Still in Good Shape

The Chinese economy remains in good shape despite some problems that appeared as the economy soared in the first half of this year, said Ma Kai, Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission.

China's gross domestic product grew 11.9 percent in the second quarter and 11.5 percent in the first six months of 2007.

More efforts have been made this year to ensure that the economy grows in a sound and stable manner, Ma added.

China has also taken a series of measures to rein in investment, slow down exports, increase imports and reduce liquidity, which has pushed up the prices of assets.

Polluters Blacklisted

China's environment watchdog is to draw up a blacklist on energy-consuming and polluting industries that will effectively ban them from obtaining bank loans.

A new government policy requires the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to regularly hand over lists of heavy polluters to the People's Bank of China, the central bank, and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the industry watchdog.

Based on the information, companies that fail to pass environmental assessment or to implement China's environmental protection regulations are disqualified from getting loans from any bank or financial institution.

Companies that already have loans, but are later discovered to have violated environmental protection regulations will have their loans called in, according to the so-called "green credit policy."

The SEPA had already submitted to the financial institutions a blacklist of 30 companies that had violated environmental rules, said SEPA Vice Minister Pan Yue on July 30.

Travel Online

China's online travel services are taking off, with even greater growth forecast for the next few years.

Last year, at least 2.75 million Chinese booked hotel rooms, air tickets and other travel services on the Internet, up 72 percent from the previous year, according to a report recently released by Shanghai-based iResearch Consulting Group.

China's online travel market was worth some 1.54 billion yuan last year, a growth of 82 percent from 2005, the report said.

Analysts with the consulting company are optimistic about China's online travel market, saying the number of users would more than double to 5.7 million in 2008, and hit 9 million by 2010.

Uncertain Routes

U.S. Delta Airlines has adjusted its previous application for Sino-U.S. routes in a bid to start a nonstop flight service from Atlanta to Shanghai and Beijing, China's two transportation hubs.

Delta Airlines has not started the nonstop flight service from the United States to China yet. If approved, the company will operate Boeing 777 aircraft for the flight service to the two Chinese cities.

Delta Airlines, which once applied to fly the Atlanta-Shanghai route from March 25, 2008, changed its application due to an agreement about a new round of navigation right expansion between China and the United States.

However, Chinese airlines have shown little passion for the newly added Sino-U.S. routes due to pressures from transportation capacity and cost. Few Chinese airlines have submitted applications for the new routes.

Nation of Beer

Chinese people consumed more than 35 million tons of beer in 2006, with per-capita consumption of 27 liters, according to the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association (CADIA).

China produced 14.4 million tons of beer in the first five months this year, up 16.7 percent from the same period last year, according to Xiao Derun, an official with CADIA.

China's total beer output hit 35.15 million tons last year, an increase of 14.7 percent over that of the previous year.

China overran the United States to become the world's largest beer producer in 2002, and since then its beer output has continued to grow by 10 percent annually.

Xiao said the rural and western regions, which see relatively low consumption of beer currently, would be a potential driving force of China's beer industry development in the future.