Month: May 2019

The number of daily visitors to the Badaling section of the Great Wall will be restricted and online ticket sales introduced to ease congestion at the world-famous site, tourism authorities said on Tuesday.

The 65,000 limit was set after research on the optimal capacity for the scenic spot in accordance with guidelines from the China National Tourism Administration.

The restrictions were put in place to relieve pressure and safety concerns created by the large crowds at Badaling, located in Beijing’s Yanqing district.

“When I visited the Badaling part of the Great Wall last summer I could barely move, there were too many people,” said Rui Nate, a student from Peking University.

“I believe the policy of setting a daily quota may prevent extreme peaks in the number of visitors.”

In 2018, the Badaling Great Wall received more than 9.9 million visitors, and there was an unbalanced distribution of visitors in the off season and peak season, especially during the holidays. The number of visitors hit 80,000 a day during the National Day holidays in 2018, placing huge pressure on reception staff.

As part of a more fluid ticketing system, admission tickets carrying the visitor’s name will be available through an online booking system from June 1. It is similar to the “real-name” ticketing system used at the Palace Museum which encourages visitors to book in advance online.

Visitors, including individuals and group tours, will be able to purchase the admission ticket seven days in advance using a valid ID or passport. Tickets will be restricted to one per identity document.

“This is not the first time that a scenic spot has adopted online ticketing, and it will reduce waiting time and provide a more comfortable experience for the visitors,” said Song Rui, director of the Tourism Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Online ticket bookings are available on the official website, ticket.badaling.cn. Visitors can also follow the WeChat account of the Badaling Great Wall for more ticket information.

Local tourists can access the Great Wall with their ID cards. Foreign tourists can redeem printed electronic tickets at the service window near the gate with the online reservation certificate then enter the Great Wall with the printed ticket.

As a symbol of Chinese culture and a world cultural heritage spot, Badaling is by far the most popular section of the ancient defensive barrier, attracting millions of tourists from home and abroad every year.

A senior official from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that China’s air and water quality improved last year, but the government must maintain its efforts to fight pollution.

According to a bulletin on national ecology and environment released on Wednesday, of 338 cities measured, on average, 79.3 percent of days had good air quality, a 1.3 percentage point increase year-on-year.

The average density of PM2.5 was 39 micrograms per cubic meter, down 9.3 percent compared with the previous year.

In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster, an average 50.5 percent of days last year had good air quality, an increase of 1.2 percentage point year-on-year.

Bai Qiuyong, head of the department of ecological and environmental monitoring of the ministry, said that air quality nationwide has shown continuous improvement, which shows their methods are working.

“However, it is still a long, arduous and complicated process to combat air pollution,” he said.

The bulletin, released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and 11 other central government departments, examined all aspects of the nation’s environment from air and water quality to farmland and forest coverage, as well as weather changes and related disasters.

Surface water was also an important concern.

Water below Grade V－the lowest quality grade in China’s five-tier system－accounted for 6.7 percent of water, a year-on-year decrease of 1.6 percentage point. Water between Grade I and Grade III reached 71 percent, up 3.1 percentage points year-on-year.

To protect the Yangtze River, Bai said, they are promoting several plans to better monitor and analyze its water quality.

“First, the ministry will send monthly water quality reports and quarterly warning information to local governments to urge them to better perform their duties. The central government will add 780 monitoring spots along the river.

“Along the main stream of the Yangtze River, we will also launch drones to monitor the ecology and environment and list all the problems,” he said.

He added that the ministry plans to eliminate water below Grade V in the sections they monitor along the Yangtze River by 2020.

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However, underground water quality, especially shallow water, remains poor, the bulletin said.

It found that 70.7 percent of underground water was Grade IV, while about half of shallow underground water was classified Grade V.

BROOKVILLE — A swarm of tornadoes so tightly packed that one may have crossed the path carved by another tore across Indiana and Ohio overnight, smashing homes, blowing out windows and ending the school year early for some students because of damage to buildings. One person was killed and at least 130 were injured.

The storms were among 55 twisters that forecasters said may have touched down Monday across eight states stretching eastward from Idaho and Colorado.

Tuesday offered no respite, as a large and dangerous tornado touched down on the western edge of Kansas City, Kansas, late in the day, the National Weather Service office reported. A powerful twister also touched down in the nearby township of Pleasant Grove, Kansas, seriously damaging homes. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The past couple of weeks have seen unusually high tornado activity in the US, with no immediate end to the pattern in sight.

The winds peeled away roofs — leaving homes looking like giant dollhouses — knocked houses off their foundations, toppled trees, brought down power lines and churned up so much debris that it was visible on radar. Highway crews had to use snowplows to clear an Ohio interstate.

Some of the heaviest damage was reported just outside Dayton, Ohio.

“I just got down on all fours and covered my head with my hands,” said Francis Dutmers, who with his wife headed for the basement of their home in Vandalia, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside Dayton, when the storm hit with a “very loud roar” Monday night. The winds blew out windows around his house, filled rooms with debris and took down most of his trees.

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United States government restrictions on Huawei are generating ripple effects that have gone beyond commercial circles and are now entering academia.

On Wednesday, Qbitai.com reported that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s largest technical professional organization, has banned Huawei employees from peer-reviewing its research papers. The move follows the US restrictions on Huawei that forbid the Chinese firm from accessing US technology without special government approval.

Qbitai published screenshots of emails that the IEEE sent to its members, detailing that Huawei colleagues can’t peer-review any papers until restrictions on the company are removed.

The US accused Huawei of posing risks to its national security. Huawei has repeatedly denied the accusations and said the charges were not supported by factual evidence.

Huawei and the IEEE did not immediately reply to requests for comment, but such reports have triggered opposition from Chinese academic circles and netizens.

Zhang Haixia, a professor at Peking University and a 20-year IEEE member, expressed her strong opposition in an open letter on Wednesday and said she decided to step down from editorial boards at the IEEE.

“As an old friend and senior IEEE member, I’m really shocked to hear that the IEEE is involved in the US’ Huawei ban by replacing all reviewers from Huawei, which is far beyond the basic line of science and technology,” she wrote in the letter.

“During the past 20 years, I worked together with many scientists, like you, in IEEE societies, journals, conferences and events because we all believe that the IEEE is an international society, and doesn’t belong just to the US or some other parties,” Zhang wrote.

“But, today, this message from the IEEE about replacing all reviewers from Huawei in IEEE journals challenges my professional integrity. I have to say that, as a professor, I don’t accept this. Therefore, I have decided to quit from IEEE editorial boards until it returns to professional integrity.”

Zhang confirmed to China Daily that some of her friends in the US have received such emails from the IEEE. She said she believed that the IEEE made such a decision because of external pressure or for political reasons.

“They (the IEEE) didn’t openly issue the ban, because it’s a shame,” she said. “This not only crosses my own bottom line, but also that of scientists in China and around the world.”

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the telecom industry association Information Consumption Alliance, said the move shows that the US restrictions on Huawei harm global scientific cooperation.

Chinese netizens also expressed strong opposition to the IEEE move. A netizen named Ta said: “Such a practice defies all logic. When nobody challenges the US, science has no boundaries; but when somebody does, science is the US weapon against others.”

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Beijing on Wednesday set up a 5 billion yuan ($724 million) fund to spur development of the fifth-generation or 5G mobile technology industry, its latest effort to gain an edge in the commercialization of 5G tech.

The fund was established jointly by the Beijing Science and Technology Innovation Investment Management Co Ltd, Beijing Yizhuang International Investment and Development Co Ltd and State-owned China Jianyin Investment Ltd. It will focus on investing in leading high-tech firms across the entire 5G industrial chain.

“At present, 5G has become the driving force to boost China’s innovative and high-quality development,” Sui Zhenjiang, vice-mayor of Beijing, said on Wednesday during a 5G industrial development and investment summit held in Yizhuang, in southeastern Beijing.

“Beijing is actively transforming itself as a national scientific and technological innovation center. With advantages in complete telecom infrastructure, abundant talent and strong research and development capabilities, we have the resolve to accelerate the push for making breakthroughs in 5G technologies and build an independent and innovative 5G industrial system,” Sui said.

As of May 24, the three major telecom operators－China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom－have established 4,700 5G base stations in Beijing, according to Wang Gang, head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.

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Wang said by the end of this year, 5G network construction will cover the area within the Fifth Ring Road in the city.

The Beijing municipal government plans to invest at least 30 billion yuan by 2022 to build 5G networks, according to a 5G development plan released in January. In Beijing’s road map for 5G development from 2019 to 2022, the municipal government has set a goal to develop its 5G-related industry to realize an income of 200 billion yuan by 2022.

The city said it hopes that by 2022, Beijing-based scientific research units and enterprises can be a key contributor to global 5G technical standards, accounting for more than 5 percent of all primary and essential international 5G patents.

Huang Jianjun, vice-president of China Jianyin Investment Ltd, said 5G technologies have been deeply integrated with artificial intelligence, big data, the internet of things and other emerging technologies, ushering in a new era of internet of everything and deep interaction between humans and machines.

“The 5G tech will not only improve the way people live and work, but also accelerate China’s social digital transformation as well as build key competence amid the uphill battle in the global industry,” Huang said.

“There are huge investment opportunities for 5G industries, including materials, chips, main equipment suppliers, base stations, antenna, cloud computing, internet of vehicles and the internet of things,” Huang said. “5G will bring historic opportunities for China’s economic and social development.”

A new 5G research institute has also been established in Yizhuang, Beijing on Wednesday.

According to a new report by Global System for Mobile Communications Association, China is set to become the largest 5G market in the globe, with 460 million 5G users by 2025.

Alejandra García, better known by her stage name La Toquilla, captivated Chinese audiences with rhythmic Ecuadorian music and her magnetic, high-pitched voice at Beijing’s arts hub 798 Art Zone on Sunday, performing with producer and guitarist Agni Durden and guitarist Mario Gutierrez.

They are national musical stars in Ecuador, this is however their debut in China.

The performance reached its climax when Chinese cellist Zhang Bo took to the stage of the Rose Bud Arts Center, joining them in performing Vasija de Barro (Clay Pot)- a representative song of the Ecuadorian folk rhythm danzante.

It depicts the age-old Ecuadorian ritual of burying ashes of ancestors in clay pots to memorialize the deceased, an essential part of Ecuadorian culture. The lyric reads, “I want to be buried like our ancestors, in the comfortable and dim confines of a clay pot…”

Their bow in Beijing consisted of three shows from May 24 to 26, each 40 minutes long. The set list covered classics like Vasija de Barro, La Bocina and Palomita Errante (Wandering Pigeon), as well as a new romantic song written by Agni Durder, Hermoso Ser (Beautiful One).

Also featured at the three-day Latin American and Caribbean Carnival were artists from more than 10 other Latin American countries. The carnival was part of the 2019 Meet in Beijing Arts Festival.

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UNITED NATIONS – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ special envoy for the upcoming Climate Summit said on Tuesday that the reaction from countries coming to the meeting is positive.

“We are quite optimistic because the reaction that we have had since the secretary-general called for this summit is quite positive,” said the envoy, Luis Alfonso de Alba.

“We have 18 countries which are co-leading the coalitions and more than 40 countries which are actively participating in those coalitions identifying concrete actions which could be presented at the summit,” the envoy said. “They have all agreed with the shift from negotiation to implementation.”

The participating countries are all very much encouraged by the fact that the United Nations would be focusing much more on supporting implementation on the ground, said de Alba. “I think the trend is quite positive.”

He explained that governments went to Paris and agreed to increase efforts to combat climate change by keeping the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and if possible limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.

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There were 195 countries and the European Union attending and the accord was adopted unanimously in December 2015.

It is an old story, more than 4.5 billion years old.

Eight celestial bodies, each with their own distinct personality, born together and battling the violence of our early solar system, vying for their own survival and thriving to become stable planets.

Geological epochs come and go, entire atmospheres are formed and lost, and the planets themselves even begin to alter course. Thanks to a new documentary made by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, it’s all vividly portrayed with groundbreaking special effects and computer-generated imagery more akin to that of big-budget sci-fi movies.

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The Planets, a five-part series that made its global debut on Wednesday, was coproduced by Tencent Video and released in China via the company’s streaming video platform.

An online thematic broadcast plan called “Star Travel Season” was recently launched by Tencent Video to enhance the Chinese public’s interest in astronomy. Other than The Planets, a series of space-themed documentaries, including Mars and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, both made by the National Geographic Channel, and the BBC’s Wonders of the Universe, have been broadcast or are due to air.

“The series tells the story of planetary evolution,” Gideon Bradshaw, producer of The Planets, says during an interview with China Daily following a prescreening in Beijing. “If you look at the whole time span, you’ll find spectacular drama there. We give them (the planets) personalities.”

For example, Earth and Mars are portrayed as sisters sharing a similar environment during childhood. However, when they reach adolescence, Earth escaped the overbearing clutches of their father, the Sun, to become a nurturing mother, while the less fortunate Mars did not, becoming barren and unwelcoming.

Jupiter, the oldest planet, is like “the Godfather”, who demands respect and wields power and influence. It would have obliterated every rocky planet, including Earth, on its journey to the Sun, were it not for its tussle with Saturn.

Bradshaw explains that the team’s approach to the production was similar to how Pixar makes its animated films.

In an era where nearly everyone has access to photography, taking photos can offer a fresh perspective on the world and life around us.

An exhibition featuring 70 photographs by dramatist Stan Lai, poet Yu Jian, painter Duan Zhengqu and music producer Zhang Yadong, opened Tuesday at the Chinese Photography Gallery.

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Teenager Xu hopes to reignite career in Japanese league

If you can’t beat’em, join ’em.

That’s a strategy that “Itchy” Xu Guiyuan hopes will prolong his dream of playing professional baseball.

After being released by MLB’s Baltimore Orioles last month, on Monday Xu signed with the Kochi Fighting Dogs of Japan’s Shikoku Island League Plus at the MLB Development Center in Nanjing.

“Playing in the Shikoku League will be huge in terms of developing my career,” said Xu. “I will try my best to quickly adapt to my new team and new league.”

The 19-year-old left-handed outfielder/first baseman inked a minor league deal with the Orioles in July 2015, becoming the first graduate of MLB’s three development centers in China to sign a pro contract with a US team.

Xu played two seasons in the Florida-based rookie Gulf Coast League and earned a promotion to Aberdeen in the Class A New York-Penn league last summer. He’s a gifted fielder with an outstanding throwing arm, but never found his batting rhythm.

In 174 plate appearances in North America, Xu hit just .207, with 51 strikeouts and 21 RBI.

“I have experienced two years of American training, competition and culture, so the chance to play in Japan will be something totally new for me,” said Xu, who idolizes retired future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, who is now a coach with the Seattle Mariners.

“After learning the American way, I think Japanese baseball can provide great benefits for me. Ichiro is my idol, and playing in his homeland only doubles my inspiration.”

Established in 2005, the Fighting Dogs play home games at Kochi Stadium in Kochi City of Kochi Prefecture.

Hiroaki Sakaguchi, board chairman of the Shikoku Island League Plus, said it wasn’t long after the league’s first contact with Xu that both sides knew he would be a good fit.

“From a technical point of view, Japanese baseball is more mechanical than what he is used to. Pitchers throw everything from fastballs and sliders to changeups, which translates into more hits and more work for the outfielders.

“But we know Xu is a good player. He has succeeded at different levels, and we believe he will adapt to our league very quickly.”

Sakaguchi said his league is endeavoring to forge a closer relationship with MLB China’s development centers and there will be more scouting of DC graduates with the aim of bringing them to Japan.

“This is merely the start. We’re committed to building a closer relationship with Chinese baseball. It’s more about building an Asian baseball scene and building strength relating to the baseball community in the region.

“This is a great start for building that relationship, and we hope that eventually it will translate into more Chinese players coming into the Shikoku League.”

Total development

China’s scarcity of baseball fields and relative indifference to the sport make Xu something of an underdog, but Rick Dell, general manager of baseball development for MLB Asia Pacific, thinks that situation will soon change.

“Over the past decade, more and more facilities have been built and more and more Chinese are playing the game,” said Dell.

The Milwaukee Brewers signed three Chinese players earlier this year, bringing MLB’s total from the Chinese mainland to seven. All are graduates of MLB China’s development centers.

MLB established its first DC at Dongbeitang Middle School in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, in 2009. Two more have been built in Changzhou and Nanjing.

The three centers are home for about 100 student athletes aged 12-19 with demonstrated baseball talent.

The MLB development program has proved successful on and off the field, with six grads signed to MLB minor league contracts, 22 signed with teams in the Chinese Baseball League and six being called up to the national team.

The program also offers accelerated high school education and boasts 37 individuals who have reached graduate school at Chinese universities and eight who are now attending US universities.

“The MLB China development centers are not simply a place to manufacture baseball players but education-based facilities dedicated to the total development of student athletes in a family environment,” said Dell.

MLB’s PlayBall! youth league, inaugurated in 2008 and now into its 12th season, is the highest level youth baseball league in the country. The program has reached nearly 200 elementary schools nationwide, and more than 1.2 million students have been exposed to the sport through the program.

“The thing I am most proud of is diversity. We have grown from all four corners of China and have recruited what we think are the best students athletes from Qinghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen… all over the country,” said Dell.

“We have become the focal point of baseball education in Asia, with 22 countries and Olympic representatives visiting our development centers to learn to play and fall in love with the game.

“We will continue to do what we’ve been doing, and continue to do our best to grow baseball all over Asia.”

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