NEW HOME: People of the Miao ethnic group in Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province, celebrate moving into new homes. More than 100,000 local residents were relocated out of the mountains in 2012 (HUANG YONG)

Press Invited

Journalists from China and abroad have been invited to cover two major annual events on the country's political calendar next month.

The First Session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the national advisory body, will open on March 3.

The First Session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature, will open on March 5.

The general offices of the NPC Standing Committee and the CPPCC National Committee announced on February 1 that a media center for the two meetings will open on February 26 at the Media Center Hotel.

The websites­—www.npc.gov.cn for the NPC session and www.cppcc.people.com.cn for the CPPCC session—will post information related to news coverage for the events.

NBS Shows Its Work

China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has published the methodology it used to calculate the Gini coefficient reflecting the social wealth gap.

A new survey system was set up at the end of 2012 to unify the income index for 400,000 households in both urban and rural areas. Historical income data have been adjusted and recalculated, according to an article posted on the NBS website on February 1.

The reformed system has been drafted referring to international norms, wrote Wang Pingping, NBS Resident Survey Office chief.

Internationally comparable, China's recently released Gini coefficient reflects the income trend during the past decade, Wang said.

The 2003-12 Gini coefficients, ranging between 0.491 and 0.473, were released by the NBS on January 18. All the annual figures were much higher than the warning level set by the United Nations.

Relics Census

China's first national survey of moveable cultural relics will cover all possessions of state organs, public service units, state-owned enterprises and organizations on the mainland.

A work team leading the survey adopted an implementation plan on January 31, defining the targets of the survey from October 2012 to December 2016, a move to better gauge and protect national cultural relics.

The census aims to accumulate information on the status of the country's cultural relics and record their basic information without prejudice to ownership, said Li Xiaojie, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

After consulting with the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the census will also cover items preserved in the country's religious sites under cultural relics protection, Li said.

Fossils of ancient vertebrates and humans that are of scientific research value will also be surveyed, according to the plan.

However, cultural relics held by individuals and foreign collectors will not be included in the survey, the document said.

The exception was made out of consideration for private property rights, said Minister of Culture Cai Wu.