More reports suggesting that there may be more empty hotel rooms in Beijing this summer than expected.
The latest one comes via the BBC, which also notes new Beijing Tourism Bureau figures showing the number of tourists to the capital was down by 14% in May compared to the same month a year earlier. Tougher visa [...]
Entries from June 2008
June 28, 2008
Empty Hotel Rooms In Beijing As Tourists Stay Away
June 27, 2008
China Plays Tit-For-Tat Over U.S. Banks’ Access To Domestic Market
Deutsche Bank’s newly announced tie up with Shanxi Securities to offer investment banking services is expected to get the official nod later this year. Credit Suisse has recently got approval for its joint venture with Founder Securities, the first such since the moratorium on securities joint ventures was lifted in December. But Morgan Stanley and [...]
June 26, 2008
Hu Reins In The Press
The reining in of the press evident in recent weeks has become formal.
Domestic media have been ordered to “earnestly study and implement” a recent speech by President Hu Jintao in which he said the primary task of the news media is to guide public opinion correctly, to benefit the party, the nation and the people, [...]
June 22, 2008
The Post-Quake Struggle For Hearts And Minds
Li Yuanchao, who heads the Party’s Organization Department, says Party members should take a leading role in reconstruction after the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan, Xinhua reports. He emphasized the need to build Party branches at the local level.
Does that suggest that senior Party officials are concerned that NGOs have managed to occupy too much [...]
June 22, 2008
Olympic Torch Relay Reaches Lhasa
The Olympic torch has been taken to Lhasa in a firm demonstration of authority. Normal service has been resumed.
June 18, 2008
Death Toll From Southern China Flooding Rises; Dams At Risk
Death toll from the flooding across 9,000 square miles of southern China has now risen to 171 with a further 52 people missing.
As with the Sichuan earthquake, the fear is of dams bursting. Six holding back reservoirs are seen as a highest risk. Thousands more are being evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure, [...]
June 16, 2008
Sichuan To Build Earthquake Museums
What to do with three of the places worst hit by the May 12 earthquake? Turn them into world-class earthquake museums. That, at least, is a plan for Beichuan County, Tangjiashan and Hanwang Town in Mianzhu City, according to Zhang Gu, head of Sichuan’s tourism bureau.
June 15, 2008
More Natural Disasters Strike Southern China
The areas of southern, central and western China stuck by severe winter storms earlier in the year are now suffering from rainy season flooding.
At least 62 people are dead or missing and 1.3 million have been forced to flee from their homes, Xinhua says. The affected province include Sichuan still reeling from the devastating earthquake [...]
June 13, 2008
China And Taiwan To Set Up Direct Weekend Flights
The outcome of the first formal talks between China and Taiwan in a decade is an agreement for regular direct flights back and forth and to allow more mainland tourists to visit the island.
From July 4, there will be direct cross-strait flights every weekend, instead of just during holiday periods. From 18 July, each side [...]
June 11, 2008
Tangjiashan Flood Alert Lifted And Latest Satellite Images
The outflow from the Tangjiashan quake lake has slowed to 56 cu. meters a second and the water level has dropped nearly 30 meters from its peak, officials said Wednesday. They have also lifted the flood alert as fears of downstream flooding receded. At those outflow rates the lake is likely to fill up a [...]
