IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Tourism

Numbers reach a new peak

The number of Chinese tourists who traveled abroad last week hit a historic high, the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection said on Oct 9.

Tourists had more time to travel abroad due to the combination of Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, which created an eight-day holiday for many.

More than 450,000 travelers went abroad from Sept 30 to Oct 8, a year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent.

The country's 119 major scenic spots received 34.25 million visitors over the same period, up 21 percent from last year. Tourist spending surged by nearly a quarter from last year, up to 1.77 billion yuan ($278 million, 219 million euros), the National Tourism Administration said.

Health

Free AIDS treatment for foreigners

An increasing number of foreigners are receiving free treatment for HIV/AIDS on the Chinese mainland, a health specialist said.

The mainland reported 8,366 foreigners with HIV/AIDS at the end of August, according to the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control and Prevention. More than 200 of that number are receiving free antiviral therapy.

Growing international exchanges are seeing more foreign victims arrive, and stay longer, in China, Wu Zunyou, director of the center, said.

Most of the foreign sufferers were living in Yunnan, Guangdong, Shandong and Fujian provinces, as well as in Beijing, Wu said. Most are in the 20 to 44 age bracket and more than half were infected through heterosexual sex. Intravenous drug use is the second leading transmission route.

Art

Auction house brings down hammer

The mainland's oldest auction house held its first sale in Hong Kong on Oct 7, underscoring intensified competition in the booming art market.

More than 300 collectors packed the auction hall at the one-day sale by China Guardian, which offered more than 300 Chinese paintings and calligraphy scrolls including works from the renowned artists Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi.

The sale, expected to fetch nearly $24 million (18.7 million euros), was the firm's first auction outside the mainland since it was set up in 1993.

The star lot at the auction was a 1922 landscape series by Qi painted in color inks titled Album of Mountains and Rivers, which fetched HK$46 million ($5.9 million), nearly double its pre-sale estimates. Qi, now ranked the world's second-highest valued artist by auction revenue, ahead of Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, spent seven years traveling the mountains and rivers of the country for the work.

Investment

Green light for solar projects

Energy programs are among 15 international economic projects that have been given the go-ahead in a major effort to boost the country's global presence in the solar sector and provide more opportunities for Chinese companies.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, cleared 15 overseas projects on Oct 8. Energy projects accounted for about half. Hareon Solar Technology, which makes silicon cells, got the nod to set up a 122-megawatt solar-panel power station in Romania, while Winsun New Energy won approval for solar power stations in Italy and Greece.

Solar panel manufacturers have been hit by trade friction recently but power stations may meet less opposition as they provide local employment, experts said.

Safety

Rules highlight school bus safety

New traffic regulations have been introduced targeting school bus safety.

Under the revised regulations on the management of driving licenses, failure to give road priority to a school bus will result in six penalty points, the Ministry of Public Security said on Oct 8. Using faked school bus plates or overloading school buses by 20 percent will result in 12 penalty points, it added.

Under China's current regulation on driving licenses, if a driver's penalty points add up to 12 within a year, he or she must report to the police and go through a seven-day special training on traffic law. The driver then has to sit for a driving license test again.

Transport

Cold train begins trial operations

A high-speed railway linking major cities in Northeast China began trial operations on Oct 8, ahead of its launch at the end of the year.

The new line, which links Dalian, a port city in Liao-ning province, and Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, is the world's first high-speed railway built to withstand extreme cold weather conditions, according to a statement by Harbin railway authorities.

A test train departed Harbin on Oct 8 and arrived in Dalian three-and-a-half hours later. The journey takes nine hours on an ordinary train.

Construction of the 921-kilometer line began in 2008. It is designed to reach a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour, but will travel initially at a maximum of 300 km/h. The line has to withstand extreme temperatures as low as -39.9 C in winter and as high as 40 C in summer, which poses major challenges to the trains and railway construction.

China Daily

(China Daily 10/12/2012 page2)