| Writer Honored
 |
|
(CFP) |
Su Shuyang, a renowned author and screenwriter, was presented with the outstanding contribution award at a ceremony jointly held by China Film Association and Chinese Writers magazine on May 17.
Born in 1938, Su started to write in middle school. After graduating from university, he taught at several academic institutions. During his time at Beijing College of Chinese Medicine, Su composed the play Song of Loyal Hearts, a drama about intellectuals dedicating themselves to the research of traditional Chinese medicine. The play became a huge success in the 1970s and established Su as a professional writer.
At 40, Su became a screenwriter at Beijing Film Studio, where he wrote the script for the movie Sunset Street, reflecting the life of Beijing residents during China's economic reform. He went on to write a number of screenplays and novels about the lives of Beijing residents, as well as Chinese intellectuals, such as the novel Homeland and the poetry collection About Love. Su is now a member of the Board of the Chinese Writers Association and the China Film Association.
Su's famous work A Reader on China, a general introduction to the immense country, has been published in 15 languages with about 12 million copies in circulation. The work has become a top example for Chinese books entering the international publishing market.
China's new regulations on maritime observation and forecasts will take effect on June 1.
Shi Qingfeng, a spokesman for the State Oceanic Administration, said at a press conference on May 20 that the regulations stipulate the planning and building of a maritime observation network, the protection of observation stations, the collection and sharing of observation results, as well as the publication of early warning information in cases of maritime disasters.
International organizations, foreign groups and individuals should abide by related regulations when conducting observation and research in China's territorial waters.
The regulations prohibit Chinese institutions or individuals from providing maritime observation results to foreign organizations or individuals without permission.
The regulations say local governments in coastal areas are responsible for publishing maritime forecasts and early warning information on maritime disasters via local media or warning issuing platforms.
Altitude sickness insurance for tourists to Tibet Autonomous Region was introduced on May 22.
The insurance covers compensation for accidents and medical bills related to altitude-related diseases, as well as funeral expenses for applicants, said Wang Songping, deputy head of the region's tourism bureau.
Tourists arriving in Tibet can pay 50 yuan ($7.88) or 100 yuan ($15.76) each for a valid period of 15 days with a maximum compensation of 100,000 yuan ($15,768) or 200,000 yuan ($31,536) respectively in case of severe altitude sickness.
According to Wang, the largest risk for people visiting Tibet is altitude sickness. Related diseases, such as swelling to the lungs or brain, may be life-threatening, but these problems were not covered by previous travel insurance categories.
The altitude sickness insurance package, designed and initiated by the Tibet branch of the China Life Insurance Co., aims to ensure the health of tourists so they can visit the region without fear, he added.
China will conduct safety management over transgenic organisms and invasive alien species in 2012 to preserve biological diversity, a senior environmental official said on May 22.
As of the end of 2011, a total of 2,640 nature reserves had been established on the mainland, covering 14.9 percent of the country's land area, said Li Ganjie, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection.
"Although rapid progress has been made in the last five years, China is still faced with arduous tasks in this field, including unstable ecological environments and deteriorating ecological functions," Li said.
Satellite monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection last year showed that 80 percent of China's 335 national-level nature reserves are being adversely affected by human activities.
Li reiterated that China will further improve the environmental evaluation system and strengthen supervision on the protection of nature reserves.
More than 260 prefecture-level Chinese cities are building digital geographic systems to provide better services to citizens, the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASMG) said on May 23.
The NASMG said in a statement that over 100 of those cities have put their systems into full operation.
In the meantime, about 10 lower-level counties have also finished the construction of digital geographic systems.
The statement said the country will build a digital geographic framework by 2015.
It said that the NASMG will choose some cities with well-developed digital geographic systems as pilot sites to build "smart cities," referring to urban centers administered with intelligent technology such as cloud computing.
China's mobile phone users hit a record high of 1.03 billion at the end of April, data released on May 23 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed.
During the first four months this year, mobile phone users saw a net increase of nearly 43.8 million from the end of last year, the data showed.
Meanwhile, users of terminals based on third-generation technologies increased 30.55 million during the period, reaching 159 million as of the end of April.
During the first four months, the country's telecom sector reported 339 billion yuan ($53.6 billion) in main business revenues, up 10.1 percent year on year.
Revenues from mobile telecommunication services accounted for 72.6 percent of the sector's total revenues during the period, up from 70.8 percent in the same period of last year.
China currently has 260 million patients with chronic diseases, and these illnesses have resulted in some 85 percent of the country's total deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.
A 2012-15 blueprint on chronic disease prevention and control released by the ministry on May 21 show as a result of fast urbanization and industrialization in an aging society, chronic diseases are becoming more prevalent and have taken up some 70 percent of China's total treatment costs.
The major chronic diseases include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, virulent tumors and respiratory diseases, among others.
The blueprint set goals of reducing the adult smoking rate to below 25 percent and promoting at least 32 percent of citizens to engage in rigorous physical exercise.
Meanwhile, the document plans to lower the adult obesity rate to under 12 percent and set up major cancer treatment projects in high-prevalence areas.
Beijing has planned to spend 118 million yuan ($18.66 million) by the end of the year to improve the quality of drinking water drawn from wells.
The quality of drinking water for about 300,000 people will be greatly improved following technical modifications to 54 wells, the Beijing Water Authority said on May 23.
Improvements will first be made to wells that are known to have safety risks, as well as those that serve areas that do not have access to tap water.
Beijing has been plagued by droughts for 13 consecutive years, with its fast-paced economic development and ever-growing population exacerbating the water shortage.
The available per-capita water availability in Beijing has dropped to less than 100 cubic meters, far less than the internationally acknowledged warning level.
Beijing has about 4,000 wells to supply water for both drinking and industrial production. | 
