DRENCHED:

Workers help to dredge ditches in Haikou City, in south China's Hainan Province. The province was hit by heavy rain which lasted for four days from October 11

New Railway

China began construction on a major regional railway on October 13 to connect the less-developed southwest Guizhou Province with Guangdong Province in the south, one of the country's economic powerhouses.

The 857-km line starts from Guizhou's provincial capital, Guiyang, running southward through the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and ends in the port city Guangzhou, Guangdong's capital.

The new line is designed to be a double-track electrified railway and will allow trains to travel at 200 km an hour. With an estimated cost of 85.8 billion yuan ($12.6 billion), the Guiyang-Guangzhou line is scheduled to be complete and operational in six years.

Minimum Wage

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Donald Tsang said on October 15 that the HKSAR Government will proceed with the legislative work on a statutory minimum wage.

Delivering the 2008-09 Policy Address at the Legislative Council on the same day, Tsang said the HKSAR Government is inclined to go for an across-the-board statutory minimum wage and aim to introduce a bill into the council in the 2008-09 legislative session.

Tsang said the SAR government will establish an advisory Minimum Wage Commission after drawing reference from the successful experience of other countries. The commission will study the level of minimum wage as well as the review mechanism, to ensure a sensible balance between safeguarding the interests of grassroots workers and forestalling the loss of low-paid jobs, while sustaining the economic growth and competitiveness.

Union Migrants

More than 66.74 million Chinese migrant workers are trade union members, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

The federation estimated there are 210 million migrant workers nationwide with the country's rural population at 900 million.

The total number of trade union members increased from 123 million in 2003 to 209 million by the end of June this year, the highest number in the world, said the federation.

Gas Leak Deaths

A coalmine accident on October 13 in a colliery owned by Hebi Coal Industry (Group) Corp. Ltd. in Henan Province had killed nine people as of October 14.

The accident was caused by gas leaking at a coal pit where 44 miners were working.

The conglomerate authorities organized a rescue operation shortly after the accident.Local work safety authorities are investigating the cause.

The Hebi Coal Industry (Group) Corp. Ltd. reports an annual coal output capacity of 7 million tons. Its No.6 mineshaft can produce 1.2 million tons of coal each year.

Ecological Arts Exhibition

The National Art Exhibition, sponsored by the State Forestry Administration and China Artists Association with the cooperation of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts and Beijing Dehong Culture and Communication Co. Ltd., kicked off recently. Themed as "advocating green life, building up an ecological civilization together," the exhibition intends to reveal some problems existing in forestry protection as well as portraying great achievements made in this field since the reform and opening-up policy was adopted 30 years ago.

The exhibition will last for about six months, from October 2008 to April 2009. It is the first time China has held an arts exhibition with the theme of constructing an ecological civilization.