Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 30 ¨C According to Beijing Evening News, China Scholarship Council plans to send 6,000 graduate students for further study abroad next year, most of them to be recommended by prestigious universities.

These students will study and do research in natural resources, environment, agriculture and high-tech fields. China Scholarship Council announced that all those candidates would come from the national supported research areas, and their age should be under 35.

These students will be sent abroad before June 2008.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)
Former diver Tian Liang (R) and Ye Yiqian propose a toast at their wedding ceremony in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi’an on Thursday, November 29, 2007. [Photo: star.sport.cn]
Former diver Tian Liang (R) and Ye Yiqian light heart-shaped candles at their wedding ceremony in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi’an on Thursday, November 29, 2007. [Photo: star.sport.cn]Nov. 30 - Olympic diving champion-turned entertainer Tian Liang, on Thursday married Ye Yiqian, a contestant of the “American Idol”-like singing show “Super Girl.”

The high-profile wedding was held at the five-star Shangri-La Hotel in Xi’an, northwestern Shaanxi province.

Because of rampant rumors, the hotel experienced an influx of paparazzi from across the country.

Tian Liang, 28, is the gold medal winner of the 10-meter platform event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The celebrated diver announced his retirement earlier this year, making a good headway towards the showbiz industry.

Twenty-three-year-old Ye Yiqian is known as a finalist of the 2005 Super Girl competition.

The couple were first spotted together in March, 2006. A report says they registered their marriage in Beijing last month.

Chinanews, Guangzhou, November 28 ¨C ¡°With the population of Chinese netizens increasing, their blogs will be a new audience-oriented public media in the country,¡± said Wang Zhongtuo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Wang has done many researches on the management of the Internet. According to him, by the end of last June, there were 162 million netizens in China, only following the figure of the US, 211 million. The number of netizens in the country had increased by 39 million compared with the same period 2006.

Since more and more Chinese netizens have blogs of their own, they have formed a new channel to publish their opinions anonymously via the web, and they can enjoy administrative power to a certain extent.

However, Wang believes that the blogs need to be better administrated, as they might also be channels of harmful information like pornography and violence.

China has no law to regulate the Internet yet, and it should hurry to work out regulations on controlling the harmful information while protecting the freedom of expression of the Chinese people.

Chinanews, Wuhan, Nov. 27 ¨C Scientists have sent their report about on-site investigation to the possible discovery of the wildmen in Shennongjia to the Rare and Exotic Animals Investigation Committee under the China Association for Scientific Expedition. Animal experts will make a comprehensive assessment to the report. The footprints taken on site will soon be sent to the committee as a scientific evidence, experts from the Hubei Shennongjia Wildmen Expedition Team told reporters from Changjiang Times on Monday.

Soon after they finished the expedition to Shennongjia, the three scientists wrote out their report immediately. At present, they has handed their report to the Rare and Exotic Animals Investigation Committee, waiting for zoologists to make a comprehensive assessment to it. The assessment will take some time to finish, said Xu Xiaoguang, a member at the Rare and Exotic Animals Investigation Committee.

What witnesses had described accorded with the footprints that scientists discovered on site. The unknown footprints found nearby and the treading traces left had a causual relation, said experts at the expedition team, who concluded that some apelike animals, which were able to stand upright, were discovered.

During the expedition, the scientists made two copies of the footprints with wet limestone discovered on site. They used GPS devices to pinpoint the location where they had found these footprints and the entire process was recorded by a vedio camara. All things that might serve as a possible evidence for the discovery had also been photographed. The footprints got on site will soon be sent to the committee.

In writing their report, scientists have always used the word ¡°man-like creatures¡± to describe the mysterious animal, while the public are more familiar with the word ¡°wildmen¡±. Since scientists do not catch any living creatures on site, nor do they be able to make a complete specimen about the animal, some scientists use the term ¡°exotic animal¡± to describe the unseen creatures.

The expedition was organized by the Rare and Exotic Animals Investigation Committee under the China Association for Scientific Expedition. In August, this year, some 46 scientists in Hubei province made proposals urging the state to resume the research about wildmen.

(Source: China Daily)Nov. 27 - August 8, 2008 is more than just a date.

For one, it marks the day of the opening ceremony for the highly anticipated Beijing Olympics.

It is also considered a lucky day for marriage. For Chinese couples looking to tie the knot, the combination of eights adds up to a potentially successful union.

“The Olympic year is meaningful to all of us,” He Lina, secretary-general of the Shanghai Wedding Celebration Association, said.

“According to our Chinese tradition, eight is an auspicious number, good for weddings.”

That specific date aside, 2008 itself is considered by Chinese a good year to get hitched.

In Shanghai alone, nearly 120,000 young couples have so for decided to marry next year, some 30 percent more than this year, He said.

Shanghai’s big hotels are also braced for an expected lift in business.

“Considered the ‘metal year’ in the Chinese lunar calendar, next year is good for weddings. A lot of couples want to hold ceremonies in our hotel,” Angel Mao, a representative for Shangri-la, Shanghai, said.

Huang Meizi, a manager of the Guangzhou-based Dongfang Hotel in southern China, said the hotel had so far received three wedding banquet bookings for August 8.

Liu Shiyan, from the Liwan district marriage registration center in Guangzhou said two other dates were also popular among couples.

“Besides August 8, other days such as November 11 and January 11 are regarded good ones for marriage.

“We have received many bookings since the online booking service opened last month,” Liu said.

But not everyone believes in number superstition, or the claim the Olympics has something to do with the expected marriage surge.

“A marriage surge stimulated by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sounds groundless,” Shi Kangning, secretary-general of the Committee of Matchmaking Service Industries under the China Association of Social Workers, told China Daily.

“The wedding surge of 2008 is a chain reaction of the birth surge in the 1980s, because next year, about 280 million youngsters in China will have reached the age of getting married.”

Shi said the wedding ceremony market would “not be too hot” from June to October as it would be hard for many couples to secure bookings in hotels with a rating of three stars and over.

The hotels will be full because of the Olympic Games, Shi said.

“Matchmaking companies are not allowed to organize collective weddings in the name of Olympic Games,” Shi said.

The manager of the Beijing Matchmaking website Zhang Keqin told China Daily the cost of wedding ceremonies will increase next year, but declined to release his 2008 cost list.

Zhang said prices will be negotiated with clients.

Chinanews, Chengdu, Nov. 23 ¨C Chen Jiagui, a common farmer in Chengdu, Sichuan Province told to the local media on Tuesday that he hoped someone could help him launch a one-person art exhibition in China.

Chen said that one of his paintings was sold in Paris at 300 thousand yuan by his friend during the last Spring Festival. Chen hoped a successful exhibition of his works could refrain his wife from interfering in his creative work.

Chen¡¯s painting career started in 2005, when his first painting was published in a local art journal. But his wife wouldn¡¯t support his work. In last May, he was busy weilding his painting brush and forgot to her to harvest the rice. Chen¡¯s wife was furious.

Chen revealed that no artists in Chengdu had similar art style to his.