NUMBER ONE PORT: Cargo docked at the Huanghua Port in Hebei Province. The port's throughput in 2012—102,000 standard containers—is the largest among all ports across the country (WANG MIN)

Promising Film Market

China's box office sales hit 17.07 billion yuan ($2.74 billion) in 2012, up 30.18 percent year on year and making the country world's second largest film market, said the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on January 9.

Chinese filmmakers produced 893 films last year, including 745 feature films and 33 animated films.

"Now, China is the world's third largest film producer and second biggest film market," said Tong Gang, head of film bureau of the SARFT.

However, ticket sales for imported movies totaled 8.8 billion yuan ($1.41 billion), or 51.54 percent of gross ticket revenue, ending the box office dominance enjoyed by domestic films for nine years.

"Though the domestic box office was no match for that of imported movies, the 48.46-percent share still exceeds market expectations issued earlier this year following the signing of a new China-U.S. film agreement," said Tong.

According to the agreement, China increased its annual import quota of Hollywood blockbusters from 20 to 34 and lifted their share of revenue from 17.5 percent to 25 percent.

As a result, 14 American films hit Chinese theaters in the first half of 2012. These were among 38 overseas films that raked in two thirds of total ticket sales in the first six months of the year.

GDP Revised Up

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on January 7 pushed China's GDP for 2011 slightly up based on its final verification.

The revised GDP was 47.31 trillion yuan ($7.52 trillion), up 22.2 billion yuan ($3.57 billion) from the preliminary verification figure.

The year-on-year growth stayed unchanged at 9.3 percent calculating in constant prices.

According to international practices, the GDP figure is usually adjusted several times as more statistics become available, said the NBS.

NBS calculates each year's GDP three times: preliminary calculation before January 20, preliminary verification before the end of September, and final verification before the end of January the following year.