China Chronicles February 28, 2013
- China to launch major aircraft engine project
THE State Council, China's cabinet, is currently deliberating a major aircraft engine research and development project, sources revealed today.
The project will require an investment of at least 100 billion yuan (about US$15.93 billion), a professor at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) with knowledge of the project told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The investment would be used mainly for research on technology, designs and materials related to aircraft engine manufacturing, the professor said.
The project is currently going through approval procedures in the State Council, and it may be approved shortly, the professor said.
Participants in the project include Shenyang Liming Aero-Engine Group Corp., AVIC Xi'an Aero-Engine (Group) Ltd. and research institutes, including the BUAA, he said.
"At present, China's aircraft engine design and manufacturing have weak links in terms of materials, key parts, manufacturing equipment, processing precision and measurements," according to another source with the BUAA who is also involved in the project.
Although the country is capable of producing aircraft engines, product performance is inadequate and mass production cannot be realized, the second source with the BUAA said.
Guangda Securities, a brokerage firm in China, said yesterday in a report that the country will need around 3,000 aircraft between now and 2026. This will create demand for some 6,500 aircraft engines worth US$65 billion.
- Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway records 100m passenger trips
CHINA'S high-speed railway line linking Beijing and Shanghai has recorded over 100 million passenger trips since it started operation in June 2012, railway authorities announced today.
Built with an investment of 217.6 billion yuan (US$34.7 billion), the 1,318km railway linking Beijing and Shanghai has shortened the travel time between the two major cities to about five hours from the previous eight hours or more.
China has been steadily expanding its rail network as trains are the most commonly used vehicles for the country's long-distance travelers.
In December last year, the high-speed line linking Beijing and Guangzhou -- the world's longest -- went into official service, bringing China's total high-speed rail network in operation to a length of more than 9,300 km.
The Beijing-Guangzhou line is one of four north-south lines expected to serve as backbones for the country's high-speed railway network, which also features four east-west lines.
China's rail construction boom took a hit in 2011 following a deadly train collision near the eastern city of Wenzhou, the accident resulting in 40 deaths and 172 people being injured.
Investment and construction gradually picked up last year as the country set the aim of having around 120,000km of railway lines in operation by 2015, including 18,000 km of high-speed lines.
- China to launch new manned spaceship
CHINA'S new spacecraft Shenzhou-10 is going to be launched during June to August this year, the office of country's space mission said today.
- Airport, highways closed in Liaoning blizzard
AN airport and several highways have closed after heavy snow hit northeast China's Liaoning Province this morning.
The Taoxian International Airport in the provincial capital city of Shenyang shut at 12:40pm and is expected to be closed until 9pm, according to the provincial transport department.
Part of six highways in the province are also closed, according to the department.
Snowfall is expected to last for three days, which will lower temperatures by 8 to 10 degrees Celsius, according to the Shenyang municipal central meteorological observatory.
The blizzard is also hitting neighboring Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to the National Meteorological Center.
- Fog closes highways, tailed by sandstorm
HEAVY fog and smog caused many highways in many parts of China to close last night and this morning, the state-run CCTV reported.
Several highways in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and in the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Shandong, Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan have been closed since last night.
As of 7:30am, 19 highways in Hebei and 17 in Tianjin had been suspended.
This year's worst sandstorm hit north China this morning. Haidian District in Beijing is the first to suffer severe air pollution that is spreading across the capital, according to the CCTV report.
Gansu and Hebei provinces in northwest and central China also reported big sandstorms.
- 2,000 battling Yunnan forest fire
SOME 2,000 people in southwest China's Yunnan Province are working to put out a forest fire that broke out early this morning, local authorities have said.
The fire erupted around 2:30am at the Yangzonghai forest farm in Yiliang County, Kunming City, said an official with the Kunming municipal forest fire prevention headquarters.
Topography conditions are complicated at the site, and the fire was yet to be controlled by 11am, the official said.
Forest police, professional fire-fighting teams and residents are joining the efforts to put out the blaze.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
- 2,000 battling Yunnan forest fire
SOME 2,000 people in southwest China's Yunnan Province are working to put out a forest fire that broke out early this morning, local authorities have said.
The fire erupted around 2:30am at the Yangzonghai forest farm in Yiliang County, Kunming City, said an official with the Kunming municipal forest fire prevention headquarters.
Topography conditions are complicated at the site, and the fire was yet to be controlled by 11am, the official said.
Forest police, professional fire-fighting teams and residents are joining the efforts to put out the blaze.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
- Beijing, nearby regions face 'dangerous' air quality
THE air quality in Beijing and nearby regions hit dangerous levels today, Beijing's environmental authorities said.
Calm winds, temperature inversion, pollutants transformed from eastern and southern regions and large-scale dust from Inner Mongolia are behind the hazardous air pollution in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and east China's Bohai Bay, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said today.
Readings for PM 2.5, or airborne particles measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter that can deeply penetrate the lungs, reached more than 400 micrograms per cubic meter, or Level VI, which is considered "dangerous."
Smog in southern Beijing reduced visibility to 900 meters earlier this morning.
- Beijing faces 'dangerous' air quality
The air quality in Beijing and nearby regions hit dangerous levels today, Beijing's environmental authorities said.
Calm winds, temperature inversion, pollutants transformed from eastern and southern regions and large-scale dust from Inner Mongolia are behind the hazardous air pollution in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and east China's Bohai Bay, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said today.
Readings for PM 2.5, or airborne particles measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter that can deeply penetrate the lungs, reached more than 400 micrograms per cubic meter, or Level VI, which is considered "dangerous."
Smog in southern Beijing reduced visibility to 900 meters earlier this morning.
- 4 pupils die in rush to get to class
Four students were killed in a stampede at an elementary school in central China's Hubei Province yesterday and late last night three seriously injured pupils were still being treated in hospital.
A total of 11 students were hurt in the accident at around 6:15am in Qinji elementary school in Laohekou City. Four of them died after emergency treatment, according to local government news portal www.ihk.gov.cn.
The three in hospital were said to have no major organ damage and their vital signs were stable.
An initial investigation found that the students had been in a rush to attend an early class but the gates of their dormitory were still shut. Witnesses said hundreds of students had crowded on stairs linking the first and second floor waiting for the supervisor to open the gates.
Pictures posted online showed that the iron gates had been partly damaged in the stampede.
There is only one exit on the first floor of the school's temporary dormitory, which used to be a four-story teaching building. Five hundred students boarded at the 900-pupil school.
Eight officials, including the head of the local education bureau, and two school officials, including the headmaster, have been removed from their posts and placed under investigation, local government officials said, citing dereliction of duty.
The two school officials and four others have also been transferred to judicial departments, Xinhua news agency reported.
China National Radio said that the deputy mayor of Laohekou, who wasn't named, burst into tears when making a public apology at a press conference.
Officials from Xiangyang City, which administers Laohekou, are dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy.
In November, 33 students at an elementary school in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, were injured in a stampede when they rushed back to their classrooms from the playground after a sports lesson was canceled because of rain.
They collided with younger students going dow! n the stairs as they were trying to climb up. No one was seriously injured.
- Su Hua
- Construction Never Completes
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