HARBIN, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — Top Chinese political advisor Jia Qinglin on Saturday urged new social and economic development in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, in accordance with the country’s strategy to revitalize the old industrial base.

    Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the requirement during an inspection tour of Heilongjiang from Aug. 26 to 30. He visited local farms, enterprises and research institutes.

    He said Heilongjiang, the country’s largest production base of commodity grain, should make more efforts on grain production, by further increasing agricultural input and infrastructure construction.

    In addition, the province should promote the development of agricultural science and technology, and further arouse farmers’ initiatives for farming.

    Meanwhile, Heilongjiang, as one of China’s important industrial bases, should invigorate its equipment manufacturing industry, to make more contributions to the country’s industrialization and national defense.

    Jia, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, showed great concerns on local ethnic minorities’ lives, saying the government should continue to help them lead harmonious and happy lives.

    BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale hit Hejing County, Bayingolin Autonomous Prefecture of Mongolian Nationality in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday evening.

    The quake struck at 8:46 p.m. (Beijing time). The epicenter wasat 42.7 degrees north and 83.9 degrees east, and at a depth of 10 km, in the sparsely-inhabited Tianshan Mountains, according to theregional seismograph network.

    Nearby counties and Korla City all felt the tremor.

    No casualties were reported. Residents in Hejing County said “the intensity was not strong.”

    The local authorities had begun inspecting the damaged houses. Experts and technicians from Xinjiang and Korla earthquake bureaus were heading for the affected areas.

   ¡¡BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — The country’s top 500 giants are narrowing gap with foreign counterparts, but they still lag behind, the China Enterprise Confederation announced in its release of the 2008 Top 500 Chinese enterprises list on Saturday.

    According to the report, the total revenue of the top 500 Chinese enterprises reached 2.99 trillion U.S. dollars (1 dollar=7.3046 yuan, calculated under the exchange rate in 2007), profits 188.4 billion U.S. dollars and assets 8.17 trillion U.S. dollars.

    Revenues were equivalent to 12.67 percent of the global top 500, profits equaled 11.85 percent and assets 7.79 percent, compared with 10.7 percent, 6.5 percent and 7.8 percent respectively last year.

    Analysts said the growing proportion of revenue and profits indicated that Chinese companies had become more competitive and profitable.

    Confederation deputy president Li Jianming said the country’s growing economy had benefited these enterprises in spite of price hikes for oil and other materials.

    He also said private enterprises had grown more robust and capable of taking in advanced technology and management from world giants. They accounted for about a fifth of the country’s top 500 enterprises.

    In addition, their rising investment in research and development and their emphasis on exploring the domestic market increased competition. The growth rate of net profits of the country’s top 500 was 19 times faster than that of the world’s top500.

    However, another confederation deputy president Wang Jiming said Chinese enterprises still fell behind in innovation, investment in research and development, and the ability to operate internationally. It would take a long time to catch up.

    Only 39 enterprises reported overseas sales income of more than 30 percent of the total revenue. Research and development spending accounted for only 1.32 percent of their total revenue, compared with the international average of 3 percent to 5 percent.

    Poor supply chain management also lagged behind. Logistics coststill accounted for much of the total output, twice that of the world average. Haier and Huawei were among the few enterprises that paid adequate attention to supply chain management.

    Sinopec Corp, Asia’s top oil refiner, retained top spot for the fourth straight year on the Top 500 Chinese Enterprises list with its business revenue exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan, (175.2 billion U.S. dollars), the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) said on Saturday.

    The oil giant was followed by the State Grid and PetroChina Company.

    The top 500 companies paid taxes of 1.74 trillion yuan, accounting for 35.2 percent of the national tax revenue.

    Baosteel Group Co. and China FAW Corporation and Hongfujin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co. held the top three positions in manufacturing sector.

    The State Grid Corp. of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Mobile ranked the top three in the service sector.

    TAIPEI, Aug 30 (Xinhua) — The Chinese mainland was Taiwan’s biggest export market in the first half, accounting for almost a third of the island’s exports, according to the island’s trade bureau.

    Taiwan’s trade surplus with the mainland in the first half amounted to 24.4 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.7 percent from the first half last year and the highest level in four years, the bureau said in a report.

    The bureau predicted the annual trade surplus would hit a new high.

    The first-half cross-Strait trade volume reached 56.76 U.S. billion dollars, a 22.1 percent rise.

    The mainland’s exports to Taiwan reached 16.18 billion U.S. dollars, up 23.1 percent, while imports from Taiwan totaled 40.58 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.7 percent.

    The mainland accounted for 30.2 percent of Taiwan’s gross exports, a 0.9 percent increase, indicating “the island’s increasingly high dependence on cross-Strait trade”, the report said.

    The report also showed the mainland’s exports in July increased by 27 percent, bucking a global economic downturn.

   ¡¡XINING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — The launch of a “five-star” tourist train service from Beijing to Tibet set for Monday has been called off indefinitely, the operator announced on Saturday.

    A senior engineer of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corporation (QTRC) said he had received no notice that the tourist train would begin running in September.

    He also denied the service would be as “luxurious” as some media reported. Some reports had speculated that the “luxury train” would be reserved for overseas tourists.

    ”There is no detailed schedule yet, but I can confirm it won’t start in September,” said Li Shunping, chief engineer of the company.

    QTRC announced through the media in March that the train, with carriages on a par with a five-star hotel, would be launched on Sept. 1.

    Zhu Mingrui, QTRC general manager who made the announcement, said the train would accommodate just 96 passengers. The fare would be about 20 times the normal price and also more expensive than a flight between Beijing and Lhasa.

    No reason for the delay was given by QTRC, which is based in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province neighboring Tibet.

    Some local media speculated the delivery time of the carriages could be a factor.

    The carriage manufacturer, Bombardier Sifang Power, based in east China’s Shandong Province, told the Qingdao Morning Post on Aug. 21 that the carriages would be delivered in February as scheduled. The company had not been informed that the service would be operating in September.

    The newspaper report said the train would have 12 passenger cars, two dining cars and a sightseeing car. Each passenger car would have four 20-square-meter suites with double beds and bathing facilities.

    Wang Yongping, a spokesman of the Ministry of Railways, wrote in his personal blog saying the train should be called a sightseeing train, rather than a luxury train.

    ”The biggest difference between the train and other trains would be the special sightseeing car, where commodious windows and comfortable chairs allowed passengers a better view of the scenery,” he said in the blog.

    The train would serve travelers from home and from abroad, he wrote.

    The 1,956-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet section of the rail line, running from Xining to Lhasa, which started operation in July 2006, was Tibet’s first rail link with the outside world.

    BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — Beijing is seeking ways to make better use of the 12 new venues built for the Olympics, with plans to host major international sporting and cultural events.

    The spectacular stadiums are expected to become part of the public life of Beijing residents and visitors, as concerts, football games, and U.S. NBA basketball games.

    ”The Bird’s Nest will remain the same as when the track and field competitions were staged during the Olympics,” said Li Jianyi, general manager of its operator, a consortium led by state-owned investment group CITIC.

    The stadium would mainly host large sports events as well as entertainment events like pop concerts, he said.

    It had become home to the Beijing Guoan Football Club, and a sports broker was in talks to invite Real Madrid to play there.

    Hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, and shopping malls would also be erected in the second-phase construction, according to the developers. Such commercial facilities would account for about 35 percent of the total area on completion.

    The Water Cube, which saw 24 new world records and the U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps snatching eight gold medals, would probably turn into the largest aquatic recreation center in Beijing.

    Kang Wei, president of the National Aquatics Center Company Ltd, which runs the venue, said 6,000 makeshift seats, of the total 17,000, would be removed to make room for an artificial surf beach and other recreational and training facilities.

    Areas for recreation had been designed to be about five times that of the competition area, Kang said.

    The construction of recreational facilities was expected to begin after the Spring Festival in 2009, and finish in about a year.

    The Wukesong Indoor Stadium would become the NBA’s first facility in the country, hosting NBA China basketball games, said Zhao Yan, president of the Wukesong Sports and Culture Center.

    Both the NBA China and the U.S. entertainment giant AEG were strategic partners of the Center, Zhao said.

    The latter, which owns dozens of sports venues worldwide, would manage the stadium, including marketing of the facility and organization of large pop concerts, sports events and other entertainment events.

    The first pop concert has been scheduled for Oct. 3, followed by NBA games and demonstration matches featuring NBA stars in the same month, and almost 100 sports events or performances have been planned throughout 2009 at the cube-shaped stadium in west Beijing.

    Renovation of the National Convention Center, the fencing venue, will start at the end of October to turn the facility into a conference centre. It’s expected to be in use in the second half in 2009.

    Apartments at both the Media Village and the Olympic Village will be sold. The Media Village is expected to be ready for owners to move in at the end of the year, with 80 percent of apartments already sold.

    The Olympic Village will be ready in the first half of next year, and 70 percent were sold before the Games.

    Beijing Vice Mayor Chen Gang said public interests and environmental protection were as important as economic interests in post-Games use of Olympic venues.