FAREWELL TO TRAFFIC WOES: Chongqing Municipality is committed to handling traffic jams in its downtown area with a string of improvements over the next five years. Traffic congestion will be cut by 50 percent and the city's rail services will be increased (ZHOU HENGYI)

Anti-Corruption Fight

Discipline inspection commissions of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and supervision departments at all levels investigated 139,621 corruption cases in 2010, said a senior official with the Party's top discipline watchdog on June 22.

A total of 146,517 people were given disciplinary punishments and 5,373 were transferred to judicial bodies for criminal investigation last year, said Wu Yuliang, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection at a press conference.

Copyright Protection

The National Copyright Administration (NCA) has pledged greater efforts to ensure all government offices at and above city-level use copyrighted software by the end of October.

"As of the end of May, all computer software used by the 135 central government agencies are authorized and legitimate," the NCA said on June 21. It undertook measures to root out pirated software in all province-level government bodies by the end of July.

In the past year, copyright authorities across China handled 1,148 cases of online piracy in a special campaign to crack down on online copyright violations.

Cross-Straits Tourism

Individual mainland tourists were allowed to visit in Taiwan beginning June 28.

The mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Straits Exchange Foundation in Taiwan exchanged written documents on June 21 to confirm the schedule of a pilot travel program for this purpose.

In the initial phase, both sides agreed the travel program would apply to only residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen in southeastern Fujian Province.

Taiwan became a popular travel destination for mainland tourists after the island lifted a travel ban for mainland group visitors in July 2008.

The number of Chinese mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan in groups totaled 2.34 million as of the end of May, bringing an estimated 110 billion New Taiwan dollars ($3.8 billion) to the island.

New Airport

To handle soaring passenger traffic in and out of the booming metropolis, a new airport is expected to be completed in Beijing by October 2017, said Yao Weihui, General Manager of China United Airlines.

Likely to be approved later this year, the new airport would probably have eight runways for civilian use and a ninth for military use, he said.

Once the new airport in south Beijing's Daxing District was put into use, the Beijing Nanyuan Airport in Fengtai District would be closed, Yao said.

Incoming Icebreaker

China will launch a new icebreaker for use during an upcoming 2013 polar expedition, said the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

The new icebreaker and Xuelong (Snow Dragon), China's only icebreaker in service, will form an Arctic-Antarctic maritime research team.

"China will have at least two icebreakers concurrently operating at both the north and south poles," said Chen Lianzeng, SOA Deputy Director on June 21.

The new icebreaker would have facilities that will allow it to research the oceanic environment, integrate data for real-time oceanic monitoring, deploy and retrieve detectors and conduct aerial studies using helicopters, Chen said.

He also revealed the two icebreakers would conduct expeditions in polar regions for more than 200 days annually.

Since the early 1980s, China has sent 27 Antarctic expedition teams and completed four research missions to the Arctic Ocean.