(Source: China Daily)Nov. 30 - Chang’e I will experience a lunar eclipse around February 21. This may lead to a power shortage because of the lack of sunlight on its solar panels that generate electricity, experts have said.

The lunar eclipse will be the first of two that are expected, with the second likely to occur in August, Ye Peijian, lead designer of Chang’e I, said.

“The orbiter will be operating without a solar power supply for five-and-a-half hours,” he said Thursday in an online interview.

The temperature on the lunar orbiter will subsequently drop to nearly minus 130 C.

“The eclipses will be a real challenge for the proper function of various pieces of equipment on Chang’e I,” he said.

Rao Wei, a designer at the Academy for Space Technology Research, said repeated testing and preparation beforehand should be able to solve the “blackout” problem.

The storage battery will be put to use during the blackout to power the normal operation of the lunar probe, he said.

Non-essential equipment on the orbiter is also designed to pause, allowing the limited power of the battery to work key parts during the blackout, Rao told the Xinhua News Agency.

Enhancing the performance of the storage battery and cold-resistant devices on the satellite will keep warming the probe, he said. In normal conditions the solar battery is recharged every 127 minutes.

Eclipses occur when the Earth is positioned on a straight line with the Sun and the moon. In a lunar eclipse, the Earth’s shadow falls on the moon, darkening it, and can be seen from wherever on Earth the moon is above the horizon.

Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 29 ¨C China has 162 million netizens. Of them, 44.3 million surf on the Internet through their mobile phones, accounting for 27.3% of the total number of Internet users. Nowadays, more and more people prefer to browse websites with their mobile phones, said Xi Guohua, deputy director of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), on Tuesday.

He made the statement while attending an international forum on mobile Internet held in Beijing.

In China, mobile digital services now contribute to nearly 30% of all revenues made in telecommunication services. There are about 10,000 companies in China that provide mobile value-added services, Xi said.

Wireless search service has developed very quickly in China. Taking the WAP users as an example, by March 2007 China had 39 million people defined as active WAP users, which was approximately the total number of traditional Internet users five years ago, Xi noted.

MII predicts that the total revenue generated by telecommunication services might reach 780 billion yuan this year.

Chinanews, Chengdu, November 28 ¨C Recently, some bamboos in Mianyang, Sichuan Province have entered florescence, which means that they will wither very soon. The event has triggered off widespread concern over giant pandas, as they mainly live on bamboos.

However, experts confirmed that giant pandas won¡¯t starve, as it is normal for a small proportion of bamboos growing high on the mountains to flower.

At present, about 25 hectares of bamboos planted above 2,700 meters are in blossom, which means that the giant pandas in such area will have to migrate to other places, but they definitely will survive.

Currently, about 21% of the world¡¯s giant pandas live in Mianyang.

Generally, bamboos flower when they are around 60 years old. Though global warming may have shortened this cycle, the giant pandas won¡¯t be affected so far. Local wildlife protection organization will take immediate measures if giant pandas are in danger.

Chinanews, Urumqi, November 29 ¨C There are two large deserts in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: the Taklimakan Desert and the Gurbantunggut Desert, on the south and north sides of the Tianshan Mountain respectively. With global warming and the plantation project going on in Xinjiang, the climate in both deserts have become more humid.

According to local meteorological administration, the central part of the Taklimakan Desert had 33 rainy days this year, a new high. Relative humidity in the desert has been 4% higher than the figure in 1998, and the windy days have been 13 days fewer.

Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 27 ¨C Bamboo is the major food for giant pandas. However, recently, it is reported that bamboos growing in 35 counties in Sichuan, the main habitat for Chinese giant pandas, are in a blooming season. The area of the blooming bamboos has amounted to 60,900 hectares, accounting for 3.5% of the total areas of bamboos growing in Sichuan.

During the 1970s and 1980s, similar occasions already occurred in Sichuan. At that time, large areas of bamboos growing in Minshan Mountain and Qionglai Mountain Range also bloomed. As a result, about 200 giant pandas died of hunger due to bamboo bloom.

At present, the incident has aroused great concern of the local government. By taking effective measures, local government has vowed that the tragedy would not happen again this time.

Experts say that bamboo blooming is a natural phenomenon and human beings can do little about it. Right now, all saving measures taken by people are only expedient measures. In search for new food resource, those giant pandas that are able to travel for long distances and sustain the hunger will finally survive. This might serve as a good thing to the existence of the animal species. The key to the solution is making giant pandas move freely between different habitats.

In Sichuan, about 708 giant pandas have lived in Minshan Mountain Range, which has been regarded as the largest habitat for giant pandas in the province. Due to human activities, many places in the mountain range have been isolated from each other. In future, scientists will build a gateway near Dudiling. The gateway will link the two closest giant pandas habitats together so that the rare animals could move freely in a larger area, said Yang Xuhuang, deputy head of the Sichuan Provincial Wildlife Resources Protection Base.

Chinanews, Shanghai, Nov. 27 ¨C According to Xinmin Evening News, experts said that Hepatitis Type B would become less serious in China. They said that the present vaccine against Hepatitis Type B was effective, for the number of the old sufferers of this disease has become fewer and fewer.

Lu Zhouhong, an expert from Shanghai Public Health Research Center, said that effective vaccine is crucial to containing the disease. According to the center’s statistics, from 2002 -2006, there were fewer people infected by the disease below 15. He estimated that China would have few Hepatitis Type B patients in 20 years.