CATCH ME: Designer Paulo Grangeon poses with his paper pandas at Hong Kong International Airport on June 9. The 1,600 paper pandas will be displayed throughout Hong Kong from June 9 to 21 (LO PING FAI)

Massacre Heritage

China is applying to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to list 11 sets of documents related to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in the Memory of the World Register, said Zhu Chengshan, curator of a memorial hall for victims of the mass murder, on June 11.

On December 13, 1937, the invading Japanese army occupied Nanjing, capital of China, and launched a six-week massacre. Chinese records show more than 300,000 people, including disarmed soldiers and civilians, were murdered.

According to Zhu, who initiated the application, the documents, which include diaries, films, photographs and testimonies, depict the brutality of Japanese invaders in the massacre.

On June 10, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying confirmed that China had applied to UNESCO to list documents relating to the Nanjing Massacre and Japan's wartime sex slaves, also known as "comfort women," on the Memory of the World Register.

Created in 1997 by UNESCO, the register protects heritage documents.

Historians estimate that 200,000 women were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese forces during World War II, most of them from countries invaded by Japan at that time.

Care for Seniors

More land has to be made available for the building of homes for the elderly in China, according to a recently unveiled regulation.

The new requirement was issued on June 9 by the ministries of civil affairs, land and resources, finance, and housing and urban-rural development, to address the lack of nursing institutions for elderly people across the country.

New residential districts are required to be equipped with home-based or community service institutions while built-up housing estates should introduce such facilities within a year, according to the regulation.

Land for such facilities cannot be used for other purposes, the regulation says, adding that inspections will be conducted to tighten supervision.

The population of those at or above 60 hit 202 million in China at the end of 2013, totaling 15 percent of the population. The figure is expected to exceed 300 million by 2025. Two thirds of them live with illnesses, and more than 36 million are unable to take care of themselves to some extent.

Carbon Trade

China is the world's second largest carbon trading market following the EU, according to data released on June 10.

Xie Zhenhua, Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that Chinese enterprises had traded over 3.85 million tons of carbon emission quotas as of May 23.

These quotas were sold for 125 million yuan ($20.09 million).

China began pilot carbon trading in 2011 and has approved seven regional trading schemes.

Under the schemes, enterprises that produce more than their allotted allowance of emissions, are allowed to purchase unused allowances on the market from those that cause less pollution. Similarly, those who emit less than their allowance can profit by selling their unused allowance.

Carbon trading is designed to simultaneously discourage emissions and raise money to fund research on environmental protection.

In an action plan released last month, China aims to cut carbon dioxide consumption per unit of economic output by 4 percent in 2014.