38 robots sail to Shanghai Expo

Thirty-eight robots made by a Beijing countryman Wu Yulu will show up in the 2010 Shanghai World Expo this May. The inventor Wu, a farmer in Tongzhou district with only a primary education background, fiddled with the machines for two to three decades, making 38 robots with different functions including some that can walk, climb and pull.

Wu is in the final stages perfecting the robots to attend Shanghai 2010 World Expo in May.

Source: China Daily
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Yoyoor cooperated with China Mobile to offer a special Shanghai Expo cell phone rental packages to help visitors to the Expo to stay connected during the journey to China.

Posted at 04:56PM Mar 23, 2010 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Man's last bet pays off with sports restaurant

Restaurants kick off discount promotions for various reasons: the anniversary of an opening, the coming of festivals or Valentine's Day.

But for Ren Jie, the latest promotion at his restaurant hinges on something quite unique: celebrating the recent national crackdown on football gambling.

The name of his restaurant? It's aptly named Ku Qiu, meaning "crying for football."

From now until January, all customers can enjoy a 50-percent discount on most dishes. The number 50 appears prominently on an advertisement posted outside the eatery, which specializes in baked fish.

Located in Meteor Garden in Huilongguan, northern Beijing, Ku Qiu looks like any other eatery from the outside. But its interior takes on a sports bar motif: footballs hang on the ceiling, there are also large photos on the wall that Ren shot of famous CCTV sports hosts.

Names of dishes continue the sports theme: Black whistle, Goalkeeper, Beckham-style duck head. You can also order baked fishes that are named after world famous football teams. The Manchester United Baked Fish comes highly recommended by Ren. New customers usually ask Ren if he is crazy about football. His usual answer is: "Well, yes and no."

The 38-year-old man has never played football nor gone to the stadium to see a football match, Ren is obviously not your typical fan. But he was a very "typical" football gambler.

Talking with him it's hard to imagine that he was so addicted to gambling that he lost all of his property holdings. It is equally difficult to imagine that his wealth gained as an exhibition company manager was so vast that he once owned two apartments, a car and nearly two million yuan in the early 2000s.

"Gambling changed the route of my life," Ren said. He gambled for the first time during the 2002 World Cup after employees at the exhibition company introduced it to him. He claims it was just fun in the beginning. He bet and seldom won. But he kept on betting and mostly lost. He lost his two apartments and car and climbed into debt within just two years.

The darkest days once drove him to the brink of suicide, Ren admitted. It was the unwavering love from his wife and two chidren that finally saved him and encouraged him to start all over again.

In 2007, Ren opened Ku Qiu with the money he borrowed from relatives. Besides the football-related images and names of dishes he came up with, there is also a board on the wall with his poem of confession and a giant picture of a girl shedding tears while holding a football, a reminder to customers to stay away from gambling.

Ren has also set up an anti-gambling association with his friends to help football gamblers with their addiction. Some have even come from other provinces to see him and ask for help. But not everyone can understand Ren's second business.

"A few in our neighborhood say the name of my restaurant makes them unhappy," Ren said. "Some say the business will sooner or later close down. But the business is still fine." isn't it?"

"Life is all about ups and downs. I just have a deeper understanding about it than anyone else," he said.


Sourece: China Daily

Posted at 10:03AM Mar 22, 2010 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Demolition Guidelines Tightened in China

Yoyoor China pulse cell phone news:

Forced urban housing demolition, which caused several deaths and injuries last year and snowballed into a major controversy, will be strictly supervised thanks to a proposal to better protect the rights of property owners, a senior official has said.

But forced relocation will be used if necessary so that the self-interests of a handful of people will not hurt the interests of the majority, said Zhang Qiong, deputy director of the State Council Legislative Affairs Office.

Zhang, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, made the remarks in an interview with China Daily about the proposed amendment to the regulation on urban housing demolition.

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Posted at 03:52PM Mar 09, 2010 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

100,000 migrant workers motorbike home

Something very Chinese classic:



One hundred thousand people are expected to join the corps of migrant workers in south China's Guangdong province who drive home on motorbikes for the Spring Festival, police said to the Nanfang Daily.

The daily exodus of motorcycling migrants through the southern Zhaoqing city, a bottleneck connecting Guangdong and southwest hinterlands, was a pageant too swarming to be ignored that local police officers have set up at least 20 interval stations for drivers to refill and refresh, a preventive measure aimed at fewer road accidents and travel chaos.

On average two migrant workers sit on each motorbike, sometimes with a kid placed in between, equipped with safety helmets, bulky outerwear, leather gloves and knee pads, all must gear for an over-ten-hour drive in cold air during the winter.

Two migrant workers in Zhongshan city, surnamed as Zhang and Zhou in the news report, decided to drive home together, in turn of course, which they said was much cheaper and cost only 100 yuan (US$14.5), a sixth of the conventional expenditure on public commutes.

The annual phenomena in the booming factory zone underlies the country's emasculate railway capacity and the behemoth travel tide ahead of the Spring Festival, the most important traditional holiday for families getting-together.



Source: Chinadaily
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Posted at 09:43AM Feb 10, 2010 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

The First Chinese product in a World Expo

The hero of the story is Xu Rongcun and his silk named “Yung Kee Huzhou Silk”.

Xu Ruiyan, also known as Deqiong, or Rongcun, was born in Xiangshan in Guangdong province. He was one of the first merchants who came to Shanghai to do business after Shanghai opened its ports. There he acted as a comprador in the Dent Company established by businessmen from England. He carried on silk and tea trade in light of the business motto of “best goods, highest price”, and built his own reputation in the commercial world.

In 1851, Britain announced the holding of the World Expo. This message crossed the broad ocean and reached China on the other side of the world.

Due to his acute commercial awareness, Xu Rongcun immediately realized the great potential opportunity arising from the event. So he loaded 12 bundles of what he called the “Yung Kee Huzhou Silk” and consigned them to Britain by express.

At the beginning, the silk didn’t caused many attention because of it’s shabby package, but it survived the test of time and in the end won the golden and silver prizes because of its high quality.

So, the Xu family created their legend in the business world by the excellent performance the World Expo.



Related links:
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Posted at 04:37PM Feb 03, 2010 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Yoyoor World Express: Somali pirates invest in real estate

The terrors of the East African seas have moved onto dry land with a variety of investments meant to move their ill-gotten gains into more legitimate areas. The Somali pirates' most popular pursuit? Kenyan real estate.

War-torn Somalia, which has essentially been without a cohesive government for over fifteen years, offers the pirates few opportunities to invest their profits. But neighboring Kenya is a different story. Relatively stable, Kenya is also East Africa's largest economy, allowing ample opportunity to launder the over $100 million in ransom money Somali pirates have been paid in the last two years.

This laundering has most recently taken the form of large real estate purchases. Even in the midst of a global real estate crunch, in which American housing prices have dropped precipitously, prices in the Kenyan capital Nairobi have doubled or even tripled in the last five years. Although Kenyan officials cannot prove this is entirely the work of pirates, there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence to support this conclusion. The area of Nairobi most affected by the housing explosion is Little Mogadishu, named for Somalia's capital city, which is home to most of the city's Somali expatriates. The now-thriving community has seen huge expansion in large businesses and apartment buildings in the last few years.

According to a recent report by the AP's Tom Odula, pirates see such investment strategies as a way to ultimately leave their criminal life behind them:

As reported last year, Somali pirates have set up their own stock market as well.

Posted at 04:14PM Jan 06, 2010 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

China is 2009’s top exporter

BRUSSELS -- China took over the mantle of the world's top merchandise exporter from Germany in 2009, according to the latest figures, aided by a global economic crisis that has taken a greater toll on other trading powers.

China exported $957 billion of goods in the first 10 months of 2009, compared with $917 billion for Germany, according to customs data compiled by Global Trade Information Services, a Geneva-based firm.

No changes in November or December are expected to overturn the Chinese lead, trade experts say. China is likely to publish trade figures for the full year next week.

China's claiming of the title of world's largest exporter was widely expected, with annual growth in its exports regularly exceeding 20% during the past decade.

China in 2007 overtook Germany as the world's third-largest national economy, and is on track to soon surpass Japan to become the second-largest economy after the U.S.

"China has been growing much more rapidly than Germany on all sorts of dimensions and has a population of 1.3 billion, while Germany has 83 million," said Douglas Irwin, a professor at Dartmouth College.

Posted at 02:59PM Jan 06, 2010 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Christmas sparks online sales rush

THE moment she unwrapped the parcel, Yang Ting who works for a foreign company in Beijing marveled at the set of delicate Christmas pompons, the third gift she had bought online within a month to decorate her house.

"With these pompons, a 1-meter-plus Christmas tree and some colored lights I bought online the other day, I can feel the excitement of Christmas," Yang said.

Like Yang, more Chinese consumers have turned to the Internet for Christmas gifts and decorations this year.

Statistics from e-commerce companies show that online sales growth for the holiday season is stronger than the year before, even though prices of Christmas gifts are generally higher.

Lu Weixing, PR manager of Taobao, Asia's biggest e-commerce Website, said: "Transaction value amounted to 4.8 billion yuan (US$705.88 million) between December 8 and 14, far exceeding the daily turnover of 500 million yuan during the same period last year."

His words echoed those of another two managers of e-commerce Websites.

"From December, the transaction volume on Paipai.com grew fivefold from last year," said Yang Sha, its PR manager.

Qiao Yajuan, manager of liyi99.com, said she expected Christmas sales this year would double from a year ago. "Though gift prices rose 20 percent year on year on average, consumers' passion for shopping isn't flagging," she said.

Orders dropped last year amid the financial crisis when most people just browsed but rarely placed orders.

"Shoppers looked for practical gifts instead of luxury ones last year. But it seems luxury gifts are back as jewels and bullion sales have grown sharply this year," Qiao said, "We have had to hire more delivery people to meet the demand."

Zhang Yanping, an analyst with iResearch Consulting Group, attributed online sales growth to the country's economic recovery which lifted people's consumption confidence, especially those in second and third-tier cities.

Hu Guanzhong, an analyst with Taobao, said the fast development of the cybereconomy played a crucial role in boosting Christmas sales this year.

Resource: Shanghai Daily
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Posted at 02:16PM Dec 25, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Expo Shanghai 2010 Tickets News: 3-day, 7-day ticket sales start in January

Starting in January, you'll be able to buy three and seven-day tickets for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo that will allow you to visit the Expo several times at a cheaper price.

Organizers said yesterday that the multi-day tickets will be good for any three or seven days during the Expo, which runs from May 1 to October 31, apart from holidays and other peak periods.

A single multi-day ticket will also enable different people to visit the Expo site on different days.

A three-day ticket will cost 400 yuan (US$58) and a seven-day ticket 900 yuan.

Regular tickets will cost 160 yuan. On holidays and other peak periods, they'll be 200 yuan.

Discounted tickets will be available for seniors, physically challenged people, students, children and military personnel. Discounted regular tickets will cost 90 yuan, while those for holidays and other peak periods will be 110 yuan. They'll go on sale in January.

A total of 11.8 million tickets for the 2010 World Expo have been sold, the organizers announced.

People can buy tickets at more than 5,300 outlets of four major ticket agents: China Mobile, China Telecom, China Post and the Bank of Communications. People outside China can buy the tickets at 15 foreign agents across 18 countries.

People can dial 962010, the Expo Shanghai hotline, for details.

China Mobile users can also buy mobile tickets. Users will be able to swipe their mobile phones at the entrance and avoid queues.

May and October will be the most heavily visited months of the Expo, according to a survey from the organizer, said Chen Xueyu, deputy director of the ticket center of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

About 40 percent of the 70 million expected Expo visitors will go the site in October, which includes a seven-day national holiday of China, Chen said.

More than 28 percent people will visit the site in May, while only six percent will go to the site in June, he added.

Chen suggests people avoid visiting the Expo site during the peak periods.

The organizer expects 17 days - including the Labor Day and National Day holidays and the last week of Expo (October 25 to 31) - to attract the most visitors.

Posted at 02:04PM Dec 10, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Cash-strapped expats bring Xmas to Beijing

International hotels and ski resorts are preparing for an influx of foreigners choosing to spend Christmas in Beijing this year.

Hotels, including the Ritz-Carlton and The Hilton, are vying to attract foreigners with multi-course traditional Christmas dinners and family activities.

"Obviously because of the financial crisis, people are on more of a budget," said Floria Wun, public relations director for the Ritz-Carlton Beijing. "We are trying to give people more value for their money."

The Ritz has a set dinner on Christmas Eve and a Christmas Eve Gala featuring a buffet, drinks and door prizes.

"We are expecting 80 percent capacity," Wun said.

The Hilton Beijing has a four-course Christmas Eve dinner and a set menu for Christmas day lunch and dinner.

"If you can't get home for Christmas, there is no shortage of places to get a turkey dinner," said Jim Boyce, author of bar blog beijingboyce.com.

"And you can also mix foreign traditions with local cuisine. If you can't get turkey, have Beijing duck. If you can't find candy canes, buy some candied hawthorn on a stick."

Many expatriates get little, if any, time off from work, which means holiday festivities consist of a meal at a nice restaurant or a small gathering with friends who also are unable to leave.

"I don't celebrate holidays here as I would at home," said Barrett Parkman, an American expatriate who works as the international business development manager for a Chinese company.

"In some ways, I forget about the holidays. This year is the first year I have a Christmas tree and it feels like Christmas in my home," he said.

Parkman said it was too expensive to return to the United States for Christmas.

"We are upper middle-class in China, but we don't make enough money to go home more than once a year. The expenses of going back are quite prohibitive," he said.

Meanwhile, ski resorts are another popular excursion for foreigners who cannot get out of the country for Christmas.

"We don't have any special plans for Christmas, but we are expecting more foreign people at that time," said Liu Na, a spokesperson at Nanshan Ski, a popular ski resort outside of Beijing.

"It will look like a small United Nations."

Dale Lawrence, director of corporate communications for the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said good hotel bargains in other countries are available for people who can afford to leave.

"The trend is very much for last minute bookings," Lawrence said.

"Provided you have a job and you have some money and you want to get away for Christmas, you will probably pick up a bargain of a lifetime. There are still some tremendous prices on offer."

However, travel experts said they do not expect airfares to drop as the holiday draws near. And as airlines consolidate their routes to operate at maximum capacities, buying a ticket early is essential.

"Check availability of flights first and then book your hotels," Lawrence said. "People are going to be traveling this Christmas especially after the year we have just had. There is hope that the traditional Christmas and New Year travel will do reasonably well."

Wang Zheng, a spokesman for British Airways, said the airline had sold 2,000 tickets to international destinations from Beijing during the holiday season.

Peak booking will begin around the second week of December, he said.

Priscilla Lightsey, an American expatriate living in Beijing, said she has purchased tickets to Texas for Christmas.

She said her family would stay in Beijing if they had to but that it is also worth the sacrifice to go home.

"It was more expensive to buy tickets than it has been in the past," Lightsey said. "But it is really important to go home and connect with our family. Beijing has a lot to offer, but we miss our relatives."


Sourc: China Daily

Related links:
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Posted at 02:59PM Dec 04, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Chinese Santa Claus

Waiters dressed in Santa Claus costumes gesture as they welcome Christmas during a photo opportunity on a pub street in Nanjing, Jiangsu province November 30, 2009

Maybe they are not so cute and fat like Santa Claus in western country, but in China, it's enough! Though they are slim. Though it's an advertising.

Posted at 11:17AM Dec 01, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Obama Visits the Forbidden-City in Beijing

US President Barack Obama visits the Forbidden City in Beijing November 17, 2009

Anyone who has visited Beijing's Forbidden City, the historic former home of China's emperors during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, knows even an entire day inside the massive architectural masterpiece is barely enough time to scratch the surface.

And for a president on a tight schedule, a whistle-stop tour of the landmark was always likely to be more of a photo opportunity than a learning experience.

But for United States President Barack Obama, a visit to the world-famous complex was not to be missed, no matter how limited his time.

Obama took a break from his diplomatic mission to Asia yesterday to spend 50 minutes inside the Forbidden City, which is also known as the Palace Museum.

Today, he will carve a little more me-time from his busy four-day agenda in China to visit the Great Wall before he leaves the country for the next leg of his tour in the Republic of Korea.
"It's beautiful. It's a magnificent place to visit. I will come back with my girls and my wife," Obama said before leaving the museum through the northern Gate of Divine Prowess (Shenwu Men).

Fifty minutes earlier, Obama and Forbidden City curator Zheng Xinmiao had entered the palace through the main entrance on the south side - the Meridian Gate (Wu Men). The president had walked along the museum's central axis, which is also the north-south line along which Beijing is orientated.

The Forbidden City was closed to the public for Obama's visit.

In the bright sunshine and cool wind, without the usual hoards of visitors, the palace was a peaceful place. Its golden glazed rooftops still bore a dusting of snow that had fallen several days earlier.

Obama, who was dressed in a brown leather jacket and matching leather shoes spoke warmly about the palace.

"Very good!" he exclaimed in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Dian) while standing before dozens of journalists and photographers. He also posed for photographs in the square in front of the hall.

Inside Taihe Dian, Zheng told Obama about the building's history and its architecture and Obama asked about the words hanging on a board in the middle of the hall.

"Jian Ji Sui You," he was told. It meant "emperors should make good rules".

Taihe Dian was one of the largest wooden structures ever built in China and is the biggest hall in the Forbidden City.

At the Palace of Earthly Tranquility (Kunning Gong), Obama peered through the glass into the rooms that were used on the emperors' wedding night.

"It is truly majestic, and a testimony to the greatness and longevity of Chinese civilization," Obama wrote in the official guest book before leaving the museum.

Obama was the fourth incumbent US president to visit the Forbidden City, following in the footsteps of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.

Asked by reporters what he thought of the Forbidden City, Obama flashed his trademark smile.

"Beautiful," he said.

After a slight pause he added, "spectacular".

Xinhua contributed to the story

Posted at 01:14PM Nov 18, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Obama arrives in Beijing to continue China visit

U.S. President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One as he arrives in Beijing November 16, 2009.During his stay in Beijing, Obama is to meet with Chinese leaders and exchange views on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of common concern. He will also visit the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, two of China's most cherished heritage sites

U.S. President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One as he arrives in Beijing November 16, 2009


Source: China Daily
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Obama Visits the Forbidden-City in Beijing

Posted at 10:42AM Nov 17, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Pre-Expo cleanup aims at arts pirates

SHANGHAI'S Cultural Inspection Team said it has stepped up its efforts against pirated music, movies and other works in advance of the 2010 World Expo.

The team said it confiscated nearly 9 million pirated digital products by the end of September, compared with 6 million for the whole of last year.

"The sharp increase is caused by the shift of its working focus from retailer venues to wholesale and transportation groups," said Zhu Yaoren, deputy director of the team.

The team, launched a decade ago, goes after pirated products including DVDs, books, paintings, musical performances and other items.

Its fewer than 400 members must oversee more than 60,000 venues.

To maximize manpower, they are focusing less on individual retailers than on cutting off pirated products at the source.

Shanghai manufactures few of the illegal goods; most are carried into the city from southern China or overseas, Zhu said.

The team said it made 246 significant busts, each yielding more than 20,000 pirate CDs or videos and 5,000 books and magazines.

Source: Shanghai Daily

Posted at 09:55AM Nov 11, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]

Pandas to be separated, for now

Zhang Hemin, a researcher at the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, applauds giant pandas Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan yesterday at the Taipei Zoo in Taiwan. Zhang suggested a separation of a month or two might rekindle the affection needed to reproduce. The two giant pandas were born at the Wolong facility and sent to the Taipei Zoo as gifts by the mainland to Taiwan.


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Smart phone, smart travel
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Posted at 01:37PM Nov 09, 2009 by admin in In Focus  |  Comments[0]