IN BRIEF (Page 3)

Happy New Year is name of the game

Retired NBA star Robert Horry passed on his secret for making clutch shots to young Chinese athletes on Jan 28 before wrapping up dumplings at a group dinner as a way to send his greetings for the Year of the Horse.

Horry, who played 16 years in the NBA, coached young basketball players at the Shanghai Sports Academy and taught them how to make big-time shots. Repetition and training are key, he said.

In the kitchen, Horry quickly learned how to make dumplings.

Horry had dinner on Jan 28 with retired Chinese NBA star Yao Ming before joining San Antonio's Silver Dancer cheerleaders on the next day for a Chinese New Year viewing party in Shanghai for the Spurs-Rockets game.

The cheerleaders and Horry toured Shanghai's landmark Yu Garden, at the heart of the Chenghuang Temple.

"I love it; everything is awesome," said Ashley Saoai, a member of the Spurs' Silver Dancers.

China 'can weather QE challenge'

Although the United States' tapering of quantitative easing this year will pose a "significant challenge", China is capable of withstanding the change, according to a Chinese financial official.

Guan Tao, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange official in charge of balance of payments, said the ending of quantitative easing would even be seen as a good thing.

With the effects of the gradual reduction still to be fully felt in China, its foreign exchange authorities anticipate that the consequences for capital outflows are unlikely to shake the fundamentals of the Chinese market, Guan said.

The Chinese view stems from the experience last year, when the US Federal Reserve Board's announcement of its quantitative easing exit strategy triggered capital outflows from many emerging-market countries. It also saw exchange rates with the US dollar tumble, Guan said.

He said that, in contrast, the yuan's exchange rate to the dollar rose by 3.1 percent last year, as the country's foreign currency reserves continued to swell from $3.31 trillion at the end of 2012 to $3.82 trillion a year later.

Reforms to fuel Shanghai's growth

Shanghai's financial sector grew 13.7 percent last year, a significant boost for China's biggest municipal economy as it strives to become a global financial center by 2020.

The Shanghai Bureau of Statistics said on Jan 19 that the city's financial sector generated 282.3 billion yuan ($46.66 billion; 34.12 billion euros) in revenue in 2013. The 13.7 percent growth is 1.1 percent higher than the growth of 2012.

Shanghai's economy grew 7.7 percent, the same rate as the national average, and generated 2.16 trillion yuan in revenue.

Trading volume for the Shanghai Stock Exchange rose 39.9 percent to 23.03 trillion yuan despite a freeze in IPOs. Trading volume at the Shanghai Futures Exchange grew 35.5 percent, with the exchange making 120.8 trillion yuan in revenue. Trading volume on the Shanghai Gold Exchange rose 48 percent to 5.22 trillion yuan.

The latest financial prosperity index published by the Shanghai Financial Association registered a reading of 3,076 points, up 8.4 percent from the end of 2012. Shanghai's financial sector now employs 230,000 people.

Another bumper grain harvest is possible

China may have another bumper grain harvest this year if the country can improve scientific input and the quality of its cultivated land, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Jan 24.

The country's grain output reached 601.94 million metric tons in 2013, a record high and the 10th consecutive year of increased grain harvests, according to the ministry.

"Although another grain output increase will be very difficult to realize after consecutive bumper harvests, it is still possible with scientific input and efforts to restore contaminated farmland," Zeng Yande, an official in charge of the planting industry at the ministry, said at a news conference.

The average grain yield reached 5.35 tons a hectare last year, compared with 4.3 tons in 2003, according to the ministry.

Per hectare grain output is expected to increase by 0.2 to 0.3 tons by 2020, when the country renews its crop varieties, he said.

Netizens wish for lunar rover's speedy recovery

Tens of thousands of Chinese netizens sent their best wishes to the lunar rover Yutu after it experienced a major mechanical problem.

The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said on Jan 25 that Yutu (which means jade rabbit) experienced a mechanical control abnormality because of the "complicated lunar surface environment". Repairs were continuing.

China's social media network was buzzing with the news, with people not only hailing the authority's openness about the problems, but also expressing their concerns.

By the afternoon of Jan 26, more than 36,000 reposts had been generated under the yueqiucheyutu - or lunar rover yutu - account on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter.

The account is believed to belong to space enthusiasts who have been following Yutu's journey to the moon. It has more than 110,000 followers.

Blind date sends man into blind rage

A man passed out on a train after he was informed that a blind date had been arranged for him at home.

The 36-year-old man from Jiangxi province had been under pressure from his parents to get married for a long time, so he stayed away from home for several years.

This year he caught a train to go home for Spring Festival after his parents pleaded with him, promising that they would not force him again. However, the man's cousin rang him to tell him about the blind date, and the man became so angry he passed out.Gold medal gymnast returns to busking

Wearing an old uniform of the national gymnastics team and performing handstands and rolling over on Beijing's subway, former gymnast Zhang Shangwu has gone back to busking after giving up a job with a monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan ($1,650; 1,210 euros)

Zhang, a gold medal winner at the 2001 Beijing Universiade, retired because of injuries. He was reported busking on the subway in 2011 and was invited to run a business.

Goldfish buyer left high and dry

A customer who bought two expensive goldfish and was having them delivered was left fishless after the courier company decided it could offer them a better home.

A courier alerted the goldfish seller in Shenzhen, Guandong province, that the two fish, costing 1,450 yuan ($240; 175 euros) which were being sent to Fuzhou, Fujian province, were in the delivery company's pond.

After negotiations, the courier company agreed to pay the seller 1,450 to keep the fish.

Statue moved after controversy

A statue depicting a story from Water Margin, one of China's four classic novels, was moved from a shopping mall after it caused controversy.

The statue was supposed to depict an anecdote about Wu Song trying to kill his sister-in-law Pan Jinlian, but it showed Pan half-naked and standing cheek to cheek with Wu. People criticized this as pornographic and violent, and totally different to the original work.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/31/2014 page3)