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Fashionistas flaunt it at top 10 tribute

A bash for the 10th anniversary of China Fashion Week was held on Sunday night at the D. Park Fashion in Beijing's 798 art zone. Among the more than 300 guests were designers, models, managers, fashion editors and foreign brand representatives.

The ceremony named a Top 10 of Chinese Fashion Designers including Zhang Zhaoda, Luo Zheng, and Wu Xuewei; Top 10 Chinese Fashion brands including Hempel, Bosideng and White Collar; Top 10 Super Models (pictured) including Ma Yanli, Chen Juanhong and Mo Wandan and Top 10 Foreign Friends of China Fashion Week including Didier Grumbach, president of the French Couture Federation and Antonino Laspina, head of the Italian Trade Commission in Beijing.

The Chinese Fashion Designers Association started the first China Fashion Week in Beijing in December 1997. Over the past decade, some 176 fashion designers from 10 countries have brought 380 runway shows in China Fashion Week.

My phone, my language tutor

EF English First, the Official Language Training Services Supplier of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, plans to start a new business division called EF Mobile English that will deliver multimedia language training to mobile phones and other devices throughout China.

Interactive content with a mix of sound, pictures and text will initially be provided free of charge, focusing on vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation. Paid service featuring a video-based version will be launched in 2008.

EF's mobile services will be launched first to subscribers in China through MSN later in the year and thereafter with other Internet portals and mobile operators.

"The hunger for English training in advance of the Olympic Games is enormous," says EF's chief Technology and Experience Officer Enio Ohmaye. "Our EF Mobile English service will bring timely, fun, interactive training right to your fingertips every day."

A rare treat for kids who've had it tough

More than 20 AIDS orphans and children affected by the disease from China's Hunan, Anhui and Shandong provinces, participated in a summer camp hosted by The Chi Heng Foundation (CHF) in Beijing from July 25-30.

Previously held in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Zhengzhou, this was the first time that CHF brought the children to the capital. The children toured the city's universities, museums, and businesses, and took part in art therapy and dance lessons.

"This is my first time to Beijing," says Xiao Chen, an elementary school student from Henan who lost both parents to HIV/AIDS, "I love school, and coming to the city to do so many different things in the summer is fun."

Activities were led by CHF-sponsored university students, who act as mentors for younger AIDS-affected students.

"I'm so excited to join the camp," says student Xiao Wang from Tsinghua University, "I think it's important to show younger kids that even though our families have suffered so much from AIDS, we can still work hard in school, go to college, and succeed in life. It's important that we all remember to help others."

One lump of jazz or two?

A coffee-jazz night was held on Friday night at Beijing's Twins Mall to kick off a series of weekend jazz concerts to be given at the shopping center this summer.

The concert featured the Yin Jiao Jazz band composed by the saxophonist Du Yinjiao, pianist David Moser, bass Hu Hao, percussionist Ha Ha and singer Yao Wen.

They performed some 20 songs including Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, Dream a Little Dream of Me, When I Fall in Love and Mona Lisa. And in between the songs, Starbucks provide audience with coffee tasting.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/02/2007 page18)