Beijing Today (February 28, 2003)

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Epidemic tests

government’s

resolve

By Xiao Rong

I n a battle against the sud-
den outbreak of an epidem-
ic, rumors would not have
overwhelmed Guangzhou if
authoritative voices had doused
them earlier.

However, it has proved to
be an atypical February for the
southern Chinese city, which has
been hit by what has now been di-
agnosed as “atypical pneumonia,”
posing a challenge for China’s
first local Freedom of Govern-
ment Information Act.

“The ‘atypical pneumonia’
event has been a test of the
Guangzhou municipal govern-
ment’s capability to release and
handle information, from which
they should draw more lessons,”
comments Zhou Hanhua, re-
searcher at the Institute of Law
from the Chinese Academy of So-
cial Sciences.

The storm started on Feb-
ruary 8, when rumors began
to spread via the Internet and
mobile phone short messages
about a mysterious and fatal
new strain of flu.

A typical version was that many
people had died of the disease in
Guangzhou since Spring Festival,
and that many doctors and nurses
had also been infected.

There was no official comment
on the rumors, nor any media
reports.

For the next three days, shops
were overwhelmed with de-
mands for antibiotics, vinegar
(used as a disinfectant) and sur-
gical masks, all rumored to help
block the virus.

Panic buying even hit neigh-
boring provinces, when shops in
Guangzhou sold out of flu medi-
cine and vinegar.

It wasn’t until February 11,
when the Guangzhou municipal
government and Guangdong
Public Health Bureau held sepa-
rate press conferences to clarify
the situation, that a semblance
of calm was restored.

Five of the 305 people infect-
ed with atypical pneumonia be-
tween November 6 last year and
February 9 across the province
have died, according to Huang
Qingdao, chief of the provincial
public health bureau.

The government promised to
take effective measures to con-
trol and identify the disease, and
ruled out the possibility that the
epidemic was caused by any form
of plague, anthrax or chicken flu,
as had been widely rumored.

The relief was short lived,

however, with another bout of
panic buying erupting the next
day, this time of salt and rice. A
press conference on February 13
again restored calm, with guar-
antees the government would
ensure sufficient supplies of dai-
ly necessities and crack down
on illegal profiteering by local
businesses.

“Facing a second round of
panic, the Guangzhou govern-
ment reacted quickly and re-
leased authoritative information
to prevent its spread. But for
those first three days when the
rumors began, an official voice
should have been heard ear-
lier,” says Jing Huaibin, pro-
fessor at the College of Public
Affairs Management of Zhong-
shan University.

In the opinion of Zhou Han-
hua, who is also one of the main
contributors for the draft Na-
tional Freedom of Information
Act now under discussion by the
State Council, the event reflects
a lack of scientific management
of public information on the gov-
ernment’s part.

“In the current information
age, the traditional way of only
reporting emergencies to senior
officials, rather than making the
information public, can only lead
to the rapid spread of rumors,”
he said. “Information and facts
are the most effective way of kill-
ing rumors.”

By issuing its own Freedom
of Information Act on January 1,
the Guangzhou government ranks
first among China’s local govern-
ments to emphasize the legal duty
of the government to release infor-
mation to the public.

In a survey conducted by
Guangzhou Public Opinion In-
vestigation Center, over 80 per-
cent of the over 500 interviewees
were in favor of the new act.

“We have organized several
lectures to answer questions
from civil servants who have
shown a basic understanding of
the spirit of the act,” said Chen
Licheng, vice director of the
Legal Office of the Guangzhou

Feu) villagers in Qongkurqak have slept with a solid roof over their heads since Monday’s earthquake.

Xinjiang Quake Aftermath

By Xiao Rong

Classes resumed Wednes-
day in six tent classrooms near
the ruins of former Kezihike-
mu elementary school, which
was destroyed by the earth-
quake that hit Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region Monday.

The quake, measuring 6.8
on the Richter scale, jolted
several counties in the west
of Xinjiang, mainly Jiashi and
Bachu, at 10:03 am Monday
(Beijing time), leaving at least
266 locals confirmed dead and
over 2,055 injured.

“It was lucky that the
earthquake happened during
the daytime,” says Urhan, a
60-year-old Uygur woman from
Qongkurqak Township, the
worst-hit area.

“The family was having
breakfast when we felt shak-
ing and heard the rumble. I
immediately pushed my two
grandsons out of the room
and quickly ran out myself.
I was knocked down by fall-
ing bricks, but I managed to
crawl out. A few minutes lat-

er, the house collapsed,” she
told Xinhua.

Sadness pervaded the vil-
lage as funerals were held for
the victims in keeping with the
Islamic tradition of burying the
deceased within 24 hours of
death.

More than 8,800 houses
and 900 classrooms were de-

stroyed, most of them mud-
brick structures. Aftershocks
continued to rock the region
Tuesday with the largest reach-
ing more than 5.0 on the Rich-
ter scale.

The central government and
the State Seismological Bu-
reau dispatched task forces
Monday to join local efforts in

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Qongkurqak township suffered the most damage from the
6.8 scale quake. Photos by Jacky

the rescue work. The Ministry
of Civil Affairs has allocated
8 million yuan (US $960,000)
to the region and some 9,000
tents have been sent to pro-
vide temporary accommoda-
tion to those left homeless
by the quake. Another 1,500
quilts are on the way.

Meanwhile the local gov-
ernment of nearby Kashi has
ordered bakeries to provide
80,000 loaves of nang, a tradi-
tional Uygur flat bread, to the
earthquake victims daily.

To date, the China Red
Cross Society has collected
1.86 million yuan (about
$226,000) in donations for the
quake victims through a spe-
cial bank account and a
24-hour hotline.

The earthquake is the most
serious since 1949 to hit Ji-
ashi and Bachu, an area that
has been rocked by 1 9 tremors
measuring five or above on
the Richter scale since 1996.

( Sources: Xinhua

Beijing Youth Daily )

municipal government.

But the act seems to have
been ignored in this case, by both
the government and the public.

“The government spokesperson
at the press conference didn’t even
mention the new act, nor have any
citizens after the event questioned
the late release of official infor-
mation,” said Liu Heng, professor
at the Institute of Administrative
Law from Zhongshan University,
who participated in the drafting
of the act.

In his opinion, despite the fact
that the act has been in effect
for two months, the awareness
that it is the duty of the govern-
ment to release public informa-
tion still needs to be improved
among both government officials
and the general public.

“One main problem in imple-
menting the act is how much in-
formation should be released and
when is the appropriate time to
release it, a question often asked
by officials,” said Chen Licheng.

In the atypical pneumonia
event, the Guangdong Public
Health Bureau attributed their
late public release of the ep-
idemic situation to the fact
that the disease is not listed
as one of the contagions that
should be announced accord-
ing to the law.

“The government may fear
that premature announcement of
the epidemic will cause greater
panic, but actually it’s advisable
to release all related informa-

Major Events Causing Panic

* A spate of panic buying swept China in
1988 in the wake of a rumor that the govern-
ment would raise commodity prices.

Millions of bank savings were withdrawn as
people stocked up on everything from salt to
washing machines, resulting in 21.5 percent in-
flation that year.

* Starting in late 2001, Tianjin fell prey to

a rumor that people wielding HIV-contaminated
syringes were attacking young women. Busi-
ness in major shopping areas dropped by al-
most half.

Tianjin Public Security Bureau issued a state-
ment on January 24, 2002, confirming that a
small number of criminals were responsible for
the attacks.

After four months of wild rumors, five men
were sentenced in Tianjin and Beijing for sy-
ringe assaults. However none of the syringes

contained any kind of virus.

* A string of bomb threats around northeast
China’s Shenyang caused panic among local
residents earlier this year. A bank robbery in
which a bomb was detonated on January 18 in-
tensified the fear.

By releasing information about the continu-
ing investigation into the cases and promising
to strengthen citywide security, the Shenyang
government helped boost public confidence.

tion as soon as possible so the
public can judge themselves,”
Zhou Hanhua said.

The lack of consistency in the
government’s release of infor-
mation may only result in the
spread of more unreliable in-
formation, which may damage
the public’s trust in the govern-
ment, Zhou added.

He stressed the necessity of
establishing a regular govern-
ment information release mech-
anism to both guarantee the
public’s right to the truth and
also improve the credibility of
the government.

“The case will greatly push
forward the improvement of the
system of the release of gov-
ernmental information, both in
Guangzhou and around China,
which is an inevitable trend,”
concluded Zhou.

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: LI SHI

^ > u ■ Under the auspices of the Information Office of Beijing Municipal Government ■ Run by Beijing Youth Daily ■ President: Zhang Yanping ■ Editor in Chief: Zhang Yabin ■ Executive Deputy Editor in Chief: He Pingping ■ Direc-

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TRENDSt

2 FEBRUARY 28, 2003

SEUING TODAY

E-mail: liufeng@ynet.com

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: LI SHI

Special Expats Get longer Stays

Marc Baillairt receives his three year residence permit from a PSB officer.

Photo by Zhuang Zhuang

By Ivy Zhang/ Su Qiang

A total of 46 expatriates in
Beijing, hailing from nearly a
dozen countries, were awarded
three or five-year residence per-
mits and multiple-entry visas
at a ceremony held by Beijing
Public Security Bureau on
Tuesday afternoon.

This is the first time for-
eign residents have received
such benefits since the found-
ing of New China in 1949. It
also marked the start of a new
policy that allows certain expa-
triates in Beijing and their
families to get residence per-
mits with durations of two
to five years. Those permits
and accompanying visas can be
issued within one workweek.

In the past, expatriates

had to renew their residence
permits every six months or
one year.

Marc Bailliart, chief rep-
resentative of Air France in
China, as well as his wife
and two daughters, received
a three-year residence permit
and multi-entry visa. Bailliart,
who has lived in China for one
year, called the permits much
more convenient than previous
versions.

State policy says that for-
eigners in Beijing who fall in
one of the following five groups,
along with their spouse and
children under the age of 18,
can receive longer-term resi-
dence permission: senior con-
sultants invited by state
authorities or the local govern-

ment, and senior management
or technology staff participat-
ing in state key projects; indi-
viduals that have made great
contributions to Beijing and
China; senior academic staff
at Beijing research institutes
or universities; senior manage-
ment staff at foreign invested
companies; and individuals
who have invested over $3 mil-
lion in China.

According to the policy of
the local public security bureau,
government-backed foreign stu-
dents can receive residence per-
mits with terms of one to four
years, chief representatives of
foreign representative offices
can get one to three year per-
mits, foreign employees of for-
eign invested companies and

their families can get one to two
year permits, and foreign man-
agers and technical staff work-

ing on Sino-foreign oil or gas
projects can get one to four year
permits.

State Grants Tax Breaks
to Beijing Olympics

By Hou Mingxin

In order to support the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games, China’s Ministry of Finance, State Admin-
istration of Taxation and State Administration of
Customs have issued a notice which will provide tax
breaks and special policies to the Beijing Organiz-
ing Committee for the Games the XXIX Olympiad
(BOCOG), the International Olympic Committee
(IOC), the Chinese Olympic Committee, and partic-
ipants in the Games, according to a Beijing Youth
Daily reported run on Monday.

The notice stipulates that athletes competing in
the games will not need to pay individual income
taxes on any prize money or other income earned
during the Beijing Olympics.

Sponsorship payments in the form of money or
goods from enterprises and organizations will also
be exempt from taxation.

BOCOG will benefit from the new policy through
the lifting of taxes on its share of television broad-
casting revenues, money and goods from the IOC’s
world sponsorship program, income from ticket
sales and other revenue sources.

Photo by Wei Tong

Beng Taping loins
Olympic Committee

By Hou Mingxin

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the
Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) has added
a new, high-profile member to its staff. At a press
conference held Monday in Beijing, the committee
welcomed four-time Olympic gold medal winner
Deng Yaping to its team.

Under the title of “Project Expert”, Deng will
work in BOCOG’s marketing department. Her
main responsibility is attracting domestic spon-
sors, according to Hu Chunzheng, a committee
spokesman.

“Today is my first day at work at the commit-
tee. It’s an honor to work here, and I feel I am
up to this new challenge,” Deng said at the press
conference. She is also a member of the Interna-
tional Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission,
Sports and Environment Commission and Ethics
Commission.

“I hope that with my personal influence and
charm, I can make a contribution to the Beijing
Olympic Games,” the former table tennis champ
added. “Of course, doing a good job will take team-
work and cooperation with my colleagues.”

Not only an accomplished athlete, Deng received
a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in
2001, a master’s from Nottingham University in
the UK in 2002, and is currently pursuing a PhD
in economics at Cambridge University.

When asked whether her studies could influ-
ence her work at BOCOG, she said the job would
always come first.

City Sets Up Body to Net Investment

By Zhao Hongyi

B eijing has granted admin-
istrative powers to a new
bureau in the hopes of
attracting more overseas invest-
ment.

“The municipal government
will provide a better and more
complete range of services to over-
seas investors currently operat-
ing in the city and those that
come in the future,” said Zhang
Mao, vice mayor in charge of
the municipality’s overall foreign
business affairs at the launch of
the Beijing Investment Promo-
tion Bureau yesterday.

The bureau will work in con-
junction with the Beijing Foreign
Investment Service Center, an
organization that provides policy-
relevant consulting and logistics

services and recommends invest-
ment projects and partners to
prospective foreign investors. The
new body will offer an even
wider range of services and hold
some administrative powers, such
as “a green channel for invest-
ment approval”, by which inves-
tors can finish all registration
and approval procedures for their
projects within one day.

In addition, the bureau will
focus on coordinating the city’s
overall efforts to create a better
environment for overseas inves-
tors.

“The center is a warm club for
the overseas investors active in
Beijing,” said Sun Changtai, direc-
tor-general of the bureau. “We
hope the new bureau will continue
that role and reach out to more

clients and friends.”

Beijing is home to over 9,000
enterprises that have received
investment from overseas sources,
including 160 Fortune 500 com-
panies. Most of these enterprises
are in high-tech industries. More
than 8,000 overseas companies
have set up representative offices
in the capital.

Zhang told the media the city
has introduced $18.95 billion of
overseas investment in the past
five years, including $5.49 bil-
lion in 2002 alone. The municipal
government hopes to encourage
greater investment in the ser-
vice and environmental protec-
tion sectors.

The bureau has set up a pub-
lic-accessible website at www.
fdibeij ing. org. cn .

Government Eases limits on trade JUs

By Ema Ma

T he revised provisions for the
establishment of joint ven-
ture import-export firms in
China, released on January 31 by
the Ministry of Foreign Trade and
Economic Cooperation, will go into
effect next Sunday.

According to the new policy, for-
eign investors can establish import
and export joint ventures after tal-
lying an annual trading volume
of $30 million with China over
three successive years. That restric-

tion is lowered to $20 million for
companies that want to establish
ventures in China’s central and
western regions, part of the govern-
ment’s efforts to encourage the eco-
nomic development of those areas.

The paid-in-capital requirement
has also dropped from 100 million
yuan to 50 million yuan for projects
in the country’s eastern regions and
30 million yuan for those in the
central and western areas.

In another major change, for-
eign investors can now hold up to

49 percent stakes in trading joint
ventures, nearly double the former
limit of 25 percent.

The revisions also allow import-
export joint ventures to be set up
nationwide. Previous policy lim-
ited such companies to Pudong and
Shenzhen .

Following the commitments it
made to become a member of the
World Trade Organization, China
will grant all joint venture compa-
nies free export and import rights
before the end of 2004.

Public Schools Open Doors to Foreign Kids

By Lily Li

A s of last Saturday, the chil-
dren of foreign residents of
Beijing have been allowed
to enroll in any public primary or
middle school in the city. As part
of the policy change, the Beijing
Municipal Education Commission
has abandoned the tests previ-
ously mandatory for prospective
foreign students.

In 2002, the number of foreign
students in kindergartens, pri-
mary schools and middle schools
in the city reached 5,000, includ-

ing 1,800 enrolled at the Beijing
Shunyi International School.

Before this policy change,
international students were only
allowed entrance into 40 schools.
That group was made up of four
schools set up by foreign embas-
sies, 11 schools funded by foreign
individuals or agencies like Beijing
Shunyi International School and
Western Academy of Beijing, and
25 Chinese schools approved by
the Beijing Municipal Education
Commission, including Beijing
Huiwen High School, the High

School Attached to Renmin Uni-
versity of China, Beijing Huijia
Private College and Fangcaodi pri-
mary school.

Those 25 Chinese schools
remain the only local public
schools allowed to recruit students
from overseas.

Foreign students in local
schools will not have to take part
is political classes and activities.
Students that succeed in passing
schools’ final examinations will
be awarded normal diplomas and
certificates.

Compensation Fees Cancelled
for Students Heading Abroad

By Hou Mingxin

T he Ministry of Education
has decided to abolish its
policy of charging educa-
tional compensation fees from Chi-
nese students seeking to study
abroad, according to a report pub-
lished in Beijing Youth Daily last
Saturday.

As part of the change of policy,
the ministry has stipulated that
all compensation fees collected by
local education administrations
since November 1, 2002, should
be returned to the students, the
report continued.

The ministry canceled the fees
and has simplified the proce-
dures for receiving approval to
study abroad in keeping with
a State Council policy issued
November 1 last year that can-
celed some administrative exami-
nations, approval procedures and

charges for going abroad.

From 1950 through the early
1990s, higher education was all
but free in China, with many stu-
dents actually receiving govern-
ment subsidies to support their
education. With the rapid growth
of the country’s economy, however,
free education was deemed incom-
patible with the demands of a
market economy.

In 1996, colleges and univer-
sities nationwide began charging
tuition fees, thereby nullifying
requirements that students head-
ing abroad compensate the gov-
ernment for subsidies granted to
support their studies.

As the number of Chinese stu-
dents looking to study abroad
swelling in the 1980s and early
1990s, the national government
in 1993 began charging compen-
sational fees from students who

did not complete their mandatory
state service period, set at three
years for holders of higher degrees,
five years for university graduates
and two years for graduates of
two-year colleges. The fees ranged
from several thousand to twenty
thousand yuan and were allo-
cated to research projects carried
out by Chinese scholars that
returned from abroad, according
to Ding Hongyu, director of the
Beijing Education Committee’s
study abroad office.

He said, “We have received
over 300,000 yuan in compensa-
tion fees from a total of fifty stu-
dents since last November 1. Last
Saturday, we returned money to
four students, and we will issue
a notice to local universities and
colleges concerning the return of
compensation fees in the near
future.”

Petroleum Reserves
Key to State Security

By Ema Ma

Appeals for the establishment of a
strategic petroleum reserves system
have reached fevered pitch in the past
few weeks in China, with the world
oil price hitting its highest point in
two years spurred by the looming war
between the US and Iraq.

After becoming a net importer of
petroleum in 1993, the volume of Chi-
na’s oil imports increased 26 fold by the
end of 1996. Currently, 30 percent of
China’s oil supply comes from imports,
60 percent of which are from the Middle
East. Customs statistics indicate that
in 2000, China paid 7.2 billion yuan as
a result of rising oil prices, the equiva-
lent of a 0.7 percent GDP drop.

The threat to national security
posed by the lack of reserves may be
more serious than its economic effects.
China’s current crude oil reserves are
only enough to sustain productivity
for 21 days.

Zhang Dawei, deputy director of the
Petroleum and Gas Strategy Research
Center under the Ministry of Land and
Resources, said in an interview with
a reporter of China Youth Daily last
Sunday, “Measures have been taken to
minimize the potential threat. First,
we will expand imports from coun-
tries in the Russian Federation and
Southeast Asia. Second, the national
government has already approved the
construction of a reserves system,
towards which first stage investment
will reach 14 billion yuan. And third,
the Ministry of Land and Resources
has located ten promising petroleum
and gas sites in the Songpan-A’ba
area in Sichuan Province and the
Qiangtang basin in Tibet.”

New Website Offers
Info on AIDS

By Lily Li

The Beijing AIDS/STD (Sexually
Transmitted Diseases) Prevention and
Control Association opened a new web-
site, www.bjaidsass.org, on Friday last
week to disseminate information about
STDs, including AIDS, and related pol-
icies.

“The website is one part of the gov-
ernment’s efforts to help people with
HIV/AIDS,” said Guo Jiyong, vice sec-
retary of the Beijing Health Bureau, at
the launch ceremony for the website.

According to Guo, testing of 600,000
Beijing residents in 2002 showed 428
people had contracted HIV during a
one-year period, made up of 66 locals,
354 people from other provinces and
eight foreigners. Their ages range from
20 to 39, and 72 percent of those
infected are women.

“Drug use was the top source of
infection, responsible for 225, or 52.5
percent, of the cases. Sexual transmis-
sion was second, responsible for 68
cases,” added the vice secretary.

In conjunction with the site, the
association has also opened a 24-hour
HIV/AIDS hotline at 6227 5550.

Group Moves to Stop
Spread of Spam

By Su Wei

On Tuesday, the Collaborative Work-
shop of the Internet Society of China
(ISC) held its first working conference
since being founding in November last
year. The organization met to kick off
a campaign to raise the awareness of
Chinese enterprises and citizens about
the need to take action against the
rising tide of junk email, popularly
called spam, cluttering the Internet.

In a national survey released by
the China Internet Network Informa-
tion Center in January, over half of
the average 16 emails received by each
Chinese netizen per week are junk,
and the proportion is rising every day.

Huang Chengqing, vice general sec-
retary of the ISC, said that the orga-
nization has analyzed the over 3,000
pieces of spam they have received since
last November and found most come
from overseas sources.

According to Huang, China lags far
behind most other countries in acting
against the flood of junk email.

Workshop employee Wang Yan said
one of the difficulties facing the new
domestic campaign is that Chinese
enterprises and individuals lack an
awareness of the need to protect them-
selves from junk email.

He hopes that the workshop’s newly
prepared Guide to Refusing Spam will
help strengthen public awareness by
teaching people how to detect, prevent
and report junk email.

DEVELOPMENT

1QIING TODAY

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

E-mail: liufeng@ynet.com

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: LI SHI

Gl Ignites Acquisition Wave

By Etna Ma

The acquisition of the majority in-
terest in Kvaemer Power Equipment of
Hangzhou, China by GE Power Systems
announced last Monday is widely seen
as the start of a new round of acquisi-
tions by foreign companies in China.

The purchase not only marks the
largest acquisition by GE Power Sys-
tems in China, but is also the second
buyout by GE in China since last
April’s 100 percent share purchase of
Zhongshan Plastech Sunsheet by GE
Plastics.

Kvaemer Power Equipment, an eq-
uity joint venture established in 1995,
was 61 percent owned by Norwegian
Kvaemer Energy and 39 percent by
Chinese State-owned Hangzhou Elec-

tric Equipment Works (Hangfa). It is
one of the leading suppliers of hydro-
power generation equipment in China.

The new company will be named
GE Hydro Asia, with GE owning
90 percent and Hangzhou Industrial
Asset Management, Hangfa’s parent
company, holding the remaining 10
percent.

GE’s successful takeover reflects a
new trend in China’s capital market;
that is, from establishing a new joint
venture to more efficient direct acqui-
sition. According to an analysis report
issued recently by Morgan Stanley,
China is growing to be the most ac-
tive acquisition market in the world,
with global mergers and acquisitions
down by 40 percent in 2002.

The Chinese government is also
pushing the trend on the policy side, to
fulfill its commitment to open the mar-
ket gradually after entering the WTO.

A series of rules issued one after
another last November opened the
floodgates for acquisitions by cash-
rich foreign investors for shares in
mainland-listed companies. These in-
cluded allowing the purchase of unlist-
ed state-owned and corporate shares
and dealing in freely traded shares
by Qualified Foreign Institutional In-
vestors, and a stipulation on the reor-
ganization of state-owned enterprises
with foreign investment.

Major cities in China have wel-
comed the regulations: Shanghai has
announced seven areas that welcome

foreign investment besides the gen-
eral investment guidance set by the
central government.

Beijing Economic Commission
spokesman Chang Qing mentioned at
the press conference on GE Power
System’s acquisition that Beijing will
reverse the outdated perception of
“retaining a controlling stake”.

In a seminar held in January, Zhou
Yuqiu, deputy director of Beijing’s
Economic Commission expressed dis-
satisfaction with Beijing’s reorgani-
zation process over the past few
years, citing the fact that state-owned
shares still account for 70 percent in
212 reorganized state owned enter-
prises, in breach of the original inten-
tion of the reorganization.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates signed an agreement on personal online hanking with Jiang Jianqing (left), president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China yesterday. Earlier the same day, Gates signed a memorandum with the Beijing government on the city's office information promotion. The three-day
visit is Gates' eighth to China.

Intel Moves on Mobile Market

incentive navel
to Boost Tourism

By Shan Jinliang

Beijing Tourism Bureau has
listed incentive travel as a top
priority for boosting inbound
tourism this year, hiring US
Kingsway Incentives vice presi-
dent Issy Scher as the city’s first
foreign expert to promote the
sector.

Incentive travel refers to over-
seas trips provided by businesses
as a reward to high-performing em-
ployees.

Wang Qing, the bureau’s mar-
keting and promotional director
for meetings, incentive travel,
conventions and exhibitions, told
Beijing Today Wednesday that
higher profits compared with
other travel categories is a ma-
jor reason for pushing incentive
travel as the city’s next tourism
growth point. He added that the
slow rise of traditional sightsee-
ing travel was another factor.

According to Wang, Beijing’s
numerous world famous scenic
and historic sites make it an ide-
al choice for incentive travel, but
warned that insufficient quali-
fied staff and lack of experience
among domestic travel agencies
were currently impeding devel-
opment of the sector.

Wang said Beijing will intro-
duce more outside talent and ad-
vanced expertise to promote the
business, “we will invite over 50
professional incentive travel com-
panies to China, and in the coming
two years, we also plan to join in a
few international incentive travel
organizations to become better ac-
quainted with the industry.”

He added a series of free train-
ing sessions will be conducted for
local travel agencies, and more
overseas advertising will be direct-
ed at incentive travel.

Meanwhile Scher says he will
start promoting Beijing’s incen-
tive travel market next month.
This will involve taking repre-
sentatives of several local travel
agencies on promotional tours to
Britain and Spain, followed by
a similar trip to Frankfurt, Ger-
many in mid April.

By Shan Jinliang

Intel China announced Monday it was
seeking the support of domestic compa-
nies in its assault on China’s handset
market, in an attempt to emulate its suc-
cess in capturing China’s PC market ten
years ago.

On February 13, Intel globally
launched its new PXA800F handset CPU.
Based on so-called “wireless-Internet-on-
a-chip” technology, the chip handles com-
puting, telecommunications and memory,
and is intended to replace the three chips
that traditionally control these functions,
according to the company.

“We not only sell the chip, but hope
to build it into an open-framework stan-
dard, in the same way we have done
with the current PC,” said Xi Qing, PR
manager of Intel China.

No deals with top handset makers

International Data Group (IDG) News
Service commented that in the cell-phone
market, Intel is a newcomer and is striv-
ing to catch up with market leaders Mo-
torola and Texas Instruments.

To gamer international support, the
company has started talks with some of

By Chen Ying

At a press conference Wednesday to
launch its latest CDMA mobile phone,
president of Toshiba Mobile Commu-
nications Tetsuya Mizoguchi said the
company aimed to become the No. 1 man-
ufacturer of CDMA handsets in China.

Mizoguchi said the new model T618X
is the first CDMA mobile in China that
can record and transmit documents, in
the form of a photo or short movie. It also
supports China Unicorn’s latest high-
speed data transfer service, called “color
e,” based on the CDMA- IX system.

Already one of the top CDMA man-
ufacturers in Japan, Toshiba started its
involvement with China’s CDMA mar-
ket in a joint venture with Nanjing Pos-
tel, China’s largest mobile manufacturer
in 2000.

Nanjing Postel Wong Zhi Telecom-
munications, which is invested by the
Beijing based Postel, Toshiba and Wong’s
Industrial (Hong Kong), began producing
CDMA handsets last May. The T618X,
its third and most advanced model, was
released in Japan last October.

China last year overtook the US as

the world’s leading mobile phone makers,
but no agreements have been reached
so far, the company says. “We are still
holding talks with these high-end hand-
set makers,” said Lai Zhifeng, marketing
manager of Intel Asia Pacific.

Seeking to replay PC success

Intel China invited nine Chinese mo-
bile phone makers, including Bird, TCL
and Legend, to attend the press confer-
ence for the launch of its first wireless
chip in February, but no foreign manu-
facturers were present.

Intel China announced the coopera-
tion with TCL based on other wireless
chip technology last April. While on Tues-
day Capitel’s PR company told Beijing
Today they have just stopped the talks
with Intel and would not make any fur-
ther comments.

But Intel China said they are still con-
fident of copying the success in China ten
years ago in the cooperation with Chi-
nese computer makers as Legend and
Founder. Xi said, “These Chinese com-
puters were quite small then, and now
they come to dominate the Chinese PC
market; and we are pretty sure that Chi-

Toshiba’s Tetsuya Mizoguchi

the largest mobile consumer, with more
than 200 million people currently own-
ing mobiles. But the market remains far
from saturated, with both local and in-
ternational manufacturers turning their
attention to CDMA.

Nineteen companies now own licens-
es to produce CDMA handsets in China;
to succeed, they must learn how to adapt
to the local market.

Frost and Sullivan, an international
consultancy company, released the re-

nese mobile phone market will be also
captured by domestic makers, which en-
joy a high potential for growth.”

Intel could refer the following figures
to support its prediction. China’s domes-
tic mobile phone makers have seized an
over 25 percent market share in 2002,
while it was only around 15 percent one
year ago. A latest survey from the Min-
istry of Information Industry revealed
Bird and TCL were directly behind Mo-
torola and Nokia in China in 2002.

High price or immature tech

The chip’s high price is one factor
that might stand in the way of Intel
winning further cooperation with local
mobile phone makers. Although it has
fallen from US $45 to $35 for bulk pur-
chases, it is still considered unaccept-
able by most Chinese manufacturers.
Intel China maintains the price is justi-
fied, given that the single chip actually
handles the functions of three.

Some IT analysts say the technology,
rather than the price, would be the major
hurdle for Intel to achieve its global goal,
as the company has not had its technol-
ogy tested by the market.

suits of its latest research into China’s
telecommunications market on Febru-
ary 20. According to the document,
entertainment will become the new
point of growth in the CDMA market,
pointing to how the telecommunica-
tions business has gradually evolved
from providing basic voice services to
providing comprehensive convenience
and entertainment.

According to the latest customer
data published by China Unicom, the
increase rate of customers has declined
dramatically.

It may well be time to pay more at-
tention to developing new mobile func-
tions and provide a wider range of
services to satisfy customers’ future
requirements. As the Frost and Sulli-
van report says, providing more ser-
vices can attract more customers in
future.

“We believe and expect the day
for entertainment will come to China
soon,” said Toshiba’s Tetsuya Mizogu-
chi, expressing the hope that Toshiba
would have more opportunities to co-
operate with local operators.

Toshiba Releases New CDMA Handset

Minsheng Offers First
Convertible Corporate Bonds

By Shan Jinliang

China’s first private capital controlling bank,
Minsheng Banking Corporation announced a four-
billion-yuan convertible corporate bond offering in
Beijing Wednesday, the first convertible corporate
bond offering by a bank in China.

A corporate bond is basically an IOU issued by a
company that promises to pay a fixed rate of inter-
est for a given period, and at the end of this period
investors are repaid the original investment.

Convertible bonds offer some of the benefits of
both stocks and bonds since they can earn interest
even when the stock is trading down or sideways.
Previously, some Chinese companies have issued
convertible corporate bonds after they were listed
on the stock market, but none received positive re-
sponses.

The five-year bond has been set with an annual
face interest of 1.5 percent, and can be converted
into stock from the sixth month after the offer to
the expiration date, that is from August 27, 2003 to
February 27, 2008.

Chairman of Minsheng’s board, Jing Shuping,
said earlier that the bank would grow no slower
this year than it did last year, and the additional
capital was urgently needed. On Monday, a Beijing
Times article said the bond issue could be a move
by Minsheng to strengthen itself before listing in
Hong Kong or New York early next year.

The bank’s vice president Wei Shenghong said
that 60 percent of the capital raised from the bonds
will be used to support private companies. It will
also be used to increase its number of branches na-
tionwide from the current 150, much fewer than
some of its bigger rivals.

Bertelsmann China
Consolidates websites

By Shan Jinliang

Bertelsmann China announced Tuesday the
formal launch of its new website, www.bol.com.cn,
which combines the company’s two original web-
sites.

Established in 1999, www.bbc.com.cn was a
channel for Bertelsmann Club members to find
information and purchase products, while
www.bolchina.com, launched in 2001, was a search
platform accessible to all Internet users.

The integration is a move to combine the
strengths of the two and increase efficiency, ac-
cording to a Bertelsmann China press release.

“The integration will activate current cus-
tomers and enforce cross-purchasing activities,”
said Christian Unger, CEO of Bertelsmann Club
and BOL China, “and meanwhile, BOL can draw
more potential customers by sharing the cus-
tomer base with the club.” The company said in
the month the new website had been running on
a trial basis, daily visits rose by 100 percent over
the same period last year, and daily online re-
cruitment increased by 50 percent.

Sohu Seeks Gold
in Bnine Games

By Tony Shaw

Sohu, one of the
three Chinese portal
websites listed on the
Nasdaq announced its
entry Tuesday into the
online games market,
with the release of its
game Knight Online.

Of the other two
portals, Netease has
been offering online
games for two years,
while Sina made its
debut in the market
one month ago. Sohu CE0 Charles Zhang

Sohu said the re-
lease of its first online game coincides with the fifth
anniversary of its website (www. sohu. com).

CEO Charles Zhang has vowed that online
games will contribute 10 percent of Sohu’s overall
revenue this year, equal to US $5 million. Analysts
predict the online games market in China this year
will be worth over two billion yuan.

Yarning Beer
to Sponsor Rockets

By Hou Mingxin

US based Harbrew Importers has signed a
$l-million-a-year, six-year sponsorship deal with
US National Basketball League team, the Hous-
ton Rockets, according to a report in Tuesday’s
Beijing Evening News.

Harbrew Importers is the sole US importer
and distributor of Yanjing beer, and the deal is
the first seven-figure sponsorship coming from a
Chinese brand, the report said.

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, is the main
reason behind the multi-million dollar deal. The
2.26-meter-tall (7 foot 5 inch) 22 year old joined the
Rockets last year as the league’s No. 1 draft pick,
and NBA executives believe the towering center
has huge marketing potential in the first decade in
21st century, comparable to Magic Johnson, Larry
Bird and Michael Jordan in the 1980s and 1990s.

Yanjing beer now has courtside advertise-
ments at the Compaq Center, the Rockets’ home
arena in Houston, promoting Yanjing in English
and Chinese, and the beer is sold at the arena
during games.

OUTLOOK

4 FEBRUARY 28, 2003

IEIIING TODAY

E-mail: liufeng@ynet.com

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: LI SHI

Tackle Deflation, Japan Tells G7

Paris, February 21 (Reuters) - Japanese
Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa urged the
Group of Seven to combat deflationary pressures
around the world that could worsen if a war on
Iraq began.

“If the so-called geopolitical risks materialize,
a major concern is that deflation around the
world will become more serious,” Shiokawa said
to finance ministers and central bank chiefs from
the G7 countries.

Although he did not mention China by name,
his repeated remarks recently about the need
for G7 to discuss foreign exchange liberalization
have been taken by financial markets as refer-
ring to the yuan.

Shiokawa has said in the past that he thought
the yuan, which is effectively pegged to the US
dollar, was too weak given China’s economic fun-
damentals and should be revalued or floated at
some point.

China’s Finance Minister Defends Yuan

Beijing, February 19 (Dow Jones Newswires)-
China’s Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng has
defended the value of the yuan against calls for
a revaluation, arguing the impact of the currency
on the Japan and US economies has been over-
stated.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Finnish
newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Xiang pointed out
the US economy is about 8-9 times larger than

the Chinese economy.

“Chinese exports to the United States are only
a couple of per cent of the total US imports,”
Xiang said. “Therefore the Renminbi has only a
limited impact on the US economy. And the Chi-
nese economy is only a quarter of the size of the
Japanese economy.”

With Japan’s economy still in the doldrums,
Japanese government officials have urged a reval-
uation of the yuan.

US officials and the International Monetary Fund
have also suggested China consider eventually allow-
ing more flexibility within the managed float cur-
rently used to determine the value of the yuan.

Analysts’ Take:

Dr Dong Tao, Senior Regional Economist ,
Credit Suisse First Boston

A revaluation of the Renminbi to 5:1 against
the US dollar is possible in the mid-to-long term
between 2006 and 2008, but not in the short term.

China still has a huge number of low-skilled
laborers in the countryside. This ready supply of
cheap labor will keep China competitive.

China is facing deflationary pressure. But
domestic consumption could be shifted to durable
goods like houses, autos and PCs, rather than
imports, which would ease that pressure.

-China Economic Times , February 24, 2003

China Uses Inflation to Stimulate Growth

Since the second quarter of 2002, China has
steadily increased monetary injection into the econ-
omy, aiming at creating a positive environment for
a new round of reforms in its financial industry
and reducing the pressure of deflation to offset calls
for a revaluation of the yuan.

The People's Bank of China's January report
disclosed last week that domestic deposits in banks
soared by one trillion yuan in the first month,
reaching 9.81 trillion. The cause, argues the report,
was the continued increase of monetary injection
by the central bank.

In the same month, China's average price for pro-
duction means increased by 4.8 percent over Janu-
ary last year and 0.9 percent over last December. The
price is expected to increase further this year.

Song Guoqing, professor of the Research Center
of China's Economy, an institute of Beijing Uni-
versity, explained that monetary injection is the
third tool to be used by the Chinese government
to offset deflationary pressure and keep continous
growth. Previously it tried reducing credit loans
and cutting deposit interest rates but these mea-
sures proved ineffective.

The most critical point lies ahead, said Mr.
Song, in the ability of the financial administration
of China to keep inflation in an acceptable and
manageable range.

-Business Post , February 22, 2003

Financial Winter Arrives in London

Two clients at ATMs in downtown London
Monday this week, while a homeless person waits
for their mercy in the middle.

The fourth quarter of 2002 saw the largest fall
in transaction fall in volume since 1992 in London's

financial industry.

The Confederation of British Industry esti-
mates the industry will cut at least 22,000 jobs in
the first three months of this year.

Xinhua Photo

Security Tops IT
Priority list

San Jose, California, February 20
(www.isourceonline.com) - As the threat of war
looms and the government mulls imposing
tighter restrictions on information technology,
security is shaping up to be the most critical
IT priority for the software market in 2003,
according to a new survey by Dataquest, a unit
of technology consultants Gartner.

Manufacturers rated security as the most
important IT project, followed by enterprise
resource planning (ERP), including upgrades and
extensions. Web services came in at No. 3. Secu-
rity also topped the list of IT spending priorities
in a recent survey of chief information officers by
investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Analysts’ Take:

Wang Xiaochun, IT security engineer,
CNNIC ( China Internet Network Informa-
tion Center)

The market for IT security software prod-
ucts is expected to grow rapidly and become
more profitable in years to come.

Terrorist attacks, intellectual property rights
protection and business secrets protection, mali-
cious attacks and hackers' harassment are the
major factors behind the trend.

The US government released “ National Strat-
egy to Secure Cyberspace'' on February 14, recom-
mending a national cyberspace security response
system and requiring all US companies to further
secure their websites.

Microsoft said it would release software this
summer allowing corporations to control access
to sensitive internal documents, such as finan-
cial statements and e-mail. The new software
will allow users to control access to documents
they have created, including whether the docu-
ment can be forwarded, copied, or printed and
whether a recipient can hold it indefinitely, or
if it will expire after a certain time.

Last year, Microsoft launched the “ Trustwor-
thy Computing'' initiative, a bid to make net-
works more secure and to head off criticism the
company's own software has been too vulner-
able to attack.

Ruble Rumblings from Russia

Moscow, February 20 (www.moscowtimes.ru) -
Emboldened by the unprecedented strength of its
currency, which is rising against the hard cur-
rencies of the west for the first time in recent
memory, the Russian government is mulling gran-
diose plans for the ruble, including making it
fully convertible internationally and using it as
the basis of a monetary union with Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus.

“It is possible and it is time to think of a uni-
fied currency system for the Eurasian Economic
Union,” Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told
the leaders of the five-member EEU during their
summit in Moscow last week.

Kasyanov’s remarks came just a day before
the Cabinet is scheduled to debate the Economic
Development and Trade Ministry’s blueprint for
growth through 2005, which calls for, among other
things, “securing full convertibility of the national
currency in the near future.”

That is, the ministry wants the ruble to join
the buck, euro, yen and pound as permanent fea-
tures on exchange-rate boards in banks around
the world as soon as possible.

Analysts’ Take:

Li Yunhua, researcher, Institute for Studies
of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia,

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The ruble will not become internationally con-
vertible in the foreseeable future, even though it is
convertible within Russia.

First, the Russian economy is too fragile.
The country relies heavily on its natural energy
resources exports, mainly oil and gas.

The high oil price on the world market in
the past several years eased Russia's foreign debt
burden and supported its economic growth. Unfor-
tunately, it is not sustainable. A fluctuation in the
oil price will interrupt the increase of Russia's
hard currency income.

Second, Russia's domestic economy lacks dyna-

Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev AP Photo

mism and demand. Its economy has not entered
a stable growth track so it cannot provide a
clear prospect. Neither is the business environ-
ment transparent.

Third, Russia has not yet become a World Trade
Organization member and has no credit for its
ruble on the world market.

But we cannot dismiss the possibility, either.
Technically, there is no problem for a country
to make its currency convertible on the world
market today. The problem is that even if the ruble
becomes convertible, demand for it is still low.

The ruble should be convertible one day. But
before that, you need to eliminate all sorts of
restrictions on the movements of investments. But
in Russia, if these restrictions are removed, there
is always a danger of quick capital outflow.

A third possibility is that the ruble will be the
only circulated currency in the five member coun-
tries of the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev expects
the ruble could once again become the principal
currency in the region by 2011. But being the single
currency of those five countries is not the same
thing as a convertible ruble. What's more, the Rus-
sia-Belarus monetary union has not yet been estab-
lished after nearly a decade of discussion.

Bush Wants $95 Billion
to Cover Cost of War

New York, February 26 (Reuters) - The Bush
administration is preparing supplemental spending
requests totaling as much as $95 billion for a war
with Iraq.

The $95 billion would be to cover a war, its after-
math and new expenses to fight terrorism, officials
told the newspaper. The total could be as low as
$60 billion because Pentagon budget planners don’t
know how long a conflict will last.

Iraq’s oil reserves are second in size only to
Saudi Arabia’s, and US officials say money from
them could be instrumental in rebuilding Iraq and
could lower the total cost of the conflict.

US to Release Oil Reserves if Needed

Washington,

February 25

(Reuters) - US
Energy Secretary
Spencer Abra-
ham said the
United States
was ready to act
quickly to release
emergency oil

reserves if neces-
sary to offset any disruption to Middle East sup-
plies in the event of war with Iraq.

The US emergency oil stockpile was created in
1975 and currently has about 600 million barrels of
crude oil stored in deep underground salt caverns
in Texas and Louisiana. It can be drawn at a rate of
4.3 million barrels a day for 90 days.

Crude prices have in recent weeks risen to two-year
highs on fears that a war in Iraq, the world’s eighth
largest oil exporter, could slow supplies from the Middle
East, which pumps a third of the world’s oil.

Reuters Photo

Merrill Lynch wa Pay $80M
to Settle Enron Case

February 21 (USA Today) - Merrill Lynch exec-
utives said the firm will pay $80 million to settle
a Securities and Exchange Commission investiga-
tion of its questionable financial deals with energy
trader Enron in 1999.

The tentative settlement, if approved by SEC
commissioners, will end the agency’s investigation
into several energy trades between Merrill and
Enron, plus a $7 million investment made by Mer-
rill into three Enron power-generating barges off
Nigeria’s coast.

As part of the settlement, the brokerage firm
also agreed to an SEC injunction barring the firm
from future violations of federal securities laws.

(Edward Iwata)

Japan Chooses New
Central Bank Head

Tokyo, February 25
(AP) - The nomination
of central bank “old boy”

Toshihiko Fukui to the
job of Japan’s top banker
probably signals more of
the same in monetary
policy, snuffing out hopes
for decisive action to fight
the nation’s economic
slide, analysts say.

The silver-haired
Fukui is a former Bank
of Japan deputy gover-
nor, who earned the nick-
name “Prince of the BOJ”

over his 40 years at the bank. Now head of a think
tank, Fukui, 67, has strong ties with corporate exec-
utives and was widely considered the ideal pick by
business circles.

But financial markets and some analysts had
hoped for someone who would shake up the central
bank to tackle Japan’s decade-old slump blamed
on spiraling prices. Fukui, whose selection was
announced Monday, is widely expected to continue
the policies of his predecessor, Masaru Hayami, 77.
Hayami’s five-year term ends March 19.

Toshihiko Fukui

Xinhua Photo

New York, February 26 (Reuters) - New York officials
have decided on a post-9- 11 design concept by renowned
German-based architect Daniel Libeskind ahead of the
other finalist team of New York architects led by Rafael
Vinoly and Frederic Schwartz who envisaged a pair of
matching latticework skyscrapers.

Libeskind’s proposed design is a 70-story office build-
ing with “Gardens of the World” on the top floor high above
office level. The plan calls for a tower 1,776 feet high - sym-
bolizing the year of US independence.

There is still expected to be more debate and refinement
of the plan, and officials have estimated construction will
begin in 2005 at the earliest. Xinhua / AP Photo

# CITY ^

IEUING TODAY

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

E-mail: bjtoday@ynet.com

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: LI SHI

Subways Subject of Safety Concern

By Su Wei

The Beijing Fire Fighting Bureau expressed
their determination to improve the safety condi-
tions in all local subway trains and stations at a
press conference last Friday

An official of the bureau who requested ano-
nymity said that inspections of the fire preven-
tion and safety conditions of the city’s subway
and light rail systems have found the fire-fight-
ing equipment currently installed to be “basical-
ly sound,” though some breathing masks set up

for use by rescue personnel need to be replaced.

“The subway has been a focus of ours for a
long time, and we have run several fire drills un-
der a variety of supposed conditions to make sure
we can keep the system safe,” he said. The official
added that more tests of smoke discharging and
extinguishing equipment are scheduled.

According to a February 22 report in the
Beijing Morning Post , the bureau’s Standards
for Installing Signs for Fire-fighting and Evacu-
ation Safety will take effect in the near future.

That regulation stipulates that new buildings
must have illuminated emergency signs in-
stalled in the walls and floors of all evacuation
routes. Wall signs must be spaced under 10 me-
ters apart and floor signs under five meters
apart to allow people to crawl to safety in case
of a fire.

The report continues that because most emer-
gency lights installed to date are ceiling-mount-
ed, they could be obscured by smoke in fires and
make it difficult for people to escape.

Campus life Returns
to Normal After IWo
Cafeteria Bombings

By Su Wei

Bombs crafted from homemade dynamite ex-
ploded in two dining halls at Tsinghua University
and Beijing University in midday on Tuesday, in-
juring nine people.

An unnamed spokesman for the Beijing Munic-
ipal Public Security Bureau said later that day
that none of those injured have died.

“We are conducting an intense investigation
and will spare no effort in trying to find who
is responsible for these two incidents,” said the
spokesman. “All we are free to say at present
is what has been released by the Xinhua News
Agency.”

The bomb at Tsinghua University went off at
around 11:50 am in the Heyuan Dining Hall,
which sits in the center of campus. At the time,
over 30 people were having their lunch in the hall.
Four of the six people injured in the blast are
teachers and the two other are students.

Two of the three people hurt when the second
bomb exploded at 1:20 pm in Beijing University’s
Nongyuan Dining Hall, the largest on campus,
have been identified as cafeteria employees, and
the third a student from Haidian Non-residential
University who was looking for a job at the time.

Xinhua reported that by that evening, life had
basically returned to normal on the two campuses,
except that both dining halls have been sealed off
by the Beijing police.

Ancient Hutong
Slated for Saving,
not Razing

By Iris Miao

A plan to renovate Sanyanjing Hutong near
Jingshan Park, one of the 25 protected historical
and cultural areas in Beijing, calls not for the
wrecking ball, but for careful efforts to restore the
ancient street’s traditional architecture.

The East- West lane to the northeast of Jing-
shan East Street in Dongcheng district contains
hundreds of pingfang, one-story houses, and is
home to 1,800 people. One fifth of the total area of
the street is up for renovation.

The plan is the first to center on restoring
traditional Bejiing courtyard design since 1949.
The public can check out and offer opinions
on the plan through the website of the Beijing
Municipal Commission of Urban Planning at
www. bj gh w. gov. cn .

By Tony

By Cao Boyuan

Bride Enjoys
Royal Treatment

By Lily Li

Sanlitun bar street went
through a romantic time
warp last Saturday morning,
as bride Zhang Zhujing,
seated in a traditional
Chinese sedan chair, was
carried down the road by
eight porters to the
accompaniment of a folk

band, two people carrying
large red umbrellas and two
lion dancers.

Zhang’s new husband,
Liu Xi, said, “Altogether
there are 22 people
accompanying the bride.
Today is February 22, and
January 22 in the lunar
calendar. My family wants

the two of us to start a
happy life together on this
auspicious day with this
wonderful wedding
ceremony.”

The sedan chair,
previously used as a movie
prop, was borrowed from
the Beijing Stage Costume
Factory.

Sordid love Triangle Turns Deadly

By Chen Ying

The bodies of two 30-year-old male murder
victims were discovered two kilometers apart in
Shidu County, Fangshan District on February 16
and 17.

The story behind the killings is straight
from the pages of a cheap femme fatale thriller
novel.

The two men have been identified as Su Li
and He Quan, both from Zhuozhou, Hebei Prov-
ince. The Fangshan police have determined that
He murdered Su on February 15, and then was
killed himself the next day by another party.

Investigators quickly marked Su Li’s wife, Hu
Ling, as a main suspect after the identities of the
bodies were determined.

Under interrogation, Hu confessed to the police
on Tuesday last week that she hired He to kill her
husband, and then she had other men murder He
to make sure he would not betray her.

Hu said that after marrying Su, she fell in
love with Song Dong, the boss of a coal factory in
Zhuozhou, six years ago.

Su found out about his wife’s affair, but despite
her demands, refused to grant her a divorce.

Last October, Hu asked Song to kill her hus-
band, because she did not want to live with him
any more. She told her lover she would break up
with him if he did not go through with the mur-
der. Later that month, Su’s right arm was broken
by a group of Song’s friends.

Enraged by the attack, Su told his wife that he
was going to buy a gun and kill her lover.

Hu and Song then decided to hire Lu Yong, an-
other friend of Song’s, to kill Su. After tracking
Su for 20 days, however, Lu never found a good
opportunity to do the hit.

The plot then thickened with the entrance of
He Quan, another man enamored with Hu, who
told her he would help her kill her husband.

He called Su last month, claiming he could
help him get his hands on a gun. On February
15, He told Su he could pick up the firearm in
Dashakan village, located between Zhuozhou and
Fangshan District. He and Lu Yong were waiting
at the arranged meeting site, and when Su ar-
rived, they stabbed him to death and threw his
body in a ditch.

However, Hu was afraid that He would reveal
her identity, so she asked Lu to kill him. The day
after the first murder, Hu invited He over for din-
ner with Song and Lu. She slipped rat poison
into He’s drink, causing him to lose conscious-
ness. The murderous trio then stabbed and blud-
geoned him to death with a knife and iron rod,
loaded his body into a car and drove to Shidu
County, where they dumped him.

Song and Lu were captured on Saturday of
last week onboard a train headed to Shanxi
Province.

Cao Ming’s right hand got caught in the taxi’s front window.

By Sun Jinglong

Policeman Dragged
by Fleeing Taxi

By Lily Li

Cao Ming, a policeman in the Hujialou team of
the Chaoyang Traffic Patrol, was dragged 20 meters
down a road by a taxi at 12:30 am on Thursday last
week.

The driver of the taxi was arrested the next day.

It was the first case of resistance and assault
against a police officer in the capital this year.

While on duty at an intersection on Ritan Lu,
Cao saw a red Xiali taxi enter the bike lane to avoid
a traffic jam and take right turn. He immediately
approached the car and told the driver to show his
license through the left front window of the car.
However, the car, which had been slowing down,
suddenly accelerated.

“I never imagined the driver would take off. I was
totally unprepared,” Cao told Beijing Today.

The policeman was reaching through the car’s
window and got caught when the driver tried to
make his break. Cao ran to keep up, but was even-
tually dragged forward, though he was able to stay
on his feet. When the driver slowed momentarily,
Cao pulled his hand from the window and fell to the
ground.

“The car pulled me a long way. I was pretty lucky
there were no other cars around when I fell down,”
said the police officer.

He was then rushed to a nearby hospital, where
examinations showed he had suffered injuries to his
neck, waist, right hand and right knee. The walkie-
talkie Cao was carrying in his right hand was also
broken.

Li Shuhai, the taxi driver, accelerated away after
Cao fell. Through the car’s license plate number,
other traffic police easily tracked down its owner,
Beijing Yinshan Taxi Company. They called the busi-
ness, and at 4:30 pm the same day, Li turned himself
in to the Traffic Bureau to accept punishment, ac-
companied by leaders of the taxi company.

“I knew the policeman was very close to the car,
but I didn’t know I was pulling him and knocked
him down,” said Li. “I tried to get away to avoid the
fine for my traffic violation, which would be three
points on my license and a fine of 50 yuan to 200
yuan.”

Li and his company said they would accept all le-
gal punishment for the incident, which will be set af-
ter the seriousness of Cao’s injuries is determined.

Pissed Pigeon Owner
Sues for Prize

By Lily Li

Pride and prize money are behind a bird-based
lawsuit filed last Thursday in a local court.

Wu Wenxin, owner of two racing pigeons, is suing
the Jinglong Pigeon Game Club and Beijing Post Pi-
geon Association because they disqualified his birds
after they placed high in a race held last fall and
shorted him a sizeable cash award.

Wu’s pigeons took first and thirteenth place in
the Young Pigeons Flying Over Shanghaiguan con-
test organized by the club and the association on
October 1 and 2 last year, clocking in at average
speeds of nearly 1.2 kilometers and 1 kilometer per
minute.

The pigeons’ trainer looked forward to a total of
5,500 yuan in cash prizes for his birds’ performanc-
es, but the race organizers ended up disqualifying
his birds on the grounds that no pigeon can fly that
fast, and refused to turn over the money.

“I’m suing them not only for breach of contract,
but also because they released news that I cheated
without any evidence and without my approval,”
said Wu.

A Beijing Post Pigeon Association spokesman sur-
named Huang responded, “Wu’s winning pigeon flew
152 meters per minute faster than the second-place
bird, which is impossible in this kind of long-dis-
tance competition.”

Hearings of the case were held this week and will
continue next month.

VOICE

6 FEBRUARY 28, 2003

SEUING TODAY

E-mail: bjtoday@ynet.com

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER:PANG LEI

Dudley Do Wrong

Deleting the words
needn’t necessarily
weaken the spirit of
doing good deeds. On
the contrary , it will
promote the spirit of
doing good deeds in
a more careful and
rational way.

— Liang Yongping

It’s good that some
words, such as
“inform adults” or
“understand how to
protect yourself’,
appear in the new
student regulations.
But I still feel some
key words shouldn’t
be deleted because
they don’t contradict
the new words. They
are all based on
courage.

— Qin Chao

By Chen Ying/ Sun Ming

W ould you help someone
if it meant getting into a
risky situation? Prima-
ry and middle school students in
Beijing are about to benefit from
new guidelines on this tricky
question.

For the last 21 years, students
have been presented with a han-
dy pamphlet on moral and be-
havioral issues entitled “New
Students Daily Behavior Regu-
lations”. These guidelines have
encouraged “daring to struggle”
and “doing good deeds, even when
risky”. But these two points have
just been deleted from the new
version which will be presented
starting from this semester.

The new regulations advise
students to report rather than in-
tervene in any deviant behavior,
and learn how to protect them-
selves.

Other cities will soon follow
Beijing’s lead in amending their
moral statutes to suit the times.

Unfortunately, the new reg-
ulations contradict a policy im-
plemented in Beijing in 2001
whereby middle school students
can obtain 20 points towards their
entrance examination to univer-
sities if they do a good deed that
involves some risk.

The changing of the regula-
tions has aroused heated debate
among right-thinking people all
over the country.

Some people think it’s a sign of
social advancement, while others
think it’s a moral copout.

Should the words “Do good
deeds, even when risky” be delet-
ed from the students regulations?
Opinions follow:

Liang Yongping,
secretary general, China
Foundation for Justice and
Courage

I think this is a kind of social
progress.

Our foundation always tries to
stay low key in honoring teenag-

ers for their good deeds. Since we
started in 1993, we have received
many cases nationwide about ex-
cellent teenagers, such as young
people who have helped in fire
fighting and life saving. But we
only choose special cases to honor.
There’s a danger that young chil-
dren will try to imitate some of
the riskier actions. They may also
lack the ability to judge the level
of danger in an emergency.

The decision to delete the words
is similar to a decision made by
the local authorities in Guangdong
last October banning the mobili-
zation of middle school students
to participate in fire fighting.

It’s very important to have the
right attitude towards good deeds.
It’s our duty to let students know
they should not only have the
courage to face difficulties but that
they should also be wise.

I think deleting the words
needn’t necessarily weaken the
spirit of doing good deeds. On the
contrary, it will promote the spirit
of doing good deeds in a more care-
ful and rational way. It’s a kind
of active and flexible measure to
participate in and maintain so-
cial order by requiring pupils to
report bad behavior or crime in-
stead of involving themselves in
it directly.

Qin Chao,

reporter, Star Daily

I still remember my parents
never forgot the word “bravery”
as part of the blessing for me on
my birthday when I was a child.
They wanted me to be a brave boy.
As my father told me continuous-
ly, I knew to be a brave person
I should have a righteous heart.
He also said fighting with villains
face to face was not the only way
to help others. Telling the police or
teachers when others need help is
also a kind of good deed.

I visited one of my neighbors
one day and saw a couple who
were worrying about how to get
their cat down from the window.

My neighbor told me a mouse had
frightened the cat because it had
never seen a mouse before. So
I understood even a cat needed
practice to improve its courage.

I think it’s similar with kids.
How are they going to be brave if
they’ve never needed to be or been
taught about it?

Some would say it would be a
tragedy if a child was killed while
fighting a fire. That may be true.
Maybe the kid would have sur-
vived if it had looked out for itself.
But at least the child would have
had courage.

I think it’s good that some
words, such as “inform adults” or
“understand how to protect your-
self’, appear in the new student
regulations. But I still feel some
key words shouldn’t be deleted
because they don’t contradict the
new words. They are both based
on courage.

Li Qin,

vice-president of Shishi
United Middle School

It’s not realistic to advocate
students doing good deeds now-
adays. Beijing’s new regulations
reflect the changes in social atti-
tudes to education. Now, most stu-
dents are the only child in their
families. Their ability to look out
for themselves is rather weak.
They lack the ability to evaluate
and anticipate danger. It has be-
come a social problem. Though it’s
really necessary to cultivate stu-
dents’ sense of justice, the most im-
portant thing is that they should
know how to be careful. Helping
others wisely is of secondary im-
portance. Never encourage them
to do what they can’t do.

Teaching children how to sur-
vive is one of the most important
aspects of education. But it needs
to be addressed more carefully in
contemporary education. For in-
stance, my daughter is glad to
help others. One day, she saw an
older student ask a younger one
for money. To help the younger

student, she gave her own money
to the older one. She was happy
and thought she had done a good
deed when she told me the story.
We should teach the kids how to
make the right judgment when
they become involved in this kind
of situation.

Zhao Xiaoguang,

first grader at Beijing No. 1

Middle School

Even though the new regula-
tions don’t encourage us to strug-
gle with bad things and take risks,
I still admire brave people who do
good deeds without hesitation.

Lei Kun,

a company manager

The words about taking risks
to do good deeds shouldn’t be de-
leted. In my view, there are differ-
ent degrees of risks. In situations
which are not that dangerous, stu-
dents should come out bravely. For
example, if one student was beat-
ing another, somebody should try
to stop the fight at once. But if
someone threatens somebody with
a knife or a gun, the situation
is very dangerous. In this case,
students should report the case
first. They shouldn’t fight, because
there is no use. So according to dif-
ferent situations, students can de-
cide whether to take action.

Xu Xuemei,

PR manager of a foreign
owned enterprise

It’s improper to delete these
words from the students’ regula-
tions. It’s more like a kind of spirit
to advocate doing good deeds, not
a practical instruction.

Besides, how many times are
students presented with situa-
tions in which they need to take
a risk to do a good deed? Very
rarely. The idea of doing good
deeds even at risk is a kind of
inspiration, which can influence
people for their whole life if the
spirit is instilled in them whey
they are young.

SOUND BITES

“ There may well he a time
for military action. But at the
moment the timetable ap-
pears to he determined hy the
decisions of the President of
the United States and not hy
the logic of events”

— Chris Smith, a former min-
ister in British Prime Minister
Tony Blair’s cabinet, speaking
during a parliamentary vote on
Wednesday over tackling Iraq.
Blair won the vote by 393 to
199. Embarrassingly for Blair,
122 of the 199 parliamentari-
ans who disagreed with his ap-
proach to the Iraq crisis came
from his own party — more than
a quarter of the total in parlia-
ment — dwarfing any previous
internal rebellion he has faced
in nearly six years in power.

“I think this is another ex-
ample of the regime of North
Korea taking escalatory ac-
tions in order to gain con-
cessions. We seek a peaceful
diplomatic solution, hut all
options remain on the table ”

— Sean McCormack, the
White House National Securi-
ty Council spokesman regard-
ing reports that North Korea
has restarted a nuclear reac-
tor at Yongbyon.

“Many multinationals find
themselves in the unenviable
position of educating both
local users and local service
providers on the value of IT
services.”

— Jacqueline Heng, ana-
lyst from Gartner, a market-
research firm expecting that
China’s market for information-
technology services will grow
18% this year to $4.9 billion
as companies like banks and
telecommunications operators
spend to upgrade their sys-
tems. Despite the fast growth,
China remains a challenging
market for providers of IT ser-
vices, as many local compa-
nies tend to focus more on
buying hardware rather than
services.

By Chen Ying

Who Are You Calling a DogP

Nanjing customer criticizes mobile phone greeting words “Hello Chow”

By Lily Li

Red faces all round at China
Electronics Corporation Telecom
(CECT) this week. The company
thought it had hit upon a groovy
greeting for its new CECT928
mobile phone.

When people switched it on,
the words “Hello Chow” flashed
up on the screen. Gimmicks like
this are popular in the phone mar-
ket and the right one can ensure a
product’s success. But CECT were
in for a nasty surprise.

The problem started last week
when a woman surnamed Dong
decided the words ‘’Hello Chow”
were an outrageous insult. She
had been curious about the mean-
ing of the words since buying her
phone on February 13. So she
looked up the word “chow” in the
dictionary and was shocked and
disturbed to discover it meant
“dog raised in China”.

The thought of being greeted
everyday with the words “Hello,
Chinese dog” enraged Ms Dong.
“I was speechless. I became quite
incoherent,” she says. So she
took her story to a Nanjing news-
paper named Modern Express to
protest.

It instantly became headline
news and anger quickly spread
among other Chinese people, es-
pecially buyers of the CECT928.
Website chat rooms were
swamped with comments like,
“This is a humiliation for Chi-
nese people!” and, “We must pro-
test at CECT’s betrayal of the
consumers!”

CECT hurriedly tried to res-
cue the situation. On February
18, Zhang Hongyu, CFO of CE-
CT’s Beijing branch, flew to
Nanjing to apologize face to face
with Ms Dong. He explained

on behalf of the company that
they had never intended to
cause offence.

Beijing Today looked up the
word in the Oxford English Dic-
tionary and found “chow” had
two meanings: first, a slang word
for food; second, a Chinese breed
of long-haired dog.

“We thought it meant ‘Hello,
lovely pet dog,”’ said Zhang,
a greeting the company pre-
sumably thought would appeal
to young consumers. “Greeting
words in the screens of mobile
phones are very popular nowa-
days, such as ‘Hello the World’, or
‘Hello Nokia.’”

“It’s just like ‘Hello Kitty’
which means ‘Hello, lovely pet
cat,”’ Zhang continued. “‘Hello
Kitty’ is a popular greeting in
America and all over the world,”
he claimed.

Ms Dong was satisfied with
the company’s apology and ac-
cepted Zhang’s explanation that
the company hadn’t considered
the potential offense of the
word “dog”.

On February 19 the company
issued a profuse apology, saying
“We are a Chinese phone compa-
ny and it is absolutely not our in-
tention to insult our consumers.
The words were just intended
as a cute greeting.” The compa-
ny promised to open a toll-free
hotline for any questions or com-
plaints and offered a free soft-
ware upgrade to all customers
who were still angry about the
words in the greeting.

“Our products are geared to-
wards the high-end market, espe-
cially successful business people,”
said Cen Hanrong, general man-
ager of the marketing and tech-
nology department at GrandTech,

a partner of CECT. “I am sure
these educated people will come
to a rational understanding of the
‘Hello Chow’ affair.”

The word “chow” is popular
among Western people too, ac-
cording to Barbara Helen, a for-
eign editor at China Daily. “It
was one of the 100 most popular
names in the United States in
1999 for young parents naming
their baby.”

Is “Hello Chow” really offen-
sive? Should people get so upset
about a certain meaning of a

word? Does this deserve so much
attention? Opinions follow:

Steve Hill, creator of Salsa
Pekina

“Chow” can refer to a type of
Chinese dog, or to food. “Ciao”
(which is pronounced the same) is
also an Italian word meaning hel-
lo or goodbye. Sometimes we say
“ciao for now”, or Italians might
say “ciao bella” (hello beautiful) to
their girlfriend. Word confusions
— such as between British and
American English — can be con-

fusing and amusing, but people
should not take offence.

Xu Qian, employee at China
Telecom Beijing Research
Institute

I didn’t see the mobile phone
but CECT is a Chinese company
so I don’t believe it intended
to insult people. A mistake like
this doesn’t mean the company
doesn’t love the country. CECT
only took the wrong marketing
promotion measure, and we
shouldn’t be too hard on it.

Tong Ge, administrative
assistant at Beijing Zhongli
Culture Development Co.

If it’s just a sentence a per-
son says, we can forgive him, be-
cause he maybe really doesn’t
know the meaning of the word
“chow”. But when a company
uses it to attract customers, I re-
gard it as an offense. According
to the explanations of the com-
pany, they took “chow” as “pet
dog” instead of “Chinese dog”.
What’s the difference? Both are
dogs! How could a mobile phone
company greet its customers by
saying “Hello dog”? Calling cus-
tomers dogs is obviously disre-
spectful. A public apology is the
only thing for CECT to do.

Hector Mackenzie, foreign
editor for China Daily

Words can often cause con-
fusion — especially when there
is some misunderstanding as to
their exact meaning. In China,
for example, some foreigners take
offense if they are referred to by
Chinese as laowai. The literal
translation of the word as I un-
derstand it is “old outsider.” Yet
Chinese people insist they do not
intend to cause offense with the
use of such a word. Indeed in
many parts of China, it is re-
garded as a term of respect to-
wards foreign people.

I asked people of several dif-
ferent nationalities — including
Australians, Canadians, Britons
and Americans — as to what
their understanding of the word
chow was. Two answers were
forthcoming: the majority know
it as a slang word for “food” while
others recognize it as a friendly
Italian expression to say “good-
bye” to good friends.

IEUING TODAY

PROBE

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

E-mail: bjtoday@ynet.com

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER: PANG LEI

By Su Wei

Y ou’d normally think that school was
a relatively safe place to be. The
odd accident yes, the occasional in-
jury on the sports field and maybe a fight
breaking out every now and then. But
on the whole, you’d assume children were
relatively safe from harm at school.

You’d probably be surprised then to
discover that nearly 50 schoolchildren die
in China every day. Research conducted
by the Ministry of Education in 2001 re-
vealed that 14,000 students below the age
of 18 die every year in accidents or fights
at school. In the past two years, the num-
ber of fatalities has risen to 16,000.

In Shenzhen, Guangdong Province
more than 800 accidents were reported
from February 2001 to February 2002,
over twice that of the same period in the
late 1990s.

Last year the Beijing Education Com-
mittee said school accidents were the
number one cause of fatalities among
juveniles, and a key factor behind the
injuries they suffer.

Sun Jiangping, a researcher at the
Children and Juvenile Research Insti-
tute of Beijing University, says around
17 percent of primary and middle school
students are prone to violent behavior.
In Beijing the proportion is 23 percent,
according to research conducted last
year by Beijing Disease Prevention and
Control Center.

Young and dangerous

Liu Wenjia, 18, is one of the 380 in-
mates at the Juvenile Delinquents Pris-
on in Daxing, Beijing. A few years ago
a classmate played a trick on him while
they were playing football and Liu was
so angry he decided to beat him to death.
After murdering his classmate, Liu then
buried him. He was sentenced to life.

Wu Ping, 16, was sentenced to three
years at the prison last November after
he stabbed his schoolmate with a knife on
the way home. “I hated her. She spread
rumors about my girlfriend. I just wanted
to teach her a lesson so I stabbed her. But
then she reported me to the police.”

Li Baocun, director of the Department
of Education at the prison told Beijing
Today that around 30 percent of the in-
mates were imprisoned due to violence
in which they seriously injured or killed
their schoolmates.

There have been similar shocking cas-
es in other provinces.

On March 3, 2001, Li Shun, 16,
a student in Chaiyi Village, Yongjia
County, Zhejiang Province, killed his
classmate after a quarrel while playing
table tennis.

Chen Hua, 15, a student in Xiangfen
County, Shanxi Province, had had enough
of his classmates teasing him, so on De-
cember 13, 2001 he threw a bottle of sul-
phuric acid over them. Thirteen kids had
their faces seriously burned.

On May 20 last year, Yang Hua, a thir-
teen-year-old student in Daxian County,
Sichuan Province, killed his roommate,
Sun Shuang, with a knife. Yang had
fought with Sun that afternoon but only
Yang was scolded by the teacher.
Violence on TV to blame?

Tong Lihua, vice general secretary of
the Research Association of China’s Ju-
venile Delinquents, attributes aggression
in school to the violence in modern en-
tertainment culture. “There are too many

fight scenes in films and TV programs,
which tempt kids to show their power in
front of their classmates in order to get
respect,” she says. “To their less mature
state of mind, the best way to show their
power is through violence - hurting their
schoolmates.”

She cites data from the Beijing Com-
mittee for Protection of Minors, which was
released at the end of last year. Around
46 percent of Beijing school students said
they sometimes wanted to fight or quar-
rel with others, and 44 percent admitted
they had even thought of killing people
though they didn’t understand why they
had such violent impulses.

Tong highlights the cycle of violence.
Once someone has been hurt or has hurt
someone else, it’s easy for them to de-
velop the idea that might is right, that

“strength together with violence brings
dignity and respect,” she says. “Influenced
by these ideas, they are much more likely
to hurt others when they perceive there is
an opportunity,” says Tong.

They were just playing

Xiao Wei, 11, from Pudong, Shanghai,
says he never wanted to hurt his class-
mate and friend Xiao Feng. “During the
class break, he hugged me tightly. I knew
he meant nothing bad. He just wanted to
play with me. I never intended to hurt
him. I was holding my pen and I just
stabbed it back at him. He cried out and
I turned back to look at him. There was
blood seeping through his fingers.”

The pen had struck Xiao Feng in the
eye. His vision from his right eye has been
reduced to nearly zero. Xiao Wei still re-
members everything about the incident.

Xiao Wei and his family were sued by
Xiao Feng’s family, and had to pay com-
pensation of 3,000 yuan.

One of the most high profile cases
of juvenile violence in China happened
on November 17, 1999. Fang Ke, an
eight-year-old student in Shenzhen City,
Guangdong Province, was pushed down
onto the ground while playing with his
classmate, Yin Xi. He fractured his skull
and Fang’s parents demanded compen-
sation of 4.25 million yuan. It was prin-
cipally the figure they sought that drew
the media’s attention.

QuanYuhai, judge of Dongcheng Peo-
ple’s Court says that such accidents
are common among primary school stu-
dents, and often happen when they’re
just playing. “They are so young. They
can hardly predict the negative effect of
their actions.”

Tragic accidents

The death of a junior middle school
student, Wang Xiaoshun in a private
school - Taihang Middle School in Quy-
ang County, Hebei Province - was re-
garded by the Chinese media as one
of the most shocking events relating to
school accidents in 2001.

On November 25, 2001, Wang Xiaos-
hun, 15, was climbing around on the stand
for a basketball hoop which was lying
on the playground. The stand suddenly
tipped up and struck Wang on the head.
He lost consciousness immediately.

He was taken to the county hospital.
Three hours later his heart stopped beat-
ing. The family expressed their demand
for compensation by placing the body of
their dead son in front of his school. So
the head of the county showed up and
gave Wang’s family 40,000 yuan.

On November 13, 2000, the electricity
suddenly went off in a middle school in
Wutai Town, Shandong Province. Panic
ensued and in the rush to get to the doors
five students died and 32 were injured.

On March 6, 2001, the collapse of a
toilet wall in a primary school in Feido-
ng County, Anhui Province caused the
death of one student and injuries to
three others.

“These accidents are caused by the
school lacking due safety controls,” an of-

ficial of the Ministry of Education (who
declined to give his name) told Beijing
Today. The official, who is responsible for
solving disputes caused by school acci-
dents, said, “The most common problem
is that schools are more worried about
students’ performance in exams than
their safety.” He says in most schools,
there are only one or two staff responsi-
ble for school safety. “Even these people
are not full time safety staff as they have
other responsibilities.”

Schools sued

Sixteen-year-old Xiao Wu from Shi-
jingshan District, Beijing has suffered im-
paired vision in his left eye since being hit
by a football during a game. His family
sued Xiao Wu’s classmate Xiao Liu who
kicked the ball and the school.

Shijingshan People’s Court decided on

November 28 last year that neither Xiao
Liu nor the school was responsible for the
injury, according to the Regulations for
Handling School Accidents, which were
brought into effect on September 1, 2002.

Zhang Yonghua, one of the representa-
tives of the National Congress who pro-
posed the regulations, says they clarify
the responsibility among students, their
parents and the school and are intended
to release schools from the fear of car-
rying out any outdoor activities. “Some
parents believe the school should be the
guardian of the students, though civil law
stipulates that only the parents are the
guardians,” he says.

“They consider that as long as the chil-
dren are sent to school, the school is bound
to take all responsibilities relating to any
incidents within its grounds, as they have
‘given’ their children to the school.”

The injured students and their par-
ents interviewed by Beijing Today be-
lieve these regulations enable schools to
“waive” their responsibilities.

Li Yao, 14, a middle school student
from Weifang City, Shandong Province,
was hospitalized for nearly six months af-
ter falling from the window of a classroom
on the third floor. On April 5, 2001 she
tried to pull down the blind but was too
short to reach it. So she climbed up to the
window, which was open at that time. She
fell out of it and down to the ground, in-
juring her skull.

Her family sued the school for compen-
sation as well as medical expenses which
they said would be more than 700,000
yuan. The Secondary People’s Court of
Weifang decided the school should pay 40
percent of the costs.

The school principal said he agreed
with the decision but the father, according
to Xinhua News Agency, asked how the
family would be able to afford the further
400,000 yuan in medical expenses.

Yu Hongwei, a judge at the court, said
the expense caused by such accidents can
hardly be afforded by an ordinary family,
especially in a society lacking sufficient
social welfare. “There is insurance for
workers who are injured at work. But for
students, there is no insurance.”

A member of the Beijing Education
Committee, who asked not to be named,
said the parents’ main aim was to deal
with their children’s medical expenses
and provide their future social security.
“The regulations only superficially clar-
ify the responsibilities of the school,
the students and the parents but fails
to solve the basic problems caused by
school accidents.”

(Pseudonyms are used for the students in-
volved in school accidents.) Photo / Tony Stone

Accidents for which
the school has
no responsibility:

Natural disasters such as earth-
quakes; accidents outside school;
diseases, physical conditions or ab-
normal psychological states; stu-
dents committing suicide; accidents
taking place in violent or risky sports;
accidents on the way to or from
school as well as when having left
school without permission.

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* FOCUS

SEUING TODAY

E-mail: bjtoday@ynet.com

EDITOR: LIU FENG DESIGNER:PANG LEI

Should Japan Pay?

Wang with 96-year-old Zhu Wenda who witnessed Japan’s germ warfare pro-
gram in Yiwu County. Zhu died in February 2002. Photo by Tan Jin

By Sun Ming

T he High Court in Tokyo is
about to hear the case of
Japan’s biological warfare
in China during World War II.

The plaintiffs are demanding
an apology and compensation from
the Japanese Government. The
fact the case has finally made it
to one of the highest courts in Ja-
pan is a personal victory for Wang
Xuan who has been campaigning
for recognition of the issue for the
past eight years.

Using her mastery of Chinese,
English and Japanese, 51-year-
old Wang works as the head, or-
ganizer and interpreter of the
plaintiffs’ group of 180 people
who are both survivors and rela-
tives of deceased victims of the
Imperial Japanese Army’s germ
warfare.

Partial victory in 2002

On August 27 last year, the
Tokyo District Court ruled that
Japan had indeed waged germ
warfare in China, a form of con-
flict banned by the 1925 Geneva
Convention.

It was the first time a Japa-
nese court had recognized this.
The claim that germ warfare was
carried out by the infamous Unit
731 and other units of the Impe-
rial army during the 1937-1945
war in China had long been offi-
cially denied.

But the court refused any com-
pensation or an apology to the
Chinese victims who asked for 10
million yen — about $84,000 —
for each of the plaintiffs.

“There is no international law
enabling individuals to sue for war-
time damages,” said Judge Koji
Iwata in the court. The court said
compensation issues had already
been settled under postwar trea-
ties between Japan and China.

Three days later, the plaintiff
group filed an appeal to the Tokyo
High Court.

“It is absurd that the Japanese
government doesn’t have to take

“7 said in court that we brought
the lawsuit in order to remember
all the victims who died from the
germ warfare and we would fight
for justice to the end.”

— Wang Xuan

any responsibility, even though
the ruling confirmed biological
warfare had taken place,” said
Wang.

“Even though China’s govern-
ment announced in the 1970s
that it wouldn’t ask for war
compensation, Japan should pay
compensation to victims. We are
the representatives of civilians,”
Wang told Beijing Today.
Investigating germ warfare

In 1995, Wang learnt from Ja-
pan Times that two Japanese had
reported their investigation of vic-
tims in Chongshan village, Yiwu
County, Zhejiang Province, at an
international seminar about the
brutal acts carried out by Japan’s
Unit 731.

Wang also discovered three
villagers were filing a suit in a
Japanese court, demanding com-
pensation for their wartime suf-
ferings.

“I was very interested. Yiwu
is my hometown,” said Wang who
called the newspaper at once.

At that time, Wang had been
living in Japan with her husband
for almost eight years. The cou-
ple had finished their studies, and
started upon a peaceful life.

“Germ warfare took eight lives
from my family. When I was a lit-
tle girl, my father told me how
the Japanese had spread bubonic

plague and cholera bacteria in
Chongshan village. I still remem-
ber the look on his face,” she
says.

In 1942, a Japanese plane
flew over Chongshan Village and
dropped a deadly load onto the
people below.

One month later, a Japanese
army unit, who claimed they could
treat the patients, came to the vil-
lage. They took the patients to a
remote place and began to con-
duct a grisly form of human vivi-
section upon their living bodies to
find out the effects of the biologi-
cal warfare.

Within two months, 403 villag-
ers had died from the plague and
the experiments.

Unit 731 had grown fleas
in a bathtub, mixed them with
wheat to attract disease-carrying
rats, infected them with bubonic
plague, and then airdropped them
over Zhejiang and Hunan be-
tween 1940 and 1942.

“People died in hours or days,
their bodies swollen and black.
Those who came to their funer-
als often took the disease home
with them,” said Ding De Wang,
69, who testified that his father
died in convulsions two days af-
ter being exposed to the plague.
At the time, Ding was 8.

Going back to the
courthouse

Wang said she felt she had to
do something. In 1995 she joined
a non-governmental investigation
group in Japan which was look-
ing into germ warfare.

“We were overwhelmed by the
fact that so many people were af-
fected by the germ warfare and
that the rest of the world knew so
little about it,” said Wang.

Wang became the head of the
plaintiff group in 1997 when
they brought their lawsuit to To-
kyo District Court, demanding an
apology and compensation.

Among the plaintiff group,
most are from Yiwu, Ningbo, Qu-

zhou, Dongyang, Jiangshan in
Zhejiang Province, and Changde
in Hunan Province.

The plaintiff group claims that
at least 300,000 people were killed
by germ warfare though Wang
says the number could be as high
as one million. Unit 731 operated
in China from 1937-1945 and con-
ducted experiments on more than
3,000 people including Chinese,
Koreans and Russians.

Wang appeared in Tokyo Dis-
trict Court for the first time on
August 11, 1997.

“I couldn’t help weeping as
I gave my testimony. I couldn’t
even read my notes clearly,” says
Wang. “There were three judges
and I noticed two of them were
crying also.”

“I said in court that we brought
the lawsuit in order to remember
all the victims who died from the
germ warfare and we would fight
for justice to the end.”

Wang attended court hearings
27 times between 1997 and 2002.
“Most of the time I was the only
plaintiff in the court,” she said.

Wang admitted that she felt
lonely. “I had hoped Chinese peo-
ple would be more interested. But
it seems many of the Chinese stu-
dents in Japan were too busy to
attend the sessions.”

Japan’s conscience

“If one more person knows
about the germ warfare atroci-
ties, we are one step closer to our
victory,” says Wang. The plaintiffs
are gradually getting more atten-
tion from China and from around
the world.

Wang still lives in Himeji, Ja-
pan and works for a company in
the city. Her job is researching
Chinese business.

“I haven’t been put under any
pressure at work. My boss knows
my lawsuit against his country,”
said Wang. “But he is very polite
to me. Actually he is one of my
supporters.”

Wang Peigen, the secretary of

the plaintiff group, told Beijing
Today that 234 Japanese lawyers
had offered to help them without
pay. There have also been dona-
tions from non-governmental or-
ganizations which have reached
five million yen in the past eight
years.

Wang has also received help
from Yoshio Shinozuka, 77, a for-
mer member of Unit 731. He re-
pented his participation in the
unit and volunteered to testify
in court. He told of the human
experimentation that went on at
the unit’s Harbin headquarters in
northeastern China.

Career sidelined

“I know that most of the survi-
vors are getting older and older.
Some have already passed away
during the lawsuit,” says Wang
who on several occasions has led
groups of hundreds of old survi-

vors between China and Japan to
file their case.

Wang is now seen by many
people as a heroine in her battle
with a formidable government.
She was named one of the “Top
Ten most influential Chinese in
2002 ”.

Since the plaintiff group was
assembled without government
support, Wang has had to pay out
of her own pocket for much of the
investigation.

“My husband gives the most
help,” she said, “since he tolerates
a wife who is always away.”

“This is something all Chinese
people should care about. If we
want to get justice, we need sup-
port. I don’t just mean lip service,
what’s the meaning of that? But
if Chinese people really got be-
hind us, we might succeed. We’ve
already come a long way.”

Ttading Buddha for Bucks P

Theme park housing replica of Bamiyan Buddha investigated

Dodgy erection covered up Photo by Wangjingchun

By Ivy Zhang

A 37 -meter replica of one of the
Buddhas of Bamiyan, destroyed
by the Taliban two years ago,
stands in a park in China, cov-
ered in blue plastic wrapping.

It has been declared illegal and
the park which built it is being
investigated following a report in
a newspaper claiming the park
had built its replica within the
core protective area of the tombs
of Mahaoya, state-protected cul-
tural relics.

The park, named Oriental Bud-
dha Capital, is about 1,000 me-
ters west of the Leshan Giant
Buddha, the world’s largest stat-
ue of Buddha standing at 71 me-
ters and part of the UNESCO
world heritage.

The park decided to build its
replica after the two Buddhas
of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, one
about 53-meters-high and the oth-
er 37-meters-high, were destroyed
in March 2001.

The new Bamiyan Buddha was
carved in Leshan, Sichuan prov-
ince within a year.

“The Bamiyan Buddha is ille-
gal. But whether the park is il-
legal or not, we haven’t decided
yet,” said an official from Sichuan
Cultural Relics Protection Admin-
istration who declined to give his
name.

“In May 2001, papers were is-
sued to ban the building of repli-
ca because it violates the nation’s
Cultural Relics Protection Law.”

The park and the Bamiyan
Buddha

Oriental Buddha Capital
Stock Holding Company started
constructing the park in 1992
and opened it to the public two
years later.

More than 300 people helped
build the park, including 20 pro-
fessors from Sichuan Art Insti-

tute and about 200 technicians.
The total investment was 100
million yuan.

According to Liang Enming,
chairman of the company, the
park was intended to develop Chi-
na’s Buddhism culture.

“Chinese Buddhism culture is
only complete with the conver-
gence of Buddhism, Confucius
and Taoism, “ Liang said. “I felt
that the Leshan Giant Buddha
was too isolated. All the world-
famous statues of Buddha are
surrounded by other representa-
tions of Buddha, like the moon
surrounded by stars. We wanted
to expand and develop this cul-
ture, based around the Leshan
Giant Buddha.”

But not everyone believes
what Liang claims. Guo Zhan,
director of the World Heritage
Management Division, State Cul-
tural Relics Administration, said
it was only a personal scheme of
Liang’s to implement this proj-
ect. He said Buddha should more
properly stand alone, needing no
companions.

“Otherwise, its authenticity is
compromised,” he said. “And to
build a large artificial park in a
natural scenic spot like Leshan is
sure to spoil the vegetation and
physiognomy of the area.”

The replica of the Bamiyan
Buddha was built from May 2001
to February 2002 at a cost of eight
million yuan.

Liang said he wanted to build
the statue because of “our re-
spect for Buddhism and desire to
save the world’s heritage from de-
struction.” He also said the proj-
ect to replicate the statue had
received “massive media coverage
from home and abroad in support
of the building”.

Controversial site

Southern Weekend , a Guang-

zhou-based newspaper, published
a story titled “Ridiculous! Bami-
yan Giant Buddha Revived at Le-
shan” last Thursday, which drew
nationwide attention to the park.

The story claimed the Bami-
yan replica had been built “with-
in the core protection area of the
Mahaoya Tombs.”

The 2,000-year-old Mahaoya
Tombs were built in China’s Han
dynasty and include some of the
world’s earliest stone statues of
Buddha. There are more than 500
individual tombs in the area near
Leshan Giant Buddha.

“To protect the historic site,
the state set up Leshan Maha-

oya Tomb Museum 18 years ago.
But due to financial constraints,
the museum only includes seven
tombs. There are 500 other tombs
scattered among the hills nearby.

“In 1989, the Sichuan govern-
ment appropriated about 49 hect-
ares of land as protective land
for the Mahaoya Tombs. In 1994,
the Oriental Buddha Capital park
was given permission to be built
on the site, albeit outside the
core protection area. In 2001, the
Bamiyan Buddha was built with-
in the core protective area,” the
paper reports.

“If the park is in the protect-
ed area of the tombs and they

failed to get a permit, it is ille-
gal from the perspective of China
Cultural Relics Protection Law,”
said Chai Xiaoming, director of
the Cultural Relics Protection
Division of the State Cultural
Relics Administration.

Chai said they had already
requested Sichuan authorities to
look into this case. An inves-
tigation team went to the site
Wednesday. The result has not
been decided yet.

Liang served as deputy direc-
tor of Leshan Buddha Relics Man-
agement Committee for six years
from 1986 to 1992.

He says the local government al-
located 49 hectares of land to the
committee in 1989. But the govern-
ment took it back four years later
in 1993 as the land remained un-
developed. In 1993, the government
let it to the company for a term of
40 years, according to Liang.

He said the core protective
area of the tombs is only 0.07
hectares of land surrounded by a
wall and his park is outside the
wall.

“How could we put a 37-meter-
high Buddha within 0.07 hectares
of land? There used to be a worn-
out hospital on the land covering
an area of 10,000 square meters.
It is us who spent big bucks to
move the hospital away last year
and plant trees in the area. ”
Damaging the heritage?

Southern Weekend reports that
the Leshan Buddha Management
Committee approached Leshan
Culture Bureau, the company and
the local authorities after the Bami-
yan project began in May 2001,
complaining the project was dam-
aging the Mahaoya Tombs.

The committee claimed the
project had caused great damage
to the tombs and that the use
of heavy vehicles and bulldozers
had shaken the coffin chambers
within the museum.

“The committee tried to pre-
vent the illegal construction
many times in writing or orally
but all their efforts were in vain,”
the report continues.

Liang says he never used bull-
dozers but only hand-pulled carts

and says the statue was built far
away from the coffin chambers.

In return, he attacked the com-
mittee. “The committee has its own
problems with protecting relics.
They tore down the side rooms of
Lingyun Temple and the ancient
pavilion and side rooms of Dongpo
House just beside the Leshan Gi-
ant Buddha within the core pro-
tective areas. They are also doing
illegal things,” said Liang.

Making money in the name
of heritage?

Starting from the end of last
year, a sign reading “Oriental
Buddha Capital - World Heritage
Protection Area” hung at the en-
trance of the park.

After Southern Weekend cov-
ered the story, Liang took the
sign down.

“That was my fault. The
UNESCO officials did visit and
examine the park but did not
evaluate it,” he said. “But I think
we are within the range of three
kilometers from the Leshan Gi-
ant Buddha. The Leshan Bud-
dha occupies a core UNESCO
protective area and any place
within three kilometers is also
protected.”

The newspaper reported that
many visitors complained about
the park and about 400 tourists
were misled into going to the park
when they had wanted to visit
the Leshan Buddha. The paper ac-
cused the park of “making profit in
the less-regulated tourism market
using the name of Leshan Giant
Buddha.”

Liang pointed out that the
park was opened two years before
UNESCO listed the Leshan Bud-
dha as part of the world heritage.
He said neither the Leshan Bud-
dha park nor his Oriental Bud-
dha Capital park are profitable.

“We still owe the bank 10 to 20
million yuan,” Liang said.

“The park cost a lot of money
but all it’s got is fake antiques. It is
of no great value,” said Guo Zhang,
the official from the state author-
ity. “It is in poor taste and is to-
tally business-driven. In terms of
spreading culture and promoting
tourism, it is not a good project.”

© F^V^#E 'iL

3EUING TODAY

E-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

9

EDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: PANG LEI

Wang contributes to the cultural life of residents in his community.

By Zhao Pu

T hink of China’s neighborhood
committees and the image of
the old woman sitting on a
doorstep, keeping an eye out for
undesirable elements will probably
come to mind.

But times have changed. Some
of the pressures of modern society,
such as unemployment and rising
crime rates, have required rather
more direct involvement in the
community. Recent reforms have
enticed younger people into the
job of community services, such as
39-year-old Wang Fuzhu.

Three years ago, Wang took off
the military uniform he had worn for
18 years and walked into one of the
neighborhood committees in Beijing.
Soon he was busy fixing gates, prizing
apart outraged mothers and furious
daughters-in-law and finding new
boyfriends for lonely divorcees.

“I didn’t expect I’d have such a
wide range of tasks,” he says. It was
all a long way from the PLA but
he did well enough to be named
a model community servant by the
government.

Role change

In 1999, the government decided
to downsize the army by 500,000
soldiers and the military unit Wang
had served in for 18 years was
disbanded. He was reluctant to retire,
and to leave his familiar life in the
army behind.

There was also the problem of
finding a new job. He didn’t have
any special technical skills or higher
educational background, so Wang
was worried.

He went to the Beijing Personnel
Administration Center near the
Forbidden City and registered in
its personnel database. “It was a
big surprise for me when several
institutions contacted me right after
I registered, saying they wanted
to employ someone with a military
background,” he says.

Initially, Wang worked for a
biotech company and then a
construction company but only for
a few months as he didn’t like
the working environment he found
there. In spring 2000, while Wang
was wondering which kind of job
would suit him better, the Beijing
government released an
advertisement recruiting community
servants.

Wang applied and was given
a book named Neighborhood
Committee Work Introduction as
material for the enrollment test.
He read it several times, but still
Wang couldn’t understand what the
neighborhood committee actually did.
“I had never known anything about
them,” he says.

Wang succeeded in the interview

From Guns to Grannies

and was enlisted by the government
as one of the community servants
in Beijing. He was assigned to
Baliqiao Neighborhood Committee,
which took care of more than 500
households. When Wang had been a
staff officer in the army, he had over
100 soldiers in his command; now he
had 2,000 people in his community
to look after.

At the beginning, Wang was taken
aback by the scope of his new job.
“People came to us with literally
any kind of problem,” he says. A
nursery maid complained she had
not been fully paid by her employer
who was not happy with her service;
somebody’s bathroom fitment
workers did a shoddy job; water was
dropping from an upstairs balcony
onto the drying clothes downstairs; a
mother and daughter-in-law started
a family war; some parents felt their
sons were maltreating them...

Some of these problems were easy
to fix as there were regulations or
contracts involved. But others, like
family disputes, required more tact.
As it was hard to judge who was
right or wrong Wang decided to rely
on gentle and patient persuasion.
Right, you ’orrible lot!

The locals soon realized that
things were going to be different with
this former soldier in charge. Wang’s
community had been plagued by
petty crime such as theft of bicycles
and even cars. So he worked out
a plan to strengthen the security
system. “The two gates of our
community should be closed all day
long, manned by 24-hour security
guards who will open them for
residents. Suspicious strangers won’t
be let in,” his plan read.

Wang pasted his security plan on
the ad board outside his office. Most
of the neighbors supported his idea.
That was the first “big measure”
Wang carried out in his community.
But several days after the strict plan
was implemented, people began to
complain. “Where does he think this
is, his barracks? Why doesn’t he ask
us to stand at attention when we
report to come in?” they said.

The plan certainly affected the
convenience of local teenagers. The
amateur security guards often sloped
off at night so the young folk
returning late had to climb over the
gates to get home.

One morning, when Wang arrived
at his office, he found some old people
gathering at the back gate of the

“The community is my home,” Wang writes on the ad board.

Wang gives a meeting for applicants of the future Taiji group.

Writing new year couplets in office

/N!

Wang coordinates with local security guards.

Photos by Zhuang Jian

community. He approached them to
see what had happened and found
the iron door had been ripped down.
His first reaction was anger but he
just lifted the heavy door and carried
it to the lock fixer. “I decided I would
just fix it. Next time it got broken I
would fix it again,” he says.

Wang bowed to some of the local’s
complaints by correcting the work
attitude of the security guards. The
strict plan did at least succeed in
putting a stop to bicycle theft.
Dangers

Being a community servant, Wang
wasn’t only dealing with small
disputes. Some of the people he dealt
with were quite dangerous.

One day in summer 2001, Wang
was working with two colleagues in
his office. Suddenly, the door was
kicked open and a drunk man holding
a kitchen knife in hand stumbled in.
The man shouted to them, “I’m back
now, you guys better find a good job
for me or I’ll make trouble for you.”

Wang knew the man, who had
just been released after 10 years’
imprisonment in Xinjiang. He was
living with his old parents now in
the community. Nobody wanted to
employ him because of his record.
So he poured out his frustration
and resentment at the neighborhood
committee.

Wang’s two female colleagues were
frightened by the man. Wang
answered him calmly, “you’d better
drop that knife and talk like a man.
I’ve been a soldier for 18 years,
you think you can frighten me with
that knife?” The man sat down and
repeated his requirement. “We can
help you to find a job. But you’d
better improve your behavior first!”
said Wang.

Wang found the oil company
the man worked with before he
was imprisoned and persuaded the
manager to give him a job to feed his
family.

Another jobless man in his
community also threatened Wang
during his application for welfare. He
had applied for several years, but was
never granted it. Wang felt he didn’t
meet the criteria for welfare, which
was meant for those who cannot
work. “He can work, he is just lazy,”
says Wang.

After being rejected again by
Wang in his application in 2000, the
man spread rumors about Wang and
threatened to beat him up. Some of
the residents warned Wang to watch

out for the roguish man. One day
when Wang was having lunch in a
small restaurant, the man brought
two of his friends to teach him a
lesson, but was stopped from doing
anything by angry residents.

Such threats are not rare in Wang’s
daily work. Irrational people vent
their anger and complaints to the
neighborhood committee. “A 50-year-
old divorced woman even asked me
to find her a new boyfriend. She came
to my office every day to check my
progress, and shouted at me if she
thought I wasn’t taking it seriously,”
he says.

New start

Wang’s efficiency proved a sharp
contrast to that of his superannuated
predecessors. A local dump, known
as the ‘garbage hill’, had been piling
up for years and had become a
big headache for residents in the
community. Wang organized some
volunteers and cleared it up in half
a month.

When he first reported to work,
people complained to him that there
was no bus stop near their
community, the residents had to walk
for 20 minutes to get to the bus stop.
Wang contacted the department in
charge of public transportation and
wrote to the People’s Congress right
away. The problem was solved within
two months.

At the beginning of this year Wang
was transferred to a new community.
The residents in his first one were
sorry to see him go, especially aged
people. To enrich their life, Wang had
arranged dozen of trips around the
city and to Tianjin for the old folks, as
well as a number of entertainment
activities and competitions.

The new community in Ding-
fuzhuang will be a new start for
Wang. There are nearly 2,000
households and over 5,000 residents
under his new neighborhood
committee. Compared with the
previous community, security and
sanitation here are much better. “It
seems that I don’t need to guard the
gates and clear the garbage here, so
I’ll probably focus on enhancing the
cultural life of our residents,” says
Wang.

In this year’s annual plan, Wang
will build a Taiji group and will
enlarge the singing group in the new
community. “People have complained
to me that there is no exercise place
in our community.” So Wang will
write to the People’s Congress again.

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

LEGACY

SEUING TODAY

E-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

EDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: LI SHI

By Iris Miao

L ast Tuesday marked a cru-
cial and exciting moment
in the story of China’s folk
cultural heritage. A project titled
Saving Chinese Folk Cultural
Heritage was officially launched
at the Great Hall of the People.

Over the next ten years, a mas-
sive survey will be carried out to
map the overall status of China’s
folk cultural heritage. On com-
pletion, the results of the sur-
vey, which will cover the three
categories of folk customs, folk
literature, and folk art, will be
published.

The first step is to determine
exactly what we have in terms of
folk cultural heritage, says writer
Feng Jicai, chairman of the China
Folk Artists Association and the
driving force behind the project,
and to record everything, “as big
as an ancient village to as small
as an embroidered pouch” in writ-
ing, photographs and videos.

The death of an old folk artist
with no apprentices to perpetu-
ate his or her legacy, a piece of
folk architecture demolished to
make way for a highway or mod-
ern apartment block ... It is no
exaggeration to say that a little
bit of China’s folk culture vanish-
es with every passing minute.

“We just cannot wait one minute
more to take action,” says Feng.

Better late ...

The word “Save,” in the context
of the project bears a sad, even
ironic, connotation. Take Spring
Festival pictures printed using tra-
ditional woodblock techniques, for
example. Recent losses are un-
countable and non-refundable.

Zhuxianzhen County in Kai-
feng, Henan was once one of the
four major production areas for
these brightly colored decorative
images, along with Yangliuqing
near Tianjin, Taohuawu near Su-
zhou and Yangjiapu near Wei-
fang.

According to Yao Jingtang,
director of the Kaifeng Spring
Festival Picture Research Asso-
ciation, in June 1988, there were
11 artists accomplished in the
art, all over the age of 60. By July
2001, seven of them had passed
away.

As for Yangliuqing, where

making Spring Festival pictures
was once a sideline for virtually
every household, those still in-
volved in the trade today can be
counted on one hand. Feng Jicai
finished a survey at Yangliuqing
last month, in which he found
only one family still using the
traditional woodblock technique.

Although several new work-
shops have been established, they
were set up in response to the re-
cent growth of tourism, and the
pictures are created using modem
printing methods rather than the
traditional woodblock technique.

Funding the major problem

Although the project has at-
tracted state level support, so
far no details regarding funding
have been released.

Feng has been working to get
the project off the ground for a
year and a half, talking to offi-
cials at all levels and potential
sponsors, yet after 18 months,
“The result is just a press con-
ference at the Great Hall of the
People,” says Feng with disap-
pointment, “it is far from satis-
factory.”

Feng describes himself as an

idealist and a perfectionist. “I
feel like I’m a Don Quixote,” he
says, “though I’m full of enthusi-
asm in public, always in the front
line of the battle, I’m actually a
pessimist at heart.”

So what will keep his enthusi-
asm burning over the ten years
it will take to complete the proj-
ect? “Love, love for our culture,”
he says simply.

Recording is a way of
protecting

At the heart of Feng’s pes-
simism, he says, is his feeling

of powerlessness. The lifetime
of skills and knowledge in the
hands and mind of an aging art-
ist might be lost if there is no
apprentice; a beautiful ancient
village might be transformed al-
most overnight into a hideous
imitation of a Roman garden,
and he can do nothing.

The focus of this project is to
record the status of the various
aspects of the cultural heritage
as vividly as possible, while they
still exist, and to collect what
still can be found of the vestiges
of those that have already van-
ished.

So what can be done after ten
years, when the survey is com-
plete, the books are published, to
prevent those remaining living
folk cultures from disappearing
too?

“We have to rely on the govern-
ment then,” says Feng, “anyway,
recording is a way of protecting,
at least we will have an idea of
how we once lived.”

Volunteer project

The China Folk Artist Asso-
ciation has issued a survey bro-
chure, which explains the huge
scope the project covers, and a
VCD containing an example of a
survey videoed at a small moun-
tain village called Hougou in
Shanxi Province. The association
encourages volunteers to take
the brochure with them and go
into the field to carry out investi-
gation.

After the media coverage fol-
lowing last Tuesday’s press con-
ference, many people contacted
the association, volunteering to
participate. “We cherish the en-
thusiasm,” says Feng, “yet en-
thusiasm is not enough.” It also
requires expertise and painstak-
ing fieldwork.

“We’ve already set up a spe-
cial office for the project,” says
Xiang Yunju, secretary of the as-
sociation, “step by step we will
offer uniform training to all par-
ticipants, experts, folk culture
scholars, students, and workers
around the country.”

There will be a conference on
execution of the project late next
month, and a law on saving and
protecting folk cultural heritage
is currently under discussion.

A Nostalgic Look at
Old Beijing

By Iris Miao

Wei’er L) is a useful
word in Beijing dialect. It
can be interpreted as “flavor,”
“characteristic,” or
“ambience,” as in the context
of “jingwei’er wenhua,”
meaning “flavor of Beijing
culture,” but who can clearly
define this flavor?

When it is used to
describe a person, as in
“you wei’er,” it is a little
more difficult to translate.
Generally, it means the
person has some sort of
“special” quality. Artist Yang
Xin could be described as
quite “you wei’er,” with the
publication of the third book
in his Beijing trilogy last
month.

The three books, Read
Hutong, about life in
Beijing’s lanes, published in
2001, Old Trades of Beijing,
published last year, and the
most recent Outside the
Qianmen Gate, feature
detailed color pencil
drawings and commentaries
by Yang, complete with
English translations.

Yang says he was initially
motivated simply by a desire
to summarize his wayward
childhood memories, but his
love for the “flavor of Beijing
ambience” led him to
accomplish something rather
more substantial.

Outside the Qianmen Gate
concentrates on the culture
of the southern part of
Beijing, the oldest part of
the city. The old stores such
as Tongrentang Chinese
Medicine Store, Neiliansheng
Shoe Store are there, along
with scenes from the old
Tianqiao theatre district,
including vaudeville and
opera troupes, foods, the
market, scenery and
customs.

Yang says writing the
captions for each of the 110
pictures took him over half
a year, much longer than
he actually spent on the
drawings themselves. “Those
who love the old Beijing
will see history and culture
through my paintings,” says
Yang.

Tianqiao theater scene by Yang Xin

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IEUING TODAY

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

E-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

EDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: PANG LEI

By Liu Qiongxiong

T he Xiangshan Primary School, a small
school almost an hour drive from
downtown Guangzhou, was the unlike-
ly host of a collective art event last month.
From January 18 to 23, British sculptor Ant-
ony Gormley mobilized the school’s students
and the whole community to take part in one
chapter of his on-going international work
titled Asian Field. In all, over 300 children,
parents and other local residents got their
hands dirty crafting 120,000 small clay figu-
rines under Gormley’s guidance.

Before actual creation began, Gormley
laid two ground rules: every figure should be
about as long as a human hand and be por-
trayed standing and looking up at the sky. To
give the impromptu artists plenty of room,
the school’s playground was made a tempo-
rary studio and display area. One hundred
tons of clay went into creating the army of
small sculptures.

During the event, the schoolyard was
filled with a huge variety of people, from cu-
rious teenagers to countrywomen in their
holiday best, older men to silent poets, cam-
eramen angling for the best view, Chinese
artists speaking English, foreigners speak-
ing Chinese, and officials of the school and lo-
cal government overseeing the whole thing.
Without question, the happiest contingent
was the kids and their parents, sitting on the
playground together kneading and molding
clay under the beating sun.

Aside from its artistic merit, this event was
an interesting study of human behavior. The
masses went through a few stages during the
whole event, as everyone seemed nervous at
first, and early creations turned out looking
very similar. As they warmed up, though, the
amateur artists started working in their own
ideas, and the pieces showed far more original-
ity. And then, on the last day of the project, the
collective mind converged again, and most figu-
rines shared a common look.

Throughout the event, Gormley tirelessly
worked the crowd, offering his sculpting as-
sistants encouragement and asking them
questions.

He asked two women, “What do you think
your figurines are like?” “A Boddhisattva,”
said one, while the other answered, “a mobile
phone.” Their mentor immediately took out
his own cell phone to compare to the figure.
“Which is better, a Boddhisattva or a mobile
phone?” he asked the women. One quickly
answered, “A mobile phone, of course. It can
reach all over the world.”

This was just one chapter in Field , a
long-term project Gormley has conducted in
communities around the world since 1989.
China’s contribution is the largest ever, gen-
erating three times more figures than any of
its predecessors. After they were finished, all
the tiny sculptures were fired in a large kiln
to protect and preserve them.

Starting in March, the clay figurines will
go public at a series of exhibitions held in
an underground parking lot in Guangzhou,
the National Museum of Chinese History
in Beijing, a rice storage warehouse in
Pudong, Shanghai and an abandoned factory
in Chongqing. During these shows, the tiny
sculptures will take up all the space, and
visitors will only be able to see them from
the doors or other outside vantage points.
Gormley said he has not decided on the fi-
nal fate of the figurines, but has indicated he
is inclined to return them in the end to the
earth.

Photos by Zeng Han / Translated by Zhang Huan

Antony Gormley brings sculpture to the masses

Antony Gormley and his work Field

Artists in Space

By Qiao Luqiang

Red Gate Gallery is cur-
rently host to the “Space on
the Move” exhibition, featur-
ing nearly 30 works, includ-
ing oil and acrylic paintings,
wood block and mixed media
pieces.

Beijing artist Xin Yi’s
mixed media work Crossroad
vividly addresses the confu-
sion that can arise during
transactions across cultures
and traditions, in part depict-
ed by the ancient Chinese
characters for North, South,
East and West.

Feng Feng, another artist
in the show, has a background
in lasers and science, per-
haps the reason why geomet-
ric images frequently appear
in his paintings. His acrylic
on canvas painting Beijing
City turns the huge and com-
plicated heart of Beijing into
a simple, flat image made up
of several square color mass-
es. Faint figures and Chinese
characters are stamped and
engraved on the background
of the work.

The show’s curator, Xu En-

Beijing City by Xin Yi

Photo by Zhuang Jian

cun, said, “To these artists,
searching for new spatial and
linguistic forms is an untiring
and joyful process. They move
from one space to another,
from one type of commu-
nication to another, by shift-
ing between various forms of
manipulating reality and by
charging headlong towards
the development of aesthetic
value and form.”

Where: Red Gate Gal-
lery, Dongbianmen Watchtow-
er, Chongwenmen When:
February 22 - March 9 Tele-
phone: 6525 1005 Website:
redgategallery. com

Gormley shares a laugh with two volunteer sculptors

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FEBRUARY 28, 2003

»SPOTLIGHT

E-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com

HU I NG TODAY

EDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA DESIGNER: PANG LEI

Cats to Stalk Beijing Stage

By Dong Nan

F ollowing its stunning success in Shang-
hai, at least in terms of pre-sales, Andrew
Lloyd Webber’s Cats will open in Beijing
on May 18 for a 72-performance season.

General manager of China Performing Arts Agen-
cy Zhang Yu made the announcement last week.

More than 65 million people have seen Cats
in nearly 300 theaters around the world since
it premiered in London in 1981. Due to open in
Shanghai on March 28, the musical has already
topped www.piao.com.cn’s ticket sales.

It will be the first opportunity for Beijingers
to experience Webber’s best known work in its
entirety, and the production’s success seems as-
sured, if the reception a concert of popular songs
from his musicals at the Great Hall of the Peo-
ple last September is anything to go on.

“Seventy-two performances is a record num-
ber for the Beijing stage, and we are determined
to stick it out even if the box office returns are
not good,” said Zhang Yu, “I am not sure yet
whether all the tickets can be sold, but I have
confidence in the appeal of Cats.”

Yu Lina

Top Female Musicians
Celebrate Their Festival

By Nebula Dong

Noted female musi-
cians Yu Lina, Bao Huiq-
iao and Min Huifen will
give a concert to cele-
brate International Wom-
en’s Day on the eve of
March 8.

At the age of 18, vi-
olinist Yu Lina won in-
stant acclaim with her
premiere performance of
the violin concerto The
Butterfly Lovers. Since
that night 44 years ago,
her name has been insep-
arable from the immortal
piece.

Pianist Bao Huiqiao
rose to fame with her ren-
dition of The Yellow Riv-
er, a concerto interpreted
by numerous Chinese pi-
anists. Bao’s unique style
always wins rousing ap-
plause.

Min Huifen is an inter-
nationally renowned Erhu
player. Former conductor
of the Philadelphia Or-
chestra, the late Eugene
Ormandy praised her as
“a true musical genius,”
and Japanese conductor
Ozawa Seizi once said he
was moved to tears by her
performance of Water of
Rivers and Lakes.

The three distin-
guished musicians will perform their represen-
tative works, accompanied by the China Film
Orchestra Symphony.

Where: Cultural Palace of Nationalities The-
ater When: March 7, 19:30 Admission: 80-480
yuan

Bao Huiqiao

Min Huifen

Monologue Wins Over Audience

By Nebula Dong

Sitting in the center of the large stage,
talking to white puppets, monologist Qin
Yan performed Wo Ai Tai Gang (I Love
Carrying Poles), from February 18 to 23
at Beibingmasi Theater.

Wo Ai Tai Gang, by Liu Shen, is the
tragic story of an elderly coffin bearer,
Guan Dachen, who has witnessed a cen-
tury of history. With his coffin carrying
poles, the legendary old man had car-
ried the coffins of many famous people,
including eunuchs and members of the
royal family of the Qing Dynasty, a dem-
ocratic leader in the 1920s’ and a modern
TV star.

While a few audience members found
the performance less than riveting and
left their seats halfway through, most
people were captivated by the sarcastic
language and extraordinary talent of the

sole actor, Qin Yan.

“Thanks to the experience of many
years, I have the courage and capacity to
stand on the stage by myself,” said the
49-year-old actor, “It would really have
been unimaginable for me to do such a
thing ten years ago.”

Chen Lin Releases New Album

By Dong Nan

Ten years after her debut I Can Nev-
er Understand Your Tenderness, pop star
Chen Lin released her sixth album Don’t
Want to Cheat Myself on Friday last
week.

Unlike the soft, tender love songs of
the past, the new record combines ele-
ments of techno, acid rock and pop.

Renowned pop and rock musicians from
China, South Korea and Japan, including
Fang Wenshan and Qu Shicong have lent
their talents to recording Chen’s new album.

Describing her new style as “fashion-
able music,” Chen commented, “I believe
my songs tell the universal feelings of
our generation, rather than my own love,
pain and career.”

Chen’s 2001 album, Let Love Be sold
an astonishing 58,000 units, and her re-
cord company, Star Word Discs, hopes
the latest one will hit one million.

WORLDWIDE

% • h

.J

Norah Jones Sweeps
Grammy Awards

The soft, jazzy voice of
Norah Jones inviting listeners
to Come Away With Me swept
up eight Grammy Awards at
the top music industry awards
that were punctuated by a
smattering of low key anti-
war protests.

Jones, 23, nominated per-
sonally for five awards and
tipped by many music critics
to dominate the 45th annual
Grammys, did just that by
taking home the golden gram-
ophone statuettes for Album
of the Year, Best New Artist,
Record of The Year for the sin-
gle Don’t Know Why, Best Pop
Vocal Album and Best Female
Pop Vocal Album. (Reuters)

Roman Polanski

Polanski Victim Says
Judge Oscar Favorite on
Merit

The woman at the heart of
a 1970s’ sex scandal that de-
railed the career of Roman
Polanski said she had no
“hard feelings” toward the di-
rector and that his actions
25 years ago should not color
whether he wins an Oscar
next month.

Polanski became a surprise
front-runner for next month’s
Oscars by winning best film
and best director with The Pi-
anist at Britain’s Bafta annu-
al film awards Sunday. But
Polanski, who fled to France
in 1978 as he was about to be
sentenced for having sex with
a minor, still faces arrest the
moment he steps foot in the
United States. (Reuters)
Princess Diana’s Former
Lover Sues Fox News

Princess Diana’s former lov-
er James Hewitt filed a $1.08
million breach of contract suit
on Monday against Fox News,
accusing the media company of
firing him as a war correspon-
dent for allegedly leaking the
story of his deal.

In a complaint filed in
Manhattan Supreme Court,
the former British Army com-
mander claimed he lost the
job after an article ran in Jan-
uary in the London Daily Mir-
ror saying Fox hired him to
report from the Persian Gulf
for a salary of $159,000.

The international media
picked up the story, and head-
lines appeared ridiculing Fox
for hiring Hewitt as a corre-
spondent. (Reuters)

George Clooney

Actor George Clooney
Frustrated by US War
Drive

American actor George
Clooney stepped up his crit-
icism of George W. Bush’s
administration on Sunday,
saying he feared a war against
Iraq was inevitable but would
ultimately only lead to more
violence.

“America’s policies frustrate
me,” Clooney said in a German
television program. “I think a
war against Iraq is as unavoid-
able as it is senseless. I think
it’s coming. But I also think the
real danger is going to be what
happens after it.” (Reuters)
Day-Lewis Favorite to
Scoop Oscar for Best
Actor

British actor Daniel Day-
Lewis was tipped Monday
as the favorite to win the Os-
car for best actor following
his success at Sunday’s Bafta
awards for his role in Gangs
of New York.

Leading British bookmak-
er Ladbrokes said Day-Lewis,
who won best actor at the Brit-
ish film awards, has replaced
former frontrunner Jack Nich-
olson as the clear favorite
for the coveted award with
odds of ten-elevenths. Nichol-
son was nominated for his part
in About Schmidt. (Reuters)

Daniel Day-Lewis

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SHOPPING

IEUING TODAY

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

E-mail: jianrong@ynet.com

EDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: PANG LEI

Toys for Tots

By Huang Lisha

F inding toys to satisfy the young
ones is no problem in this city
However, parents looking for fun
items that will also encourage their kids
to use their minds face a more difficult
task. One solution, albeit a relatively
expensive one, is T.O.T.S (The Original
Toy Store), a Singaporean store that of-
fers a wide range of constructive, enter-
taining toys to keep children, and the
whole family, busy for hours.

One way to get the family together
is “Scotland Yard” (389 yuan), a mystery
board game for three to six persons. One
player is Mr. X, and the others are Scot-
land Yard detectives on his trail. In this
exciting game, the police must work to-
gether to grab their quarry before he can
slip away (and win).

A simpler offering is “Building House”
(569 yuan), a game
targeted at kids
around five years
old. The set comes
with colored plaster,
which, when mixed
with water, poured
into special molds
and left for 24 hours,
forms tiny tiles and
bricks. Following the
set’s instructions,
those pieces can
then be glued to-
gether to form a
beautiful miniature
three-story building.

The process is less
complicated than it
sounds, but does
take some adult su-
pervision.

Puzzle fans young
and old should check
out the world’s small-
est puzzles, on sale in
T.O.T.S. The 99-piece
puzzles are only six
centimeters wide and
seven centimeters
long. They come in
sixteen versions, all
of which are repro-
ductions of works by
Van Gogh or M.C.

Escher. Despite their small size, they are
not cheap, going for 89 yuan each.

Knowing that everyone likes to have
fun, T.O.T.S also stocks items for the older
crowd, such as the Puzzle series of brain-
bending toys. Among them, Magic Box
(159 yuan) is an ideal gift for that special
someone. The cover of the tricky box is in-
scribed with the character for “love” in the
script of the Dongba minority, which looks
like a boy giving a flower to a girl. Watch
in amusement as a loved one struggles to
pry open the top to the beautiful wooden
box (it can only be opened when turned
to the correct angle).

Where: No. 230, Full Link Plaza,
Chaoyang Open: 10 am - 9 pm Tel: 6588
7063

Zengzufu Building blocks,

1,290 yuan (top)

Pyramid ” blocks, 249 yuan (below)

Natural Weaves

By Salinda

Willow branches can be used as the
raw material for unusual baskets and
other objects that are both useful and can
give a spring-like feel to a room. The No.
4086 stand in the Yaxiu Clothes Market
sells all sorts of goods woven from willow,
from small containers to larger items such
as folding screens, tables and seats.

Pieces made from willow have a lot go-
ing for them. Because of the material’s
airy yet sturdy character, clothes in willow
cabinets do not get moldy, hot food cools
quickly in bowls that will retain their
shape and seats can help keep tushies
cool in the summer. Another plus is their
prices. Because this stand receives their
goods direct from a factory in Shandong
Province, costs are very low, with most
items going for only 50 to 150 yuan.

Moreover, even though only one ma-
terial is used in the pieces, they cover a
wide range of styles, in part because of
different dyes used. Colors can range
from basic milky white and yellow to
brown, red, sienna and coffee color. Some
items, mostly baskets, come covered in
colorful pieces of cloth that do
not impede their function-
ality while improving their
beauty.

Willow weaves can
even spruce up your floor
in the form of small cush-
ions that come in a variety
of animal-inspired shapes and
sell for under 100 yuan each.
Colorful bags, shoes and coast-
ers cost only around 10 yuan a
piece and make nice gifts or de-
tails for the home.

Where: No.4086, Yaxiu

Clothes Market, Sanlitun,
Chaoyang Open: 9:30 am - 7:30
Woven chest, 60 yuan pm Tel: 13161 171839

Basket, 70 yuan

Stitches in lime

By Huang Lisha

For thousands of years, Chinese
artisans have been creating outstand-
ing paintings and embroidered works.
It has only been in the past 80-or-so
years, however, that those two arts
have come together in a new media
called luanzhen xiu. The art form,
which translates directly to “random
needlework,” is the invention of artist
Yang Shouyu of Jiangsu Province.

The secret to this kind of embroi-
dery is in the details. Through very
careful stitching, luanzhen xiu pieces
have the sheen and precision of fine
oil paintings, with a luster and beau-
ty all their own. Yang’s masterpiece,
Image of President Roosevelt , was pre-
sented to the United States by the
Chinese government in 1945, and is
now part of the collection of a major
art museum in New York.

In more recent years, there has
been a luanzhen xiu revival, as young-
er artists like Shi Yunxia have taken
up and improved the tradition. Ac-
cording to Shi, this form of embroi-
dery shares one main feature with
oil painting - the use of one ground-
ing color. Also like painters, luanzhen
xiu artists layer silk thread over that
main color to add richness and detail
to their pieces. That is a pain-staking
process, and one work can take two or
three months to complete.

Some of Shi’s pieces are vivid
copies of well-known paintings, such
as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
(18,000 yuan). Another stand-out is

Fanciful Fish

Doggy cushion, 15 yuan

Photos by Peng Jianwei

By Salinda

Warmish weather, refresh-
ing rains, buds on the trees -
spring is on its way. What bet-
ter way to celebrate than to
add a little life to your home
in the form of an aquarium
full of exotic, fun fish.

A great place to stock up
on little swimmers is the
China Vegetable Great Forest Flow-
er Market, a huge complex that
houses over 50 fish retailers. Those
stores offer over 1,000 species of
fish, from mundane goldfish to exot-
ic creatures of the seas.

One favorite fish pet is the sev-
en-colored deity ( qicai shenxian or
yanyu), known for their bright
red color. They come in a wide
range of varieties and prices,
differing by species and size. A
small fish can go for just 30 yuan,
while the most expensive fetch
around 1,000 yuan each.

At those kinds of prices, you want to make
sure the occupants of your aquarium are in top
health. There are three keys to picking healthy
fish. First, the water in the shop’s aquarium
should be completely clear and fresh-looking.
Second, the fish in question should be active.
Finally, check the gills and make sure they are
clean and free of growths or sores.

Photos by Cui Hao

a portrait of Princess Dianna (15,000
yuan), done in such detail that it is
easily mistaken for a photograph from
anything but a short distance. The
amazing degree of detail that char-
acterizes luanzhen xiu is obvious in
Lion (18,000 yuan), another of Shi’s
masterpieces, in which the lion’s mane
is remarkably life-like.

Where: Room 419 Jinhaiyang Ho-
tel, No. 61 Andelu Bing, Dongcheng
Open: 9 am - 9 pm Tel: 13910 664892

JUWEL pedestal tank,
8,600 yuan

Photos hy Peng Jianwei

A school of seven- colored diefies

Those looking to drop some serious gold on
their fish should look past the seven-colored
deity and go for the bright, shapely longyu
(dragon fish). One store that specializes in
these bold creatures offers one large specimen
at the kingly price of 60,000 yuan. A less ex-
pensive version from Malaysia sells for 18,000
yuan.

Of course if you are going to buy fish, you
have to give them a home. The stores in the
Great Forest market offer a complete range of
aquariums and equipment, including foreign
brands such as Atman and Tetra. A high-quali-
ty tank costs from 2,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan,
but is worth the extra money, as they provide
the best places to enjoy views of the fascinating
underwater world. Complete that world with
figurines, toys, plants and other decorations to
delight fish and humans alike.

Where: No.5, Zaojunmiaolu, Haidian Open:
8:30 am - 6 pm Tel: 6211 9255

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FEBRUARY 28, 2003

SEUING TODAY

Email: jianrong@ynet.com

EDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: PANG LEI

That success has led to the open-
ing of another branch in Haidian
district that started trial busi-
ness this month and will hold its
official launch in March.

The new establishment can seat
128 in western-style and tatami
rooms. General manager Pan Jin-
sheng has worked in the restau-

Assorted sushi for three, 150 yuan

rant industry for 16 years and
studied in Tokyo for two. He said,
“we make food the way Japanese
do at home,” a claim backed up by
a head chef who has worked in Ja-
pan for eight years.

Compared to the rest of these
top-level Japanese restaurants, the
prices at Hanakuruma are low. The
sashimi set meal costs 100 yuan,
one third the price of the same dish
at many competitors. The tempura
eel set goes for 75 yuan and edo-
mae sushi for three a reasonable
150 yuan. The price level for dishes
is the lowest when compared with
the other mentioned top-level res-
taurants. A sashimi set meal fetch-
es 100 yuan, one third the price
of the same meal in other restau-
rants. The menu includes over 50
varieties of sushi, starting at a low
8 yuan.

Add: Second floor, Zhongdian
Building, No. 6 Zhongguancun
Nandajie, Haidian Open: 11:30
am - 10 pm Tel: 6250 1786

Add: First floor, Guangming
Hotel, Liangmaqiao Lu, Chaoy-
ang District Tel: 6467 8822 ext.
6607 Average cost: 80 yuan per
person

Yuanlu Kaiten Sushi

This strong suit of this pioneer-
ing mid-price Japanese restaurant
is its sushi. Kaiten is the Japa-
nese word for the conveyer belt
that runs around the middle of the
restaurant, carrying fresh sushi
to customers. Costs are calculated
on color-coded plates. The cheapest
sushi option is just 4 yuan for six
small rolls, while the most expen-
sive is 30 yuan for tuna sushi.

Three kinds of sushi at Yuanlu

The menu also offers set meals
including rice, stewed egg curd,
pickled vegetables, miso and salad
with an average charge of 40 yuan.
Manager Zhang Lei recommends
the house special, grilled eel, which
goes for 60 yuan. Another popular
choice is the shabu-shabu, Jap-
anese-style hotpot, that costs 98
yuan.

Add: First floor, Zhonghua
Building, No. 2 A Fuxingmenwai
Dajie Open: 11 am - 10 pm
Tel: 6856 9209 Average cost: 40
yuan and up per person

Other Japanese
restaurants in the city:

Nishimura Restaurant
at Shangri-La Hotel
Tel: 6841 2211 ext. 2719
Tokyo Restaurant
at Kunlun Hotel

Tel: 6500 3388 ext. 5695
Jianghuchuan Restaurant
at Taiwan Hotel

Tel: 6513 6688 ext. 8034
Kawa Restaurant at Swissotel
Tel: 6501 2288 ext. 2133
Sansilang Restaurant
Tel: 6506 9625, 6506 9626
Songzhumei Restaurant
Tel: 64607058
Genji Restaurant
at Hilton Hotel

Tel: 6466 2288 ext. 7402
Fujiya Restaurant
at Media Center

Tel: 6851 4422 ext. 4279

Photos by Zhuang Jian

By James Liu

T he Japanese are
clearly onto
something - they
have the longest healthy
life expectancy of the
people of any nation on
Earth, according to a
study conducted by the
United Nations World
Health Organization in
2000. In that study,
scientists linked their
health in large part to
their low-fat diet.

Another charm of
Japanese food is its
emphasis on fresh, seasonal
ingredients. So, now that
winter is making way to
spring, the time is right to
enjoy this refined, healthy
cuisine.

The most traditional
Japanese meal is a
combination of plain white
rice with a main dish of
fish or meat, a side dish,
normally vegetables, soup
and pickled vegetables.

A typical Japanese
dinner starts with some
pickled carrot or radish,
followed by sashimi, slices
of fresh raw fish served
with a pungent dipping
sauce of soy sauce and
wasabi, green Japanese
horseradish. Among the
more popular kinds of
sashimi are maguro ( tuna)
and toro (fatty tuna).

The next main course
is an archetypal Japanese
food — tempura, deep fried
seafood and vegetables. All
the essential qualities of
Japanese cuisine are
reflected in the preparation
of tempura: fresh
ingredients, artful
presentation, and precise
technique. The results are
battered and fried treats
that are crisp and light, not
heavy and greasy. Shrimp
are prized for tempura
treatment.

Rice is the staple of
Japan, served either on its
own or as part of sushi, the
most famous Japanese dish.
Sushi is made of bundles
of rice mixed with sushi
vinegar and topped with
slices of different materials,
most commonly raw fish. It
also comes in roll form, the
whole package contained
in a tasty seaweed skin.

Even modest restaurants
can offer a wide range of
sushi options, while many
of the over 100 Japanese
restaurants in the capital
call themselves sushi
specialists.

Dining Japanese style
does come at a price,
however, as many
ingredients are imported,
even flown in, to ensure
their freshness. Shrewd
businessmen have started
trying to tap the popularity
of the cuisine by pawning
off cheaper versions of
Japanese classics using
frozen fish and shrimp and
other sub-par ingredients.
Unfortunately, many
customers cannot tell
between authentic and
knock-off Japanese food,
and may have poor
impressions of the cuisine.
On the other hand, the rise
in competition has forced
even top-level restaurants to
lower their prices.

Japanese-recognized
restaurants in the capital
are Gonin Byakusho at
Beijing Hotel, Sakura at
Beijing New Otani
ChangFuGong Hotel,
Nishimura at Shangri-la
Hotel Beijing, Nadaman at
China World Hotel and the
Huache Restaurant. Beijing
Today also checked out a
less expensive alternative
offering fast mid-quality
meals.

Photo provided by China World Hotel

paper-covered lanterns, classic
paintings, dark brown tables
and blue door curtains. Waitress-
es serve customers in kimonos,
white socks and wooden san-
dals.

The gigantic menu, written in
English, Japanese, and Chinese,
offers a large range of choices,
including house specialties tuna
tempura and grilled eel. Prices
also run a wide spectrum, from
360 yuan for a fatty tuna set
meal (jinqiangyu taocan) to spe-
cial sets for children based on
sushi, fried chicken or fried po-
tatoes that go for 45 yuan plus
a 15 percent of service charge.
There are more than 30 kinds of
sushi on the menu, most priced
around 25 yuan, while more ex-
otic items, such as ark shell
sashimi (70 yuan for five pieces)
can cost quite a bit more.

Add: First floor, Building E,
Beijing Hotel, No. 33 Dongchang’an
Avenue, Dongcheng Open: 11:30
am - 2 pm, 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm Tel:
6513 7766 ext. 666 Average cost:
about 160 yuan per person

Nadaman Restaurant

Nadaman is a wildly success-
ful chain founded in Japan in
1830. More recently, that success
has led the group to expand out-
side of Japan’s border, and it has
set up six restaurants overseas,

including one in Beijing.

Diners can get a complete cul-
tural experience in four washitsi
rooms, private rooms furnished
with tatami mats, named after
Japan’s four most treasured
plants: the orchid, pine, bamboo
and winter sweet. The main din-
ing room can comfortably accom-
modate up to 116 customers.

The restaurant provides To-
kyo and Osaka-Kyoto style food,
as well as the more exoteric kiri
kaiseki cuisine. Kiri kaiseki food
originated in Japanese temples,
where monks used to eat only
two vegetarian meals a day to
show their tolerance and self-re-
straint. When the monks were
too cold and hungry to concen-
trate on their studies, they put
a warm stone in their arms to
warm up and stave off their hun-
ger, a practice called kiri kaiseki.
After centuries of this practice,
that name was applied to mon-
astery cuisine, which now has a
reputation as top quality food.

Chef Kobayashi making artful dishes

Gonin Byakusho
Restaurant

This Sino- Japanese joint ven-
ture restaurant was one of the
first Japanese restaurants in
Beijing, opening in 1984. Its high
level cuisine has drawn such
distinguished guests as former
prime minsters of Japan.

Head chef Kobayashi, one of
two Japanese in the kitchen, has
worked at the restaurant for 12
years. He maintains strict stan-
dards for the quality and fresh-
ness of all ingredients.

The restaurant is furnished in
traditional Japanese style, with

Eel and rice set meal (70 yuan)

Gone are the vegetarian limits -
today, kiri kaiseki is a massive
feast using the best ingredients,
including fresh beef and sea-
food.

Manager Matsuzawa offered
Beijing Today readers a sug-
gestion for telling top shrimp
tempura from lesser versions.
In good tempura, the tails of
the shrimp are wide open, while
they are closed in bad attempts.
The restaurant’s large menu is
printed in English, Japanese
and Chinese.

Add: Third floor, China World
Hotel, No. 1 Jianguomenwai Da-
jie Open: 11:30 am - 2 pm, 5:30
pm - 9:30 pm Tel: 6505 2266
ext. 39 Average cost: about 200
yuan per person

Small sashimi boat, 380 yuan

Hanakuruma Restaurant

From its vantage point in
the Guangming Hotel, this eat-
ery has enjoyed a close tie with
the Japanese embassy across the
street since opening in 1998.

Dining Out

Asian Food Street

Visiting Chef Rocky Chua from
Singapore will join the Coffee Gar-
den team, to draw on multi-ethnic
heritage of the various Asian coun-
tries and recreate their authentic
delicacies, including Malaysian lak-
sa noodle soup, Indonesian nonya
pork and many others. Where:
Coffee Garden, Shangri-La Hotel
When: Daily 11:30 am-2:15 pm,
5:30 pm-9:30 pm, Tel: 6841 2211
ext. 2715

Gourmet Creperie

Cuisine Galley, the first cre-
perie restaurant in Beijing, of-
fers an exciting a-la-carte menu

and a wide variety of gourmet
crepes. Where: Cuisine Galley,
Novotel Xinqiao Beijing, No. 2
Dongjiaominxiang, Chongwen.
Tel: 6513 3366 ext. 2201.

Bubbly Sunday Brunch

Due to popular demand, Sun-
day brunches with champagne and
live oysters continue at the Garden
Court restaurant. Where: St.Regis
Beijing. Cost: 218 yuan plus 15
percent, includes juice, coffee or
tea. 398 yuan plus 15 percent in-
cludes free flow of Veuve Clicquot
champagne, juices, coffee or tea.
Tel: 6460 6688 ext. 2340

Cocktail Specials

Starting in March, Lobby

Lounge bartenders will create de-
licious, nutritious virgin fruit cock-
tails. “Cool Running”, made from
honeydew melon and cucumber is
one of the six irresistible creations.
Where: Lobby Lounge, Kerry Cen-
tre Hotel Cost: all cocktails 68
each Tel: 6561 8833

Surf ‘n Turf Night

Starting March 1, discover
theme dinners every Saturday
at Silk Road Trattoria. Tomor-
row, it’s surf ‘n turf night!
Mouthwatering grilled skewers
meld chicken, lamb, beef, lobster,
prawns and more. Also enjoy
a bountiful buffet. Where: Silk
Road Trattoria, the Great Wall
Sheraton Hotel Beijing Tel: 6590

5566 ext. 2117 or 6590 5888

Special weekend treat for
ladies only!

Fifty percent off the regular
buffet price for Saturday and
Sunday lunch and dinner buffets
for all women. Where: Traders
Cafe, Traders Hotel. When: 12
am-2 pm, 6 pm - 10 pm Cost: 80
yuan per person (women only)
Tel: 6505 2277 ext. 35

Chinese Festival Dim Sum
and Specialty

Chef Huang Rongkun from
Macau has prepared a sumptu-
ous menu, such as steamed pork
dumplings with quail eggs, fish
ball and sea moss, pork knuck-

les with preserved bean curd,
and pan-fried Chinese coconut
pudding. Where: Dynasty, fourth
floor, Jingguang New World Ho-
tel. Tel: 6597 3388 ext. 2599

German Food Fair

This March, come join in the
German Food Fair at Gloria Pla-
za Hotel’s Atrium Cafe and en-
joy hearty servings of German
sausages, Bavarian roast pork
knuckle, lamb chops, sauerkraut,
mustard pickles and more. Cost:
98 yuan per person for lunch,
128 yuan per person for dinner.
All prices subject to 15 percent
service charge. Tel: 6515 8855
ext. 3212

By Wesley Lei

The World’s Tastiest
Health Food?

# INFO

tage

Yu Lina and Bao Huiqiao

Oscar Film Themes Symphony
Concert

Film highlights accompanied by the
theme music performed live is one of
the more unusual upcoming attractions
in Beijing. The China Opera and Dance
Drama Theatre Symphony Orchestra
claims it is the most authoritative one
for the job as it records such music for
many of the films. Familiar tunes will
be featured from films like Titanic, Ju-
rassic Park, Waterloo Bridge.

Where: Nationality Cultural Palace
Theatre When: March 8, 7:30 pm Ad-
mission: 80-380 yuan Tel: 6528 7674
ext 508

lecture

Non-Western Instruments in
Western Contemporary Music

Canadian-Chinese musician Han
Mei, is an improvisational artist who
plays traditional Chinese instruments.
She has two Master’s degrees in ethno-
musicology, one from the Musical Re-
search Institute of the Chinese Arts
Academy, another from the university
of British Columbia. She has toured
North America performing both tradi-
tional Chinese music and contempo-
rary scores by Canadian and Chinese
composers, and is performing in Beijing
this week. She and her friend Randy
Raine-Reusch, a composer and multi-
instrumentalist, will host a lecture on
“Non- Western Instruments in Western
Contemporary Music.”

Where: Central Conservatory of Mu-
sic When: March 4 Tel: 6506 5345

E-mail: jianrong@ynet.com

EDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: LI SHI

We are glad to receive your feed-
back. We will print employment,
language exchange and accommo-
dation info for individuals. Feel
free to email us at bjtodayinfo @
ynet.com or call 6590 2522

By Guo Yuandan

IEUING TODAY

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

musical styles, includ-
ing trip-hop, dub, folk,
jazz, reggae, psychede-
lia, soul and R’n’B. Vo-
calist Skye Edwards
is the focal point of
Morcheeba, offset by
brothers Ross Godfrey
(guitars, bass,

keyboards) and Paul
Godfrey (drums, per-
cussion, scratching).

Where: Yan Club, 4
Jiuxianqiao Lu, Cha-
oyang When: March
8-9, 7:30 pm Admis-
sion: adults 150 yuan,
students 80 yuan Tel:
8457 3506

Morcheeba

Skye Edwards and Godfrey brothers

British trip-hop
outfit Morcheeba will
play in Beijng in
March. The band, who
have released albums

including Who Can
You Trust, Big Calm
and Charango since
their inception in
1995, merge a mix of

Great Wall — eight towers high

This hike was originally planned for
February, but was canceled due to the
snow. It is a flexible walk on a stretch of
the Great Wall to the west of Shentangyu
Valley. Our local guide will take us along
the wall, passing eight guard towers and
then back from a valley. Those who want
an easier walk can hike along the wall
with the main group as far as they want
and come back the same way.

Where: Huairou, north of Beijing
When: March 2, meet 8:30 am outside
Starbucks at Lido Hotel, or 9 am at
Capital Paradise front gate, return
5 pm Admission: adults 150 yuan,
children 100 yuan Tel: 13701 003694
Email: bjhikers@yahoo.co.uk

Lu Qi as Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping

Directed by Ding Yinmeng, starring
Lu Qi. This is the first cinematic attempt
to examine Deng Xiaoping’s mature ca-
reer. The story begins on the 35th anni-
versary of the founding of the PRC on
October 1, 1984 and traces back to 1976.
The movie spans the twenty years from
Deng’s return to power through to his
last visit to southern China. In Chinese.

Where: local cinemas When:

throughout March
Hero

Directed by Zhang Yimou, starring
Jet Lee, Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung, Mag-
gie Cheung, Chen Daoming. Nominat-
ed for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Chinese with English subtitles.

Where: Cherry Lane Movies, 29 Li-
angmaqiao Lu When: February 28-29, 8
pm Admission: 40 yuan Tel: 6430 1398
Email: michael@chenylanemovies.com.cn
Cala, My Dog

Directed by Lu Xuechang, starring
Ge You. The story is about a middle-
aged working man, known as Lao Er,
whose chief source of stability and
comfort in life is his dog, Cala. One
day, when his wife is out walking
Cala, a policeman confiscates the un-
registered canine. As Lao Er endeav-
ors to recover his dog, the difficult
circumstances of his life are revealed.
In Chinese.

Where: local cinemas When: from
March 5

©QttoD^^

Zheng Concert

Canadian-Chinese musician Han Mei
will perform with the China Philharmon-
ic Orchestra. She will combine the zheng
with western instruments while retain-
ing the essence and beauty of the tradi-
tional instrument. In this concert she will
perform When Cranes Fly Home, written
especially for her by American-Singapor-
ean composer John Sharpley.

Where: Poly Theatre When: March
2, 7:30 pm Admission: 50-300 yuan
Tel: 6506 5354

The Red Detachment of Women

Performed by the Central Ballet of
China, this classic revolutionary ballet
focuses on a group of female soldiers
in Hainan Island during the Civil War
(1927-1937). If the idea of rifle-toting,
khaki-clad ballerinas does something
for you, this is an opportunity not to be
missed.

Where: Poly Theatre When: March
7-8, 7:30 pm Admission: 180-680 yuan
Tel: 6528 7674 ext 508

Painting by Zhang Jin

Universal Diversity

An exhibition by three renowned
contemporary Chinese artists: Yang
Gang, Zhang Jin and Bob Yan.

Where: Yan Club Arts Centre, 4

Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang When: till
March 28, 10 am-7 pm Admission:
free Tel: 8457 3506
The Model of Time — Lei Feng

An exhibition featuring propaganda
materials related to Lei Feng, whose
name is synonymous with doing good.
It includes stamps, photos, books and
films, some of which are on public dis-
play for the first time.

Where: Dazhongsi Guzhong Mu-
seum, (Big Bell Temple Museum) 31
Beisanhuan Xilu, Haidian When: till
March 18, 10 am-4 pm Tel: 6255 0843

will give a special concert to mark
next week’s Woman’s Day. See Page 12
for details.

Where: Nationality Cultural Palace
Theatre When: March 7, 7:30 pm Ad-
mission: 80-480 yuan Tel: 6528 7674
ext 508

Calligraphy by Yang Yang

Feng Feng, Zhang Chen and
Yang Yang

Feng Feng oil paintings feature a
combination of ancient and modern.
Zhang Chen oil paintings are based
on life in northeast of China, ex-
pressing his love for his hometown.
Yang Yang’s calligraphy work con-
sists of love stories and poems, deco-
rated with flowers.

Where: Qin Gallery, Huaweili En-
joy Paradise 1-1E (North of Beijing Cu-
rio City) Chaoyang When: February
28-March 14, 9:30 am-7 pm Admis-
sion: free Tel: 8779 0461

AjLoQgQ©

Music at Get Lucky

Tomorrow night Red Crystal (Hong
Shuijing) and No Color ( Meiyou
Yanse ) be on the stage. Next Thurs-
day, Folk Music magazine will host an
evening of unplugged tunes, featuring
Xiaohe, Meihao Yaodian ( Beautiful
Drugstore) Wan Xiaoli, Feixu (Ruin),
Buyi (Cotton Cloth) and Muma (Wood-
en Horse).

Where: Get Lucky, 500 meters east
of the south gate of University of In-
ternational Business and Economics,
Chaoyang When: 9:30 pm Admission:
adults 40 yuan, students 30 yuan Tel:
6429 9109

666 live at Banana

All the way from German, 666 have
had a string of hits in Europe, including
Alarma, Amokk, Paradoxx and Bomba.

Where: Banana Club, Jianguomen-
wai Dajie When: March 7, 8:30 pm Ad-
mission: 80 yuan at door, presale 60
yuan Tel: 13910 051803
ESL and Sand

ESL from Japan are playing tonight,
on Saturday, Sand (Shazi) will hit the
stage.

Where: What, opposite north gate
of Business and Economics University,
Chaoyang When: 9 pm Admission: 20
yuan Tel: 13910 209249
Christian Smith

DJ and producer Christian Smith,
brings his amalgamation of funky house
and tribal techno to Beijing.

Where: the Club When: February
28, 10 pm Tel: 13001 135089
Immortal Beethoven
Fifth of a series

The China Philharmonic Orchestra
performs Piano concerto No. 1 in C Ma-
jor, symphony No. 1 C in Major and
more.

Where: Poly Theatre When: March

15, 7:30 pm Admission: 50-380 yuan
Tel: 6528 7674 ext 508

Yun-di Li Piano Recital Concert

As a talented young pianist, Yun-di
Li was awarded the Gold Medal of the
International Chopin Piano Competi-
tion in 2000, becoming both the young-
est winner and the first Chinese to
receive this honor. The International
Chopin Piano Competition is held ev-
ery five years and there were no gold
medals awarded in the previous two
contests.

Where: Poly Theatre When: March

16, 7:30 pm Admission: 180-880 yuan
Tel: 6528 7674 ext 508

Irish Chamber Orchestra
Beijing Tour

The Irish Chamber Orchestra is
one of Ireland’s most accomplished
ensembles. Consisting of the creme
de la creme of Irish string players,
this orchestra has received plaudits
both at home and abroad for its high
standards of performance. Under the
artistic direction of Fionnuala Hunt,
and with the appointment in 1998
of celebrated conductor and violinist,
Bruno Giuranna as principal guest
conductor, the orchestra continues to
give a new and refreshing perspec-
tive on the chamber music repertoire
through its inimitable approach to
performance.

Where: Forbidden City Concert Hall
When: March 28, 7:30 pm Admission:
80-580 yuan Tel: 6528 7674 ext 508

Famous Female
Musicians’ Concert

Three renowned female musicians

Imperial Tomb Construction
and Concept

Professor Zhao Tiesheng will un-
veil the history and principles of
Qingdongling (Eastern Qing Tombs)
in Hebei, which have been listed
as a World Heritage Site, and the
Ming Tombs in Beijing, discussing the
fengshui and imperial design method-
ology used by emperors of China. Eng-
lish traslation provide.

Where: Lee’s Antique Carpet, Li-
angmaqiao Lu, close to 21st Century
Hotel When: March 1, 2:30-4:30 pm
Admission: adults 40 yuan, students
30 yuan Tel: 8851 4913
Beauty of the Temple of Heaven
A leading scholar in aesthetics
from Beijing University, Yang Xin,
will discuss the construction of the
Temple of Heaven, and contrast it
with that of Forbidden City. English
traslation provided.

Where: Lee’s Antique Carpet, Li-
angmaqiao Lu, near 21st Century Hotel
When: March 2, 2:30-4:30 pm Admis-
sion: adults 40 yuan, students 30 yuan
Tel: 8851 4913
Health Lectures

Professionals from the Beijing
Friendship Hospital present a series
of health-related lectures on mental
health, diet and more. In Chinese only.

Where: Beijing Friendship Hospi-
tal, 95 Yong’an Lu, Xuanwu When:
March 6, 2 pm Admission: free Tel:
6301 4411 ext 3482

Dear Elena Sergeevna

Based on a drama produced in the for-
mer Soviet Union and performed by stu-
dents of the China Central Academy of
Drama as their graduation presentation.
The drama reflects serious issues and sat-
irizes society and the education system.
The story concerns a group of students
who set out to play a cruel game on their
teacher, a weak, but kind young woman.

Where: China Children’s Theatre, 64
Dong’anmennei Dajie When: March 4-19,
7:30 pm (except March 10) Admission:
40-200 yuan Tel: 6528 7673 ext 508
The Heavens and the Human World

Directed by Mu Tou, starring Wang
Quanyou, Li Jian, Wei Chunrong and
Tang Hexiang.

A couple has been married for years.
They have a common and regular life, so
they become fed up and decide to change
partners and start a new life. But after
a while, they are fed up with their new
lives again. They want to change back,
but how and what to change?

Where: Beibingmasi Theatre, Beib-
ingmasi Hutong, Jiaodaokou Nadajie,
Dongcheng When: till March 9, 7:30 pm
Admission: adults 80 yuan, students 30
yuan Tel: 6406 0175, 6404 8021

populay comedy actor Chen Peisi

Tuo’er

A four-act comedy drama. Tuo’er re-
fers to people who can help artists achieve
their aims. Comedian Chen Peisi stars as
a man who opens a matchmaking compa-
ny. The hero invites his wife and relatives
to act as his Tuo’er to attract rich bache-
lors. Hoping to get rich by doing business
with one wealthy bachelor, he finds him-
self caught in a dilemma when his wife
unexpectedly falls in love with the client,
an overseas Chinese businessman.

Where: Chang’ an Theatre When:
March 6-9, 7:30 pm Admission: 80-480
yuan Tel: 6528 7673 ext 198
Crazy Teaching Methods

Performed by Wuren Didai (No Man’s
Land), a Hong Kong group founded by
Deng Shurong in 1997, this drama re-
lies heavily on body language to depict
the life of a misunderstood teacher. Also
includes a generous sprinkling of Can-
tonese ad slogans and one-liners.

Where: Beibingmasi Theatre, Beibing-
masi Hutong, Jiaodaokou Nadajie When:
February 28, 7:15 pm Admission: 30-120
yuan Tel: 6406 0175, 6404 8021

Jiangnan scene by Li Xiongcai

Contemporary Art Exhibition

This exhibition includes oil painting,
watercolors, prints and other artworks.
Paintings by renowned Li Xiongcai,
the leading exponent of the Ling Nan
school, feature powerful brush strokes
and are full of boundless energy. Se-
lected new works by Feng Linzhang,
Hu Yongkai, Song Di and Wang Min-
gming will also be shown, as well as
the super realism of Liu Baomin, Xin
Yi and Yin Kun.

Where: Wangfung Gallery, 136 Nan-
chizi Dajie When: March 1-28, 10 am-7
pm Admission: free Tel: 6523 3320

Red door by Zhang Guoning

Remember Old Beijing

Zhang Guoning, graduate of the
Painting Department of Beijng Teach-
er’s College, has a strong affection for
the hutong and siheyuan of the ancient
capital. His oil paintings show tortu-
ous and narrow lanes, houses and sur-
rounding walls and red doors with the
paint peeling.

Where: Da A Oil Paintings Studio,
42 Beiwa Lu, Xibalizhuang, Haidian
When: March 1-April 1,10 am-10 pm
Admission: free Tel: 13501 253020

Nine Artists

Wang Huaxiang, Zheng Xuewu and
others present the latest fruits of
their musings. Includes Wang Huax-
iang’s woodcuts and Zheng Xuewu’s
densely wrought mixed media works.
Painter-poet Feng Feng displays his
stark abstract pieces, which often
contain mineral pigments for an add-
ed richness.

Where: Red Gate Gallery When: till
March 9, 10 am-5 pm (Tuesday to Sun-
day) Admission: free Tel: 6525 1005
Xie Daren Exhibition

Xie Daren has been painting on lac-
quer for 30 years. His paintings have
been exhibited in Japan, France Amer-
ica, Italian and Spain

Where: Fa Fa Gallery, 2 Xiangjiang
Beilu, Jingshun Lu, Quanta Garden
Clubhouse, Chaoyang When: March
16-31, 9 am-10 pm Admission: free
Tel: 8430 2587

Village by Wang Jianren

Wang Jianren Exhibition

During 14 years living abroad, oil
painter Wang Jianren has never
stopped thinking of the motherland and
its rich culture. This exhibition features
the architectural world of China, paint-
ed with love and respect for the ancient
civilization and his country.

Where: Creation Gallery, north end
of Ritan Donglu When: March 2-9, 10
am-7 pm Admission: free Tel: 8561
7570

Temple of Heaven

FEBRUARY 28, 2003

7 )

PLAN

SEUING TODAY

E-mail: jianrong@ynet.com

EDITOR: JIAN RONG DESIGNER: LI SHI

Gangu County
County \

Qingshui

County

Springs

Wushan

County

Springs

Beidao

District

Fuxi Temple

Qincheng

District

Maijishan

Grottos

Ming Dynasty blue and white
porcelain jar

Porcelain

Fragment

Museum

Southern China in the North

By Guo Yuandan

Tiny in scale compared
to some of Beijing’s better
known museums, the thing
that really sets this museum
apart is that visitors are
allowed, in fact encouraged, to
handle the exhibits.

The Mumingtang Ancient
Porcelain Specimen Museum
mm gir&ft in

Chongwen District is the only
museum in Beijing with a
collection consisting solely of
broken porcelain.

Although it may seem
strange to the uninitiated,
collecting pieces of ancient
porcelain is an increasingly
popular pastime, for the
simple reason that it is
affordable.

Few would be collectors
have pockets deep enough to
contemplate the purchase of
an intact Tang Dynasty vase
or bowl, but a fragment of
such a piece is a different
story. “Porcelain fragments
are real historic relics and
have a high collection value,”
says Bai Ming, founder and
curator of the museum.
Having collected porcelain
fragments for many years,

Bai opened the private
museum in 2002 to encourage
more people to touch history.

Mumingtang Museum, one
of eight privately owned
museums in Beijing, was
originally a teahouse, and
there are still tables and
chairs arranged along one
side, where visitors can take
a break from cultural studies.
“That is the tea-house part,”
says Bai Ming.

The museum boasts a
collection of almost 50,000
pieces of porcelain, 1,200
of which are labeled and
displayed in chronological
order (some feature labels
and descriptions in English).
The earliest pieces date back
to the Han Dynasty (206
BC - 220 AD), and there
are samples from every major
period between then and the
Republic of China.

Due to space constraints,
other pieces are on rotating
display. Some are classified
according to the kiln in
which they were fired.
Ruyao, Dingyao, Guanyao,
Geyao and Junyao were
the five royal kilns of the
Song Dynasty. During the
Tang Dynasty, Changsha
Kiln was pre-eminent.

While visitors to museums
generally have to content
themselves with admiring the
objects of their affection from
the other side of a glass
cabinet, at Mumingtang
Museum there is a special
section where visitors can
freely handle numerous
ancient pieces, judging for
themselves the quality of the
workmanship.

Where: 1 Donghuashi
Beitiao ( ^b^),
Chongwen District

Admission: 10 yuan
Tel: 6718 6939

Blue and white Guanyao kiln
porcelain fragments

Photos by Li Shuzhuan

By Huang Lisha/Zhang Qingning

A distant-view of the haystack-like
Maiji Mountain

L ast week, Plan introduced
a part of Gansu Province
known as Little Tibet. To-
day we continue our look at this
desert and mountain province
with a visit to Tianshui (^zKJ .

Stepping out of the railway
station at Tianshui, a visitor
might think for a moment that
their train has somehow depos-
ited them in lush southern Chi-
na. The scenery, and even the
climate, has much in common
with that of the lower Yangtze
River basin.

It is no wonder Tianshui is
known as “longshang xiaojiang-
nan,” meaning “the southern Chi-
na of Gansu.” Tianshui is like an
open air museum, complete with
ancient grottos, and historic ar-
chitecture, relics, and tombs.

Maijishan Grottos

Maiji Mountain (Jbf*J0 is 45
kilometers from Tianshui. The
grottos there housing Buddhist
frescoes and sculptures are one
of China’s four famous grottos,
the others being Mogao Grottos
at Dunhuang, Yungang Grottos
in Shanxi Province, and Luoyang
Longmen Grottos in Henan.

From a distance, the moun-
tain has the appearance of a hay-
stack, which is what the name
means in Chinese.

The grottos, carved out of the
side of an 80-meter cliff, were
begun in 384 AD, during the
Qin Dynasty. Since then, they
have been restored and enlarged
on several occasions over the
course of ten dynasties. Today,
there are 194 caves, containing
over 7,200 clay statues, and
1,300 square meters of murals.
The caves are accessed by way
of plank walkways.

The most famous attractions

at Maijishan Grottos are the clay
statues. As at Dunhuang’s Mogao
Grottos, the local stone is soft
and unsuitable for carving, so the
ancient artisans focused on clay
figurines and murals. There are
a number of stone sculptures to
be seen, which were brought in
from other parts of China.

Partially exposed to the ele-
ments over the centuries, there
is little remaining of the origi-
nal coloring that once decorated
the statues. But the exquisite
skills of the unknown artists re-
main clearly evident. Wrinkles
in the sculptured clothing, deli-
cate muscle definition, even the
outline of veins, give the clay fig-
ures a vivid sense of life.

Maijishan Grottos also serves
as a record of the various influ-

No. 5 cave

ences prevalent during different
historical periods. The earliest
Buddha statues display distinct-
ly Tibetan or Indian features,
both in physical appearance and
style of dress, while those made
after the Northern Wei Period
(386-534) are all in the style of
Han Chinese.

Unlike the otherworldly and
sacrosanct style of many Chinese
Buddha statues, the Maijishan
Buddhas display a benign coun-
tenance, with their heads slight-
ly lowered.

Many of the Buddha statues
are said to be modeled after
women of the imperial court, sit-
ting gracefully with their long
skirts spread over the lotus-
shaped platform.

One in particular, with cres-
cent moon shaped brows, long
narrow eyes and full lips is be-
lieved to be a likeness of a wife of
one of the Northern Wei emper-
ors. The boy and the girl statues
in No. 123 cave are vivid and life-
like portrayals of children living
in northwest China.

Three Kingdoms Culture

Of strategic importance at
various times throughout Chi-

na’s long history, Tianshui has
been the backdrop to many im-
portant events, and is inextrica-
bly woven into the history of the
Three Kingdoms period.

Seventy five kilometers west
of Tianshui is Qishanbao (#
^) , site of the headquarters of
the famous commander Zhuge
Liang when he commanded the
army of Shu Kingdom to attack
Wei around 228.

The fortress both Wei and Shu
were desperate to control was Ji-
eting (ft'?), first occupied by the
Shu Kingdom, and then falling
under the control of Wei as a re-
sult of one the negligence of Shu
general Ma Su.

In order to recapture Qishan,
Zhuge Liang massed his troops
successively six times, but each
attempt ended in failure. To
commemorate this distinguished
statesman and militarist, local
people constructed the Zhuge
Wuhou Shrine in

Qishanbao during the Northern
and Southern Dynasties period.

The shrine is composed of over
20 halls, in which stand statues
of Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu,
a general of the Shu Kingdom.
Today, Luangu Dui (bone heap),
Da Ying (great headquarters),
and some other relics of the an-
cient battle zone can still be seen
around Jieting.

Fuxi Temple

Fuxi Temple

Fuxi is a mythical Chinese
ruler, the first of the Three Au-
gust Ones (the other two are
Shennong and Suiren) credited
with the invention of musical in-
struments, Ba Gua (the Eight
Diagrams), hunting, fishing, the
domestication of animals, and es-
tablishing the dragon as totem of
the Chinese.

According to legend, a great
flood inundated the world, kill-
ing all of humanity, except for
Fuxi and his sister Niiwa. With
the future of humankind at
stake, the two siblings each
carried a millstone up Kunlun

Mountain and rolled them down,
one from the south peak and one
from the north.

They agreed that if the two
millstones collided, it would sig-
nify that the gods wished them
to marry and procreate. Fortu-
nately for humankind, that is ex-
actly what happened

Visitors to Tianshui can see
the two millstones preserved at
Fuxi Temple GfcjkJti ) . It is said
that touching them will promote
family harmony and bring bless-
ings to your marriage.

Situated in the west part of
Tianshui County, Fuxi Temple
was first built in 1,347, during
the Ming Dynasty, but since then
has been subject to numerous
renovations and enlargements.

Originally there were 64 cy-
press trees in the yard, symbol-
izing the 64 lines of the Eight
Diagrams, but now only 37 re-
main. It is said that on Fuxi’s
birthday, the 16th day of the
first month of the lunar year,
all the cypress trees will shake
off their leaves in celebration.
Praying at the foot of the tree
with the fewest leaves will bring
good luck.

Held on the 13th day of the
fifth lunar month, the Tianshui
Fuxi Culture Festival has be-
come an important annual event
attracting tourists from within
China and around world.

Dadiwan Relics Site

There is nothing immediate-
ly unusual about Qin’an Coun-
ty (J|-4r), 58 kilometers from
Tianshui, however it is here, at
the Dadiwan Relics Site (bJt

XlLiiliL) that fossils and oth-
er relics were unearthed in 1978,
suggesting the area was inhab-
ited by a Neolithic civilization
5,000 to 8,000 years ago.

Remains of wooden structures
found in Dadiwan are considered
to be the earliest examples of pal-
ace-style architecture found in

Tianshui countryside

China. The structures, including
a main hall, rear hall, and east
and west halls, cover an area of
420 square meters. The walls,
hearths, and doors of the struc-
ture feature a fireproof layer.

Colored pottery unearthed at
Dadiwan is among the earliest
found in China. The predominant
patterns decorating these are birds
and fish. Marks resembling rip-
ples in water and plants can also
be seen, which some scholars have
suggested represent the origin of
Chinese calligraphy.

A hot spring bath to unwind

Jiezi Hot Springs
can be found in a valley at Mai-
ji Mountain, three kilometers
from the town of Jiezi. There is
an abundant flow of water from
the two springs here, and the
water can reach a temperature
of 40 C.

The spring water, which con-
tains 19 trace elements, is reput-
edly of high medical value. There
are also hot mineral springs at
Qingshui (yfrzlc) 87 kilometers
east of Tianshui, and Wushan
(^ih), 109 kilometers west of
Tianshui, providing a perfect
way to unwind after a long day
of sightseeing.

Getting there : Train T75 from
Beijing West Railway Station to
Tianshui costs abound 330 yuan
(hardsleeper) and takes 18 hours.
There are regular buses from
Tianshui to all the above sites.

Important reminders : The

average temperature in Tianshui
is 11 C, spring, summer and au-
tumn are all ideal for traveling.
Be sure to sample the local fruit,
such as Tianshui Huaniu Apple,
Qin Chang’an Pear and Tians-
hui Juicy Peach, as well as deli-
cious specialties like Zhangchuan
Guokui GjUi|4i%Jb) , a kind of
bread, and Qin’an Pork Belly
Soup (JMvJl

Photos by Liu Guoming