Tag Archives: China

China seizes 30,000 tons of chicken feet tainted by hydrogen peroxide

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հավի տոտիկներIn the latest stomach-churning food scandal to hit China, authorities have seized over 30,000 tons of chicken feet contaminated with hydrogen peroxide, according to state media.

Thirty eight people have been arrested on charges of producing the tainted items, while 11 suspects remain at large.

The chemical, which causes vomiting and other stomach problems if consumed, may have been used to give the chicken feet a whiter, cleaner appearance.

A report by official news agency Xinhua said the tainted items were first discovered in Yongjia County in Zhejiang, eastern China. A subsequent investigation revealed hydrogen peroxide was being used in nine factories in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, and Guangdong, affecting several well-known brands of chicken feet sold in stores.

Chicken feet are popular in China, where they are often available as a packaged snack. However, this is not the first time the item has found itself at the center of a safety scare.

In July 2013, police confiscated 20 tons of badly expired chicken feet from a frozen meat warehouse — some of the feet were reportedly 46 years old.

 

Report: Dozens killed, injured in China terror attack

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A gang wielding knives and axes attacked civilians, a police station, government offices and smashed vehicles in a restive region of China, the country’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday, citing local police.

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The incident — called an “organized and premeditated” terror attack — occurred Monday in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Police officers at the scene shot dead dozens of people in the mob. Thirty-one cars were vandalized, including six that were set ablaze.

It was not immediately known how many people were killed and injured.

The location, Shache County, is where nine people authorities describe as terrorists attacked a police station, hurled explosives and torched police cars in December. Police shot and killed eight people in that attack.

There have been other attacks in the region in recent months.

 

Would YOU want to land here? China chops top off mountain for an airport with nail-bitingly terrifying runway… 2,000ft above sea level

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Հեչի քաղաք

This is a new airport runway set to open in China next month.

Chinese architects levelled several mountain tops to build the spectacular £80m development in Hechi, a city in China’s southern Guangxi province.

Engineers managed to slice off the mountain tops to create a 1.4-mile runway that will provide a spectacular if nail-biting panorama for arriving passengers.

The airport, which is 2,200ft above sea level and has only one terminal and one runway, is so narrow that it can only accommodate three flights an hour – compared to the number that the mainland’s busiest airports handle on an hourly basis which is 20 times that.

Hechi is located in north-western Guangxi on the southern end of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, which is home to about four million people.

In the past, getting to Hechi required flying to the Liangjiang International Airport in Guilin and then travelling by road for more than 200km.

Work on the airport began at the end of 2008 and was completed at the end of last year.

When it goes into operation next month it will be a transit stop on the sole air route between the cities Chongqing and Haikou in Hainan province. If plans for extending the operation business work out, it might also add a flight from Guangzhou in the future.

 

China sees red because the carpet rolled out at Heathrow for Premier Li was 10ft too short

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang

When the Chinese premier visited London this week he was greeted with an honour guard, a Downing Street reception and a meeting with the Queen.

But one aspect of Li Keqiang’s welcome fell somewhat short in the eyes of Chinese officials – the red carpet rolled out for his arrival at Heathrow.

After plans for Mr Li’s visit were shown to the Beijing government, aides complained that the carpet leading from the steps of his plane was not long enough.

The objection was raised with Ed Llewellyn, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, but he is said to have told the Chinese official he had other things to worry about.

Mr Li is said to have demanded to meet the Queen, who welcomed him to Windsor Castle, despite the fact that it is relatively unusual for her to receive world leaders who are not heads of state.

Later he went to Downing Street for lunch with the Prime Minister and business leaders where he was served a Chinese-themed menu including claypot chicken in a savoury sauce with shiitake mushrooms.

China’s Foreign Ministry yesterday played down the diplomatic row over the length of the red carpet.

 

 

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China to Take 6 Million Older Vehicles off Roads

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China’s government plans to take 6 million older, polluting vehicles off the road this year in an effort to revive stalled progress toward cleaning up smog-choked cities.

The plan also calls for filling stations in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities to switch to selling only the cleanest grades of gasoline and diesel, according to a Cabinet statement issued Monday.

The order comes after China failed to meet official pollution-reduction goals for 2011-2013, the statement said. It said vehicles registered before 2005 that fail to meet cleaner emissions standards will be “phased out,” though it did not say how.

It called the country’s environmental situation “extremely grim.”

China’s major cities are smothered in eye-searing smog. The country has some of the world’s strictest emissions standards, but authorities have refrained from enforcing them until now to avoid forcing older, pollution-belching trucks off the road and hurting small businesses.

China has about 240 million vehicles on the road, and half are passenger cars, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

 

Week of Flooding in Southern China Kills 37

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Չինաստան, ջրհեղեղներ

Flooding over the past week in China’s south has killed 37 people, left six missing, and forced almost half a million people from their homes, the government said Monday.

The seasonal rains have fallen especially hard on the country’s manufacturing hub of Guangdong province near Hong Kong, where 17 of the deaths were reported.

At least 25,000 homes have been destroyed by the flood waters and at least 440,000 people have been displaced, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement on its website.

More thunderstorms were forecast for Guangdong on Tuesday.

China’s worst floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4,150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River, China’s mightiest.

 

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The Great Wall of… Lonely Hearts ads: Weekly marriage market in China sees parents post notices advertising their single sons and daughters (including how much they earn)

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Չինաստան, ամուսնությունների շուկա

 

It could be a missing persons wall set up after a natural disaster or even some kind of art installation.

But these rows upon rows of flyers are actually part of a marriage market where Chinese parents come to find prospective husbands and wives for their children.

Every Saturday and Sunday between noon and 5pm, regardless of the weather, the People’s Park in Shanghai is crowded with mothers and fathers studying the Lonely Hearts messages that adorn the grounds.

On the walls of the avenues, on trees and on washing lines, hundreds of resumes are hung by parents often without the knowledge of their children.

On them they reveal the vital statistics of their offspring, including their height, age, income, education, Chinese zodiac sign and whether they own a car or an apartment.

The parents walk around chatting with other parents to see if there is a match only after their children’s standards are met.

Shanghai marriage market is like online dating in a non-virtual setting.

Although the right to choose your own spouse has long been established in China, Chinese parents still feel the need to try and set their children up because they feel that their children are either too busy or are not actively looking.

The Shanghai marriage market is just one of several such open-sky marriage markets in China and despite the thousands of parents that visit the market over a weekend, success rate remains low.

 

 

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Eighteen dead and three injured after heavy rain causes a wall to collapse at a factory in China and crush a house where workers were sheltering

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Չինաստան,փլուզում

 

A wall collapsed onto a house full of of Chinese workers, killing 18 of them and injuring three more.

The workers, from the recycling plant in Qingdao, eastern China, had taken shelter in the house to escape heavy rain, according to state media.

But the storm was so fierce that it waterlogged the ground around the house, causing a nearby wall, which was holding back tonnes of earth, to collapse on top of it.

According to the Xinhua news agency, 40 people were gathered in the house at the time of the collapse earlier today.

The Qingdao government information office said that authorities were investigating the collapse.

China’s eastern coastal and southern regions have been drenched by heavy rains in recent days.

 

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China considers building a rail link to AMERICA: 8,000-mile journey would take less than two days and involve going through 125-mile undersea tunnel to Alaska

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արագընթաց երկաթուղ

 

China is considering building an 8,000-mile high-speed rail link to America that would take less than two days to travel.

Travelling at around 217mph, the train would leave the north east of the country, run through Siberia and enter a 125-mile tunnel under the Bering Strait, the shortest crossing between Russia and Alaska.

It would then resurface and head south through Canada, before reaching its destination in the US.

It is unclear whether the American, Canadian or Russian governments have agreed to the proposals.

If completed, it would be 2,300 miles longer than the Trans-Siberian Railway, making it the longest train route in the world.

Even though the plans haven not been finalised, it is believed the project would be developed and financed by the Chinese, who have become global leaders in high-speed rail travel.

 

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At least 10 tigers butchered in ‘visual treat’ in China to entertain officials and rich businessmen

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վագրեր

 

At least ten tigers have been butchered in China in front of rich businessmen and officials who ordered the killings for entertainment – and to show off their wealth – it’s been reported.

The animals, which are protected by law, were slaughtered in Zhanjiang city in the country’s Guangdong province and police have arrested 15 people over the killings, which they said first began in 2006.

The suspects could face the death penalty if found guilty.

One male suspect, aged 61, apparently died while leaping from a building in a desperate attempt to escape a police raid on March 19, according to Ecns.com.

The tigers were killed simply as entertainment for officials and businessmen, and as a way of flaunting wealth, according to China Daily.

WWF said there there may only be 3,200 wild tigers left in the world – and just 50 in China.

One scientist said that tigers will always be in danger if Chinese people continue to believe that their parts have health benefits.

 

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China sells BOTTLED AIR to tourists as smog described as ‘environmental crisis’

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Oxygen Bunnies-china

 

China is offering a breath of fresh air to tourists affected by its high pollution levels – with plans to sell bottles of oxygen.

In an attempt to address its dangerous smog levels – described as an environmental crisis by the World Health Organisation – canned air is due to hit the streets.

The bottles of air will to be manufactured as part of a tourism scheme by authorities in the southwestern Guizhou province.

Air from the area’s eco-tourism zones such as Fanjing and Leigong mountains will be bottled, and on the shelves to be sold from June 20.

Costumed characters called Oxygen Babies have been giving away bottles, which are filled with air collected at the Tianmu mountain scenic spot in the county of Linan in Zhejiang province.

They are expected to tour the country, promoting to the new products, which are currently free of charge, and were pictured in the city of Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang province.

 

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The great haul of China: Huge wall of cash worth £1.3million set to be distributed to villagers who all have a stake in business co-operative

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չինացի գյուղացիներ

 

Villagers built a great wall of cash in China after their cooperative stacked up huge profits.

The giant wads worth 13 million yuan (£1.3million) in total were laid out in a 2m tall ‘money wall’ at Jianshe village in the Lianshan municipality, in south-west China’s Sichuan province.

Several residents even slept on the notes overnight to guard them from thieves before the end of year bonuses were distributed the following day.

 

չինացի գյուղացիներ

Yang Huai, who received 200,000 yuan, said it had been a custom in the village since 2010 to distribute the bonus in cash before the Chinese New Year.

Some 340 out of a total number of 483 households are the shareholders of a rural cooperative established that year, which profits from pig farms, cherry orchards, and its investment in four small scale hydropower plants in Sichuan, said a village official surnamed Zhu.

The villagers are guaranteed an annual bonus, despite villagers not being directly involved in the cooperative’s daily operations.

 

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More than a dozen die in stampede at religious event in China

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Չինաստան, կրոնական միջոցառում,զոհեր

 

A stampede at a religious gathering in northwestern China left 14 dead and 10 others injured on Sunday, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua has reported, citing local government.

The incident is still under investigation, but Xinhua’s initial report said the stampede occurred during the handing out of food at an event to commemorate a late religious figure in a mosque in Guyuan, a city in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The injured victims were hospitalized. Four people are in critical condition, Xinhua reported.

 

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China’s giant frozen castle built entirely from ICE: Enormous structure that towers over construction crane forms centrepiece of annual snow festival

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Չինաստան, սառույց, դղյակ, 20 հարկանի շենք

 

These pictures show an enormous frozen castle – built entirely from ice – created for the 30th Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.

The remarkable tower, which is at least 26 metres high and measures around 20 storeys, is one of the main attractions at the festival – which sees thousands of tourists flock to the city of Harbin, near the China and Russian border, every year.

According to event organisers, 10,000 people were employed to complete hundreds of ice and snow sculptures at the event – some areas of which are already open to the public.
Some measure more than 26 metres tall and 117 metres wide. Overall, the whole site is well over 600,000 sq metres.

All in all, about 180,000 square metres of ice and 150,000 square metres of snow will be used to complete all the works.

Come the New Year tourists will be able enjoy the artwork for themselves in addition to the Ice Lantern Garden Party, skiing, figure skating and theatre performances.

Visitors may also wish to visit the event’s Siberian Tiger Park or perhaps watch fishing, swimming and diving performances on the frozen river.
Others may wish to enjoy a tipple in the event’s ice bar.

Harbin’s festival is one of world’s four largest international ice festivals, along with Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’s Quebec Winter Carnival, and Norway’s Ski Festival.

It starts annually on January 5 and lasts usually to the end of February, weather permitting.

 

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China bans shark fin dishes at official banquets

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Չինաստան, շնաձկան լողակներ,ճաշատեսակներ

 

China has banned dishes containing delicacies like shark fin and and bird’s nest from official banquets as part of a government crackdown on official extravagance.

Chinese authorities published new regulations that “explicitly ruled out dishes containing shark fins, bird nests and wild animal products in official reception dinners,” the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

 

Չինաստան, շնաձկան լողակներ,ճաշատեսակներ

Xinhua also said that cigarettes and up-market liquors are not allowed to be served at official dinners and officials below provincial level should not stay in hotel suites on business trips.

The new rules aim to “regulate the use of public funding on receptions,” Xinhua added.

President Xi Jinping has made tackling official corruption a priority since taking power earlier this year.

Some hotels in Hong Kong and China have also removed shark’s fin soup from their menus and airlines like, Cathay Pacific, have banned the product from cargo holds.

Up to 73 million sharks are estimated to be killed each year, according to a 2006 academic study quoted on the website of campaign group Hong Kong Shark Foundation.

 

Pipeline explosion kills 22 in China, report says

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Չինաստան,պայթյուն

 

An oil pipeline exploded Friday in eastern China, killing at least 22 people, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Authorities were still trying to determine the number of those injured, after the pipeline caught fire near the port city of Qingdao, about 300 miles north of Shanghai.

The oil line sprung a leak in the pre-dawn hours, Xinhua said, citing the city government. The oil flow was cut off, and workers went out to repair the breach. The explosion occurred in the late morning.

The pipeline, which is 176 kilometers (109 miles) long, belongs to Chinese petroleum giant Sinopec and connects the oil port to chemical plants further inland.

Maritime authorities are checking the coastline for possible oil leaks, Xinhua said. None have been reported so far.

 

China abolishes its labour camps and finally eases its one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child

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China eases its one-child policy

 

China will loosen its decades-old one-child policy and abolish a much-criticised labour camp system, its ruling Communist Party said.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the party announced the changes in a policy document on Friday following a key, four-day meeting of party leaders that ended on Tuesday in Beijing.

Under the new family-planning rules, couples can have two children if one of the parents is an only child.

China’s one-child policy currently limits most urban couples to one child and allows two children for rural families if their first-born is a girl.

Other exceptions previously also included allowing two children for parents who are themselves both singletons.

The Chinese government credits the one-child policy introduced in 1980 with preventing hundreds of millions of births and helping lift countless families out of poverty.

Couples who flout the rules face hefty fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs.

 

Villagers in South China Turn on Police; 27 Hurt

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china-protesters

 

Villagers in southern China attacked policemen who were seeking a pair of suspects, injuring 27 officers, state media said Wednesday.

The injured officers were hospitalized in the Yunnan provincial capital of Kunming, including one in critical condition, the Xinhua News Agency said.

The violence took place after police traveled to the province’s Jincheng township on Tuesday looking for two people suspected of illegal detention and intentional injury, Xinhua said.

As the officers were leaving the area, about 200 residents blocked the highway in the village of Guangji, surrounding 11 officers and three police vehicles and preventing them from leaving.

Xinhua said the last 13 officers held were unable to leave the village until Wednesday afternoon. It said no injuries among villagers were reported and made no mention of arrests.

It wasn’t clear why the villagers were angered or what was behind the alleged crimes the two suspects were being sought for.

 

Tibetan monk who helped bring Buddhism to West murdered in China

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tibet-monastery

 

A high-profile monk who played a key role in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West has been murdered in southwest China, police say.

Tarap Shetrup Akong, who has British citizenship , was killed along with his nephew and another man in Sichuan province on Tuesday, police in the provincial capital Chengdu said on their official account on the microblogging site Weibo.

Police said that three suspects have been captured, and that the victims were stabbed in a financial dispute.

Akong was born in Tibet in 1940 and left for exile in 1959. He founded a monastery called Samye Ling in a secluded part of Scotland.

Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University in New York, said that he was known for his social as much as spiritual work.

“The bulk of his life’s work was on providing social welfare to villagers, rural communities, townspeople, nomads and monasteries in Tibet and other countries.”

Barnett said that he had great diplomatic skill and was able to maintain relationships with high-level Chinese officials without compromising his work with Tibetans on the ground.

 

10 killed, 2 rescued in China coal mine flooding

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china-miners-rescuedTwo miners trapped underground for 10 days in a flooded coal mine have been rescued, China’s state-run CCTV reported.

But the bodies of 10 others have also been found.

The accident September 28 occurred when 42 miners were working in the Zhengsheng coal mine in northern China’s Shanxi province, according to CCTV. Thirty workers were pulled out of the shaft immediately after the accident.

More than 850 rescuers, 20 pumps and four drilling machines embarked on the rescue operation, CCTV said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.