, August 31, 2008. Twenty-two people were dead after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit Panzhihua City on Saturday. As of 9 p.m., 17 people were reported dead and about 100 others injured in Sichuan, and five people dead and 35 others injured in neighboring Yunnan Province. The quake struck the juncture of Renhe District of Panzhihua and Huili County of Liangshan Prefecture at 4:30 p.m. (Beijing time).(Xinhua/Chen Haining)

    PANZHIHUA, Sichuan, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — Local authorities in southwest China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces on Sunday renewed the death toll of the Saturday’s 6.1-magnitude quake from 22 to 24.

    Sixteen deaths were reported in Huili, a county in Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Liangshan, Sichuan Province, and three deaths in Panzhihua City, also in Sichuan, and five other deaths in Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Chuxiong in Yunnan.

    The quake struck the juncture of Renhe District in Panzhihua and Huili County in Liangshan prefecture at 4:30 p.m. (Beijing time) on Saturday. The epicenter was about 50 km southeast of downtown Panzhihua, at 26.2 degrees north latitude and 101.9 degrees east longitude and at a depth of 10 km, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

    Nearly 400 people were injured in the quake, which also destroyed plenty of residences, and other infrastructure in the quake zone.

    LHASA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — Rinzin Wanggyai, who was a ministerial-level official and had served as the Party chief of a township in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, died of illness in the regional capital Lhasa on Aug. 25. He was 74.

    Rinzin Wanggyai served as the secretary of the Lhunze County’s Nyaimai Township Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He had also been an alternate member of the 10th Central Committee of the CPC, and a member of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the CPC.

    But he had served at the post of the Party chief of the Nyaimai Township for the longest period of time.

    Rinzin Wanggyai, a native of Nyaimai, was a serf of a major serf owner in the township before the peaceful liberation of Tibetin 1951.

    Tibet carried out democratic reforms in 1959, which turned serfs, accounting for 95 percent of the total population in region at that time, into masters of their own destiny.

    After the democratic reforms, Rinzin Wanggyai became chairman of the farmers’ association in Nyaimai. He joined the CPC in 1962 and served as the Party chief of Nyaimai Township.

    He concentrated on fulfilling a range of major tasks, including leading locals to reclaim land from wilderness 4,200 meters above the sea level into farmland and developing education.

    Today, all school-age children in the township are studying in schools. In contrast, only 25 people were literate in the township more than five decades ago, all of whom were nobles or lamas.

    In 2007, the per capita annual income of farmers in the township of 2,304 people reached 3,800 yuan (about 543 U.S. dollars).

Special Report:  2008 Olympic Games

    By Abdurrahman Warsameh

    MOGADISHU, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) — Although the Somali delegation to the Beijing Summer Olympic Games concluded last week came back to the country unnoticed just like they went out but the athletes as well as the officials say that both China and the Games left them with a lasting impressions.

    ”We have been received warmly by China and its people as we arrived in the capital Beijing which has changed significantly since I have been there last time,” Aden Haji Yabarow, vice President of Somali Olympic Committee, told Xinhua in Mogadishu.

    Yabarow, who had been to China a number of times before, said the changes he saw this time round was “unbelievable”, saying the country has undergone tremendous transformation in every sphere.

    Speaking about the organization of the Games, he said that he had never seen anything like it before and predicts that the pageantry at display at the Beijing Games may not be repeated for decades to come.

    ”The elaborate representation of scenes from Chinese history, culture and traditions as well as the rich display of traditional Chinese costumes, the fireworks, the magnificent sports venues and all the rest were things unmatched by anything I have seen in the last few Olympic Games I have been to,” Yabarow said, “and I do not think we will see them in the coming decades.”

    Somali Olympic Committee, locally known by its Somali acronym GOS, managed to send two young athletes to represent Somalia at the Games despite 18 years of civil strife that Somalia endured.

    But although the athletes did not win medals they were proud that their country was present at the Games and the national flag was raised at the Games.

    Abdinasir Saeed, one of the two athletes, said he was happy Somalia was not left out, adding that it meant a lot to him to have the national Somali flag among those of more than 200 countries and regions from around the world.

    ”It is a great feeling to see your country’s flag flying among the others and we have achieved a lot considering what our country has been through for two decades”

    Saeed said that he was very impressed by the Chinese people who he describes as polite, civilized, and friendly.

    ”We were really welcomed by the Chinese people everywhere we went during our stay in China. We were received by the smiling faces of the Chinese people who are really courteous,” Saeed noted,” they are helpful welcoming and civilized”.

    Sead, who has never been outside Africa, said he was also stunned by the sheer beauty of the capital which he said, was magical and sophisticated.

    Samia Yusuf, a young woman in her teens, was the only female athlete at the Games from the war-torn Horn of African country of Somalia.

    She says she enjoyed a lot during her stay in Beijing Games saying she very much liked the Opening and the Closing ceremonies in particular.

    ”The music, the different performances, the fireworks and the Chinese local costumes were all very fabulous,” Samia told Xinhua, “I have never seen anything like it”.

    BEIJING, Aug. 31 — The yuan had its first monthly loss against the United States dollar since May 2006 on speculation weaker global demand will prompt the government to limit currency gains to protect exporters. Government bonds rose.

    Slower growth worldwide will weigh on China’s exports in the second half of 2008, Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said on Thursday. The yuan’s 6.6-percent gain in the first half, which almost matched the advance for the whole of 2007, crimped profits at exporters and cooled sales abroad.

    ”It’s obvious that the government is adjusting the pace of yuan appreciation against the dollar to make sure it won’t do more harm to exports,” Liu Dongliang, a foreign-exchange analyst in Shenzhen at China Merchants Bank Co, the country’s sixth-largest lender, told Bloomberg News. “Most foreign trade transactions are settled in dollars.”

    The yuan fell 0.05 percent this month to 6.8350 per US dollar as of 5:30pm in Shanghai, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. It weakened 0.11 percent yesterday, halting three days of gains.

    China’s exports may increase in the second half at the same pace as in the first six months of the year, Gao said in Beijing on Thursday. Overseas shipments rose 21.8 percent in the first half of 2008, slower than the 27.6 percent growth a year earlier.

    The yuan is allowed to trade by up to 0.5 percent against the greenback either side of a daily reference rate, which was set at 6.8345 per US dollar yesterday.

    China will start annual checks on how well domestic and foreign banks implement rules on foreign-currency controls, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the country’s top currency regulator, said in a statement on its Website yesterday.

    The government approved new foreign-currency controls on August 6 to tighten monitoring of cross-border capital payments and deter “illegal” inflows that seek to profit from the yuan’s one-way appreciation.     

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)

    by Xinhua writer Huang Xin

    BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — More than 400,000 Beijingers have joined an online discussion about whether to keep a pre-Games car ban.

    Nearly half of them supported a permanent car restriction — an alternating odd-even license plate system from July 20. While the others, mostly car owners, opposed.

    GREEN LEGACY

    Clear air, clean water and safe food, among all other good things, left local residents with not only an “exceptional” Olympics but a keen concern about the Games’ “green legacy” which featured blue skies.

    ”I support a long-term car restriction. We have made some mistakes in the past. Now we should correct them and return blue skies to our children,” wrote a netizen named He Luzhu in the forum on www.ynet.com, the portal site of Beijing Youth Daily.

    Air pollution and jammed traffic emerged key problems in 2001 for Beijing’s bid to play host the 2008 Summer Olympics, said Sun Daguang, vice secretary of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee.

    The host city’s seven-year efforts to minimize pollution were highlighted by the relocation of a gigantic steel company, and the car ban that rested nearly 2 million, or one third of the city’s vehicles, as taxis, buses and other public-service vehicles were exempt.

    ”The sky was high and blue during the Olympics. It’s so much better than those foggy days,” said a repair worker surnamed He, who took 4 to 5 hours every day riding a bicycle to visit his clients.

    PAIN EASER OR PERMANENT CURE

    People who opposed a long-term car ban argued it was a pain easer rather than a permanent cure.

    ”Only after the government makes great progress on improving public transportation should we discuss whether to keep the car ban. I love blue skies very much. But I had to drive a car because I could not stand packing in a bus for six hours a day,” said an anonymous netizen.

    Official statistics showed the city’s roads were extending at an annual rate of 3 percent while the number of vehicles was increasing at about 15 percent per year.

    ”When cars run at low speeds in traffic jams, they emit way more pollutants and usually consume more oil,” said Hao Jiming, a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

    Many people who had expressed annoyance over giving up their cars for blue skies are intensely scared of returning to days of choking smog and rush-hour congestion when the restrictions end after the Paralympics.

    The Beijing traffic authorities have admitted receiving many submissions from car owners, saying they were comfortable with the odd-even number system and hoping it would last.

    The city would continue to improve its public transport service by expanding transport networks while keeping fares low after the Olympics, said Zhou Zhengyu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications.

    ”We aim to create a more convenient and comfortable environment for people traveling in the city,” he said.

    The car ban might be a cure for congestions but not necessarily the best one, said Yang Kaizhong, an economist from Peking University.

    He argued there were a variety of methods such as charging for causing congestion and raising parking fees which proved effective in some foreign countries.

    WHAT’S AHEAD

    For local government, challenges remained mainly in two aspects.

    One was how to effectively restrict vehicles owned by governments and state companies, and develop shuttle bus schemes as alternatives. Some people had suggested to mark those “official” vehicles with distinctive signs to differentiate them from private cars.

    The other was to maintain the prolonged subway service hours and increased trains and buses, and meanwhile continue building more roads.

    For citizens, the biggest challenge could be the transformation of ideas. Driving a car would probably save one some time but it would cause many other problems that would do harm to the mass. People would eventually understand their individual interests were not in conflict with public ones.

    Last but not least, the car owners would have to overcome the impulse to drive, which, some say, would be a test for them who were usually labeled China’s “middle class”.

    ABOARD XUELONG, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — China’s third Arctic expedition team started research operations in 87 degree north latitude, the northernmost part of the Arctica that the research team has ever arrived.

    The scientific expedition team’s helicopter landed on a large piece of a floating ice after an 87-minute flight.

    The scientists took pictures and videos from the helicopter for further research.

    Zhang Haisheng, chief scientist of China’s third Arctic expedition team, said it was the first time that China has carried out research at such a high latitude, which showed China’s improving ability in Arctic research.

    The Arctic sea ice melting as a result of global warming helps the team successfully get deeper into this area and carry out a comprehensive study on the polar environment, he added.

    Zhang also said the team has conducted a series of research activities in the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean on oceanography, sea ice, and atmospheric subjects.

    During the expedition from Shanghai on July 11, the team collected lots of data and samples, and achieved preliminary results, such as the discovery of salinity reduction in some Arctic sea areas, circulation anomalies and atmospheric circulation fluctuation, he said.

    Further research will be carried out based on those data and samples by which the scientists hope to find answers to the influence of the global climate change and the response of the north pole to such changes, Zhang added.