China Scene: West

Disabled residents get free artificial limbs

Ge, a 67-year-old resident of Xingping, Shaanxi, can now walk again after receiving an artificial leg from the Shaanxi Disabled Products Service Center on January 23 in Xi'an, the province's capital.

Like Ge, 350 disabled people who are living in poverty in the province received artificial limbs for free from the center.

Center director Lu Yong said it was the local government's duty to provide better living conditions for the disabled.

(Chinese Business View)

High-wire weddings symbolize life ahead

Three couples took part in a special wedding ceremony in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province. The brides and grooms walked hand in hand on a 6-meter-long cable 8 meters above the ground, symbolizing that the couples realize they will travel on a hard road together.

Cai Zechun and Hou Rui, one of the three couples, said it was hard for them to walk on the cable and hoped to overcome any difficulties they will meet in their future life together.

(Xi'an Evening News)

Warm winter keeps Hukou water falling

Affected by the warm winter in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, the Hukou Waterfall has not frozen yet.

Located between the provinces in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the second largest in China, the waterfall attracts millions of domestic and international visitors to see the frozen flow hanging on the fall.

But this winter, water is still flowing a scene not seen in the past 30 years.

According to local weather information, the average temperature this winter in the area is 3 to 5 degrees higher than at the same time in previous years.

(www.xinhuanet.com)

Xi'an collector has 6,000 book labels

Some people are voracious readers and collect books, but there is a resident of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, who has collected 6,000 book labels in the past 23 years.

The collector, surnamed Cui, said: "I started my collection in 1984 after visiting an exhibition of book labels, and my collections includes more than 700 authors from all parts of the world."

It is said that book labels, which identify a book collector, originated about 500 years ago in Germany after the Chinese technologies of paper making and printing were introduced to the rest of the world through Europe.

(Sanqin Daily)

(China Daily 01/30/2007 page6)