Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Auto Art Exhibition warms up for Art Beijing 2007

The undated photo shows artist Zhao Bandi's Panda team performing in Shanghai's Volkswagen, as a demostration of art work for Volkswagen's Olympic Art Exhibition.(CRIENGLISH.com Photo)

 

  BEIJING, April 25 -- As a warm-up event to Art Beijing 2007, Volkswagen's Olympic Art Exhibition is scheduled to tour Shanghai, Beijing and Berlin starting from May 22.

    The exhibition will showcase auto-related art works that center on the Beijing Olympics, created by Chinese artists Zhao Bandi and Ji Dachun.

    Zhao Bandi came to public spotlight with performance art in which he and his team dressed in toy panda costumes and acted in ordinary daily situations.

    For this exhibition, the artist took his Panda team to Shanghai's Volkswagen and shot a short video program featuring the life and work of auto workers of the factory. By such experiment, artist Zhao hopes his pandas performers can help bring life back to the "cool" auto making world.

    While artist Ji Dachun, demonstrated his art talent by painting in five colors of the Olympic Rings on a Volkswagen car, hoping to give it a new life.

    The exhibition will last six days at Shanghai business center Xintiandi.

    As part of a biggest ever contemporary art scene, Art Beijing 2007 is due to show up at Beijing's Agriculture Exhibition Center from September 20 to 23.

 

Beijing Hyundai plans new mid-size sedan

Apr. 24, 2007 (China Knowledge) – Beijing Hyundai Motor, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and the Beijing Automotive Industry in China, said it plans to independently build a new mid-size sedan to be released in China in 2010. The project will be developed at Beijing Automotive's new R&D center which is under construction and should be completed in May 2008.

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Beijing's public transport to go greener

Green vehicles make for blue skies.

At least that's the philosophy behind a decision by Beijing transport authorities to replace more than 2,500 aging air-choking buses with new-generation clean people movers before next year's Olympic Games.

Feng Xingfu, deputy general manager of Beijing Public Transport Holdings Ltd, said 2,810 environmentally friendly vehicles would be purchased, and at least 80 percent of the buses would come fitted with diesel engines that meet the European IV standard for emissions.

Beijing transport authorities will also add another 160 electric-powered trolleybuses to the new green fleet.

Another 300 buses that run on compressed natural gas will be rolled out, bringing their total number to 4,000, Feng said.

"Compared with the European III standard, European IV has cut particle emissions by a further 80 percent," Feng said.

"European IV buses will have more engine power and improved fuel efficiency."

Meanwhile, battery electric vehicles, which have been serving parts of Shanghai for nearly a year, will get their Beijing debut during the Games.

"Compared with the traditional oil-fuelled bus, the battery electric bus only accounts for one-third of the energy cost, with no pollution," Shuai Hongyuan, head of Ruihua Group, which developed such green autos with the State Grid Corporation, said.

"And a full battery recharge can keep a vehicle running for about 300 kilometers."

Wang Yundan, deputy director of Science and Technology Department from the State Grid Corporation, a 2008 Beijing Olympic Games partner, said China had taken the lead in developing such technology in battery electric vehicles.

He said China would further promote electric-powered vehicles by building more recharge stations.

In addition to battery-powered vehicles, experts have called for more biofuel-run vehicles on Beijing's roads.

At the third Global Botanic Gardens Congress held last week in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, Hu Hongjun, a botanic researcher from Chinese Academy of Sciences told Xinhua that Beijing could become China's first city to use biofuel technology on a large scale.

By 2010, China plans to plant 13 million hectares of Jatropha trees, from which 6 million tons of biodiesel can be extracted every year as a source of clean energy, according to the State Forestry Administration (SFA).

Statistics show that the number of newly registered automobiles in Beijing is growing at a rate of 1,060 a day.

There are currently 2.97 million automobiles in the capital. That number is expected to exceed 3.3 million by the start of the Olympic Games in 2008.

Authorities will discourage automobile use during the Games to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.

Source: China Daily
 

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Beijing Netcom Signs Olympic Media Transmission Deal

April 24, 2007
Beijing Netcom has signed with Deutsche Presse Agentur for the German company to use Beijing Netcom's network to broadcast Beijing Olympics to European countries.

This is the first foreign media to sign with Beijing Netcom on communications services for the upcoming games.

Zhao Jidong, general manager of Beijing Netcom and vice president of China Netcom, the parent company of Beijing Netcom, disclosed that during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Beijing Netcom will provide broadband transmission service for re-broadcasting service providers and media across the world.

Beijing Netcom has already constructed a special VIP network for the Olympic Games and the network has extended to North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

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Beijing's oldest opera hall to be demolished, replaced with modern theatre

April 23, 2007 - 15:09

BEIJING (AP) - Beijing's oldest opera hall, built during the Ming Dynasty, will be torn down to make way for a modern theatre, state media reported Monday.

The Guanghe theatre, declared unsafe in 2000, dates to the final years of the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1368-1644, Xinhua News Agency said. Initially the villa of a rich salt merchant, it was rebuilt several times, most recently in 1955.

In the 1970s, it was a venue for top Peking Opera performances, but audiences dwindled and the theatre fell into disuse.

Beijing once had about 40 opera houses, most of them south of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, but few remain, Xinhua said.

"We intend to build a modern, professional venue," said Ma Dekai, chief of cultural facility construction in the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture.

The Beijing government has been criticized in recent years because many traditional areas and buildings have been torn down to make way for modern buildings or roads.

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Silicon Valley veteran opens Beijing office

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Published: April 24 2007 01:59 | Last updated: April 24 2007 01:59

Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, one of the blue-bloods of the US venture capital business, has taken the first step beyond its Silicon Valley roots by opening an office in Beijing and raising $360m to invest in technology start-ups in China.

Kleiner's move represents a watershed for the Valley's famously insular private financing community. Based on close personal relationships and local connections, Valley firms have hesitated before turning overseas, in spite of their dominance of the overall US and global venture capital markets.

Silicon Valley rivals Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Mayfield have already set up in Beijing, sometimes after lengthy internal debates about whether they could successfully build personal networks and apply techniques learnt in the clubby atmosphere of Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road. "The opportunity is so enormous, if you want to be in the venture industry going forward, you really need to have a presence here," said Ted Schlein, a Kleiner partner.

He added that the move to China did not reflect a belief that opportunities to back new technology start-ups in the US were shrinking, but rather: "We think there are some big enterprises that will be created here."

He put Kleiner's relative lateness into the market down to the need to find local venture capitalists with strong reputations and networks of their own.

"We were willing to wait until we got the absolute best people," he said.

The firm said it had hired four general partners to head its new offices in Beijing and Shanghai, led by Tina Ju and Joe Zhou. Ms Ju has specialised in early-stage internet investments, backing a number of leading Chinese companies.

Her former firm, TDF Capital, will form the basis of the new Kleiner operation.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Beijing to let yuan rise about 3pc a year: Adviser

April 23 2007

BOAO (China): Beijing will probably continue to let the yuan rise only at a modest rate amid concern that a faster pace could hurt exporters and attract speculators, a top adviser to China's leadership said.

Justin Lin Yifu, a Taiwan-born economics professor at Peking University and one of China's most influential policy advisers, said that the yuan would probably only appreciate by about 3 percent a year against the dollar in the foreseeable future.

"The Chinese government's wording of 'keeping the yuan rate stable' means it will continue the existing pace of appreciation, which is about 3 per cent a year," Lin said in an interview.

Any faster pace than 3 per cent a year could push many exporters out of business, and a rate of 4 per cent was likely to stimulate speculation on the yuan, Lin said, citing the gap between US and Chinese interest rates.

Many of China's trade partners assert that the yuan is significantly undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage in global markets.

The yuan has risen by just 5.1 per cent against the dollar since the central bank revalued it by 2.1 per cent and decoupled it from a dollar peg in July 2005.

Lin said that even the frequent post-revaluation highs of the yuan on the onshore market were mainly the result of the central bank's plans to allow more two-way movement in its value - not a sign that it would let loose on the reins outright.

Still, that increased volatility was an important part of the central bank's aim of letting the yuan become more flexible, Lin said. - Reuters

Emirates soon to launch double daily flights from Dubai to Beijing

Monday, April 23, 2007

Emirates have announced that double daily flights from Dubai and Beijing will commence on the 1, April, 2007.  This means an increase to 12 flights every week, and then from July 1 the carrier will launch a double daily non-stop service. 

"China is the new economic powerhouse and the world is beating a path to its capital Beijing. Since the launch of our Dubai-Beijing route last September, we have experienced strong demand from countries on our network and consistently high seat load factors. We are in the business of creating convenient global air networks for our customers – both passengers and cargo – and the upcoming Olympic Games in 2008 will increase the tempo of demand for our services to Beijing," said Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline. 

 "Our second daily to the city is win-win for customers, stakeholders and our business, which is the reason we earmarked the city for double dailies so soon after our launch. We are extremely grateful to the Chinese government and the airport authorities for their continuing support. Emirates is confident that our twice-daily flights will accelerate bilateral ties between the two countries in the political, social, cultural, trade and tourism spheres," continued Clark.  

Emirates will serve the second daily with an Airbus A340-300 offering 267 seats in a three-class configuration – 12 seats in First Class, 42 in Business and 213 in Economy – and 13 tonnes of belly-hold cargo capacity. With the second daily, the airline will offer capacity in excess of 3,700 seats and 180 tonnes of cargo to Beijing every week.

The increase in services follows the growth of relations between the two countries.  The UAE and the China National Tourism Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Chinese citizens' outbound travel to the UAE earlier this month, which is projected to significantly increase the growth of Dubai's tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) markets.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

China’s economy could grow by 10.9% in 2007

BEIJING: China's economy could grow by 10.9 percent in 2007, up from 10.7 percent last year, according to a study quoted in state press Saturday that will increase concerns about overheating.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences forecast follows official figures released Thursday showing growth of 11.1 percent in the first quarter, despite efforts to slow the economy.

Investors and analysts expect further measures to put the brakes on China's economic engine, such as an interest rate hike. But they are not sure whether the plans will work.

As in the past, the authorities have set a target of eight percent growth in gross domestic product, which international organisations including the World Bank say is almost certain to be exceeded this year.

The World Bank forecasts the rate of growth will shrink to 10 percent in 2007 before a sharper slowdown in 2008, due to strict measures adopted by Beijing. afp

Bill Gates: Microsoft to build R&D parks in Beijing, Shanghai

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivers a speech in Peking University in Beijing, capital of China, April 20, 2007.
 

   BOAO, Hainan Province, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced here Saturday his company will build research and development parks in Beijing and Shanghai in a bid to expand its business in China.

    Gates said the parks will be built to meet the growing research and development demand in China and help ameliorate Microsoft's relationship with its clients and partners.

    The chairman did not offer details of the new move.

    Gates attributed Microsoft's success to innovation and teamwork, saying that the move will hopefully help the company establish a sound relation with its trade partners and the Chinese government to tap human resources and promote regional prosperity.

    Microsoft established its first China-based office in Beijing back to 1992, since then the company has dedicated to long-term research and development in the country.

    The company established the China R&D Group in January last year, a milestone of its development in the world's most populous country.

    China is embracing unprecedented opportunities, said the group chairman Zhang Yaqin, the Microsoft products made in China will increasingly embody Chinese talents' originality, he added.

    Gates arrived in Beijing Thursday for his 10th visit to China, during which he met with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and visited the prestigious Beijing University and Qinghua University in Beijing.

    The Boao Forum for Asia, established in 2001, is a non-governmental organization serving as a platform voicing for Asia's future. The 2007 conference, with the theme "Asia Winning in Today's Global Economy -- Innovation and Sustainable Development", will run from Saturday to Sunday in Boao.

Poor air, clogged roads bad news for Beijing

Stephen Wade
Associated Press
Apr. 21, 2007 12:00 AM

BEIJING - Sooty air and chronic traffic congestion in the Chinese capital is still troubling the International Olympic Committee with the 2008 Beijing Olympics just 16 months away.

An inspection team - known as the IOC Coordination Commission - wrapped up three days of talks Thursday with Beijing organizers. Hein Verbruggen, chairman of the commission, said the concerns marred the largely problem-free preparations for the Summer Games.

Verbruggen said the IOC wasn't sure plans by Beijing organizers would work to clean the air and unsnarl traffic during the 17-day Olympics. advertisement 
 
 


The torch relay also hit a snag, with Taiwan balking at a compromise to bring the torch to the self-governing island, which claims independence from China. The torch relay is supposed to embody Olympic ideals, but it's also highlighting a political issue in China.

Verbruggen generally praised the Beijing organizers, saying "the attention for the games is mounting; there is vibration all over.

"I must say that it's almost an emotional feeling you have when you imagine that in some 470 days athletes will be able to perform in this magnificent environment."

In focusing on the problems, Verbruggen said Beijing organizers had kept their promises, but China's booming economy was polluting the air quicker than solutions could be found to clean it.

"We've asked for the contingency plans," Verbruggen said. "The effects of those plans will be calculated so we know if it is enough to guarantee that the quality of the air will allow the athletic performances that we expect to happen here."

He said the booming economy, with billions being spent to modernize China's capital, had led to "the enormous amount of construction sites in this country, the dust problem and so on. This is of utmost importance to the athletes, who are the most important part of the games."

Verbruggen said Beijing's clogged roads were worrisome, despite plans announced Wednesday to open at least two new subway lines before the Olympics and proposals to cut car usage by 20-30 percent during the games.

"It's totally clear with the current congestion you see in Beijing on a day to day basis, that this is something which we will obviously have to avoid during the Olympic Games," he said.

Beijing has about 3 million cars, and will have about 3.3 million by the Olympics.