China Chronicles September 30, 2012
- Jumping with joy for holiday
A girl jumps off a suitcase inside the waiting room of a long-distance bus station in Hefei, Anhui Province, yesterday, ahead of the nationwide eight-day break for China's Mid-Autumn festival and National Day. The Mid-Autumn plus National Day combo holiday runs from today to October 7, with hundreds of millions of Chinese people expected to travel. Also, for the first time in decades, Chinese drivers will enjoy a toll-free journey home during the holiday. According to the Shanghai authorities, the city is expected to receive more than 7 million visits, while more than 45,500 people will choose to travel abroad for the break.
- China moves to block SARS-like bug
CHINA'S top quarantine authority yesterday ordered a three-month intensified quarantine to prevent the entry of a new type of virus from the same family as SARS.
In a statement, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine demanded increased body temperature monitoring and other medical inspections on travelers from Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, after the World Health Organization (WHO) said the new type of coronavirus, has left a Qatari citizen in critical condition in London. A man in Saudi Arabia has died of the virus.
The administration requires travelers from the three nations to inform China's entry-exit inspection and quarantine institutions if they develop acute respiratory symptoms such as fever, a cough or shortness of breath.
The new and potentially fatal virus in the same family as SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - which was discovered in a patient in London last week appears not to spread easily from person to person, WHO said on Friday.
The United Nations health agency said it was working with partners to understand the public health risk better.
Global alert
"From the information available thus far, it appears that the novel coronavirus cannot be easily transmitted from person to person," it said in a statement.
The WHO put out a global alert last Sunday saying a new virus had infected a 49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where another man with the same virus had died.
The Qatari was described as critically ill on Tuesday and is being treated in a London hospital. No new confirmed cases of infection with the virus have since been reported, the WHO said.
The new virus shares some of the symptoms of SARS, another coronavirus, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
Both patients who have so far been confirmed with the new virus suffered kidney failure.
"Given the severity of the two labor! atory co nfirmed cases, WHO is continuing to monitor the situation in order to provide the appropriate response, expertise and support to its member states," the WHO statement said.
Scientists at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the European Union, said initial virology results and the separation in time of the only two confirmed cases suggest the infection may have developed from animals. Such diseases are known as zoonoses.
"(It) is quite probably of zoonotic origin and different in behavior from SARS," the scientists wrote in a "rapid communication" study in the online journal Eurosurveillance.
The UN agency has not recommended any travel restrictions in connection with the new virus.
- Moves to block SARS-type virus
China's top quarantine authority yesterday ordered a three-month intensified quarantine to prevent the entry of a new type of virus from the same family as SARS.
In a statement, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine demanded increased body temperature monitoring and other medical inspections on travelers from Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, after the World Health Organization (WHO) said the new type of coronavirus, has left a Qatari citizen in critical condition in London. A man in Saudi Arabia has died of the virus.
The administration requires travelers from the three nations to inform China's entry-exit inspection and quarantine institutions if they develop acute respiratory symptoms such as fever, a cough or shortness of breath.
The new and potentially fatal virus in the same family as SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - which was discovered in a patient in London last week appears not to spread easily from person to person, WHO said on Friday.
The United Nations health agency said it was working with partners to understand the public health risk better.
Global alert
"From the information available thus far, it appears that the novel coronavirus cannot be easily transmitted from person to person," it said in a statement.
The WHO put out a global alert last Sunday saying a new virus had infected a 49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where another man with the same virus had died.
The Qatari was described as critically ill on Tuesday and is being treated in a London hospital. No new confirmed cases of infection with the virus have since been reported, the WHO said.
The new virus shares some of the symptoms of SARS, another coronavirus, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
Both patients who have so far been confirmed with the new virus suffered kidney failure.
"Given the severity of the two labor! atory co nfirmed cases, WHO is continuing to monitor the situation in order to provide the appropriate response, expertise and support to its member states," the WHO statement said.
Scientists at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the European Union, said initial virology results and the separation in time of the only two confirmed cases suggest the infection may have developed from animals. Such diseases are known as zoonoses.
"(It) is quite probably of zoonotic origin and different in behavior from SARS," the scientists wrote in a "rapid communication" study in the online journal Eurosurveillance.
The UN agency has not recommended any travel restrictions in connection with the new virus.
- Graft suspicions tarnish trend for gold mooncakes
Gold mooncakes made their debut in the gift sector ahead of China's back-to-back autumn holiday but suspicions of corruption have been raised.
Made of pure gold, the mooncake-shaped items witnessed good sales on the eve of China's traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival.
"Most of the buyers are groups of clients of companies and enterprises who have bought gold mooncakes as a gift," said a shop assistant in a department store in Xuanwumen in downtown Beijing.
One of the most favored gift box consists of two pieces, which weigh 50 grams each. The price is 42,900 yuan (US$6,821) - equal to 429 yuan per gram. The price of standard metal bars is around 360 yuan.
There are also other choices of mooncakes with various weights of gold or silver.
In some stores, gold and silver mooncake giftboxes sold out on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays running from today until October 7.
Mooncakes are an essential part of China's Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a holiday about family reunions and cakes are a common gift between family and friends.
However, many netizens on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service, and web-sharing site Youku, condemned golden mooncakes, as a form of corruption.
"Who will put gold mooncakes on the dining table? It is just to hide corruption," said a netizen named Lantianbaiyun3215 on Sina Weibo.
"The authorities should take it as a clue in fighting corruption to trace both the buyers and the receivers," said a netizen named Zhaijianhui.
Amid the global economic downturn, gold is cherished more for its increasing value as an asset, as it is unlikely it will be affected by inflation, said Wu Zhengzheng, a precious metal analyst in the Chihong International Co Ltd.
Gold mooncakes are not the only high-price gifts to trigger public concerns. Silver rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival in June, and high-end West Lake longjing tea have also come under suspicio! n.
China's domestic gift market is estimated to be worth more than 760 billion yuan annually, of which more than 262 billion yuan is consumed by group clients, said a survey conducted by China Gift Industry Research Institute.
- China's most advanced research ship delivered
Photo taken today shows the comprehensive research vessel, the Kexue (Science), in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. The 99.6-meter-long and 17.8-meter wide ship was put into service today. Powered by a podded electric propulsion system, the Kexue consumes less power, creates less noise and vibration, and is able to move at continuously varying speeds of up to 15 knots.
- Street Artists@Köln
Jimmy101cactus has added a photo to the pool:
20120825
Minox BL-1217214
Fomapan 100
Rodinal Special
13min.20℃
Tap Water
DIY reel in JOBO Tank
Dots report : Minor black & white
Scratches report : none
Film wide : 9.30mm - Bo Xilai expelled from top legislature
THE Standing Committee of Chongqing Municipal People's Congress has decided to remove Bo Xilai from his official post as deputy to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, the NPC confirmed today.
The Credential Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) yesterday received a report from the Standing Committee of the Chongqing Municipal People's Congress regarding the decision.
The Credential Committee of the NPC Standing Committee has already submitted a report proposing that the Standing Committee of the NPC deliberate on the matter and make an announcement.
Comments