Biz scene: UNUSUAL
Hugs for sale
A group of people in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, have begun selling hugs to strangers.
The "hugging group" previously offered free hugs on the street to deliver messages such as "refuse to be apathetic" and "care for strangers".
They recently placed a bowl on the street for money, asking for 1 yuan for a 10-second hug. The group earned nearly 300 yuan in two hours simply by "selling" hugs, local media reported.
The "free hug" campaign was launched in many of China's big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan a few months ago. But the campaign received little interest and was discouraged by police.
Government websites
The development of government websites in China is still in its infancy, with few of the sites providing online public services, according to a report conducted by CCW research.
Although most of the government websites in China have made great progress in publishing up-to-date information, only 1.7 percent of them recorded good performance in encouraging online public services and participation, the report said.
Top tourist sites
Sanya, Wuyi Mountain and Chengdu are the country's top destinations for Chinese tourists, according to research by online travel service provider Ctrip.com.
And Hong Kong, Singapore and Bali in Indonesia were the top three overseas travel destinations for Chinese in 2006.
Tang Yibo from Ctrip.com said that this year's results showed Chinese tourists are now traveling for leisure rather than sightseeing.
(China Daily 01/10/2007 page15)
