WANGJIABA, Anhui, July 12 (Xinhua) — Authorities on China’s Huaihe River closed one of the major flood diversion channels on Thursday in anticipation of further flood peaks to come.

    Thirteen sluices at Wangjiaba, a key hydrological station, were closed almost two days after they were opened in a move to reserve capacity in flood zones, said an official from the Huaihe River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

    ”We have received an order that when the water level with Wangjiaba falls back to or below 29.3 meters, the danger line, we should exercise restraint in diversion operations at Wangjiaba to reserve capacity in the Mengwa zone for bigger floods and to contain the losses from inundation inside Mengwa,” said an official with the Administration for Wangjiaba Hydrological Station.

    The sluices were closed at 9:52 a.m. Thursday after more than 45 hours operation. By 11:00 a.m., the water level recorded at Wangjiaba was at 29.3meters.

    The Huaihe River originates from Mount Taibai, Henan Province, and runs eastward between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, cutting through Henan and east China’s Anhui and Jiangsu provinces before entering the Yangtze River via the Hongze Lake.

    Concentrated and continuous rainfall has pushed up the Huaihe River, in its worst flooding since 1954.

    The pressure on the embankments along both banks of the Huaihe River has been mounting, endangering the safety of key cities and railway lines on the middle and lower reaches of the river.

    The sluices at Wangjiaba, in Anhui, were opened at 12:29 p.m. Tuesday to divert waters to the Mengwa buffer zone, home to 150,000 people.

    The move should bring relief to more than 2 million flood-hit residents in Henan Province, on the upper reaches of the Huaihe River, and alleviate pressure downstream, said Qiu Ruitian, deputy director of the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

    The opening of the sluices was estimated to have damaged up to 12,000 hectares of cropland inside the 180-square-kilometer Mengwa flood storage area. The impact on the residents was expected to be limited, said local authorities.

    Created in 1953, the area contains four townships, where most of the residents live in homes built more than 31 meters above sealevel.

    The Anhui Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters was forced to put into use three minor flood diversion zones downstream of Wangjiaba on Wednesday morning and to open 14 sluices at Jiangtanghu to divert water on Wednesday afternoon.

    Anhui flood control workers have been racing to open the embankment at the unpopulated Qiujiahu so that floodwaters could be diverted there.

    The flooding on the Huaihe River has led to evacuation of almost half a million people from the projected path of floodwaters from the river. About 343,900 of the 488,800 relocated people came from Anhui Province and the rest from the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu.

    The three provincial authorities have mobilized 511,000 people to patrol the Huaihe embankments and issue emergency warnings, according to information from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

    Continuous torrential rain since late June has caused widespread flooding across China, especially in southern areas, including the Huaihe River valley, the provinces of Sichuan, Hubei,Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, and Chongqing Municipality.

    In Anhui, floods have inundated an area of about 1.23 million hectares, affected 13.65 million people and caused nearly 6 billion yuan (789 million U.S. dollars) of direct economic losses, according to the latest statistics from the Anhui Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

    Altogether 27 seven people have died and another nine are missing, statistics show.

    The provincial government has allocated 30 million yuan (3.94 million U.S. dollars) for flood control, the headquarters said.

    Nationwide, the rainy season coupled with ferocious flood waters had killed 403 Chinese by Thursday, left 105 missing and forced the emergency relocation of 3.17 million people, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters announced on Thursday.

    A total of 82 million people in 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have been lashed by torrential rains and floods.

    More than 5.5 million hectares of grain crops have been damaged while 30,000 houses are partially or wholly destroyed.

    Economic losses have risen to 31.9 billion yuan by Thursday (about 4.25 billion U.S. dollars). The damages to hydrological projects amounted to nearly five billion yuan (about 667 million U.S. dollars) or 15 percent of the total, according to the headquarters.

    China’s central government allocated another 95 million yuan (12.5 million U.S. dollars) on Thursday to fund disaster relief work in flood-hit Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan and Shanxi provinces, a spokesman of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said, in addition to 232 million yuan (31.35 million U.S. dollars) allocated on Wednesday for these areas.

    But the China Meteorological Station on Thursday forecast heavy rain in the next three days in the Huaihe River valley and the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River.

    CAIRO, July 11 (Xinhua) — Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping on Wednesday night was honored by Egypt’s Afro-Asia Writers Organization for his outstanding contribution to China and the world peace.

    Deng was one of the five people who were honored and awarded a medal. The four others included late Malian first president ModiboKeita, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, former Egyptian prosecutor general and chairman of Shura Council (the upper house of parliament)’s legislative and constitutional affairs committee Ragaa Al-Arabi and Egyptian journalist Galal Dwidar.

    The awarding of medals aimed to honor the great people for their contribution to social development and world peace, the organization’s President Magdy Morgan told Xinhua.

    ”Deng was a great man and China is a great country. Egypt would like to learn from China’s development experience,” he said.

    ”Deng devoted his life to China’s cause of revolution, opening up and reform to find a suitable way for China’s development, which ensures China to realize prosperity and development and makes China an example for developing countries,” said Wu Sike, Chinese ambassador to Egypt.

    The late Chinese leader also proposed the concept of “one country, two systems” and stressed the establishment of new international political and economic order, Wu added.

    The Chinese diplomat said the honor was not only to remember Deng and also an affirmation and recognition of the achievements of China’s social development, as well as a representation of the friendship between Asia, Africa and Latin America.

    BEIJING, July 12 — Newbridge Capital Ltd, a United States buyout firm, will sell a 25-percent stake in Xinjiang Guanghui LNG Development after the Chinese gas distributor failed to secure supplies for a liquefied natural gas project.

    Xinjiang Guanghui LNG failed to sign a supply contract with China National Petroleum Corp by November 2006 for a proposed LNG project, Wang Yuqin, the head of securities department at the company’s parent, told Bloomberg News on Tuesday.

    Parent Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group Co, will buy back the stake for US$46 million from Newbridge, she said.

    The lack of supplies will delay the Chinese company’s plan to expand an LNG plant in west China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where gas is transported to cities in the east by trucks and trains.

    Bigger rival China National Petroleum is supplying gas from Xinjiang to the east through the West-East pipeline. China National Offshore Oil Corp, China’s third-biggest oil group, imports LNG into the east coast via its Guangdong terminal.

    ”Transporting LNG by road and rail is extremely expensive, and I don’t see how it makes commercial sense when customers have access to the Guangdong LNG terminal and the west-east pipeline,” said Tony Regan, a consultant with Nexant Inc in Singapore.

    ”The smaller projects preceded the Guangdong project and lost their market after the terminal started,” said Regan, who earlier worked with Royal Dutch Shell Plc in LNG projects.

    The Asian unit of TPG Inc, which manages more than US$30 billion in funds, bought the stake in Xinjiang Guanghui LNG for US$33.8 million last year.

¡¡  (Source: Shanghai Daily)

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    BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) — China National Offshore Oil Corp.,or CNOOC, China’s leading offshore oil and gas producer, announced Thursday it will build a liquefied natural gas production facility in Zhuhai, a special economic zone in south China’s Guangdong Province. Full Story

    SAN JOSE, July 11 (Xinhua) — Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno announced Wednesday that the government has set up an embassy in China’s capital Beijing, following up on Costa Rica and China establishing diplomatic relations on June 1.

    The embassy will contain a consular office and Foreign Trade Ministry office to boost exports to China, the minister said.

    He said that Costa Rica’s decision to break its diplomatic relationship with China’s Taiwan province and establish one with Beijing represents “a milestone in Costa Rican diplomacy.”

    He reiterated that the move represents “an act of political realism,” adding that “this decision sits alongside the efforts we are making to open embassies in India and Singapore, and to incorporate Costa Rica in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.”

    He said that a diplomatic relationship with Beijing will boost cooperation and draw Chinese investment to Costa Rica, describing China as “the biggest market in the world and an economy with vigorous growth.”

    China currently buys 1.08 billion U.S. dollars worth of Costa Rican goods each year, and is the second most important export market for the nation after the United States.

    ”We have begun an important but gradual process, from which we expect greater efficiency and quality from our diplomatic efforts,” he said, adding that the specific diplomatic staff will be named shortly.

    Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias is preparing his first official visit to China which will include some bilateral agreements, Stagno added.

    BEIJING, July 12 — The Shanghai No. 1 Department Store, once dubbed the largest shopping center in the Far East, is next year expected to relaunch after the biggest face-lift in its 71-year history.

    The store, located at one end of the downtown Nanjing Road pedestrian mall, will kick off the renovations in the second half of 2008 with a total investment estimated at 158 million yuan (US$20.89 million), according to media reports.

    Dong Xiaochun, board secretary of locally-listed Shanghai Bailian Group, operator of the store, declined to comment yesterday.

    More than 20,000 square meters of shopping area will be redesigned and upgraded with higher-end brands accounting for 80 percent to 90 percent of total space.

    A twin building, adjacent to the department store, is under construction and will expand total shopping areas to more than 70,000 square meters when it is completed later this year.

    Rival pressure

    ”In addition to targeting middle-class consumers, we hope to introduce younger brands, cinemas and restaurants to increase entertainment functions,” a company official said.

    The move is part of Bailian’s initiative to boost sales in the city’s heavily competitive retail market.

    The Shanghai No. 1 Department Store, formerly known as Sun Co Ltd, was established in 1936. It now sells more than 40,000 products, including jewelry, clothing and accessories, on eight floors covering 25,000 square meters.

    However, the store is facing mounting pressure from nearby rival Shanghai New World Co Ltd.

    Analysts said retailers are upgrading their product mix to take advantage of higher prices. Cashed-up consumers are fueling the demand for high-end products.

    The city’s retail sales hit a record high in May of 32.98 billion yuan, an increase of 16.4 percent year on year.

    The 349 medium and large retailers generated sales of 4.18 billion yuan from May 1 to May 7, up 16.8 percent from a year earlier.

    Bailian, the country’s biggest retailer, led the gains, delivering sales of 1.2 billion yuan, charting an increase of 14.9 percent from the same period last year.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)

(Photo: China Daily)

    BEIJING, July 12 — Few of the thousands of tourists to Longsheng County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region would realize that their presence is actually endangering the magnificent landscape of terraced fields they enjoy. With a population of 167,000, of whom nearly 80 percent are ethnic minorities of Miao, Yao, Dong and Zhuang, Longsheng received 235,000 sightseers in 2006, according to Yang Tongming, head of the county.

    ”In May this year, the Dragon Backbone alone - the core area of the 700-year-old terraced fields - drew 50,000 visitors, including 10,000 from overseas,” he says.

    Tourism indeed has contributed much to the county’s revenue, Yang says. Longsheng’s tourism earnings had jumped from 234,100 yuan ($30,864) in 1999 to over 11 million yuan ($1.45 million) in 2006, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the county’s total revenue.

    Meanwhile, the family inns run by local farmers within the Dragon Backbone area frog-leaped from three with 45 beds in 1992 to the current 112 with more than 3,000 beds, providing handsome earnings to the locals, Yang says.

    Extending in layers carved on hillside at elevation between 300 and 1,100 meters above sea level, the Longsheng terraced fields got its fame first among photography fans in the early 1990s. “The distinct and smooth lines of the Longsheng terraced fields are particularly fascinating to scenic image capturers,” observes Lu Zhou, a professor of ancient architecture at Qinghua University.

    In comparison, the terraced fields created by the Hani people in Honghe, Yunnan Province could overshadow their counterparts in Longsheng in terms of history, farming skills, sizable stretches and aesthetic effect, Lu says.

    Yet there is one thing the Hani terraced fields cannot match: accessibility. While the Hani fields are hidden deep in the Ailao Mountains and the journey to the place is an exhausting drive of a whole day, Longsheng is within easy reach of 78 kilometers northwest of Guilin, a leading tourist attraction in Guangxi.

    However, says Ben Huangwen, deputy head of Longsheng County, this very advantage might be what has caused the damage to the famous terraced fields.

    The easy access brings flows of tourists, many of whom stay overnight to wait for better photographic opportunities. That has resulted in a water shortage, says Ben.

    ”The water consumption has multiplied as tourists are several times the local population,” he says. The core area of six villages has a total population of 7,800, while the tourists expected this year number 300,000. “Hence the contention of human consumption of water with the irrigation.”

    To satisfy this consumption of water, the locals have to compromise what is used for irrigation. “The terraced paddy fields used to be inundated with water all year round,” says Ben. “Now the farmers won’t flood the fields until the transplanting season so as to save the water.”

    That means half a year the fields are dry. And the dry land leads to the collapse of the fields.

    After an investigation of the terraced fields, Duan Xiangfeng, an engineer with the Guangxi Planning Academy of Land Resources who has made four trips to the six villages, noted down 577 sites of collapse involving more than 25 hectares.

    There are two reservoirs near the Dragon Backbone, says Duan, but they cannot provide adequate help. “They are long out of repair and suffer serious leakage, with one third of the designed capacity of water conservancy leaking away,” she says.