From our archives

May 18, 1984

Number of markets is increasing

With the rapid development of commodity production and exchange, urban and rural markets are undergoing major changes.

"They are becoming large-scale and more regular, and markets now include retail and wholesale business both," said Yan Jinye, director of the market management office of the State Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce.

According to the bureau, China now has about 43,500 markets in the countryside and 4,500 in towns and cities.

Youth crime rate drops

Juvenile delinquency has become a hot issue in China in recent years, though the rate of youth crime is much lower than in Western countries, said a spokesman for the Supreme People's Court.

China's people's courts at various levels handled 336,000 cases of youth crimes and juvenile delinquency in 1983, he said, accounting for 51.4 percent of all crimes committed in the country.

But, he said, the youth crime rate is dropping along with the nationwide crime rate.

'Heaven' for rare birds

About 100 cranes, artificially incubated and hatched, have been raised in Heilongjiang province's Zhalong Nature Reserve since 1979.

That has raised the total number of cranes in the 210,000-hectare reserve to more than 400.

Known as a "birds paradise", the Zhalong Nature Reserve has more than 150 types of water birds including cranes, storks, gulls, herons and swans. Eleven of the species can be artificially incubated.

(China Daily 05/20/2009 page9)