Stop Ripping off Tourists

During the weeklong May Day holiday, almost all places of interest and scenic spots across China raised ticket prices.

Whenever a tourism peak period arrives, ticket prices become a big concern for those who plan to travel. In order to curb soaring prices in famous scenic spots, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a circular in February, which, despite its explicit stipulations, has been largely ineffectual in curbing price hikes.

Parks say the reason they put up admission fees during peak season is due to the additional maintenance required after large volumes of people have visited. Government allocations are inadequate for this purpose, they say. Meanwhile, local governments hope that these famous spots will bring in as much revenue as possible, so they will never decline price increases. As for local residents, it seems that the ticket prices have nothing to do with them, as in most cases, famous scenic spots only attract tourists from afar.

Tourists will not stay at home because of high admission fees of scenic sites, but it’s unreasonable to charge them so much just because it’s peak season. Given the above-mentioned facts, hearings may help to work out reasonable ticket prices. But hearings must not be the preserve of only some interest groups-they should be attended by all the parties involved, with different voices being heard. Besides, there must be strict government supervision over whether pricing regulations are being carried out.

Beijing Youth Daily

Get Tough With Fake Brands

The Xiushui Market in Beijing used to be famous for hosting a great number of vendors dealing in knockoff goods. However, today, it has become an excellent example of intellectual property protection. According to businesses in the market, nowadays, those who sell fake brands will be heavily fined, and the fine may be as high as a month’s income or even more.

Seen everywhere, counterfeit products are a major headache in China. Businesses produce fake brands and low-quality products, seriously disrupting the market order. Because of this, every year will see economic losses of up to 585.5 billion yuan ($76 billion).

Why are these businesses interested in making fake brands? One of the key reasons is that the punishment they receive was almost negligible compared with the profits they can make. For years slack market supervision bred thousands of questionable businesses.

The change taking place in the Xiushui Market shows that tough actions must be taken to crack down on counterfeit products. If they realize that their continued transgressions may even drive them out of business, fake brand producers and dealers will naturally act cautiously. At the same time, market regulators need to be more vigilant and resist the bribes they are being offered.

China Business Times

Rural Rubbish Piling Up

Over the past few years, the living environment in some rural areas has been greatly improved due to the implementation of garbage collection with centralized compositing. The only problem is-it’s not easy finding enough rubbish dumps.

Where to leave this growing mountain of rural garbage isn’t the only headache however, as currently there is no unified standard on rubbish collection and treatment in the country’s vast countryside.

China has 900 million farmers, making rubbish treatment a major problem. Without strict and practical planning, it’s impossible to effectively tackle the challenge.

To revive the countryside, it’s important to develop the economy, but the final goal of development is to provide farmers with a good life and a good living environment is the basis of such a life.

People’s Daily

How Much Taxes Are Spent on Us?

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the input into such public service sectors as education and health care. However, people are puzzled that as the country becomes wealthier, instead of having less pressure, they are saddled with more burdens.

This is a burning question in people’s minds. In 2006, China’s fiscal revenues reached 3.93 trillion yuan, with taxes standing at 3.73 trillion yuan.

It’s a pity that soaring tax revenues fail to bring a better life to taxpayers. Take education investment for example. In 2004, the country’s input into education only accounted for 2.79 percent of the national gross domestic product. At the same time, rising education fees are becoming heavy burdens to most Chinese families which have a student at university.

The country’s input into ordinary people’s health care is extremely limited. In developed countries, inputs into health care generally stand at 10-15 percent of the national domestic product, but in China the proportion is about 4-5 percent. As a result, hospitals operate in debt for years, meaning they have to turn to patients for money when the government’s financial allocation is inadequate.

Against this bleak background is the rocketing administrative expenditures, which rise by 23 percent year on year.

Of course, it’s impossible to demand all taxes be given back to the people, but taxpayers must be informed of where their taxes go, as this money makes up 95 percent of state revenues.

China Economic Times