CN11-0109FRIDAY JUNE 1 2001 HTTP://WWW.YNET.COM

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Ups and downs of lifePage 9

Exploring the Wild Great Wall Page 16

Return of an Ancient Warrior Page 8

NO. 4

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: PANG LEI

By Zhao Hongyi

By Su Nan

To a une the count o n en s at China s share ar ets Photo by hen Shuyi

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin said Monday that Rus-sian-Chinese cooper-ation is developing successfully at the mo-ment. “I am glad to say that my friend, Chinese lead-er Jiang emin and I un-froze relations between our countries. This coop-eration is now success-

fully developing under the guidance of Vladimir Putin and Jiang emin,” Yeltsin told the Russian ORT televi-sion channel arriving in Beijing for a holiday at the invitation of President Jiang.

He saw President Jiang on Monday in a governmental residence. Yeltsin, accompanied by wife aina and daugh-ter Tatiana, were staying at the Di-aoyutai State Guest house in Beijing.

Yeltsin said he hopes to go sightsee-ing around China, something he had no time to do during previous state vis-its. He planned to travel to Dalian.

Yeltsin, “Lao Ye” in Chinese, will also undergo a 12-day health regimen in China, using traditional Chinese medical methodologies.

Xinhua

Today, June 1, the countdown ends at China’s B-share markets. The ignition turns this morning as foreign currency savings deposited after Feb. 19 become available for B-share trading. Most analysts predict a B-share blast-off.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission had announced on Feb. 19 that domestic resi-dents were allowed to open B-share accounts and engage in B-share trading with legally held foreign currencies. But that only applied to Chi-nese foreign-currency savings before Feb. 19. The rest of China with foreign currency in their pockets would have to wait.

The B-share market had been previously re-served for foreign investors only.

Expectations of today’s soaring B-share mar-kets have already fueled the markets, with lec-tures, seminars and consultations opening in the market and advertised in professional news-papers, magazines.

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has already cut the interest rates on for-eign currencies five times this year. This is be-lieved to be driving a total of $100 billion-plus private foreign currency of the country towards the simmering B-share market.

Analysts prefer to remain upbeat, taking a conservative but optimistic attitude towards B-share market development after June 1. The opening up of the markets, they say, is a positive step for creating healthier B-share markets.

“B-share markets are the latest places where investors can hope to double their gains from in-vestment,” said economist Xiao Zhuoji.

“But the expectation for a rapid soaring B-share market is not realistic at all. In the fore-seeable future, parallel links between the prices of the A-share markets and B-share markets are quite possible. But a merger of the two markets is unrealistic.”

Four basic factors, says Xiao, will determine the development of China’s B-share markets.

First, the further opening of the B-share mar-kets is inevitable and will affect the growth of the markets from time to time.

Second, the familiar fluctuations between A-share markets and B-share markets will contin-ue in the near future.

Third, there are unpredictable factors influ-encing the B-share markets, including the vola-tile conversion rates and savings deposit interest rates for foreign currencies, different investment principals and investment mechanisms for for-eign and domestic investors.

Fourth, the limited investment channels and resources for foreign currencies within the coun-try will also constrain a rapid and soaring growth in the B-share markets.

Tourists can still visit the Forbidden City even as China’s largest stage is con-structed ready for the Three Tenors and a record of 0,000 concertgoers.

Chen Junqi, Forbidden City museum director assured reporters each and ev-ery brick of the World Heritage site will be protected when Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras per-form at the Meridian Gate Square on Saturday, June 2 .

Twenty-four hours a day for one week, museum authorities will watch over the

entire process of construction to ensure the former imperial palace remains un-damaged despite the throng.

Metal equipment will not be allowed to come into contact with the ground, meaning most of the auditorium will be paved with wooden tiles, although some carpeting will be rolled out for the vari-ous VIPs.

The nearly 00 square-meter stage area, 8 meters wide, will be the largest in the country’s history so far, according to incomplete statistics. It includes a per-formance area, lighting, backstage make-up room, office and dining room.

B-Share MarketsSet to Boom?

Beijing Mayor Liu i said Monday that

the city is expecting more multinationals to set up research and de-velopment centers in Beijing.The mayor said this at a meeting with Oka-

mura Tadashi, president of Japanese Toshiba and his party.

Liu said that international compa-nies have set up their own research and development centers in the Chi-nese capital for further cooperation and business advancement.

Beijing is speeding up the devel-opment of its new and high-tech in-dustries, which contributed to a large proportion of the city’s 11 percent eco-nomic growth rate last year.

Okamura said the company is plan-ning to promote its Beijing lab, found-ed last April, to be one of the overseas technical centers following those in the nited ingdom and the nited States.

Toshiba has set up 20 joint ven-tures and wholly-owned enterprises in China since 1991, with a total in-vestment of 6 billion yuan ( 2 mil-lion S dollars) and more than 10,000 employees.

Xinhua

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He hopes to go sightseeing around China, something he had no time to do during previous state visits

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Many international companies have set up their own research and develop-ment centers in Beijing

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Photo by hen Shuyi

2 JUNE 1 2001E-mail: liufeng@ynet.com EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: LI SHI

TRENDS动 态

By Yang Xiao/Ivy Zhang

By Zhao Hongyi

The International Monetary Fund, the economic planning and advisory wing of the nited

ations, released its annual World Economic Outlook for the year 2001 recently, placing Chi-na’s economic growth at .0 , the highest among the 180 plus economic entities it surveyed.

“With the slowdown of the .S. economy and other devel-

oped economies, as a result of the falling of the telecom and information technology indus-tries, the overall global economy is on the brink of stagnation, but not a recession,” said Mr. Michael Mussa, the economic counselor and director of the research department of the IMF. Mr. Mussa is also the chief coor-dinator for the 2001 World Eco-nomic Outlook report.

In general, the forecast for

world economic growth has been cut a full percentage point to .2 percent. For the nited States, which has been the mainstay of global expansion in the past decade, growth is forecast to be only 1.5 percent, down from almost 5 percent last year and from an earlier forecast of over percent for this year.

Asked by journalists to com-ment on Chinas economic perfor-mance, Mr. Mussa said that China

has the highest growth forecast of virtually any country, at percent, which is quite significant.

Based on the fact that all the economic indicators drafted and used by the IMF are based on a PPP, or Purchasing Power Parity-based exchange rate index, one of the consequences derived is that China’s weight in the global mea-sure is about 11 percent of world GDP, and Japan’s weight is about 6.5 percent of GDP. China, by that

measure, is roughly half the size of the .S. economy, and Japan is less than a third.

“If we use instead market exchange rates, the situation is very different, said Mr. Mussa. “At market exchange rates, the Chinese economy is 10 percent the size of the .S. economy, not half the size, and the Japanese economy is about half as big as the .S. economy, not a third as big.”

On May 0, the first group of .S.-China Youth Exchange delegates from the nited States arrived in China. There are nine students and two teach-ers from Phoenix’s Central High School. They are on their way to Shude o. 9 Middle School in Chengdu, Sichuan Province to study with students and teachers there and live with Chinese families.

This exchange program has long been in the making. In 1998, President Jiang emin met with then .S. President Bill Clinton. They signed an agreement regarding civilian and educational exchanges. It was then that the Bureau of Edu-cational and Cultural Exchanges Youth Programs Division of the .S. Department of State began looking for a partner to develop a meaningful and creative youth exchange program. IEAR (Inter-national Educational And Resource etwork) was chosen to be this partner. IEAR is the world’s largest non-profit educational network consisting

of students and teachers in 9 countries in over 5,000 schools.

There are a number of other student exchange programs currently operating in China. Like IEAR , AFS, or the American Field Service spon-sors student exchanges. Founded in 19 , AFS is a non-profit volunteer-based educational organiza-tion offering exchanges in more than 50 countries around the world. In China, under the supervision and organization of CEAIE (China Education Asso-ciation for International Exchange), AFS programs have been carried out for nearly 20 years.

Ten Western teenagers will start a new academic year this August at one of three schools -- Beijing Dongzhimen Middle School, Beijing Shiyi School and Tianjin o.1 Middle School. The six American and four German students, between 15-18 years old, will join their Chinese peers in class and stay with host Chinese families for 10 months as par-ticipants of the AFS Intercultural Program.

China Ranks Topin World conomic Growth

“The Municipal Initiative for the Development of the Private Business and Economy in the Tenth Five-Year Plan” - a guide-line document for the develop-ment of private business and economy in the capital will be pro-mulgated in early June, accord-ing to sources from the Municipal Economic Planning Committee. It is believed to be the first of its kind nationwide. nder the new Ini-tiative, the municipal government will gradually cancel limitations and restrictions on the develop-ment of private economy.

The new Initiative stipulates that private business and economy will share the same treatment in terms of market access, taxation, land use, financial credits, financ-ing in the markets, as well as import export, with state owned enterprises (SOEs) and foreign invested enterprises. The munici-pal government will put emphasis on assisting the development of 50 plus private owned scientific and technological enterprise groups, encouraging private business and economy to form trans-industrial and trans-national enterprise groups in various geographic areas and with various types of owner-ships, recommending at least ten private enterprises with excellent performances to be listed on stock markets, and assisting compara-

tively large scaled private enter-prises to gain import export business rights.

The areas designated for entry and development by private busi-ness and economy are: 1. Cul-tural industry, market services, educational industry, financial and insurance industries 2. ew-high technology industry, e.g. electronic and information, bioengineering, energy saving and environment protection . Modern urbanized agricultural industry.

Trials of loan guarantee have been implementation in districts such as Chaoyang, icheng, and Shunyi. The Beijing Commercial Bank has formed a service center for small and medium sized enterprises in an effort to offer financial services to these enter-prises. The Municipal Industrial and Commercial Federation and the Municipal Private Enterprises Association, together with the financial authorities, will design and grant credit grades to private enterprises. Those in line with national industrial development priorities will be allowed to issue their enterprise bonds and shares on the market.

Meanwhile, private funds will be introduced by the government into industries like information services, financing and insurance, communications and transporta-tion, as well as others with greater market potentialities.

Deregulation toBoost Private Sector

The Beijing Municipal Government released its new “Administrative Regulations for the Pricing Structure of Commercial Housing Properties” recently, aiming at countering the excessive prices for commercial real estate in the city. The new Regulations will go into effect from June 1, 2001.

It is believed that the new Regulations will enable house buyers to better understand the structure of the commercial houses pricing system and

restrain the excessive prices and profits of the real estate industry in the city. Meanwhile, the new Regulations also adjust the related administrative fees, which is expected to lead to the reduction of the construction costs for developers and cast a positive influence on future real estate development.

The Regulations outline the following five parts as the major factors affecting house prices: 1. The developing cost of the houses to be sold, including cost for land renting, cost for land use, compensation cost for former inhabitants moving out, cost for land planning, cost for project designing, cost for construction and installation, annexed construction cost and indirectly related costs 2. In process construction costs, including management cost, financial cost and cost for sales . Taxes, e.g. VAT, tax for city maintenance and developing, tax for education . Other administrative fees

designated under related laws and regulations 5. Reasonable profits.

It is promised by the municipal government that the pricing authority will formulate and promulgate the detailed items affecting the whole prices of commercial housing properties.

The world price of gold increased sharply on May 21, by a single daily increase rate of 11 . In the London market same day, it rose to 289.5 per ounce, the highest price for the past one year. By the end of May, the price slightly dropped down to around 2 .5 per ounce, but still a little bit higher compared to the price level it used to stand in the past 12 months.

In Beijing, the gold market seems to remain quiet, even though some professionals tend to expect that the market will fluctuate in line with the world market. It is expected that if the world price of gold rise slowly, no action will be taken by the business community involved in gold transaction here. But one thing is for sure. If the price of gold continues to rise in the world market, the price in Beijing will also increase accordingly.

“The price of gold here has not yet changed,” said Mr. Wang, General Manager of the famous Caishikou Department Store in downtown Beijing, which has been involved in gold business for decades and enjoy a high reputation in this regard.

“Even though the People’s Bank of China had increased the domestic purchasing price of gold by .5 yuan per gram in accordance with the world market, this indicates only a slight rise of the production cost of domestic corporations and can not influence the business here in a short term. However, on the other hand, the current bottom-low gold price in Beijing can either be maintained in the long run,” expressed Mr. Wang with frankness, “The price of gold in Beijing is quite unique in terms of cheapness and even lower than those in Shanghai,

anjing and many other big

cities in the country. The fierce competition has led the price of gold touching the bottom line here. o one is able to signifi-cantly increase the price imme-diately.”

Prof. in Chijiang from the Central niversity of Finance and Economics analyzed that the Peo-ple’s Bank of China is preparing to open the price of gold and will gradually link the domestic price

with that in the world market. As the S Federal Reserve Board cuts the interest rate, investors have to preserve the value of gold in order to avoid the inflation. If the S economy cannot recover or

S Federal Reserve Board cuts its rate once again, the world price of gold will surely continue to increase and, in turn, stimulate the domestic gold price to rise accordingly.

Western TeenagersCome to Class in China

China has already devel-oped transgenic plant species, cloned goats and trans-planted genes into pigs, rab-bits, sheep and cows, according to an official report released Tuesday.

According to the report released by the Ministry of Sci-ence and Technology at a press conference in Beijing, that by the end of 1996, the transgenic plant species on which China had been researching reached

, concerning 10 kinds of genes.

The report said that China has been successful to clone goats by adopting the fetus somatic cell of the transgenic goat and adult somatic cell. “The rate of success is 10-20 times as many as Sheep Doly,” the report said. China has also bred pigs, rabbits and sheep of growth hormone ( GH) trans-fer. According to the report, the general rate of external source gene introduction into the ani-mals was 2.1 percent, reaching the world’s advanced level.

“China has obtained remarkable achievement in animal cloning and transgenic animals,” said the report, enti-tled “Present Status of the Chi-nese Hi-Tech Agriculture and Its Goal during the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005).” The report said that through efforts in the past decade, China has made remarkable achievements in pest and disease resistance, quality improvement, herbicide resis-tance and security control in genetic engineering of plants.

( inhua)

China on Monday welcomed a decision made by the Com-mission of the European nion to lift a ban on importing poul-try meat from China.

“This will be favorable for the further development of economic and trade relations between China and Europe and is in the interests of both sides,” said Gao Yan, spokes-woman for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC).

On May 25, the Commission of the European nion made an announcement officially lifting a ban on importing poul-try meat from China, resum-ing imports of fresh frozen poultry meat from some areas of Shandong and Shanghai. It has also approved export regis-tration of 1 poultry meat pro-cessing plants recommended by the Chinese side.

“The Chinese government welcomes the above-mentioned measures adopted by the Commission of the European

nion,” Gao said in a state-ment. She said the Chinese government attaches great importance to trade relations with the European nion. And it is of great significance to strengthen Sino-European eco-nomic and trade cooperation under the current world eco-nomic situation.

The spokeswoman said agri-cultural products are in an important position in Sino-European trade and the Chi-nese side has always believed that raising hygienic standards for food are necessary for the sake of protecting the interests of consumers.

“The Chinese side is will-ing to strengthen cooperation with the European side in this area and create a favorable environment for the two sides to expand trade of agricultural products, so as to push the development of Sino-European economic and trade relations, “ she said. ( inhua)

China Clones Scores of Plants, Pigs, Sheep, Rabbits, Cows

China Welcomes EU’s Liftingof PoultryMeat Ban

Beijing RegulatesPricing Systemfor Real Estate Industry

hen the orl price of ol increase in ei in

The MarketStayed Quiet

By Zhao Hongyi

By Zhao Hongyi

By Su Nan

The municipal government will gradually cancel limita-tions and restrictions on the development of private economy.

IMF World Economic Outlook for 2001 Forecasts 7% Growth

Photo by hen Shuyi

Photo by huang ian

DEVELOPMENTEDITOR: LIU FENG YANG XIAO DESIGNER: PANG LEIE-mail: liufeng@ynet.com

By Yang Xiao

3JUNE 1 2001

“Switzerland with heavenly views, is not far from you.” A viv-id description is seen on a big poster next to the third ring road in Beijing. The picture features Mountains and skiers.

How far is Switzerland away from ordinary Chinese people? “As China develops its economy and strengthens cooperation with Europe, we believe Switzerland will become a favorite tourist destination of Chinese people,” said hang wenjia, chief repre-sentative in China for Switzer-land Tourism.

Having great interest in the populous and rapidly developing nation, the world’s tourism mag-nates have come to China one af-ter the other to do promotions here. Switzerland is just one of the promoters.

“The battle has already begun for the world to attract Chinese tourists,” Francesco Frangialli, the secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization said when he visited China in March.

In 2000, the Gross ational Product surpassed 1,000 billion

.S. dollars for the first time, with people’s bank deposit sav-ings equaling 8 6 billion .S. dol-lars. Experts pointed out that the soaring economy contribut-ed to China’s progress into a world leading tourism destina-tion. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has adopted a more active attitude to encourage Chi-nese citizens to travel abroad.

p to now, the China ational Tourism Administration (C TA) has signed agreements with 15 countries and regions, allowing Chinese people to travel there. In-cluded in the fifteen destinations are Japan, South orea, Austra-lia and ew ealand. Discussions with European and American countries are still in the pipe-line.

Jorg Wuttke, chairman of Ger-man Chamber of Commerce, has devoted himself to Sino-German economic cooperation. He said

that it is a long-term strategy for all countries to strive to attract the numerous Chinese people.

“We are working all out for a tourism agreement as soon as possible in order to ensure the legal rights of tourists and to seek cooperation between tourist agencies after China’s entry into the WTO,” said u Shengli, a rep-resentative in China for the Ger-man ational Tourism Office.

The Canadian Tourism Com-mission has set up an office in Beijing in early April. Richard Liu, the director of the com-mission said that the friendship between the two countries has witnessed a long period with a representative being Dr. or-man Bethune. Last year, over 0,000 Chinese people visited

Canada for various businesses while 2 ,000 Canadians traveled to China.

Compared with countries struggling for official approval to be Chinese tourist destinations, Australia and ew ealand are luckier. “Australia has become a popular destination for Chinese holiday-makers since 1999,” said Dengli Baoyin, chief represen-tative of the Australian Tourist Commission.

France, Austria, and the State

of Hawaii in the nited States, have appointed people to be in charge of tourism cooperation. The number of countries like these is on the rise.

Over 10 million Chinese tour-ists went abroad last year. The great potential of the Chinese market has caught the attention of foreign countries.

The world tourism organiza-tion forecasts indicate that by 2020, China will be the country with the largest number of tour-ists to go abroad. The world tour-ism industry will thus meet with a new wave. ( inhua)

Fo ei o is e to s ooihi ese et

Wangxiang founder, Lu Guanqiu, born to a traditional Chinese peasant’s family, devel-oped a small bicycle repairing township enterprise into the mod-ern enterprise Wanxiang Group Corporation, winning both con-crete benefits and nationwide recognition for his innovation.

Mr. Lu Guanqiu has also been

interviewed by ewsweek mag-azine. The interview was report-ed as the cover feature story, in which he told his story of bring-ing Wanxiang from a small iron smith mill to a major producer of auto parts and a diversified multi-national company involved in a wide range of business activ-ities.

Wanxiang Group Corpora-tion is one of the top 500 companies in China. It is diversified in busi-ness while financially solid. With 6,500 employees and 2 million of operational assets, Wanxiang is emerging as one of the major play-ers in .S.-China trade.

In 1990, it was authorized by Chinese government to operate in-

dependently at the provincial level when business and the economy were still controlled by the govern-ment at different levels in China. Praised as one of the leading town-ship enterprises in 1995 by the Min-istry of Agriculture, Wanxiang enjoys freedom and preferential treatment not available to many other Chinese enterprises.

On May 29, the Beijing Youth Daily held a “China broadband summit”. The meeting gathered together the managers of mul-tinational and local communica-tions companies to discuss the various problems they are fac-ing.

hao Ming, General Manager of Bluewave, one of the largest broadband providers in Beijing said the company was now ne-gotiating with China Telecom, and hopefully this would resolve an ongoing quarrel between the two.

Many of Bluewave’s clients are real estate companies and schools. One such real estate company, Jin Hui Jia Yuan, on the north-west Second Ring Road, ended co-opera-tion with Bluewave On April 18. Jin needed to set up telephones, but China Telecom told them that if they want-ed telephones they must change the broadband provider Bluewave to China Telecom. nder this pressure, Jin had to break its ties with Bluewave. hao Ming says, “We will not give in to monopoly. e-gotiation is the only way.”

Participants in the summit

analyzed why there are so many firms concentrating on broad-band. Broadband has three for-mats. The first is ADSL requiring telephone networks, which be-long to China Telecom. The sec-ond is cable modem, requiring broadcasting systems, which be-long to broadcasting firms. The third is high speed fiber-optic

cable, which doesn’t re-quire a third party. These don’t require any inter-medium. The com-petition in this new mar-ket requires fair play. Players on this field don’t want a new mo-nopoly.Also at the summit, the participants discussed the rates for broadband ser-vices. At present, one in-

dividual should pay 150 yuan ( 19) per month. This is equivalent to the rates charged in the .S. It was forecast that rates would be cut by

. or more, making the service affordable for ordinary people.

Tourism companies are gradu-ally gaining access to the capital market, which has been closed to them for more than two years, ac-cording to the recently released State Council’s “ otice for Fur-ther Accelerating the Develop-ment of Tourism Industry”.

Stipulated by the otice, tour-ism companies meeting certain conditions will be allowed to is-sue shares and be listed on the share markets.

An official from the ational Administration on Tourism explained that the conditions to be met are the requirements for listing up on the share markets set up by China Se-curities Regula-tory Commission (CSRC). But he would not com-ment on whether the tourism com-panies with land property rights and franchise in cultural relics can go public. Mr. Du Yili, chief of the State Administrative Bureau for Mu-seums and Archaeological Date (SABMAD) expressed that the notice of the State Council made a new breakthrough for tourism companies to develop further.

Currently, the reflection and echo from the industry are com-paratively calm, yet the real reaction is hot and persistent. Ac-cording to those familiar with the case, many tourism companies are applying for listing, some of which have already submitted relevant documents to CSRC. Among these companies are the Three Gorges Tourism Corporation and Jing-gangshan Tourism Development Co. Ltd., both applied for listing several years ago.

Shaanxi Tourism Corporation and Gansu Dunhuang Tourism Co. Ltd., which tried to enter into the capital markets two years ago, confirmed in interviews, that they are carrying out relevant reconstructions in order to do so

as early as possible. Professor Li Geng, chief re-

searcher of China’s biggest tour-ism company-Beijing Tourism Group and General Manager of Beijing Tourism Corporation comments that the main ideas and principals of the Central Government have already dem-onstrated clearly in the otice. The obstacles faced by tourism companies on their way to cap-ital markets are only technical ones.

Mr. Li was invited to a semi-nar hosted by the State Council

two years ago, on which they tried to solve the con-troversial issue, together with rep-resentatives from the construction industry, SAB-MAD and tourism industry, of tour-ism companies with operations in cultural relics and land site to go pub-lic.These compa-nies include the West Lake in Hangzhou, the Stone Forest in Yunnan Lijiang,

the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses in Shaanxi, and the Dun-huang Grotto.

Mr. Li is a supporter of the market operation for cultural rel-ic and land site, especially for their listing. He said that in or-der to become a self-supporting industry, tourism needs develop-ment and regulation instead of inhibition. The public listing of tourism resources, including cul-tural relic and land site resourc-es, will realize public value of those public assets in a socialist economy. Relevant tourism com-panies can raise funds by means of listing on the stock markets and building up a modern man-agement mechanism of high effi-ciency and effectiveness. Only in this way can the national tourist resources be better protected and preserved while tourism com-panies be better managed and developed under the public su-pervision.

Will Travel AgentsGet the Accessto Share Markets?

By Li Jingli

By Li Jingli

o b ee se el Pl yi Fiel

Lu Guanqiu, one of New China’s 1st Generation entre-preneurs

Photo by Fi es

B o ing

Photo by Fan i en

in B o n i Photo by Fan i en

Photo by ia ing

Wanxiang America Corpo-ration, the solely owned over-seas unit of the famous Chinese township company “Wanxiang Group Corpora-tion” set up a joint venture with American Horton Insur-ance Group. This marks the Chinese Township Company’s first appearance in the over-seas finance and insurance industry.

Both sides set up Wanxiang Horton Insurance Brokerage in Chicago, with Wanxiang taking 51% controlling stake of the joint venture, the first step of the Wanxiang Group’s entry into the overseas fi-nance and insurance indus-try.

The Wanxiang Group deals with automotive components in Zhejiang Province. Wanx-iang America is the biggest Chinese company in Midwest of US.

The group’s chairman Lu Guanqiu said, Wanxiang has always considered the insur-ance industry is yet to be developed and has great mar-ket potential. The decision to invest in the biggest US non-listed insurance compa-ny is an important move in

the Wanxiang Group’s indus-try wide expansion.

Lu said that through coop-eration they can gain expe-rience of foreign companies, master industry skills, and gather valuable experience for the insurance brokerage business in China. At present, both sides will exploit their edge in the marketing and in-surance brokerage network to get into the market early. This will result in a favorable position in the fierce compe-tition.

Wanxiang will provide in-surance consultation mainly to Chinese companies with business in US or Ameri-can companies with oper-ations in China.People in the indus-try said, as China’s en-trance into the World Trade Organization draws closer, Chi-na’s finance market will become more open, and more foreign insurance companies will en-ter the Chinese market. However, special agencies, ser-vice systems and a good brokerage net-work have yet to be es-tablished in China.

After closed for over 2 years, tourism companies are gradually gaining access to the capital market

Over 10 million Chinese tourists went abroad last year. The great po-tential of the Chinese market has caught the attention of foreign coun-tries.

Beijing Capital Tourism Group established over the weekend a joint venture with France’s ACCOR, the world’s third biggest tourism group.

This is the ninth Sino-for-eign joint-venture travel servic-es in China and also Beijing’s first travel service in coopera-tion with an European coun-try.

he newly established travel service will work to attract more tourists from Europe and other parts of the world by in-troducing advanced comput-erized tourism management system and improving training of staff. It is reported that Eu-ropean tourists accounted for 2 percent of foreign tourists to China in 2000.

ACCOR runs more than ,500 hotels in over 90 coun-

tries and has business con-tacts with over 2 0 countries and regions. ( i-

Sino-FrenchTravel ServiceOperationalin Beijing

Background

Assistant to the Minister of MOFTEC Ma iuhong told report-ers that China was currently working to perfect laws governing mergers and acquisitions. She said that such work would improve the investment environment for multi-national enterprises.

Ms. Ma pointed out that merg-ers and acquisitions were an important part of international investment. Multi-national invest-ment reached 1000 billion world-wide last year and 80 of the total was by mergers and acqui-sitions. China saw 0. bil-lion in direct investments last year but little by way of mergers. The gap was due to problems with the current laws. Perfecting these laws is essential to increas-ing multi-national investments.

China has already revised the Laws on Foreign Equity Joint Ven-tures. The new amendments make no prohibitions on mergers and acquisitions. There are some dif-ferent opinions on the problem. Ma Yu, a senior researcher with

the MOFTEC said Tuesday that mergers in China faced many immature conditions besides laws. Mergers in China require gov-ernment approval. Second, The capital markets, including the security market and property rights market, have no rules on mergers. As a result, companies have no market to complete merg-ers. Third, we lack agencies such as investment banks, law firms and accounting offices.

Although there are many dif-ficulties, Yu Weixiang, director of a WTO research center thought some improvements have been seen in Beijing. Though direct

investment, such as establishing joint ventures accounts for over 0 of total

investment, in recent years, c o - o p e r a t i o n between multi-national compa-

nies and China has improved even further. For example, 150 listed multinationals in Fortune 500 have invested in Beijing. They have established up to 11 regional headquarters, 20 R

D centers. To multinational firms such direct investments will become the basis for future mergers and acquisitions.

4 JUNE 1 2001E-mail: liufeng@ynet.com EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: PANG LEI

OPPORTUNITIES

By Yang Xiao

By Zhao Hongyi

The Economic Development Planning Committee of the Beijing Municipal Gov-ernment released its “Policy Recommenda-tions for Encouraging and Promoting the Development of Small and Medium Sized State Owned Enterprises (SOEs)” this week, clearly stating that individual employees in the SOEs, other legal persons and natural persons can buy parts of the properties of those enterprises under reform, and can fur-ther form share holding cooperative enter-prises by themselves.

“First of all, the reform does not indicate the withdrawal of the state either from the

management or investment. The purpose is to diversify investment resources, adjust the management mechanism and establish a modernized enterprise framework,” said Mr. Liu Haiyan, Deputy Major of the Beijing Municipal Government. “We will make an effort to complete the diversification of investment resources of both the small and medium sized SOEs and collectively owned enterprises over the next two years.”

“Funds from sales of the properties and revenues from those adjusted enterprises will be used for reimbursing the debts of those enterprises. In the process of reform, we will first identify and clarify the current account deficits, capital losses and incomes

unable to be collected of those enterprises over the past three years. After approval by respective financial authorities (towards SOEs) and confirmation by service institutes (towards collectively owned enterprises), as well as approval by taxation authorities, those deficits, losses and credits can be dis-posed according to related laws and regula-tions.

Shares of the enterprises can also be divided, formulated and granted to the employees compensating for the salaries owed to them,” said Mr. Liu.

Meanwhile, the Recommendations also encourage individuals with innovative and managing capability to participate in the

management of the enterprises under reform and set up new small and medium sized enterprises by investment of capital, produc-tive factors like technologies and intellectual property rights. The maximum percentage of shares held by an individual can be as high as 5 percent.

Regarding to the problems like over evaluation of the price of properties and difficulties caused in the transactions of the small and medium sized enterprises, the Recommendations stipulate that eval-uations can be made on the basis of prop-erty pricing or potential revenues, as long as the evaluations can be accepted by the market.

By Li Jingli

According to a report by CCTV, China Central Televi-sion Station, aside from the current A-share market and B-share market, the long-awaited venture board will be opened for start-ups, for profitable new high tech enterprises in particular.

The new market under planning, the same type like

ASDA in .S., is called by Chinese investors “Ven-ture Board” market. It was first proposed by experts and market players as early as two years ago. Things are changing now. According to Mr. Anthony eoh,Chief Adviser to the China Securi-ties Regulatory Commission (CSRC), time is ready for the launching of this “Venture Board” market.

The Chief Adviser said, the bubble in the security market is at a lower level now, since the S ASDA market, Hong ong’s Growth Enterprise Market, and Japan and South orea’s stock markets are all show-ing some weakness. nder such circumstances, it is the appropriate moment to launch the venture board.

According to Mr. eoh, there are around 00 com-panies have applied to the Shenzhen stock exchange to list on the proposed second board, and their tutorship period has already started. More than 1000 companies are under tutorship of over 0 qualified underwriters.

These companies all had profits two years ago, and are qualified for listing even in the global growth enter-prise market.

Mr. eoh said, in such an environment, launching China’s venture board is a necessary and urgent need for high technology compa-nies. The State Department will not neglect it, since it is an established policy. The key is to have the appropri-ate time, and he is optimis-tic about this. The rules will be released by the end of this year. After it comes out, trading could begin within six to eight months. He esti-mates that trading is not likely to start until early next year.

1. The trial practice of allowing foreign investment in the banks, retail business and foreign trade business will be extended to the centrally administered municipality, capi-tal cities of provinces and autonomous regions in the west.

2. Foreign banks are allowed to manage RMB business in the west.

. Foreign capital are allowed to be invested in telecommunications, insurance, tourism industries in the west. Sino-foreign JVs like accounting offices, law offices, engineering designing offices, railway and highway freight enterprises and municipal public enterprises can be set up in the west.

. Trials of absorbing foreign investment by means of BOT and TOT in the west.

5. o limitation on fixed property invest-ment credits by qualified domestic banks for foreign investors involved in projects in line with the industries encouraged by the state or

industries of national priorities.6. o restriction constrain on labors to work

in the west. Convenience to be offered towards foreign high-tech talents, high-level manage-ment talents and investors regarding to entryout of the country.

. A reduction of 15 percent to the enter-prise income tax in 10 years for those enter-prises with foreign investment in the west and in line with the industries encouraged by the state.

8. A low to 15 percent enterprise income tax after the first ten years of preferential taxation for those enterprises with foreign investment and enterprises in the industries of national priorities in the middle and western region.

9. Tariff exemption and other VAT related exemption for imports within the total invest-ment by foreign invested projects in the indus-tries of national priorities.

By Zhao Hongyi

P e e e ti l Poli ies o Fo eiest e t i the est

A famous Chinese-American investor from Silicon Valley showed his confidence in China’s English Education Industry, revealing that he will establish the world’s biggest interactive English-learning corporation. Jim Sha, who is now the president of Live ABC Interactive Co., dem-onstrated the latest technology in interactive English-learning last Saturday. According to Jim, the technology provides a convenient

English- learning method and creates a favorable study envi-ronment for learners through integrating various information resources and multi-media tech-nology. Jim said with a large population of 1. billion, China will soon become the world’s larg-est market for teaching English, especially when the country is ready to enter the World Trade Organization and Beijing is bid-ding for the 2008 Olympic Games.

e i e t e estoyes hi s

lish tio st y

Reform on Property Rights of Small and Medium Sized SOEs Kicks off in Beijing

s e e to i i l ye shi s

o e he oo

China is accelerating the opening of its western region to foreign investment. More industries in the area are now open for foreign capital. Meanwhile, restrictions and prevention on foreign investment from certain industries and areas have been can-celled and more preferential treatment will be granted to potential investors.

“The Central Government will increase the use of direct foreign investment in the service trade sector in China’s western region and allow foreign banks to deal in Renminbi (RMB) business there,” Mr. Wang Chunzheng, vice-minister of the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), said recently while introducing the policy for western region development to the Hong Kong Western Region Visiting

Delegation.According to Mr. Wang, China lists

resource exploitation, tourism devel-opment and banking industry as the industries in which foreign investment is encouraged.

The trial practice currently under imple-mentation of allowing foreign investment in banking business, retail business and foreign trade business will be expanded to centrally administered municipality, capital cities of provinces and autonomous regions in China’s west. Foreign banks will also be allowed to deal in RMB business, telecommunications, insurance, tourism, as well as setting up Sino-foreign joint accountant offices, law offices, engineering designing companies, railway and highway freight enterprises, municipal public enter-prises there. He also noted that China will relax the control over foreign investors’

West China to Allow Foreign Banks to Manage RMB Business By Zhao Hongyi

ing i i i o o in o Hong ong n gion i iing g ion i g n ion n o o o n y

Photo by uo Xiaoguang

ng i ion n ining i o i ing n in y in in n o ono i o n o ning o i y y in n o n n

n ony o i i o in i i g

o y o i ion

China to Perfect Merger andAcquisition Laws

Photo by huang ian

Photo by hen Shuyi

CITYEDITOR: LI XIN DESIGNER: LI SHIE-mail: lixin@ynet.com

By Su Nan

5JUNE 1 2001

By Zhang Shixin

An almost 100-year-old Eng-lish textbook might be the earli-est such book printed in China, its owner, Mr. Wang, told report-ers last week in Beijing.

The 0-page textbook, titled “English with Chinese Phonet-ics” (Tangzi Diaoyin Yingyu), was possibly published in 190 or before, pre-dating another early textbook, “English Words at En-trance Level” (Ying i Ru Men), which was previously thought to be the earliest English textbook in China.

The book is a marvelous pro-duction in many ways. Though almost a century old, with pages yellow with age, the various let-ter types are still clearly rec-ognizable, displaying the high standard of print quality at that time. According to the conven-tions then, the Chinese passag-es are printed vertically, while Chinese explanations are print-ed both vertically and horizon-tally.

As the book title suggests, the textbook uses Chinese charac-ters to provide phonetic equiv-alents for English words, thus constituting a major drawback of this early school tutorial work. Since there was no such thing as standardized Mandarin’ (Puton-ghua) at that time, the phonet-ics were arranged in line with the so-called orthodox’ Canton-ese, resulting in a misleading and what today seems a quite funny effect.

evertheless, the book has been praised as a “revolutionary guidebook inventing creative study methods for those aspi-rant people doing foreign busi-nesses”, as it is described in the foreword. The book’s publication date can be traced through a let-ter from Hong ong contained in the book, dated Sep. 8, 190 .

The book was acquired by its present owner, Mr. Wang, quite by chance. In 1992, when he was living in Papua ew Guinea, an old local Chinese, originally from Guangdong Province gave Mr. Wang the book as a gift.

Sculpting in Time’, a popular cafe near the east gate of Beijing niversity, is to be pulled down in October or o-vember. Both the owner and the custom-ers will be sad to see it go. Along with several other nearby bars and book-stores, Sculpting in Time’ makes up a mini bar street’, which has become a popular hangout for both students and teachers at Beijing and Tsinghua ni-versities.

A notice that went up at the end of March, signaled the death-knell for the cafe. The blocks around the Bar Street will be torn down to make way for a new technology garden, belonging to Beijing

niversity, according to the municipal authorities. Many old single-story hous-es in the vicinity have already been de-molished and workers are busy clearing the rubble. Every resident family has been told to prepare to move.

Sculpting in Time’ is going to move to a new location near the South Gate of the Beijing Institute of Technology. The new bar is planned to open soon.

“I often come here, almost everyday” said Baoyin Wenqing, a Mongolian stu-dent from the Central Ethnic niversity, “ Academic life is very tedious. I like to sit here to meditate, read books or look for some materials.” Miss Baoyin’s major is Fine Art. She thinks that this bar street has a quite special artistic atmosphere be-cause of its proximity to Beijing and Tsin-

ghua niversities. “If it moves, I am afraid that I’ll loose contact with some old friends I often meet here, and the bar’s style will change. You know, the style is rooted in its location, location changes and style has to change. I am not sure if I’ll enjoy the new flavor or not.”

“ It is the first time for us to come to a Chinese bar” said akata, a Jap-anese student there with two friends. They are students at Tsinghua niver-sity. “It is quite hard to find a good cafe here. I am so sorry to hear that this cafe will be pulled down. I do not know where we will go in the future.”

“The whole bar street will be broken up. It is impossible to transfer the whole street with its special culture to another place. For the time being, this culture has to disappear. However, wherever they are, people who love culture and coffee will create a kind of new culture,” said Mr.Wang, an MBA at Beijing ni-versity.

hi s liest lish e tboo

Fo

Primary school students in Beijing will begin learning Eng-lish in third grade from this au-tumn, according to the Beijing Education Committee. By autumn 200 , English classes will be giv-en from the first year of primary school.

At present, primary school Eng-lish teacher training programs are underway in all districts and counties in Beijing. According to officials from the local Education Committee, a survey conducted by the Committee at the end of last year shows there is not a big gap between the current demand for and availability of primary school English teachers. That is, the number of English teachers is basically sufficient to meet the demands of teaching English in the lower grades of the primary schools. However, some individu-al schools may need to make up their shortage of English teach-ers by employing or training their own teachers.

Since 199 , English classes have been given to students in Grade Four and above at primary schools in the city proper and the central primary schools in the sub-urbs. At that time, there were two different points of view held by education specialists. Some main-tained that English classes should be offered to students in the low-er grades of primary school, as younger children are generally better able to learn a second lan-guage. Others argued that teach-ing English too early could result in the children’s confusing Chi-nese pinyin and English.

lish l sses to t t o

hi e

We received a letter from Danny a couple of days ago. Danny is a foreigner who has lived in Beijing for years and plans on living and working here for many years to come. Recently, he ran into trouble when he tried to rent a car and asked us for help.

Question:Dear Beijing Youth Daily, My name is Danny, I am a foreigner, and I have lived

in beautiful Beijing for 4 years. I have a Chinese “green card”, a work permit, and an official Beijing driver’s li-cense. I plan on living and working in Beijing for many years to come.

I just got my driver’s license three weeks ago and I was excited because I wanted to rent a car during the May 1 holiday week. I have only been able to get around Beijing on bicycle, buses, or in taxis before, so a car was going to give me the freedom to go to the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Miyun Reservoir and other great places in beautiful Beijing.

Unfortunately nobody could give me a car because I was a foreigner! I called over 50 different locations in Beijing and nobody could help me. Some had already given out all their cars, and I understand this, but oth-ers said that because I had no “hukou ben”, I could not rent their car. I told every place that I had the ex-act equivalent, plus I could pay the 5000 RMB deposit, but they all still said that this was unacceptable. When I got my driver’s license, the nice people at the bu-reau told me that I could rent a car from any place in Beijing. Why did these car rental places treat me so poorly??

Please let me know of a place in Beijing that WILL rent to foreigners. I hope there is a car for me soon.

Danny Levinson

So what are the requirements and how does one go about leasing a car in Beijing? To find out, we called the two largest auto-leasing companies in Beijing, and have good news for all you Dannys out there.

Answer:To be eligible to lease a car, you, as a foreigner,

should prepare four certificates, as Danny did pass-port, permanent residence certificate, work permit and Beijing driver’s license.

Also, some leasing companies might have addi-tional requirements. For instance, Shou i (Capital Auto) Lease Company requires a Chinese warrantor a friend or colleague will do, to go with you when go-ing through the lease process. The warrantor needs to show his or her ID card and driving license as any Chinese does when leasing a car. As for Beijing Yinjian Leasing Co., no warrantor is needed, but you should present a copy of your house lease or purchase agree-ment as a supplement to your permanent residence certificate. After all these requirements are met, you can proceed to fill in the forms, select a car, bargain over the price, make a payment, and eventually, hit the road

hou i ease Co. Tel: 62 286 6 Website: www.sqzl.com.cn (Chinese version only).

ei in in ian ease Co. Tel: 6 22 561, 6 261250Website: www.carent.com.cn. (English version avail-

able)

Clean and Green Chang’an Avenue

Walking from Beijing to Taipei, by way of Shanghai and Hong Kong may not be the average person’s idea of

environmental protection work, but Ding Zhaorui, is no average person! This young man is trav-eling independently through China, on foot, in

order to raise people’s consciousness about environmental protection. The 3,000 km jour-

ney, which he calls “the Green Long March”, will probably take him 5 months to com-plete. This is his third long march since

1998. Starting from Beijing, he will pass through Tianjin, Jinan, Shanghai, Hang-zhou, Xiamen, Shantou and Hong Kong, before finally arriving in Taipei. Ding is a volunteer for environmental protection, and at every stop on his “Green Long March”, he advocates the protection of natural resources, a per-manent halt to the practice of using valu-able land resources to bury the dead, and encourages people to donate their organs after death. He points out that environmental degradation and the de-pletion of ground resources is increasing day by day. Despite this, people con-tinue to use more land for burials and wantonly chop down precious forest. Ding estimates that if people plant trees instead tombs, 2 million more trees will survive every year in our country.Ding has spent almost all his savings on his Green Long Marches, despite the fact that numerous individuals and companies have made donations to sup-port his activities. The first and second marches cost him 40,000 yuan. He says, “as long as my activity may raise people’s consciousness about environ-mental protection, the money is well spent”. At the end of the interview, Ding said with confidence that he would do every-thing in his power to promote environ-mental protection. What a great man he is, and what a fine example he is setting for us all! Take care on your third long march, Ding Zhaorui.

Marching toProtect the

Environment

Mini Bar StreetSculpting For The Last Time

o y n i g o n ing B i ing y i

Bi g in on i n i n n n i ig o igin ing o B i ing

n ng i o i ing ng i B i ing i o

Leasing a Carin Beijing

By Lu Jia

By Yan JianLi / Su Wei

By Duan Xiaodong

By Su Nan

Chang’an Avenue is receiving another face-lift, gaining more trees, more green spaces, and losing several thousand adver-tising billboards. The clean up of Chang’an Avenue is sched-uled for completion by the end of June. The municipal govern-ment is also installing unified facilities such as public-phones, newsstands, and mailboxes.

Director of the city’s Reno-vation Office, hao hijing says they have torn down some 600,000 square meters of squat-ter houses and temporary build-ings in the past 12 months,

added or improved 2 6 hectares of greenbelt and demolished 2 00 billboards. He says all the buildings along Chang’an Ave-nue have been painted and lit with neon lighting, and in order to improve the traffic flow in the CBD, 20 public bus stations have been removed or relocat-ed.

hao says by the end of June, all the information boards and billboards along the avenue will have been removed, work to improve the road surface be-tween idan and Fuxingmen will be completed, and special bicycle depositary areas will be installed around the 15 subway station exits.

Photos by i y

Photo by ian ingge

Photo by Xiao Song

Photo by ia ing

in haorui is on his thir lon arch to pro ote environ ental protec

tion.

Vs6 JUNE ! 2001

E-mail: lixin@ynet.com EDITOR: LI XIN DESIGNER: LI SHI

VOICE S

OU

ND

BIT

ES

By Ivy Zhang

By Wang Ran

Foreign companies surging into China have created impressive suc-cess stories through joint efforts of expatriates and local staff.

But to strengthen corporate security, some foreign companies have implemented a rule which requires local staff to have their bag checked in the lobby or door-way before leaving the office.

Other companies have the so-called “E-Eye mail” monitoring system to spy on employees’ incom-ing and outgoing E-mails. Many Chinese employees feel offended and embarrassed by such rules. But after considering their good pay, most remain silent and remain in the company.

But what do Chinese staff really think about it? What is the legality of such behavior?

Mr. Lu, translator, China Aero-space Industrial Group

In general, I don’t agree with

these security measures, but my reaction depends on how much I am offended and the compensa-tion I receive. I understand the boss’s concerns: security of prod-ucts, technologies and informa-tion. But the best protection is to always find faithful employees and retain their loyalty. It seems acceptable if an E-mail supervi-sion system logs only data flow abnormality without spying on the detailed information of every E-mail. But the e-eye monitor is really offensive. I don’t like the feeling of always being watched over one’s shoulder. Anyway I’m not an ape at the zoo.

Mr. Zhang, senior engineer, a for-eign telecom company

About one or two years ago, everybody in my company who was leaving the office building had to open their bag to allow the secu-rity guard to take a look inside. The reason was that many com-pany-owned items like portable

PCs were found lost during work time, lunch time in particular. ow, such a rule has been abolished, but when you are carrying big cases or bags, you will probably be asked to go through examination, though such things never happen in our headquarters abroad.

It’s true that such a code of

security is humiliating and in vio-lation of the law. But if you want this job, you can do nothing but accept it.

Mr. Yu, lawyer, Beijing Baoding Law Office

The employee has every right to sue a company which searches his bag or E-mail. Only law enforce-

ment officials or authorized per-sons who hold a search permit can do that. Even when such security rules are included in the labor con-tract drafted by the company, they are illegal because the foreign com-panies are doing business in China and must do everything in accor-dance with Chinese laws.

One bubble just broke and another has risen. The craze of investors today for China media faintly recalls the net-works of yesterday.

China media market has risen rapidly since June last year. AOL-Time Warner, Viacom and ews Corporation, venture investors and A-share market-listed companies are casting their nets far and wide. They hope to harvest a rich catch of newspapers, magazines, televi-sion channels, audio and video manufacture and distribution companies, book publishing and distribution companies and advertising companies.

But the potential for devel-opment of China’s media and recreation industry is quite dif-ferent from making money in other industries. First it is neces-sary to make clear that media is not a trade everybody can engage in. It needs capital and talent.

etwork stations entering the media industry resonates louder than directly entering electronic commerce or software development. They have reasons to enter the media industry.

Thus they let the public know they are entering all the media markets including news-paper, magazines, movie, tele-vision and music. They do not actually publish a solid news-paper, magazine or broadcast a television program of any sig-nificance or influence.

Such an operating mode is quite dangerous. In the end, they will win nothing for their efforts and lose the opportunity. In this sense, it is not crazy to stress the importance of looking for the penetration places from which the big media break-through will erupt.

The author is chief executive officer of China eCapital Corporation.

Human Dignity

Well-paid Job

MediaNext Bubble

“I am confident that Airbus will take 50 of the Chinese air market in the future with our advanced and complicated production line.” he said. Since the first airbus was introduced in Chinese mainland in 1985 the Chi-nese market share for Airbus has increased steadily. At the moment there are 96 airbuses about 21 of the total compared with 2 ones about 8.9 in 1995. What’s more from 1996 to 2000, the confirmed orders from Chinese Mainland have been ( 9 of the total confirmed orders). If Hong ong and Macao are also included, the total number of the orders is 9 , namely 5 . of the market share.

“The leading status of Pfizer will be continued and strengthened, and the shareholders value must be increased at a speed to satisfy the investors. A revolution in the discovery, development, production and promo-tion related to medicine must be carried out.” he announced. He promised that the annual profit rate after deducting some large projects and the cost in taking over would continually increase at 25 till 2002.

“It is crucial for the Chinese software industry to attract highly experienced senior management. At the moment there is a shortage of high-level managers and decision makers. ” she said. She pointed out that the Ministry of Information Industry is working to strengthen the Chinese software industry, and that the software industry is one of the strategic pillar industries.

o o g o o g in

ionPhotos by Files

Noel ForgeardCEO of Europe Airbus

Henry McKinnellPfizer CEO

Ms. Zhang QiDirector of Electronic Information

Products Management Bureau,Ministry of Information Industry

PROBEEDITOR: LI XIN DESIGNER: LI SHIE-mail: survey@ynet.com

7JUNE 1 2001

By Shao Hai

Drug abuse affects work performance of Hong Kong youth

According to a recent survey of 152 former drug abusers in Hong

ong, 6 said their drug habit had affected their work, causing them to be late or unable to con-centrate. Most of the young ad-dicts resorted to drugs due to the lack of a goal in life and as an expression of discontent. The Church Organization, responsi-ble for the survey, suggested that career training for youth should be strengthened in order to help young people establish a goal in life and effectively prevent drug abuses.36% of large enter-prises in Taiwan invest in the Chinese Main-land

The Taiwan based World Mag-azine has just released the re-sults of a recent survey of the CEOs of 1000 large enterprises. 6 of those who responded said

they have invested in the Chinese mainland and 20 plan to set up branches both in the Chinese mainland and overseas. What’s more, 18 had invested in the mainland in the last 12 months, compared with 9 prior to that, indicating that the number of new investments in the Chinese main-land is increasing. Chinese people opti-mistic about Beijing’s 2008 Olympics bid

According to the recent sur-vey conducted by AC ielson in Beijing, Shanghai and Guang-zhou, Chinese people are confi-dent about winning the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. AC ielson questioned more than ,000 people aged between 15 and

5 in mid April. More than 60 felt that Beijing had a good chance of winning the games, while 1 in 10 were very confident’ of suc-cess. More than 70% of the investigators are paying close attention to the open funds

A survey conducted by the Chi-nese Construction Bank among 105 individual customers and

22 business customers in 12 cit-ies, shows that more than 0 of those questioned are paying close attention to open funds. 2 of business customers and of the individual customers are will-ing to purchase open funds, while 2 of business and 8 of in-

dividual customers are taking a wait and see attitude. What’s more, of businesses and 56

of individual customers used bank savings to purchase open funds and 20 the businesses and 28 of the individuals used funds from the stock market as capital resources.

The overwhelming ma ority are in favor of paid vacations

Different people choose to spend their holidays in different ways, but when asked “what is your preferred vacation system’’? Over 80 responded that they wanted to enjoy a free and flexible vacation with pay.

During the week long holidays, about 25 of mid- and high-level managerial personnel traveled to other parts of the country, while less than 10 of the lower managerial personnel and ordinary workers and staff

members opted to travel. This marked difference is directly related to their income level. Travel is a high-consumption activity. Only those with a fairly high income can enjoy such consumption.

The most frequent problems people meet with in their travels are overcrowding and high expenses. Over 2 said that the cost of travel was too high. See table 2 for details

Transportation is not a major problem. Last year’s May Day is

still fresh in people’s memory. Difficulties in buying air and train tickets, and securing

accommodation put a damper on the enthusiasm of those who wish to travel. However, this year, the transportation situation saw a marked improvement.

Paid acations: 0 not clear how it works, 0 of units yet to implement the system

The survey reveals that many people are not familiar with the concept of paid vacations. Only 1 said they understand the concept quite well, and over said they had only a slight understanding of the system.

About 8 of the units of those surveyed had not implement the paid vacation system, suggesting that the concept is new to the people and units in Beijing. Among those who have enjoyed paid vacations, more than 5 enjoyed a holiday period of

-15 days, while only 15 had a holiday in excess of 15 days. The average period was 11.8 days.

The right to paid vacation far from being reali ed for all

With regard to the attitude

toward paid vacation, about 90 of those surveyed agreed or agreed strongly with the

formulation that the paid vacation system is a right for those who are on duty.’’ Although the law has clearly made stipulations in this regard, paid vacations have either not been implemented, changed into subsidies or pay rises, or have even been cancelled in many units. Over one-third of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed with the formulation.

More than 5 of those surveyed are of the view that the implementation of the paid vacation system indicates the scale and degree

of a company’s management and helps improve working efficiency about 66 are of the opinion that the advantages of implementing such a system outweigh the disadvantage. See table 8.

Vacation with pay is a right that should be enjoyed by the workers and staff members in accordance with the law of the state and is a sign of social progress universally recognized by the people. Implementation of the vacation system with pay is beneficial for society, enterprises and individuals. However, the concept for implementing paid vacations has not been really fostered in our country and implementation of the system will meet with difficulties. We are convinced that the system will be quickly implemented in various units under joint efforts made by the state, enterprises and workers and staff members. Employees will enjoy their free and flexible holidays and constantly improve their quality of life.

Although the seven-day May 1 Labor Day holiday is well and truly over and people are back into their usual routines, debate about the ‘prime week’, its pros and cons, is still running hot. However if everyone in the country has a week off, will it be more difficult for individu-als to make their holiday arrangements? And would it make sense to try to stagger people’s holidays?

One way of solving the problem would be to implement the paid vacation system and let people choose when they take their holidays. This system is very common abroad and allows people to regulate their pace of life, which in turn enhances their working efficiency.

In order to gain a clearer understanding of people’s attitude toward paid vacations and the implementation of such a system in Beijing, we recently conducted a survey of the locals in Beijing on this issue.

Paid Vacation, ora Week off with the Masses?

Picture by ao u

ab e by ian e

“Leisure travel”

“Health” /24%

Purposes of Travel for May Day Holiday Makers

“Visiting family& friends”

“Refreshing& recharging”

Others

Most Frequently Cited Complaints

Overcrowding in scenic areas

Too many service-related expenses

Others

Overcrowded transportation

Bad service by tour operators

Unsatisfactor y accommodation

Factors Affecting the Implementation of the Paid Vacation System

Managerial styleof boss

Supervision quali-ty of related gov-ernment agencies

A d m i n i s t r a t i o n quality of company

Status of company

Workload in com-pany

Singapore,Thailand80 off

Book now

“ Too many choices All I want to do is sleep ”

FOCUSEDITOR:LI XIN DESIGNER:PANG LEIE-mail: lixin@ynet.com

8 JUNE 1 2001

Beijing Capital International Airport, May 26, Air China cargo flight 9016 landed at 4:47pm, carrying a very special ‘guest’. On board this giant Boeing 747 that had flown from the other side of the globe, was an an-cient warrior, born 1,000 years ago in the Five-Dynasties Period. This warrior slept for 10 centu-ries at the burial site of a pa-triotic lord named Wang Chuzhi in what is now Hebei Province, was unearthed by looters sever-al years ago, shipped secretly to Hong Kong, then to the US, and almost auctioned off by Chris-tie’s in New York, before inter-vention by the Chinese and US governments halted the sale and returned him to his homeland.

This elegant sculpture of Tang Dynasty warrior Qin Qiong, to-gether with another sculpture returned by an American collec-tor last year, form a perfect pair called Chinese Guardian Gods.

So how did this old country-man come to fly home to China after a journey to New York, by way of Hong Kong? Well, it start-ed with a chance encounter, and a phone call.A state treasure almost auctioned in the US

At 9am on Feb. 2 , 2000, the Cultural Relics Bureau of Hebei Province received a phone call from the S. The caller was a Chinese scholar visiting the S on an academic tour and who had previous academic interests in Hebei’s cultural relics. He said on

the phone that the British auc-tion house Christie’s, was to hold an auction of “Important Chinese Lacquer, Ceramics and Works of Art” in ew York. Among the pieces up for auction, o. 209 was an embossed panel sculpture of a Tang Dynasty warrior and seemed to be one of the missing treasures from the famous Wang Chuzhi Tomb in uyang County of Hebei Province. The scholar then faxed back a picture of the sculpture.

The news came as something of a bombshell. A looted cultural relic on the list of an overseas auction house It was more than a matter of missing antiques. After consultation with his colleagues, Mr hang Lizhu, director of the Bureau, decided to begin search-ing for the critical materials as evidence for further study. If the auctioned piece was confirmed as the missing burial sculpture, the case must be reported to the a-tional Administration of Cultur-al Heritage immediately, and any measures should be taken to re-turn the national treasures as soon as possible.

On the morning of Feb. 25, a host of experts gathered in the Hebei Cultural Relics Bureau’s meeting room, including antiques professors, classic Chinese paint-ers and representatives from an-ti-looting department of the local

police force. Seeing those lavishly printed pages of the auction cat-alogue illustrated with pictures of age-old art masterpieces, ev-erybody’s heart beat wildly. What an extraordinary collection of Chinese ancestral treasures, and what a shame that they were now to be sold in a faraway for-eign landA Tang Dynasty warrior

o. 209 in the auction cat-alogue was an embossed white marble sculpture depicting a live-ly warrior. Standing on an ox, topped by a phoenix, pointing his sword toward a lotus flower in the ox’s mouth, the warrior fig-ure was painted with shades of red, brown and yellow. On the left of the picture, the cap-tion read: “A rare 10th-century color sculpture...might be relat-ed to uyang Wang Chuzhi Tomb sculptures unearthed in 1995, full of the magnificent Tang Dynasty aura that lasted until the elev-enth century...Estimated price: 00-500 thousand S dollars.”

From every perspective, this piece must be called a top-grade “state treasure.” With the help of the official excavation report

of the Wang Chuzhi Tomb produced in 1998, and the site-investigation mate-rials collected after the 199 looting of the Tomb, the ex-perts unanimously agreed that the o. 209 auction object was indeed a piece looted from the tomb more specifically, it was one of the two miss-ing embossed sculp-

tures featuring the Hero in iong. A collective request was

then made to return the stolen treasure to China where it be-longed.First task: preventing Chris-tie’s sale

Beijing Guoyi Hotel, 10: 0 am, Feb. 25. A national working con-vention by the ational Adminis-tration of Cultural Heritage was under way. An emergency call came from Hebei, reporting the breaking auction news. At the request of the Hebei Bureau, the

ational Administration of Cul-tural Heritage formed a quick resolution to take immediate ac-tion based on Chinese and in-ternational laws governing this kind of antique smuggling. A task force was established head-ed by Mr hang Wenbin, Director of the ational Administration of Cultural Heri-tage, and Mr Bai Jingfu, Vice Min-ister of Public Security.The ingenious architecture of Wang Chuzhi’s tomb had protect-ed its fore-room from looting un-

til the 1990s. But in the spring of 199 , a gang from Shaanxi Prov-ince came to iyanchuan, Wang Chuzhi’s burial lo-cation. Armed with ex-plosives, they entered the fore-room as well as the minor “ear rooms”, steal-ing burial art pieces including 10 embossed sculptures from the un-

derground walls. Later these pre-cious antiques were sold to a Hong ong dealer, and then came the Christie’s auction.

As signatories of the Paris Con-vention denouncing the smug-gling of cultural relics, the Chinese and S governments bear the responsibility of observ-ing its internationally recognized principles. On March 2, the a-tional Administration of Cultural Heritage referred the case to the

S embassy in Beijing, asking for friendly cooperation to pre-vent Christie’s from selling the stolen sculpture and helping re-turn it to China. At the same time, the Public Security Minis-try called on the S Section of Interpol for help. Diplomats of the Chinese embassy in .S. then met a senior official from the

ew York Center of S Customs, presenting the Chinese govern-ment’s position on the case. Concrete evidence to win first battle

On March 8 and 11, the Cus-toms Service of the S embassy in Beijing and the ew York Cen-ter of S Customs wrote to the

ational Administration of Cul-tural Heritage and Chinese Em-bassy in Washington respectively. The S side promised help un-der the relevant ESCO pro-visions, on condition that the Chinese side provided necessary legal documents and evidence.

At 11:00am on March 1 , all the required materials arrived in Beijing. At 5pm of the same day, the Public Security Ministry tele-grammed the two Chinese mis-sions in the S involved, and the materials were shipped via air to

ew York. pon receipt of the material

evidence, S Attorney for the Southern District of ew York Mary Jo White brought a civil forfeiture suit under the Cultur-al Properties Implementation Act that led to the seizure of the em-bossed sculpture. On March 28,

S Customs officers went to the ew York Christie’s, concluding

the first step of preventing the auction.Desperate efforts by the sculpture’s “owner”

After the sculpture’s seizure, the owner of M C Gallery in Hong ong, as the consignor of the looted sculpture, claimed the object as a “hereditary antique” that had belonged to his family for over 10 years.

But how could this 1,000-year-old masterpiece belong to a sin-gle family for 10 years without any knowledge by the general public? There was only one pos-sible answer: the object was ac-quired by tomb looting.The District Attorney decid-ed on an indict-ment of the Hong

ong consignor,

and China’s ational Admin-istration of Cultural Heritage participated in the lawsuit on behalf of the Chinese govern-ment. At this stage, the Hong

ong consignor was deeply wor-ried, since the case had at-tracted the attention of the international media, who were widely condemning all such rel-ics-smuggling activities.

The Hong ong dealer tried to maintain his insistence that the sculpture was not part of Wang’s Tomb wall panel. But then came the encouraging news that a re-nowned American collector had donated one sculpture of his col-lection back to China. This donat-ed sculpture proved to be a sister piece by the same sculptor of the Christie’s piece, featuring anoth-er beloved Tang general, Weichi Gong (alias Weichi Jingde). At 6pm on June 26, 2000, Air China cargo flight 9016 arrived in Beijing Capital International Air-port, bringing back the Wei Chigong sculpture, irrefutable ev-idence of the Hong ong dealer’s duplicity. The Hong ong “owner” even made a belated attempt to imitate the American collector by “donating” the sculpture to Chi-na.Homeward Bound

On May 2 in ew York, the S Customs officially handed the

looted in iong sculpture back

to the Chinese government. The Tang Warrior sculpture has re-turned home after more than one year abroad, but further tasks re-main.

Many of China’s state trea-sures are still auctioned, exhibit-

ed or collected in foreign lands, and the tomb-looters who stole the 10 major antique pieces from Wang’s Tomb in Hebei in 199 are still at large.

The in iong sculpture case provided uselul experience for Chinese conservation authori-ties and lovers of Chinese histo-ry.

By Duan Xiaodong

An Ancient“Overseas Chinese”Returns Home

n ay the returne guar ian

scu ture as categori e as a ra e

o ecte ationa u tura e ic by a

state e e a raisa ane . o it has

become art o the ermanent co ection at hina s ationa

useum o istory.

Ancient Chinese Treasures Drifting All over the World

According to an incomplete es-timate, there are at least 1 million pieces of Chinese cultural relics scattered abroad in more than 200 museums in 47 countries, many of which are important art treasures. The following are some examples:

Paintings: the Metropolitan Museum of New York houses the largest overseas collection of classic Chinese paintings, while the British Museum in London has a high quality collection.

Porcelain: the Guimet Museum of France has a collection of some of the best Chinese porcelain piec-es from different periods.

Inscriptions on Bones and Tor-toise Shells: among the 200,000 pieces unearthed from Anyang, Henan Province, 26,700 are now scattered in more than 12 coun-tries, while Japan holds 12,443 pieces.

Of the relics recovered from Dunhuang’s Mogao Grottoes, only 20,000 volumes and pieces are retained in China. Overseas col-lections: British Museum, 13,700; National Library of France, 6,000; the Asian Studies Center of St. Petersburg in Russia, 12,000; there are also Dunhuang relics held

H n o ony in YoPhoto by hong Xin

io in iong Photo by ia ing i in B i ing i o

Photo by ao Shan

n ing Photo by ia ing

i inPhoto by ia ing

FACEEDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: LI SHIE-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

By Zhao Xia

9JUNE 1. 2001

As far as the Chinese see it, middle age is the toughest period of life with the heaviest burdens and greatest challenges. On top of this, the middle-aged generation of today is straddling a turning point in his-tory. They experienced the tail end of the Cultural Revolution, later to face possibly losing their jobs, find-ing new ones and finally benefiting from housing reform.

hang iuhua, is a middle-aged woman of , born and raised in Beijing. Her experiences are repre-sentative of those of her generation.

A Shattered DreamLike most students of today,

hang iuhua spent her childhood attending school, all the while dream-ing of a decent job and happy future. The Culture Revolution shattered all her glorious dreams and peaceful life.

“1966 to 19 6 was the Cultural Revolution decade in China. In 19 , the revolution was almost over. At that time, I was a junior middle school student in grade two, just one year away from graduation. I had thought of working in a factory after graduation, helping my family and later marrying somebody. That would be my life if the Cultural Rev-olution hadn’t intervened.” At that time however, according to general regulations, if you were the eldest child in your family, you could stay at home. Otherwise, any youth born in a city should quit learning in school, to go to live and work in a produc-tion team in some remote village, to observe and learn real life from real people. hang was not the eldest in her family and so was sent to Daxing County, an obscure village not far from the city of Beijing. The

program of learning included har-vesting straw in summer, trans-planting rice seedlings in spring, dredging the stream in winter. She was only 16 years old when she moved to the village.

Field Instead of Dance Floorowadays, teenagers have pop-

corn, fashionable clothes, loads of pocket money and all kinds of distractions to divert them. But

hang’s mind was only occupied with straw, rice seedlings and the sweat of labour.

hang’s home in Daxing County was a shabby clay struc-ture consisting of just one room. Ten girls had to snuggle in together on one huge kang bed. The harsh living conditions did not dampen the teenagers’ enthusiasm for learning about real life from real people. “Yes, I do regret wasting time, but at that time, I felt that was the only possible life for us, and we all happily accepted it.”

hang recalled.The days quickly fell into

the routine of the countryside rhythms: the same sunset, the same landscape, the same blazing sun, and the same interminable flow of sweat. There was however one particular day that stuck in

hang’s mind.It was one of those days where

the sun wouldn’t let up for a second. The five girls had to harvest their straw as usual. After the girls had got through their morning of mus-cle-numbing labour, the sun climbed to its highest and most deadly point. The girls decided to stop for lunch, and formed a circle amid the straw. There was no shade whatsoever for them to enjoy their water and steamed buns. Five exhausted girls sat there in the usual silence replen-ishing themselves for the afternoon

for 19 years until finally a disease defeated her.

One day in 199 , hang was pulling 11kg of candies from one workshop to another for the usual packing process. Suddenly, unbear-able pain convulsed down her back and around her waist. As a loyal, proud worker, hang determined to persist, silently enduring the pain. When she reached home that evening, the pain in her back was so intense she could not lie down. The next day’s medical examina-tion shocked her: a bony growth on her backbone and osteoprolifer-ation on her waist. Suddenly work involving heavy lifting and stand-ing for a long time was out of the question. So she had to give up the job in the factory. It was the first time in years that hang was defeated by disease

“With permission from our fac-tory, they changed my position. I have been a bus station supervisor for seven years now.” hang said happily.

Everyday is HopefulWhen the gods are jealous of

your happiness, they will take it

away, replacing it with heartache. This common belief has been proved by the story of hang iuhua. In the 1990s, some staff have to face being laid off. hang is one of them. She will leave her duties behind her in June, with 200 yuan compensation per month from the factory. She would however like to continue to serve at the bus station supervisor’s office where she may be offered some extra payment. Frustrated in their efforts to raise the 1 5,000 yuan for their new house, hang’s husband was so vexed that he

had a second stroke, leaving him half paralyzed. hang iuhua would not only have to obtain money, but also look after her husband. But hang is still as happy as anyone else, because she has an outstanding daughter who is due to sit the university entrance examina-tion this year. The mother, father and daughter herself have confidence that she will pass the exam. At present, this family is living in a 12 sq.m. house, but are lucky enough to benefit from hous-ing reform: they are eligible for a new

house with half the total price paid for by the state. The end result is they will move into a new apart-ment block next year.“As middle-aged women, we really have more burdens than others: family, parents, children, work, and many other things to consider. But I manage to find hope from everyday life. Most importantly, my daughter will enroll in university, and we will move into a new house. There-fore, next year is full of hope for me.” hang iuhua longs for the future, while grateful to take every moment of hap-piness from the present. I can see that the spirit of the scantily clad teenager danc-ing in the fields is still alive and well.

ahead. With the sun at its zenith, nothing dared move in the fields, apart from the odd crazed bird flying overhead. When they had finished eating they just sat motionless, as if recovering from the effort. Suddenly, one of them stood up, took off her overall and began to sing and dance. The others just registered what sur-prise they could. She shut her senses to the outside world as if in a trance, and gradually her hilarity inspired the others to join in. They had the vast expanse of farmland as their stage, the scorching sun as their lighting, with the straw and blue sky as their audience. After all this time, their teenage innocence and beauty came shining through again. It was a testimony to the power of the human spirit to find happiness even in the most desperate circum-stances.

Defeated by Disease “Twenty months later, I went back

to Beijing, and this agonizing period finally came to an end.” hang stared into space as if the emotions of that time had just passed through her again. Fortunately, hang entered a state-run food factory, named Yi Li

Food Factory. It was an enviable occupation to others, because it was run by the state and had a steady salary.

With less than 0 yuan at the beginning, hang’s task was to assemble and pack up candy. Every-day, four workers had to pack up ,500 kilograms of candies. On aver-

age, everyone had a workload of almost 2,000 kilograms. Again, it was physically demanding for a woman. hang kept going this way

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1. Helping passen-gers get on buses and keeping order are

hang’s duties.2. Everyday, on her

way home, hang will go to market for a day’s vegetable.

. Though the house is small and shabby,

hang iuhua and her husband are both hopeful for their future.

. This is hang iuhua’s favorite

action and expression.

picture 1

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LEGACYEDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: LI SHIE-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

10 JUNE 1. 2001

“I’ve been drinking douzhier for more than 0 years. I’m absolutely hooked.” Says Tong

ian, a regular at Dongwai dou-zhier shop. The shop has recent-ly moved to o.5 Beixinqiao 2 Tiao. One hot morning, Tong, 80 years old, and her sister make their way to the Shop to buy dou-zhier along with other regulars, undeterred by the hour’s bus ride from Wangjing Garden in the northeastern part of Beijing.

Douzhier, a fermented drink

made from ground beans, has been part of Beijingers’ diet for a long time. It is usually served with spicy pickles and Jiaoquan, a kind of fried food made from flour. In the past, boiled with ground corn, dou-zhier was the staple diet for low-incomed Beijingers.

The only time-honored, state-owned douzhier shop in Beijing, Dongwai has been producing and selling douzhier for dozens of years. As a result, the shop is an attraction to many Beijingers, es-pecially among the middle-aged and elderly.

According to hang Liming, the shop manager, douzhier is very good for your health. It can help reduce blood pressure. Dou-zhier lovers come from all over the city, including some old over-seas Chinese. On weekends cus-tomers fill the alley and douzhier is always sold out quickly.

owadays, a majority of young Beijingers are not interested in douzhier due to its unique smell. But for others, they have a deep af-fection for douzhier. “The more you drink it, the more you love it,” said Shao Shuben, 1 years old, living in the neighbourhood of the shop. Her view is echoed by Tong ian. “ My sons and grandsons have got into the habit of drinking it now.”

Old Taste Still Hot Among Beijingers

Can a modern laundry have a traditional Chinese facade? “Yes, it can” says Yang Aijun, the manager, standing in the For-net flagship laundry at o. 219 Fuchengmennei Street. “It’s an imposing facade. We are very sat-isfied with it.”

Opened on May 18, the laun-dry has a beautiful shop front, the upper part of which is like a huge ancient Chinese archway, made of wood and glass and dec-orated with hanging red cloth. According to Yang, the facade is different from that of other chain laundries. “Our other chain laun-dries have a uniform appearance in blue and green. This looks

pure and clear. As for this laun-dry, Mr. Bai Pinzhou, our general manager, adopted a dark brown tone when designing the facade so that it could be in harmony with the environment.”

It is reported that Fucheng-mennei Street is going to be reconstructed as the second cul-tural street after Ping’an Avenue in icheng district this year. The shops along the street will be re-built or redecorated in the styles of Ming and ing dynasties.

A modern laundry, installed with Italian equipment and op-erated in a French style, has a traditional Chinese facade. “I’m happy to see such an interesting combination,” said Mr. He Hao, a customer of Fornet Laundry.

Western-style Laundry with a Chinese Look

A green tea, which was a tribute to the imperial court from the times of the Southern Song Dynasty (112 -12 9) to the ing Dynasty (16 -1911), will soon reappear on the market under the name of “Tian

un” - literally “Divinity”. It was specially developed by the Palace Museum. “Tourists will be able to take home the former royal tea as a cultural consumption within weeks,” according to Mr. Deng Bide, manager of Yu hen Tang, who sells the tea at the Palace Museum.

“ The Tian un tribute tea has disappeared from view for over a hundred years, and now it is making a fresh appearance with a fine quality, beautiful package. The tea, 1980 yuan per set including 100 grams of tea and an informative booklet, vaunts its imperial origin to the full.”

Leaving aside this piece of news, what might interest ordinary people, the tea lovers, is a quick review of the history of tea and tribute tea. Tea has a legendary history of over four thousand years. Historical literature records that tea became popular in the Tang Dynasty (618-90 ) and was in vogue in the Song Dynasty (960-12 9). In

the Tang Dynasty, tea production was greatly promoted as a result of the development of the feudal economy and the increase in social productivity. A lot of famous teas and tribute teas appeared then. The Tang dynasty saw the first comprehensive treatise on tea and its varieties, though shorter works had appeared earlier. This was

ing known as The Classic of Tea by the man of letters Lu Yu ( -80 ). In his book, Lu Yu advocated a tea theory from cooking techniques to tasting, as well as the utensils and complete procedure. He wanted a tea drinker to have a realm of calm, to concentrate attention on the tea, to make the tea tasting activity become a medium of cultivating one’s behavior and moral character as well as molding one’s temperament. It created a precedent for the Chinese tea ceremony and set a model for the development of tea culture in later ages.

The greatest development and contribution of the Song people to tea culture was reflected in the harmony with tea and related arts, carrying tea tasting toward the perfection of scholar tea. For scholars, monks and priests of the past dynasties, tea was a precious and noble drink and tea tasting was an intellectual enjoyment. Thus

they were inspired to write a lot of poems and prose about tea tasting while advocating tea banquets, tea ceremonies and tea parties.

In 1 91, Emperor hu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty (1 68-16 ), issued an imperial edict that tribute tea should be paid in loose leaf form instead of the conventional ball tea. Only tender tea buds were picked for paying tribute because the real tea flavor was lost when tea was ground and compressed into small cakes.

The tasting method of grinding and cooking tea was changed into the boiling water and infusing method. These were to be epoch-making changes. Some scholars of the Ming Dynasty, whose names were frequently repeated by the Chinese, such as Wen hengming, Tang Yin, u Wei all had the hobby of tea tasting. They created a new field in “Scholar tea” of the Ming Dynasty.

During the ing Dynasty, tea culture penetrated into city people’s daily life and became part of established customs as well as a noble national sentiment, since it was integrated with traditional etiquette and order of importance and seniority in human relationships. The tribute tea system gradually vanished in the mid-18th century with society undergoing dramatic changes and development. From the Ming, ing and beyond, tea was brewed in small clay teapots, a tradition that continues to this day.

Although cola-type drinks of various kinds are booming everywhere, tea, an essential part of Chinese culture, does mean something to some modern people. “Tea is my inspiration.” Said hang Jie, hostess of the Purple Vine, one of the most distinctive tea houses quietly located in a long, narrow lane shaded by leafy trees in Sanlitun Bar Street. At a cosy table, with a pot of aromatic tea at hand, Ms.

hang says “I love tea. Purple Vine would lose its soul without tea, moreover, tea offers the perfect friendly environment with a strong Chinese flavour for my customers and myself.”

ong in Photo by ian ingge

By Qi Shou

Photo by ui un

Photo by ui un

By Huang Ying

By Huang Ying

CHAPTEREDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: LI SHIE-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

11June 1. 2001

I never tell others about my birthday on my own initiative, even my relatives and best friends. First I tried to forget it and later I really forgot it. Before I was 18 years old, none remembered my birthday. After I was 18 years old, I am unwilling to mention it. It is right it is the year when I was 18 years old.

The narrow road outside the school is full of bumps and hollows and stilts to one side. Across the road, I feel cold on my back. I be-lieve I be tailed by someone.

I dare not to turn around. I have to sweep my eyes over both sides but find nothing abnormal. I keep going forward and come to an old woman who is welling ice sticks. Suddenly, I turn around and see a Jiefang-brand truck passing through and splashing the mud on the edge of the road. Two young-sters who are buying ice sticks stamp their feet and curse the truck which splash the mud over their shorts and legs. The old wom-an pulls her ice sticks case to the wall and talks, “Driving a ghost truck. The crematory will refuse you, a god of plague and death.”

After this confusion, the road returns to its original.

I stand blankly on this mixed and disorderly road. Do too many talks with others make me ner-vous? After one year in my child-hood, I time and again feel cold on my back and believe I be tailed by somebody. On several occasions, I almost find this person but each time this person flashes pass.

That man, with tangled hair, enters my eyes without any gaudy colors. He never be close to me. In-tentionally, he doesn’t let me see him. He appears on my way to and back from the school, close to the school. He doesn’t follow me and hides in a place to wait for me.

The most terrible thing the girls hear about is rape. But I am not afraid he will rape me.

I never tell my parents about it and do not know what I can tell them. Possibly, they may say I do something bad and curse me. I bear it by myself for several years. Gradually, I have no fear at all and think it is not mysterious. After he stared me each every 10 or 15 days, I will feel cold on my back. I do not fear and hate such thing. Maybe it occurs with life. Every-

body will meet such thing. In your whole life, somebody delib-erately makes things difficult for you. To it, I can act to not care about it. In fact, only few people want to have a look of me.

Each time I take opportunity and try to see him clearly because I want to be sure it is him, like catching a green dragonfly care-fully. Each time, he can avoid my eyesight. Maybe it is not good for me to search for such a delusive thing. If I see it clearly, does it bring me disaster?

I dare not to think it more. That year my world glitters. Many things mix together and become a string of knots. It seems the moss-es on the rock walls on the side of the road I walk on hang down like the hair of ghosts.

My family lives on the south-ern bank of the Yangtze River.

On the southern bank of the Yangtze River there is a hilly area. The undulating hills leave many gullies and ridges. If the river had the worst flood in the history, the whole city would be submerged.

The slope my house stands will be the last to be submerged and appear persistently as an islet. Such an idea comforts me since my childhood.

From the Chaotianmen Dock across the river, there are two fer-ries close to my house: Yemaoxi and Danzishi. From each of them, it takes 20 minutes to climb up the slope before reaching my house on

the half way to the top of a hill.

Standing on a rock in front of my house, I can see the Chaotianmen Dock on the other side of the river, the gate of this mountainous city at the juncture of the Yangtze River and Jialing River. The peninsular surround by these two rivers is the center of Chongqing. The buildings of vari-ous styles stand against the hills like toy bricks of different heights. Various kinds of steamboats stop along the river. A cable car with rusty spots climbs up the slope. At dawn, the clouds above the water surface look like red fish scales un-der the early morning sun. The set sun in the valley on the northern bank of the Yangtze River shoots out some lights behind mist. At this moment, on the river, on the top and at the foot of the mountain, lamps are glittering, welcoming the dim light of night. Particular-ly in the rainy day, steamboats in the river horn like women crying for their dead husbands. This city surrounded by two galloping riv-ers day and night changes all the time but is always desolate.

Liu Liu (I), the leading character of the novel, was born in Chongqing in 1962, one of the famine years. She is an outcome of dual hunger (hunger for food and sex). She is an illegitimate child of her hungry and tired mother who supports the family with a shoul-der pole and two ropes and a young man with a pair of poor shoulders. Ow-ing to this she does not receive any love from her father. Without grain and love, she enriches her body and fills up the terrible, nihilistic and de-spair abyss of hunger with the love from her “history teacher.”

Hong Ying’s description about the hungry years makes people shiver all over though not cold. Those astonish me and make the book success are: First, the writer remains calm while

portraying the hard life, quite dif-ferent with other works by her. This daughter who survives hardships lives on other side of the ocean. She is far away from the event in terms of time and space. All things are clear, without any impetuousness. What she wrote leisurely are soul-stirring things. Secondly, the writer portrays not only the hardships but also the psychological change of the people un-der the pressure of hardship. The ex-tremely hungry people take no care of dishonor and even insensitively re-ceive “rape” The abnormal love be-tween the leading character Liu Liu and her history teacher illustrates the deep sorrow. All these sorrows take a deep root in the despairing psychol-ogy.

Hong Ying, a Dual Daughter of HungerQ: What kind of work is Hungry Daugh-

ter?A: Hungry Daughter tells a history of how

I become a writer and also a certain period of history of our country. It is beyond my expec-tation that it has caused such a big reaction in the West and is welcomed by the people from all walks of life in China too.

Q: You say Hungry Daughter is an auto-biography because you have a profound and unique memory and experience of hunger. Do you fear miserable life when you were writing about it?

A: I fear to look at myself in the mirror be-cause from it I can see some remains of my expression when I knew my own experience at 18.

The hunger I tell in my book is not only the mental hunger but also the hunger in the depth of the heart and the hunger of the

whole nation. The hunger in my book is my hunger for survival, for a certain kind of spirit and even for sex. Such a hunger is also a hunger for a national memory. The mis-erable sense changes into hunger because the memory has lost. As a nation, I feel we have lost our memory. In this sense, Hungry Daughter is written for the 1960s. But in fact we are in debt to the 1970s, 1980s and even the 1990s, the next generation and the gen-erations followed. We should wipe it off and resume our memory we are forced to lose. I write this book to link the memory with hun-ger forever. In my dream, I see some things that happened in my book and have talks with the dead. I can remember what hap-pened in my dreams. In the dream and on the eve of death, people are honest. I believe on the eve of my death I can see again what I should not forget.

By Hong Ying

Part of First Chapter

Dialogue with Hong Ying

Shanyanghu@ynet.com Pictures by Xie Feng

By Yi He

12 JUNE 1 2001 SPOTLIGHTEDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: LI SHIE-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

By Zhu Lin

On the night of May 2 at the Beijing Work-ers’ Stadium, the mixture of music and ecstatic cries permeated through the air as far as several blocks away. This was the three-hour pop concert given by six influential Chinese singers: Lo

Tayu, Chow Wah- in, Su Huilun, Li ongsheng, Li Hui-

zhen and Tao he. Among the six, it was Lo who caused the biggest sensation. Around

10p.m., the concert reached its climax. Before his ju-

bilant fans, Lo presented eight of his old songs, tugging at the strings of the audience’s emotional memory. Like Paul Simon to American youth of the 1980’s, Lo Tayu, one

of the most influential Chinese pop songwriters from Taiwan, has had a profound effect

on thousands of young people born around the 1960’s and 19 0’s. In 19 9, with his first well-known release

“Childhood”, Lo started his successful journey in song writing, leaving almost all the other singers far behind. His

role came to be more than just a singer, but a father offering spiritual guidance through every stage of adolescence. On univer-

sity campuses especially, his melodies and lyrics were on the students’ lips when they fell in love for the first time, drank with their buddies for the

first time, and waved good-bye to school for the last time. His fans, who are now in their early thirties, call Lo’s songs “our own songs”.

Asked what feelings Lo inspires in him, the music critic Jin haojun said, “Lo is a cul-tural phenomenon, rather than a musician.” Lo has given a whole generation an emotional sense apparatus and repertory of responses, embodying the proof of their young life style. At the concert, most of his hysterical fans were in their thirties or late twenties, but as excited as teenagers. o wonder Lo called it a “coming together of sound memory and passion”.

At the end of the concert, when Lo’s last note was drowned out by cheers, all the audience jumped to their feet. They were calling out to the idol of their youth time and time again, as if they had just retrieved their young passion of ten years ago, and wanted to keep it alive longer through their calling.

At this year’s China Interna-tional Modern Dance Festival held at the Theatre of Chinese Tradi-tional Opera School from May 18 to June 2, audiences can catch a glimpse of the development of in-ternational modern dance.

There were eight dancing troupes meeting in Beijing on this occasion. The programme of Beijing Modern Dance Theatre treated his-torical themes, while Cloud Gate 2 from Taiwan province sensitively expressed modern people’s psychol-ogy. The Ludus Dance Company was searching for the educational meaning of dance, not merely en-tertainment. On 2 and 2 May, the Overseas Chinese dancer Peng Gang interpreted the new relation-ship between people and objects in his silent composition “Paper Dance” without musical accompa-niment.

Cao Chengyuan, the artistic su-pervisor of Beijing Modern Dance Theatre, sponsor of the festival, was excited to see such a variety of dances presented on stage, “Differ-ent theatres bring different incli-nations of development. In dancing circles, we compare too much, ar-guing who is the best or the most genuine. But this time, I realize that we should appreciate each

other rather than compare.” The young choreographers were

the leaders of this multiple devel-opment. Wu Guozhu from Cloud Gate 2, still a dancing student, combined his ideas with Meredith Monk’s postmodern music in his composition “Tantalus”. In busi-ness dress, and appearing in for-mation, a group of dancers gasped and ran about desperately as if they were hypotized. The audience showed their impressive capacity in accepting this new expressional form. Yun ing, an art student from Shandong Province said af-ter watching “Tantalus”, “I want to laugh and cry at the same time, but sometimes, people laugh in or-der to hide their tears.”

Obviously, China International Modern Dance Festival is not only a meeting of modern dances, but also a unique chance for more and more people to examine their changing life. Just like the artistic director Lo Man-fei said after the rehearsal on May 26, “What does modern dance mean? It just means eternal change.”

Modern Dance, Eternal Change

Photos by u ei eng

Photos by ui un

By Jiao Pei

13JUNE 1. 2001SHOPPINGEDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: PANG LEIE-mail: jianrong@ynet.com

Photo by Fan Xue ong

owadays, beautiful clothes alone are not enough for the truly fashionable. If you want to be really hip, you’ve got to start with your skin. I found a small shop around Dongsi recently, called “Body Art” that offers body painting services, as well as a whole set of image designs, make-up, and so on. It is at present the only shop specializing in body painting in Beijing. Around China there are 18 branches, owned by Edlucky Art Studio. The process is easy and painless. They first apply a base on the target area, then add the color. When the skin has absorbed the first layer of color, a second layer is applied. It will vanish without a trace in to days. The vegetable based color is not poisonous and totally harmless. They offer a variety of patterns, you can choose from designs such as totems, script, flowers, animals, whatever takes your fancy. Prices range from 0 to 200 yuan.They also offer a paint you in the comfort of your own home’ service. A

0-50 service fee applies.ame: Body Art

Add: 66 Dongsi Beidajie (东四北大街),Dongcheng District, the west end of Dongsi Santiao(东四三条)Hours: 11am to 9pmTel fax: 8 0 558

What sort of handi-crafts can be made from

cicada shells? - Hairy mon-keys, of course A traditional Beijing folk art.

This kind of mimic mini-show of the daily life of locals can only

be found these days in the work-shop of Mr. Ma Fuli - a world full of hairy monkeys’ and opera masks.

The bodies of these delicate ten-by-five millimeter dolls are made from white Magnolia buds and the head and limbs, from cicada shells. Mr. Ma creates tableaus featuring hairy monkeys’

acting out all kinds of common scenes. Some are making ice-

cream, some are acting or watching Beijing opera and others are flying kites. “The most difficult part of making these scenes is building the monkeys’ props, such mini stools, tables, and even bowls. A scene with just four hairy monkeys takes me a whole day.”

Apart from hairy monkeys, Ma is also an expert in making opera masks. Besides making the traditional masks of Beijing

opera, he can also make masks

of Chuanju (Sichuan local opera) and Shehuo (Shaanxi local opera). Though foreigners usually have difficulty in un-derstanding the various forms of Chi-nese opera, they are still fascinated by these exotic masks and rush to buy them as souvenirs. Here Mr. Ma re-marks, “The market is flooded with Beijing opera masks and their collec-tion value is lessened.” To some degree, of the masks he made by hand, the Beijing Opera masks are not as intri-cate as the masks of Chuan Opera and Shehuo, both of which have a longer history and have more varieties in color.“ n for tunate -ly, foreigners sel-dom read the difference

among them. Just keep it in mind, when you come across a mask which is more colorful and bizarre, it is absolutely my work,” says Ma proudly.

Hairy monkey: 150 yuan each Op-era mask: 50 yuan each, cash only

Add: 2-1 , Building 2, 8 Longtan Bei-li(龙潭北里), Chongwen District

Bus: 6, or 60 to Youleyuan(游乐园), or 8, 5, 1 to Guangminglou(光明楼)

Tel: 6 1 152

Hairy Monkeysand Opera Masks

BeautifyYourself: BodyPainting

By Jiao Pei

Attention movie buffs and music fans This is a way cool shop that boasts a really impres-sive selection of imported movie and rock’n roll posters. Locat-ed near the south gate of Cha-oyang Park, Whisper opened for business at the end of last year. The posters are mostly im-ported from Britain, as well as America, Switzerland, Holland and elsewhere. They have a se-lection of some 500 to 600 mov-ie posters, blockbusters and art house, many of which have nev-er been screened in China. For-eign bands, such as irvana, Bon Jovi, the Beatles, Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson are also featured. Prices range from 5 to 80 yuan, depending on the size, framing is extra.

Add: Tianshuiyuan Road(甜水园路), 50m south of Rolling

Stone BarOpen: 10am - 1-2am Tel fax: 6591 2 1

In the north west of Beijing, opposite Renmin niversity, there is another shop specializ-ing in movie posters and art and photographic prints. They have a selection of over 2000 posters, which are imported mostly from the S., France, Britain, and Switzerland. Prices range from 12 to over 1,000 yuan. Subjects include movie and sports stars, landscapes, animals, and car-toons. According to the staff, Brave Heart and Gladiator are the most popular of the movie posters, while Brad Pitt is the top selling movie star.

Add: 58 Haidian Road, just south of Dangdai Department Store(当代商城), Haidian Dis-trict

Open: 10am - 10pmTel: 6256 8 2

Movie PosterCollecting

h

If you are looking to stock up your bookshelves with the writings of the Great Helmsman, Dong-fanghong, or the East is Red Cul-tural Book Store, is a pretty good place to start, or add to, your col-lection. Dongfanghong sells copies of just about every book and ar-ticle penned by Mao edong, as

well as a selection of biograph-ical works by

various

scholars and people who knew him.

Other revolutionary figures, such as hou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and of course Deng iaoping, are also accorded a generous amount of shelf space. You will also find a va-riety of Mao statues and busts, just the thing to decorate your mantel-piece with, and cassette tapes of songs from the Cultural Revolu-tion.

Most of the books here are in Chinese, but they do have a num-ber of works printed in English, Japanese and Russian.

Add: About 200 meters east of the east gate of the Summer Pal-

ace, on the left side of the road, Haidian.

Take bus 801, 808, 18, or 2, to Summer

Palace.Open: 9am-8pm daily

Book Store

By Li Dan

DongfanghongMusic Friend another poster shop

By Wen Long

Photo by hen Shuyi

There are ring roads circling urban Beijing, the Second Ring Road, the Third Ring

Road and the almost complete Forth Ring Road. As to the First Ring Road, well that is something of a mystery, and another story altogether. Living near any of the three ring roads might be noisy, if your apartment faces the wrong direction, but can be very convenient, in terms of getting from one side of the city to the other. In the coming weeks, this section will introduce some new, foreigner-approved apartments now on sale, situated in convenient proximity to the ring roads.

This week, we feature apartments on the Second Ring Road.

West: ★Graceful Garden, (国兴家园 Guoxing Jiayuan), ready for living, at the intersection of Capital Stadium South Road and Chegongzhuang West Road, developed by Beijing engyuan Real Estate Development Co. The current price is 8,900 - 110,000 yuan m2. Phone 68 00606 0808.

★Rongfeng 2008 (荣丰2008), available for living on 12 2001, 05 Guanganmenwai Dajie, developed by Beijing Rongfeng Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. The current price is 6,900 yuan m2. Phone 6 88822 6 26112 .

South: ★ ew World Villa (新世界家园 inshijie Jiayuan), available for living on 10 2001, west of Chongwenmenwai Dajie, developed by China ew World Real Estate

Co. and Beijing Chongyu Real Estate Development Co. The current price is 9,680 yuan m2. Phone 6 089506 8 9.

★ ew World Taihua Plaza (新世界太华公寓 inshijie Taihua Gongyu), ready for living, west of Chongwenmenwai Dajie, developed by China ew World Real Estate Co. and Beijing Chongyu Real Estate Development Co. The current price is 1 ,000 yuan m2. Phone 6 081 08 09.

East: ★Palatial Crest (雍景台 Yongjingtai), available for living on 06 2002, Dongzhimenwai Dajie, developed by Beijing Jiyuan Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. The current price is 2, 00 m2. Phone 6 689065 9066 911 6 66 112.

★Central Park (新城国际 incheng Guoji), available for living

on 06 200 , at Chaoyangmenwai Dajie, developed by Vantone Real Estate Co. The current price is 9, 00 yuan m2. Phone 65919999 2 5.

★Establish Apartment (建国公寓 Jianguo Gongyu), available for living on 05 2002, south of Jianguomenwai Dajie, developed by Beijing Jinyu Real Estate Development Co. The current price is 11,800 yuan m2. Phone 656 5551.

★Fair View Garden (怡景园公寓 Yijingyuan Gongyu), ready for living, north of Ritan Park, developed by Beijing Glory Real Estate Development Co. The current price is 1 ,000 yuan m2. Phone 650 69 .

The above data is the latest available. Provided in part by C.B. Consulting. o on in

at the 2nd Ring Roads

NewApartments

HOUSINGEDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: PANG LEIE-mail: jianrong@ynet.com

By Xu Yan

Picture by iu ang

14 JUNE 1 2001

According to the data provided by Jones Lang LaSalle, we can see that there was a slight decline in the number of

transactions in the Beijing Grade A office mar-ket during the first quarter largely duet to the holiday season. There were an increased num-ber of enquiries towards the end of the quarter. The majority of recent transactions were from existing companies expanding office space. Compared to last year, the IT sector was less active in the first quarter with some compa-nies closing and others delaying or canceling

expansion plans.The Beijing Exchange Tower was the only Grade A office building completed during the first quarter of 2001. This contributed to an increase in the aver-age Grade A market vacancy rate from 1 . in the

previous quarter to 16.6 .The average Grade A rent continued to strengthen, although at a reduced rate com-pared to last year. Indeed the higher rents in some higher quality Grade A buildings were counter-balanced by the low initial asking prices of the new supply. The highest rate of

rental increase during the first quarter was in the rd Embassy Area at .5 . Elsewhere rents were broadly stable, up 0. in the CBD and 0.

in the East Chang An Area. otable leasing transactions included:Lang Chao software leased 1,100 m2 in Ea-glerun Plaza

erox leased 1,000 m2 in Full Link Plazaokia expanded in Pacific Century Place,

leasing a further 1,000 m2 andEC expanded in Sinotrans Plaza, leasing

a further 1,900 m2.There was little change in the Grade A office sales market in the first quarter. Recently there was an increase in the num-ber of enquiries for international standard Grade A office buildings from overseas in-vestors, however the purchasers in the majority of transactions remained local com-panies. Recent transactions have occurred at Cyber Tower with local companies com-monly purchasing around 500 m2.

1. The location and price of the project. Real estate advertisements often feature a schematic map showing the location of the project, which are rarely to scale and can be quite deceptive. The price stated in ads is always the lowest or average level of the whole project. In fact prices vary de-pending on which floor the apartment is on, which direction it faces, how it is furnished, and the ex-pected completion date.

2. The outer and inner appearance of the apartment or house. If construction is complete, there may be a photo of the actual scene while if it is being sold prior to completion, you will see a computer-generated image. Either way, the property will appear very attractive. You still need to conduct an on-the-spot investigation. If you are lucky, you may find there is not too big a difference

between the advertisement and the real thing.. The description of necessary facilities and the

surrounding area. The facilities will invariably be of the “highest quality,” and the project “very near” to a certain supermarket, school or hospital. Take the time to explore the neighborhood for yourself, to be sure that these descriptions are accurate.

. Check the developer or agent’s qualification and certificate number for selling the apartments or houses. The advertisement should display a series number, such as “Jing Fang Wai heng i

o.12 ” for all officially approved projects, which can be confirmed by the municipal housing administration.

Reading through the ads is only the first step in finding a house. You should investigate the project by yourself. eep copies of the ads and take them as a reference when signing the purchasing con-tract. If legal problems arise someday, they may also become necessary as evidence.

Property Advertisements What do they really tell you?

“HOUSING” welcome your feedback: What kind of difficulties do you encounter when looking for housing in Beijing? What kind of information do you need? What can we help you with?

Our E-mail: jianrong@ynet.com Tel: 65902522 Fax: 65902525

teste et

lysis

By Xu Yan

Data from Jones Lang LaSalle

EDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: PANG LEIE-mail: jianrong@ynet.com

INFOND

N T

Saturday, 2, JuneClear cloudyMax: C. Min: 22C.

Sunday, , JuneClear cloudyMax: 8C.Min: 2 C.

Monday, , JuneClear to overcastShowers in parts of areaMax: C. Min: 20C.

Tuesday, 5, JuneClear cloudyMax: C. Min: 20C.

Wednesday, 6, JuneClear cloudy . Max: 5C. Min:22C.

Thursday, , JuneClearMax: C. Min: 2 C.

Friday, 8, JuneClear to cloudyMax: 2 C. Min: 18C.

Saturday, June 2o much influence on dispersion of

suspended particles.Sunday, June Difficult for dispersion of sus-

pended particles.

Air ualityForecast

Sanlitun Bar Street4th Anniversary Party

at Shiller’s 2Special offer: B.B. , Beijing

draft beer and lucky draw all for just 68 yuan. For German passport and diplomatic card holders, free Beijing draft beer. The beer garden is open now.

Add: Across the river from the Capital Mansion

When: Saturday, June 9 11am - close

Tel: 6 6 9016Velvet RoomEvery Friday: 1st floor:

mix the vibe China pump Factory DJs: Yang Bing and Weng Weng upstairs: live jazz Moreno Bonald jazz trio

Have dinner at Triumphal Arch Restaurant and get in

for freeAdd: 2 Beixiaojie Sanlitun,

opposite Capital MansionAdmission: 50 yuan Tel: 6 609 66 Hidden TreeThis is a cozy bar and res-

taurant.Add: 12 Sanlitun South Bar

Street, Chaoyang DistrictHours: 6pm-2amTel: 6509 6 2Rainbow Cafe This is a small but cozy cafe.

It can only hold a handful of people, but the atmosphere is quite relaxing.

Add: Sanlitun South Bar Street, Chaoyang District

Hours: 1pm-2amTel: 65915811

Digital art ExhibitionWhere: The Loft ew Media Art

Space, 1 Gongtibeilu, take the alley beside the Pacific Century Plaza main gate and follow the signs, Chaoyang District

When: now - June 8 Tel: 650656Japan Poster Game-The

form of Japanese Poster Design

More than 200 works by over 0 designers on show here for the

first time.Where: Yan Huang Art Museum,

9 Huizhongli Yayuncun Chaoyang District. 亚运村慧忠里

Bus 28,108 or 1 to Yayun-cun

When: June 1 - 10, 9am - 6pmTel: 6 9 5Exhibition of Old Chinese

Cartoons (Xiao Ren Shu)Over 2000 cartoon series and 50

thousand books, mostly from the 1950s and 60s and the Cultural Revolution. They are presented to exhibition and purchasing.

Where: Data Department, hongguo Baokan (China ewspa-

per) 2, Hengertiao, idan西单横二条 中国报刊资料部

Bus 22, 105 or subway to idanWhen: till June , 9: 0am-6pmAdmission: FreeTel: 66020 5

15June 1 2001

Sport

Beijing Curio City Yabaolu Market 北京古玩城雅宝路市场It is opened from April 19, and from June

1, the business time will last till 8: 0pmIt is specialized in furnitures, clothes,

paintings, calligraphies, china, carpets watches and jewellery.

Add: Ritanlu Chaoyang DistrictTel: 010-650891 5

Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra One of the world’s most renowned Symphony Orches-tras, founded in 1900 Where: The Great Hall of the People, west side of Tian’anmen Square

When: June 1, : 0Admission: 80-800 yuan Tel: 66081188,6 0 2 02

Happy Children’s Day Con-cert

List: Peter and the Wolf, and Carnival of the Animals

Conductor: ynan Johnsarrators: iao iong and

Pu Cun in (famous actress and actor) 肖雄 濮存昕

Where: Forbidden City Con-cert Hall, hongshan Park

When: Friday, June 1, 2:00pmAdmission: 0 - 200 yuanTel: 6559829Folk Songs of Western

China

Performed by the Central ationality chorusWhere:Concert Hall, hong-

shan Park When: June , : 0pm Admission: 0 - 200 yuanTel: 65598285The Dancing of Wild

BeesConcert of American clarinet

and piano duet, Berkely Price and Deon Price

Where: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie Liubukou W. Chang’an Avenue Take bus to

Liubukou北新华街六部口When: Thursday, June , :

0pmAdmission: 0 - 200 yuanTel: 6605 006Zhengyici Beijing Opera

Theatre 正乙祠大戏楼Chinese Peking Opera Clas-

sicsAdd: 220 iheyan Jie (西河

沿街) Hepingmenwai uanwu

DistrictWhen: Saturday, June 2, 2:

00pmAdmission: 10 yuan, 8 yuan

for monthly ticket holders, 5 yuan for college students, yuan for high school and elementary school students

Tel: 6 0 10Beijing Opera at Huguang

Guild Hall (Huiguan) Add: Hufanglu Huguang

Huiguan, When: now - June 10, : 0pmBus 1 , 15, 25, 66, and 2 to

HufangqiaoAdmission: 100 - 280 yuanTel: 6 5291 0Turbulence A play about the life and art

of play write, Tian HanWhere: Capital Theatre, 22

Wangfujing DajieWhen: June 1 - 10 Admission: 60 - 200 yuanTel: 65250996

Antiques

Shaping Exercise, get into shape, loose

weight at the Shaping General Office in China

Add: 2nd floor, Huarun Mansion, 8 Jianguomen Beidajie

Tel: 851919 0 fax: 851919E-mail: shaping shaping.com.cn

All the Way- Zou Dao Di 走到底(English Subtitles)Director: Wu i iu, Star-

ring: He heng Jun, Chen unChina’s first “road film” is set

in wild and beautiful Guangxi Province. A girl, her gangster boyfriend and an ordinary truck driver get caught up in an escape in the aftermath of a spectacular robbery.

Where: Sino-Japanese Youth Center, Conference Hall, 0 Liangmaqiao Lu, approx. 1 km east of empinski Hotel

When: Friday, June 8, 8:00pm

Admission: 50 yuanTel: 6 615 18 9German movie - Que-

relle Director: Rainer Werner

Fassbinder (雾都水手 ) 1982

There are only 0 seats, so get there early

Where: Box Cafe, 5 iwang-zhuang iaoqu, opposite Tsing-hua Tongfang Mansion

Bus 5 to east gate of Tsin-ghua niversity,

Admission: 5 yuan, including one beverage

When: Saturday, June 2, :0pm

Tel: 62 91280Double FeatureLunar Eclipse (Yue Shi)

(2000, China) 月蚀and The change of the family

(Jia Bian)家变(Denmark) Where: Central Island Club,

Tuanjiehu ParkEast Third Ring Road, oppo-

site TGI Fridays When: Sunday, June , pmTel: 859 8 91

Musics & Performances

If you have any questions or new future information, please contact us at bjtodayinfo ynet.com.

iao ei

Movie

Exhibitions

Photo by Fan Jiwen

PLANEDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: PANG LEIE-mail: jianrong@ynet.com

16 JUNE 1 2001

The steepest section of the Great Wall is usually thought to be

Simatai. However, Jiankou, a section often seen in pictures and postcards, is in some places, even steeper than

Simatai. Jiankou is located 10 km west of Mutianyu, the section visited by former .S. president Bill Clinton when he was here a couple of years ago. You can walk along the wall from Mutianyu to Jiankou, it should only take a day, but you will be exhausted when you get there The easiest way to get there is to walk up from henzhuquan (珍珠

泉村) Village, past Longtandaba(龙潭大坝), you can reach Jiankou and Yingfeidaoyang (even eagles must look up when passing), as well as stop for a look at Longtan, which is said to be home to a dragon. There is a mineral spring at the foot of the hill that runs into a small lake. It is rather a precipitous to climb on Longtandaba, so carry as little as possible, just water and camera. From Jiankou, turn left at the wall, walk along the one sided’ wall and turn left again at Yingfeidaoyang. In this way, you can experience the essence of Jiankou great wall and avoid the dangerous right hand side. As you look at the seemingly endless

wall extending along the mountains into the distance, you can really feel the power of the Great Wall. And far from the noise of other tourists, the silence of the mountain and the wall speaks of countless ancient stories. People come and go the wall and the mountain remain. nfortunately, when I turned to come back down, my breath was taken away for quite a different reason. What had seemed like a steep climb on the way up, looked almost vertical going down. I desperately wanted to come down backwards, clinging to the handrail, but my fear of the descent was slightly less than my fear of looking like a complete idiot, so I compromised and sat down

every few steps “to admire the view”. If the ancient Chinese soldiers who manned the wall climbed up and down these steps every day, they must have been truly formidable. And how they actually built this section is a complete mystery to me. The great engineering marvels of the late 20th century somehow seem less marvelous after my visit to Jiankou. Worrying slightly about how my legs would feel the next day, I returned to henzhuquan Village for a much needed rest.

Where: Go out the Airport Expressway and take the airport exit. Drive north along Jingshun road (京顺路) to Huairou, then take Yanqihuxice road (雁栖湖西侧路) to Badaohe(八道河), then go west.

Accommodation and meals: You can stay in local houses for 10 Yuan per person. If you don’t mind the local food, your hosts will include meals for an extra 5 Yuan per person. Fresh rainbow

trout are also available you can catch them yourself in the nearby artificial lake.

Note: The temperature there is around 5 degrees lower than in downtown Beijing. You will also have to bring your own drinking water with you.

Recommended route: Go to west in Jiankou to experience Beijingjie and Yingfeidaoyang, which will only take you for about half a day. Take your lunch either on the wall or in the village. Go to east to reach hengbeilou, a famous tower in the great wall for a nice camping. Or you can just go directly from Jiankou to Mutianyu.

With a total length of 21 kilometers, the Gubeikou Great Wall section is located 128 kilometers northeast of Beijing.

nlike other sections, it varies in width, with the widest part able to accommodate five horses walking abreast, while the narrowest spot is wide enough for only a single person to pass.

Note: It is possible to walk from Gubeikou, through Jinshanling to Simatai. It is quite a challenging trek, if you are reasonably fit, it should take about days, sleeping in the towers at night.

Where: See directions for Jinshanling. Gubeikou is at the foot of Jinshanling Mountain.

The Ming Great Wall comes from Shanhaiguan Pass and divides into two at Huairou, one branch goes southwest to

ijingguan Pass, in Hebei province and iangziguan Pass, in Shanxi province while the other goes northwest to

hangjiakou, Datong and eventually, Jiayuguan. The spot where the two branches diverge is called Beijingjie (Beijing knot).

Where: Drive to izhazi village, Jiankou. Take the northern road to idui village, you can see a mountain road from the western side of the village.

West from Huoyaoshan, you can see that the Great Wall extends in parallel for layers. If you check carefully on the map, you will see that these

layers enclose Sihaiye city. Sihaiye city was of great strategic importance during the Ming Dynasty, and was the center of the northern defense of Beijing city.

Where: Go out the Airport Expressway and take the airport exit, go north along Jingshun road (京顺路) to Huairou, then go from Huanghuacheng(黄花城), through Haizikou(海子口) to Sihaiye(四海冶).

Simatai Great Wall, known for its precipitous and spectacular location, passes

by Gubeikou Town in the northeast of Miyun County. Built by General i Jiguang, it is the only part of the Great Wall that retains the original Ming Dynasty features. It not only incorporates the different characteristics of every section of the Great Wall, but also features some styles that are unique to this particular part. Simatai Great Wall is separated into two parts by a valley, across which runs a chain bridge. The hills on the western

side slope gently and there are 20 watchtowers along the wall. On the eastern side are another 15 watchtowers perched on the thousand meters high peaks. Perhaps the prettiest named of these is the marvelous Fairy Tower. Beside the Fairy Tower, you will find Heaven Bridge. The bridge is nearly one hundred meters long, but only one meter wide, and there is a steep drop of some 500 meters on both sides. Definitely not for the faint hearted. Beyond this is Wangjing Tower, which is said to be one of Beijing’s highest cultural relics, at 986 meters above sea level. This is the summit of the Simatai Great Wall and also the most dangerous place to reach, as visitors must traverse unrestored paths, including Heaven Bridge, and the “Scaling Ladder” to reach it. The “scaling ladder” is a slope at an angle of 60- 0 degrees, which needs to be negotiated with caution, on all fours. Because of the dangers involved in reaching Wangjinglou, only a few people have set foot on the tower in modern times.

In the valley, there are two springs, called Mandarin Duck Springs. The east spring is cold, and the west one is warm. Both springs flow into a lake, and guess what? The eastern half is cold and the western half is warm Simatai Great Wall is quite different from other parts of the Great Wall, and if you are considering camping, it’s a great spot for spectacular sunrises.

How to get there: Take traveling bus 12 from Dongsishitiao(东四十条), to Simatai, or take a bus from the long-distance bus station near the north east exit of Dongzhimen subway station, take bus(东密专

线) to Miyun(密云), and hire a microbus, a kind of local taxi, for around 60- 0 Yuan. It’s around

60- 0 km to Simatai. If you are driving, start from Airport expressway and take

the airport exit, go through Jingshunlu(京顺路), Miyun(密云), Songshuyu(松树峪), and turn right at Sangyuan(桑园). When you reach Guomachang(过马场), if you turn left, you come to the public area of Simatai, where you will be charged 20 yuan per person and the scenery is not as good. It’s better to go straight on to Bagezhuangcun(巴格庄村) where you can stay in local houses and will be directed to the real’ Simatai. Accommodation and dining: Simatai Great Wall is one of the best sections of the wall in terms of living and dining. You can stay either in small inns or local houses.

Jinshanling Great Wall is named after the Jinshanling Mountain on which it is built. With a total length of over 20 km, this section was built by the famous Ming

dynasty generals i Jiguang and Tan Lun in 156 . The Jinshanling section is more mountainous than Badaling, and features more delicate architectural work. Standing on Jinshanling great wall, you have a wonderful panorama of northern China. The wall here really does look like a dragon, coiled over the wavy ridges, with its head on Laohushan peak in the east and its tail in the Hanhe River in the west.

There are beautiful views in all directions. Looking to the east, you can see the first peak of Yanshan, Wulingshan, while on the western side, Wohuling(卧虎岭) crouches like a tiger, guarding the gate of Beijing. To the south, Miyun reservoir reflects the mountains, while lines of trees wave in the wind to the north. Along this 20 km section are over 100 watchtowers built in various styles and numerous hidden gateways. All these towers are hollow inside and could hold 60- 0 guards as well as their supplies. The ancient architects gave these marvelous towers beautiful names, such as Wangjinglou, (Watching Beijing tower), iannulou (Fairy tower), and Jiangjunlou (General’s tower). This really is a beautiful spot and there is no admission charge Just park in a field, walk up to the wall and start climbing. You’ll meet shepherds and local

children, but no one will try to sell you anything. It’s a long section of wall, just be very careful when climbing on those parts that are crumbling. On the steep parts, kicking loose rocks can be prove

hazardous to those walking behind you.Where: On the Beijing-Chengde expressway. You’ll see

the Jinshanling Great Wall as you approach the boundary between Luanping and Miyun county.

Accommodation and food: A tent is the best option for accommodation around this part of the wall, however you may be bothered by squirrels searching for leftovers. Take a supply of food with you, the local restaurants, though cheap, aren’t great.

Recommended route: You have to go through a mountain path before climbing the great wall and remember, do not take the rope way. Go to east to see the famous Fairy Tower, Heaven Bridge and Wangjinglou Tower, which are all so marvelous. Go along the great wall to the north, probably it may take you a whole day, you will reach Jinshanling great wall. It is more than good to see the sunrise in Simatai and sunset in Jinshanling.

by Wang Dandan

BeyondBadaling

Great Wall(Ming)Great Wall(Qin)

TianxianpuBaihemingzhu

Jingdudiyipu

Yunfengshan

Yunwushan

HeilongtanTaoyuanxiangu

Yunmengxia司马台

金山岭

箭扣

古北口

北京结

四海冶

The Wild Great Wall