IN BRIEF (Page 2)

Overseas visitors to get tax refund

A tax refund plan for overseas visitors has been expanded to Henan province to boost tourism and consumption, the Ministry of Finance said on March 2. Overseas visitors who have lived on the mainland for no more than 183 days are eligible for an 11 percent VAT rebate on consumer goods purchased at designated department stores.

Cargo train heads off on maiden trip to Europe

East China's coastal city of Xiamen launched the country's first rail route to Europe under a smart and secure trade lanes (SSTL) program. The cargo train, carrying 38 containers of liquid crystal displays worth 31 million yuan ($4.5 million; 4.26 million euros; 3.68 million), departed Xiamen on March 2. The journey to Lodz, Poland, is expected to last 15 days.

Mainland tourists warned of risks

China's top tourism authority has warned tourists of risks associated with South Korea's change of entry policy for Chinese citizens. "The number of incidents involving Chinese citizens' entry to Jeju Island in South Korea has risen sharply recently. Some of them were denied entry and waited a long time at airports before they were repatriated, which has attracted wide public attention," a statement on the website of the China National Tourism Administration said on March 3. It said the administration attached great importance to the matter. The administration met with officials of the South Korean embassy in Beijing, as well as officials from the country's cultural organizations, and "lodged serious representations", the statement said.

CASIC launches first satellite into space

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp launched a Kaituo 2 carrier rocket on March 3 to send the company's first satellite into orbit. The launch took place at 7:53 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China. The 2 solid-fuel rocket placed the Tiankun 1 technology demonstration satellite into a preset orbit, according to a statement by CASIC.

Ancient bronze items found in tomb cluster

Archaeologists discovered a large deposit of bronze items in the provincial capital of Chengdu when excavating a tomb cluster dating back to between the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). Wang Tianyou, head of the archaeological team from the Chengdu Cultural Relic Research Institute, says they have excavated 180 tombs in an area the size of two soccer fields, from which 540 bronze items have been unearthed.

Tourism sector to be upgraded

China plans to boost its tourism sector by upgrading infrastructure and providing the public with easier access to travel information, a government document said on Mar 6. The National Tourism Administration unveiled the plan in a development guideline for the tourism industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20). It echoes the country's national strategy to boost the service sector.

New airport terminal begins operations

The second-largest airport terminal in the Tibet autonomous region began operations on Mar 6. The new terminal, the sixth to open in Tibet, is located at Nyingchi Mainling Airport. It covers an area of 10,300 square meters and will be able to handle 750,000 passengers and 3,000 metric tons of cargo annually by 2020.

Tibet to open highest superlong tunnel

The Mila Mount Tunnel on the Lhasa-Nyingchi Highway is expected to be opened in September, when it will become the world's highest super-long tunnel. The tunnel is located at the junction of Lhasa and Nyingchi in the Tibet autonomous region at an average altitude of 4,740 meters above sea level, according to the Mila Mount Tunnel Project Headquarters. As a key section of the Lhasa-Nyingchi Highway on the National Highway 318, the two lanes of the tunnel are 5,727 meters and 5,720 meters long, respectively, according to the project headquarters.

Record broken at ocean's lowest depth

Chinese scientists have broken two world records at the ocean's lowest depth - in the Mariana Trench, a scythe-shaped cleft in the western Pacific Ocean seafloor that plunges nearly 11 kilometers. China became the first country to collect the artificial seismic stratigraphy of the Challenger Deep, the deepest section of the trench at more than 10 kilometers, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geology and Geophysics said on Mar 3. China also set a new world diving record for underwater gliders at 6,329 meters with Hai Yi, a glider designed by the academy's Institute of Automation in Shenyang, Liaoning province, it said.

Thousands of military patents declassified

The People's Liberation Army has declassified and made public more than 2,300 national defense patents, PLA Daily reported on March 5. The National Defense Intellectual Property Rights Bureau of the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department has declassified about 3,000 national defense patents and opened 2,346 of them to the public, according to PLA Daily. It said it is the first time the PLA has declassified and made public military patents since it began to register such patents in 1985. The measure is intended to facilitate the transfer of military technologies to civilian industries to boost the coordinated development of the civilian and defense sectors, the report said.  

Workplace nurseries to be launched

Shanghai will build 50 nurseries in various workplaces by the end of this year in an effort to encourage more families to have a second child. The Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions said on Mar 6 that it will step up its efforts in the next two years to promote a better environment for raising children and make life more convenient for working parents in the city. In a pilot project, the federation has already set up nursery centers at 12 companies, which provide day care for working parents' children. Various child care services are offered at the centers, which are mainly located within enterprises, industrial parks and public institutions, the federation said, adding that it has received positive feedback. An additional 800 breast-feeding rooms will be introduced across the city in the next two years, which will bring the total number to more than 2,500, according to the federation.

Organ donor numbers increasing rapidly

Nearly 220,000 people have registered themselves as organ donors in China, a number that is expected to increase rapidly with the help of internet technologies, according to the China Organ Donation Administrative Center. The number of organ donor volunteers has increased rapidly in the past few years because of internet technologies, according to the China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation. The foundation has cooperated since December with Alipay, the online payment platform of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, to allow users of Alipay to register to become organ donors in just 10 seconds, said Zhao Hongtao, deputy secretary-general of the foundation. In fewer than three days, more than 86,200 people registered to become donors, which is equivalent to the total number of registrations for the previous two years combined, Zhao said.

Fugitive extradited from UAE

Chinese police officers escorted a fugitive back to China from the United Arab Emirates on Mar 8, the first such case since the two nations signed an extradition treaty in 2004, according to public security authorities. Police in Shanghai's Putuo district said that in September 2007, the suspect, surnamed Kan, falsely claimed that he was authorized to sell a property, taking deposits of 2 million yuan ($289,000; 270,000 euros; 240,000). He fled to the UAE in March 2008.

Smart tourism plan taps digital tech

The top tourism authority has introduced initiatives to support transportation and promote digital technologies to ensure the travel and leisure industries keep pace with changing consumer trends and advances. Earlier this month, the China National Tourism Administration released its Five-Year Plan for smart tourism, which states that all 4A- and 5A-rated scenic spots in China will be able to provide online booking services, electronic tour guides and free Wi-Fi to all tourists by 2020. In addition, tour buses, cruise ships and scenic spots with large numbers of tourists will have real-time monitoring systems set up to address security concerns.

China gives medicine to S. Sudan children

The Chinese embassy in South Sudan on Mar 8 donated a batch of medicine and medical equipment to the Al-Shabbah Children's Hospital in the capital of Juba. The donation, made through the office of South Sudan's first lady, Mary Ayen Mayardit, was a gift from the Chinese government to children and women of South Sudan to celebrate the International Women's Day. The donated medicine included 27 categories of drugs, including antibiotics and pain killers. The embassy also donated medical equipment, including microscopes, digital blood pressure machines and diabetes testing devices.

Medical teams continue mission in Morocco

Thirty volunteers from China's medical delegation in Morocco left the capital, Rabat, on Mar 7 after fulfilling their two-year mission, and three new teams arrived to take over. Sino-Moroccan collaboration in this field benefited the population in several Moroccan cities, according to Lahcen Chtib, general inspector of the Moroccan Ministry of Health. The first memorandum of understanding on sending Chinese medical personnel to Morocco was signed in 1975. Since then, more than 1,600 Chinese have successfully fulfilled their missions in various Moroccan hospitals and cities. At present, around 80 Chinese volunteers are working in eight hospitals in various Moroccan regions, including Agadir, Benguerire, Chefchaouen, Errachidia, Meknes, Mohammedia, Settat and Taza.

Chinese-built dam nearing completion

The Soubre Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam in Cote d'Ivoire, which is being built by a Chinese company, has entered the final stage of construction before officially beginning operations later this year. The dam, constructed by PowerChina, is in the process of "impoundment," a technical operation of gradually closing floodgate valves to allow water levels to rise, said Ballet Maxime, head of mission at Cote d'Ivoire's CI-Energies. Zhang Long, assistant to the project manager at PowerChina, said a test of the dam's generators will also be conducted. The project, launched in February 2013, received financial support from the Chinese Export-Import Bank and the Chinese government. The cost of the project is approximately $571 million (540 million euros; 468 million), with 85 percent financed by China and 15 percent by Cote d'Ivoire. With a capacity of 275 megawatts and an annual output of 1,100 gigawatt hours, the Soubre Dam complex is among the most powerful and largest power generation centers in the region.  

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/10/2017 page2)