Each pillar has an unique painting that symbolizes an ethnic group in China. The first pillar of national unity has been installed ib the east side of Tian’anmen Square today.

This latest test would be mainly focused on the jet’s power-supply and avionics systems while the previous two tests, carried out in November and July respectively, targeted stability control and propelling machinery.

COMAC also announced that a fourth jet would be put to test this year and go through all tests in relation to the airworthiness certificate issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States Department of Transportation. These four jets would alternate to receive tests in both Shanghai and Xi’an, with the total test flight hours expected to hit 1,650.

According to plans, the ARJ21 regional jet should secure domestic airworthiness qualification by the end of 2010 and that authorized by the FAA by 2012. The first home-made commercial plane in China had so far received 208 orders from home and abroad, including 25 ordered by the GE Commercial Aviation Services, the largest aircraft-leasing company of the United States.

So far, the province has already had more than 900,000 video cameras in major cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhongshan, Dongguan and cities in the Pearl River Delta. Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong and Macao, is one of China’s leading exporters and home to tens of thousands of migrant workers and business people who seek development and opportunities.

What concerns the public with this act would be their privacy. The quantity of surveillance in high density areas has reached record high.

Located in the northern part of Xi’an city, the capital of northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province, Da Ming Palace is the most splendid architectural complex of the Tang Dynasty. It is also renowned as the Eastern Sanctuary and demonstrates the developed economy, blooming culture and sophisticated architectural technique at the time.

The documentary Da Ming Palace contains various special effects to demonstrate the historical features of the palace. The film has won great public acclaim during its showing in China.

Director Jin Tiemu said at the premiere ceremony he hoped that the movie could help the world to “know the true legend of Tang and find the ultimate spirit of Tang embedded within.”

Ambassador Liu Zhenmin, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, said the Tang Dynasty enjoys a “significant and unique status in China’s history.” The Tang Dynasty had 20 emperors who ruled China from the 7th to the 9th centuries A.D.

“China at that time was a remarkably open society with unprecedented frequent and extensive exchanges and interactions with the rest of the world,” Liu said.

Chinatowns are springing up in various cities worldwide. The Chinese term for Chinatown is “Tang Ren Jie.” Literally, it means “residential blocks or districts of the people of the Tang Dynasty,” Liu explained.

“Through the documentary, we will not only get a glimpse of what the Tang Dynasty was like and how prosperous, peaceful and harmonious China was at that time, but we will also see that a magnificent imperial palace once exclusively enjoyed by emperors has now been turned into a public park,” Liu announced.

Some 100 representatives from the UN and permanent missions, including UN Secretary-General’s Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar, Under Secretary-General Angela Kane and Under Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe attended the premiere.

By Sept. 15, police forces, including the armed police, in Beijing and its six neighboring regions will be required to carry out night patrols. Overhauls of safety in workplaces and key institutions will also be launched. The traffic administrations in Beijing and surrounding areas would set up more checkpoints to enhance security control over vehicles from places outside the Chinese capital.

The Public Security Bureau of Beijing issued a provisional regulation earlier this month on its official website, stipulating traffic limits on incoming vehicles between Sept. 15 to Oct. 8. The order bans transportation of toxic or dangerous chemicals within a certain region or time span unless they are subject to permits issued by traffic authorities. Cargo vehicles, tractors and tricars will not be allowed to enter Beijing’s newly launched sixth ring road except for the transport of daily necessities to the city and supplies for the National Day celebrations.

The regulation also reduced the period of validity of provisional permits for incoming passenger and cargo vehicles to three days from the original seven days.

The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried out extermination sweeps on Aug. 18, 21, 24 and 28 – and plans to do it again on Sept. 4, 11 and 25 – around Tian’anmen Square and adjacent streets, including the Tian’anmen Rostrum and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao. The campaigns, all at night to avoid affecting the public, aim to prevent epidemics and exterminate the four pests, especially rats and mosquitoes. Rats could eat electric cables and mosquitoes could bite and annoy people gathering in the square on October 1 to celebrate the60th anniversary of the founding of new China.

The Ophone handsets that can support China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3Gstandard will come out within this year, the company said, without specifying when. According to a recent survey, 51% of the 2,161 respondents said they might buy an Ophone, attracted by its “powerful” mobile Internet connection and application functions.

Mr. Zhao, is the first person detained under the new law, which bans people from smoking in areas considered to be a fire hazard. On Aug 20, the ministry issued six new fire safety regulations, including one that police should detain people who smoke in fire hazard areas. The regulation followed an anti-fire law that came into effect on May 1, under which those who smoke in places with risks of fire or explosion can be warned and fined. Only in severe cases should the offender be detained for no more than five days, the law states.

This is the first move towards banning indoor smoking in China.

In a mature society, the middle class should be to alleviate the gap between rich and poor, promote social equity “stable valve,” but reporter through the survey found that, for middle-income groups, the intention to buy a house together is not easy.

In general, the middle-income groups in China should be defined as a monthly income of around 5,000 yuan, and their professions such as public institutions management, public civil servants, educators, business and technical personnel, managers and business owners. At least a college degree or more education, middle-income groups are sometimes dubbed “the sandwiched class”, which means that they are not like the upper class people who enjoys great wealth, but also not as low-income people can benefit from social welfare.

In the first-tier cities like Shanghai, in order for the young couple to buy a set of standard living space, not only going to cost both of their savings, but also money borrowed from their parents, in order to pay the down payment, and then they become what’s known as the “housing slaves” (or mortgage slaves).

In a rather popular Web forum, a user by virtue of their experience of living in France, writes an article entitled “The French price comparison Shanghai price” posts.

France’s low-income group of the monthly wage is around 3000-4000 euros, subtract 33% -48% of the personal income tax, true income would be around 1500-2000 euros or so. In Shanghai of low-income group is 1000-2000 yuan monthly wage, but with a lower tax rate, the true income would be about 1,500 yuan.

In Paris, a 60 square meters apartment would be prices at around 40 thousands euros which is approximately 200 months of income. In Shanghai, a 60 square meters apartment would cost around 70 thousands yuan which is 400 months of income. This means a resident in Paris could afford a home working at low-income wage for 17 years but a Shanghai resident needs 34 years of income. Of course this calculation does not include other living expenses.

The fossils would be protected by 50 guards day and night. They were donated by Yunnan provincial government to the museum to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and would be permanently displayed in the new museum. The Chuanjie saurus anaensis is the largest dinosaur skeleton in China and the Lufengosaurus huenei is believed to be the oldest.

The dinosaur fossils include three sets:
- the 27-meter-long by 6.5-meter-high long-necked herbivore, Chuanjiesaurus anaensis (sauropoda), with a lizard-like tail, dating back to the Jurassic Period, 158 million years ago;
- the 180-million-year-old Lufengosaurus huenei (prosauropod),7.1-meters-long by 2.6-meters-high, a herbivorous dinosaur, from the late Triassic to early Jurassic periods;
- a 2.45-meter-high Dilophosaurus sinensis (theropod) from180 million years ago, which lived during the Pliensbachian stage of the early Jurassic period.

The three skeletons were unearthed respectively in 2006 and 2007 in Lufeng County, Yunnan Province.

The museum has arranged an exhibition hall of 1,600 square meters on the second floor for the fossils.

The five books are: “Classic of Changes” (Yijing), “Classic of Poetry” (Shijing), “Classic of Rites” (Liji), “Classic of History” (Shujing) and “Spring and Autumn Annals” (Chunqiu). The last one is said to be written by the Confucius himself.

Up to today, there is no comprehensive foreign language translations of these books. Experts said only parts of the work had been translated into French, English and German, but these versions were very dated and scarce outside professional libraries of Chinese culture.

The team of experts are lead by the Chinese Language Council International in Beijing. The translation committee consists of more than 30 experts and scholars from China, the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy and Israel. The committee is currently mapping a detailed schedule for the translation.

The plan is to first spend three and a half years completing the Chinese-to-English version on which the translations into French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi and Malay will be based. Each foreign language version will have a preface, notes and explanations to guide foreign readers.

It is estimated that the “Wujing,” with around 700,000 Chinese characters, will translate into about a million English words.

The project comes amid booming interest in Chinese culture as 256 Confucius Institutes for Chinese language study have been set up in 81 countries as of March. The government’s goal is to establish 500 institutes by 2010, said the Office of Chinese Language Council International. Statistics show at the end of 2008, more than 40 million foreigners around the world were learning Chinese in 3,000 schools in 100 countries.

The July 22 eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century. It passed across China from Tibet to the coastal city of Shanghai, where 300 million people live. Millions of eclipse-watchers thronged to the banks of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers in northwestern Lanzhou and central Wuhan cities early Wednesday to observe the spectacle.

China holds one of the world’s earliest celestial records of a solar eclipse. The ancient Shangshu, or Book of Documents, recorded a story of a solar eclipse from the Xia Dynasty (21st-16th centuries BC). Chinese emperors were known to take advice from astrologists when eclipses occurred.

In ancient China, people ran and banged basins or gongs in an attempt to scare away the “celestial dog,” which was believed to be an evil swallowing the sun.

Up to today, the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Europe have all sent women into space. The world’s first female astronaut, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, who boarded the Soviet Union’s Vostok 6 in June 1963, stayed in space for three full days.

Since the subway system is the major commuting tool for millions of Beijing people, it’s always jam packed during peak hours. Often passengers have to wait for hours to take the train. Eating and drinking at the subway stations and in the carts are quite common. This new policy has greatly disturbed the general passengers.

Several major cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, are also facing opposition to ban food in their subways.