TAKING ON A NEW LOOK: Drepung Temple, located in Lhasa, capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region, is under renovation on March 10. The renovation work started in June 2009 (JUE GUO)

Built in China

The maiden flight of the AC313, China's first independently developed civilian helicopter, is scheduled for mid-March in the eastern province of Jiangxi, a company official said on March 6.

Sun Cong, Deputy Chief Engineer of Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), told Xinhua that the AC313, designed and manufactured by AVIC, has a maximum takeoff weight of 13.8 tons and can carry 27 passengers or 15 wounded personnel.

The new helicopter was designed for a variety of uses, including search and rescue, fighting forest fires, and even assisting in fighting fires in cities, Sun said.

Foreign Technology

China spends billions of dollars importing high-end scientific instruments every year, and its global competitiveness in this regard is dwindling, a survey has found.

Conducted by Peking University and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology and the National Science Library, the survey found in some sectors scientists rely 100 percent on imported high-end instruments.

Importing the instruments, including DNA sequencers and particle colliders, cost several billion dollars in 2009, an increase of 30 percent on the previous year, the report found, without specifying an exact figure.

The instruments are widely used for testing and analysis in areas such as genetic engineering, space projects, energy-saving technologies, food safety and military services.

A Historic Park

China's northeast Heilongjiang Province will build a park in 2010 to mark the Japanese Unit 731's notorious experiments during its aggression of China from 1937 to 1945, said local authorities.

The park will be based on the zone of the unit's ruins in Pingfang District, Harbin City, capital of Heilongjiang, the Harbin Municipal Government said.

Unit 731 was a covert biological warfare research and development center operated by Japanese invaders during its war of aggression. It conducted vivisections and other inhumane atrocities on Chinese prisoners of war.

A museum built on the ruins opened to the public on August 15, 1985. The museum includes a hall of evidence of Japan's crimes and 23 ruins.

Relocation of companies and residents for construction of the park began in November 2009.

New Subway

The landscape of Beijing looks set to keep sprawling as a new subway line linking the southeast up-and-coming Tongzhou District will add into the capital's labyrinthine underground traffic network this year.

"The subway Line 6 project will definitely start within this year," said the district Party head Wang Yunfeng on March 10, adding that at least eight subway lines will stretch into his jurisdiction in the future.

The new king-sized line, extending 42 km underground and longer than any of the nine subways so far in Beijing, will be separated into two parts for construction.

To be built this year is the eastern part, starting from the dazzling World Trade Center in Beijing's central business district and whizzing across 15 stations to its terminal in Tongzhou.