China Chronicles June 23, 2012
- HK maid in court
A FILIPINO domestic helper won permission yesterday to take her fight for permanent residency in Hong Kong to its top court, hoping for a landmark ruling that would let thousands of other foreign maids settle in the city. The judges said the Court of Final Appeal would have to decide whether immigration law is inconsistent with Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law. The case has split the city. Some argue barring maids from settling permanently amounts to ethnic discrimination. Others fear letting them stay would result in an influx of their relatives, straining city resources.
- Deepest dive set
CHINA'S manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong aims to dive to a depth of 7,000 meters in the Mariana Trench on Monday after already surpassing the record for the nation's deepest descent. The Jiaolong reached depths of 6,671; 6,965 and 6,963 meters in its three dives from June 15 to Friday, well surpassing the previous record of 5,188 meters last July. Problems remain with its adjustable ballast system, however, and must be corrected before the fourth dive, officials said. The Xiangyanghong 09, the vessel's mother ship, arrived at the designated dive zone on June 11.
- US$71m prize claimed in lottery
THE biggest-ever Chinese lottery jackpot was claimed in Beijing yesterday, reported media in the capital.
Winnings total 456,012,832 yuan (US$71,639,616), after a tax deduction of 114,003,208 yuan.
The winner, said to be a middle-aged man, bought 110 tickets choosing the same number combination in the "Dual-Colored Balls" lottery from a kiosk in Beijing's Sanlitun area. The previous record in China's lottery was held by a Zhejiang Province resident who scooped 565 million yuan, before tax.
- Foreigner held in armed heists
POLICE have arrested a foreigner accused of robbing taxi drivers at knifepoint in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, local officials said yesterday.
Six robberies against taxi drivers were reported in Foshan from June 12-17. The suspects were said to be two "dark-skinned foreigners," police said, citing victims' accounts.
The pair, tall and masculine compared to local Chinese, attacked taxi drivers at night, using knives to rob them of cash and mobile phones, police said, adding that the reported loss was around 11,000 yuan (US$1,732).
Police did not reveal the nationality of the apprehended suspect, but local media said he was a 33-year-old Nigerian. A knife and meat cleaver were confiscated from him during the arrest.
Foshan is south China's Guangdong Province, the country's manufacturing belt, which hosts a larger proportion of foreigners than most Chinese regions.
Earlier this week, the death of a Nigerian man in a police station in the provincial capital Guangzhou sparked a rally of about 100 Africans. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Thursday said the government will investigate and help the Nigerian side appropriately handle the case.
- Girl who shielded mom in city hospital
A seven-year-old girl is being treated at a Shanghai hospital for a serious brain injury she received while trying to shield her mother from a steel shovel wielded by a mentally ill man in a small village in Anhui Province in April.
Wang Yan's mother died at the scene of the attack, while the girl suffered a broken skull and injury to her brain stem.
She was rushed to a hospital, but Anhui doctors told the family she would not emerge from the coma she was in and that it would be pointless to spend money on her treatment.
After the girl was at the hospital for more than a month, Wang Yan's father and brother sold out everything they had in order to take the girl for treatment in Shanghai.
The family was able to bring only 8,000 yuan (US$1,270) to Shanghai since the family was almost broke from paying for her father's cancer treatment.
Wang was admitted to Shanghai Blue Cross Brain Hospital in early June after her brother contacted the hospital.
Dr Pan Renlong, director of Shanghai Blue Cross's neurosurgery department, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that Wang Yan is capable of surviving the injury, but she may need one to two years of rehabilitation.
"She was in deep coma upon arriving at our hospital," Pan said. After consulting with experts, Pan operated on Wang on Wednesday to drain fluid from brain. "She can open her eyes from time to time now, but the movements are unconscious, which means she is under a shallow coma." Pan said.
The next treatment, Pan said, is to awaken the girl. Doctors hope she can live on her own after long-term treatment.
"I am not sure whether she can recover so well, but I will try my best since I was deeply moved by the little girl's behavior," he said. "How brave is a girl who covers her mother from a crazy adult during that moment."
- Suzhou has new website in English
SUZHOU'S first English-language lifestyle website, www.livingsu.com, was officially launched yesterday.
The one-stop information portal, funded by the Suzhou Municipal Information Office and run by Shanghai Daily, has a friendly design for English speakers and authoritative and comprehensive information on life, sightseeing and investment in Suzhou, a city featuring famous ancient gardens in Jiangsu Province.
Representatives of five consulates in Shanghai, about 10 foreign organizations and officials of Jiangsu Province and Shanghai Daily attended the inauguration.
"With this website, we hope expatriates can appreciate the inspiring charm and great convenience of Suzhou," said Zhang Ciyun, editor-in-chief of Shanghai Daily.
Susan Blauvelt, an English teacher from the United States who has been living and working in Suzhou for two years, said the website is like a key to the city of Suzhou for expatriates. "I and others had wished for an English website with accurate and updated information and finally it is a reality," she said.
- Astronauts get ready for major space challenge
CHINESE astronauts are scheduled to perform Shenzhou-9 spacecraft's first manual docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab module tomorrow, which would be a major step toward China building a permanent space station around 2020.
Shenzhou-9 is currently connected to Tiangong-1 following an automatic docking on Monday.
China Central Television yesterday showed footage of Liu Wang, 43, one of the three Chinese astronauts aboard Tiangong-1, running through drills for the manual docking, while Liu Yang, 33, the country's first female taikonaut, was recording the process.
The astronauts will return to the spacecraft again and separate the module for the manual docking to be performed by Liu Wang.
"A manual docking, if successful, will demonstrate the country's grasp of essential space rendezvous and docking techniques," said Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of China's manned space program.
When building a space station, components will be sent into space separately before being assembled using a variety of docking procedures.
The three astronauts entered the cabin of the Tiangong-1 on Monday afternoon, becoming the first group of Chinese to enter an orbiter in space.
The environment inside the orbiter has been comfortable, with the temperature at 22 to 23 degrees Celsius and the humidity at 40 percent, said Deng Yibing, chief engineer of the astronaut training center.
Although they experience 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours as the orbiter circles Earth every 90 minutes, astronauts wake up and rest on Earth time. "They get up at 6am Beijing time every day and go to bed in the evening," Deng said.
Meals for the astronauts include rice, two dishes, soup and fruit, which are packed separately in aluminum bags, said Chen Bin, an expert with the China Aerospace Medicine Research Center.
The astronauts insert the bags into a heater that looks like toaster before eating. "We try to make them feel they can eat the same food in space as on the ground," ! Chen sai d.
One breakfast included fried rice, mushrooms and shredded pork with salted cabbage. A lunch had curried fried rice, mushrooms and chicken, peas, chocolate, lemon tea and spicy sauce. The dinner had different dishes of beef filet with black pepper and lotus root.
Nutritionists customized the menu for each astronaut after talking with them.
"I like sour and spicy food, so they prepared vinegar and chili sauce for me," said Jing Haipeng, 45, the flight leader.
The astronauts called their family via a video phone yesterday. Liu Wang played the harmonica during the video conversation with his wife to celebrate her birthday.
- heat
paolobarzman has added a photo to the pool:
- heat
paolobarzman has added a photo to the pool:
- Alley
Shanghai 2007 has added a photo to the pool:
- Window and laundry
Shanghai 2007 has added a photo to the pool:
- Young biker
Shanghai 2007 has added a photo to the pool:
- Tibetan landscape
- Deep sea submersible brings back biology samples
The Jiaolong, China's manned deep-sea submersible, today made its third dive into the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world's oceans.
"The mission of the sea dive test is to find problems and solve them before the submersible is to put into practical use," said Liu Xincheng, the on-scene party chief.
The vessel set a new national record by reaching the depth of 6,965 meters under the sea in the second dive on Tuesday, surpassing the previous 6,671-meter record in the first dive last Friday.
"The adjustable ballast system was unable to drain away water normally in the second dive, which hindered the submersible from cruising, working on fixed-point and hovering," Liu Feng, the on-scene commander, told Xinhua.
"We will recheck the adjustable ballast system of the vessel and continue to verify its more than 200 indices and functions," he said.
The dive, started at 7am local time (2100 GMT yesterday), is expected to reach as deep as 6,960 meters.
The submersible plans to make six dives, aiming to reach the depth of 7,000 meters.
The Xiangyanghong 09, the vessel's oceanographic mother ship, arrived at the designated dive zone in the Mariana Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean, on June 11.
- China adds more trains for holiday travel rush
CHINA'S Ministry of Railways said today it has put more trains on to ease transportation pressure during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday from June 22-24.
The ministry added 196 provisional passenger trains for the travel rush yesterday, one day ahead of the holiday, 70 more than the eve of last year's holiday, it said in a statement.
China's railways are expected to carry 6.75 million passengers today, the travel peak of this holiday, up 4.7 percent from the holiday travel peak last year, the ministry has said.
It estimated a daily average passenger flow of 6.1 million from June 21 to 24, up 5 percent from that during last year's holiday travel rush.
The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar.
The festival commemorates the famous ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. Chinese people prepare and eat zongzi, or leaf-packed glutinous rice dumplings, drink wine and race dragon boats on the day.
The festival falls on June 23 this year.
- Biggest-ever lottery win claimed
THE biggest-ever Chinese lottery jackpot was claimed in Beijing yesterday, reported media in the capital.
Winnings total 456,012,832 yuan (US$71,639,616), after a tax deduction of 114,003,208 yuan.
The winner, said to be a middle-aged man, bought 110 tickets choosing the same number combination in the "Dual-Colored Balls" lottery from a kiosk in Beijing's Sanlitun area.
According to the winner, he always buys a large number of tickets using the same number combination.
The winning numbers were drawn on Tuesday night by the China Welfare Lottery Issuing and Management Center.
The previous record in China's lottery was held by a Zhejiang Province resident who scooped 565 million yuan, before tax.
- Manual space docking set for weekend
CHINA'S Shenzhou-9 spacecraft is to perform its first manual docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab module over the weekend, which would be a major step toward China building a permanent space station around 2020.
Shenzhou-9 is currently connected to Tiangong-1 following an automatic docking on Monday.
China Central Television yesterday showed footage of Liu Wang, 43, one of the three Chinese astronauts aboard Tiangong, running through drills for the manual docking, while Liu Yang, 33, the country's first female astronaut was recording the process.
The astronauts will return to the spacecraft again and separate the module for the manual docking.
"A manual docking, if successful, will demonstrate the country's grasp of essential space rendezvous and docking techniques," said Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of China's manned space program.
The three astronauts entered the cabin of the Tiangong-1 on Monday afternoon, becoming the first group of Chinese to enter an orbiter in space.
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