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The First China Cartoon Carnival will be held in the China Cartoon and Animation Game City, which is in Beijing and has been hailed as a fairyland similar to Hollywood or Disney. The carnival will last from Sept. 28 to Oct. 7.

China Cartoon and Animation Game City was built and developed by Ministry of Culture and Beijing Municipal Government. The 83-hectare park has rolled cartoon creation, production and sale into one. It is a national park with a complete industry chain. The First China Cartoon Carnival was jointly organized by five units and will comprise an opening ceremony, art exhibition and forum session.

By People\’s Daily Online

The Supreme People\’s Procuratorate (SPP) has sent its investigators to participate in the probe of east China\’s bullet train crash, a SPP official confirmed on Wednesday.

The train collision occurred Saturday evening when a high-speed train rear-ended another in Wenzhou of eastern Zhejiang Province, leaving at least 39 people dead and 192 others injured.

The State Council, or cabinet, established an investigation team earlier to probe the deadly incident.

Source: Xinhua

A senior Chinese official on Thursday expressed opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, saying it harms China-U.S. relations, and is negative to the development of cross-strait relations.

During his meeting in Washington with U.S. experts on China at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Wang Yi, director of China\’s State Council\’s Taiwan Affairs Office, noted recent public and media attention to the arms sales issue, saying the Chinese mainland opposes such sales.

Wang, who is visiting the United States, said that arms sales to Taiwan harms China-U.S. relations, and has a clear negative impact on development of cross-strait relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits. He said that now may be the time for stakeholders to sit down, and make a comprehensive and long-term examination on how to appropriately handle the issue.

Wang said recent claims that the Chinese mainland poses military threat to Taiwan harms the relaxed atmosphere in cross- strait relations. He stressed the mainland\’s military disposition stems from its own defense needs, and is definitely not directed at Taiwan compatriots. Wang said if the Taiwan authorities can uphold the one-China position and denounce "Taiwan independence," the risk of splitting the country will not exist, and there is no necessity or basis for hyping the so-called military threats by the Chinese mainland.

Wang further urged both sides to resolve peacefully other outstanding political differences, and vowed that the Chinese mainland will continue to strive for peace across Taiwan Straits, and ease military concerns. He reiterated the mainland\’s determination to defend the unity and territorial integrity of the country as well as the basic and long-term interests of the Chinese people.

Wang said that his visit to the United States is aimed at making clear that peaceful development of cross-strait relations is not easy to come by, and it is in the interest of the people on both sides of the strait to maintain the situation. It is also conducive to the common interest of China and the United States to push for the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue. He stressed that stakeholders cannot let the peaceful development of cross- strait relations to stay in stagnation or even regress. He called for compatriots across the Taiwan Straits to join hands and eliminate disturbances to the process.

CSIS experts expressed that the recent improvement and development in cross-strait relations is conducive to the common interests of both the United States and China. They expressed expectation that the cross-strait relationship can maintain its momentum in peaceful development, and not regress, and that the cross-strait situation keeps its stability and peace, and not tension.

Source: Xinhua

About 187,000 people in Guizhou Province are short of drinking water amid an ongoing dry spell, according to provincial drought relief authorities on Thursday.

Since July 1, most parts of the province received an average rainfall that was less than half of that recorded during the same period in previous years, according to figures released by the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Nine cities or counties began to show signs of drought with no significant rainfall since July 1.

About 187,000 people and 75,000 heads of large livestock suffer from a drinking water shortage. A total of 109,000 hectares of farmland has begun to wither, said the headquarters.

The headquarters has mobilized 120,000 people and spent 18.86 million yuan (2.92 million U.S. dollars) to alleviate the drought as of July 20.

The local meteorological center forecast that except for northern Guizhou, which will see normal rainfall, other areas will continue to have less rainfall in late July than in normal years.

Source: Xinhua

Those who are thinking about getting a dog in Xi\’an, capital city of Northwest China\’s Shaanxi Province, soon won\’t be able to do so without first considering the city\’s dog-ownership ordinance, no matter where they live in the city, China Daily reported.

A revised draft of the ordinance calls for all parts of Xi\’an to be placed under rules that strictly regulate the act of owning a dog.

Xi\’an\’s former dog-ownership ordinance, issued in 1995 and revised in 2004, made the restriction apply only to the city\’s downtown, a heritage conservation area, a scenic resort, development zones and residential districts.

Xi\’an Mayor Chen Baogen was quoted by Wednesday\’s China Daily as saying that the new ordinance will take effect after being approved by the Xi\’an People\’s Congress.

There have been various cases in recent years of dogs attacking people in the city. A rural woman was also found dead at her farm in the city\’s Chang\’an district on June 11, a victim, some believe, of dogs kept in a nearby brick kiln.

According to an investigation conducted by the Internal Affairs and Justice Committee of the Xi\’an People\’s Congress, the city contains more than 80,000 registered dogs and many more that are unregistered.

Cai Bingchen, director of the Xi\’an oversight office for dog ownership, told China Daily that the current dog-ownership ordinance is not strong enough to prevent people from illegally keeping dogs and that many own large and ferocious dogs that they do not properly control.

In addition to placing higher fees on dog owners, the proposed ordinance also stipulates that city residents will be prohibited from keeping large and ferocious dogs. If the ordinance is approved, those who keep that kind of dog would see the dog confiscated and be forced to pay a fine of from 500 yuan to 1,000 yuan (77 U.S. dollars to 155 U.S. dollars).

The ordinance would also forbid dogs from entering stores and shops, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, buses and other public vehicles, schools, museums, libraries, parks, squares and other public places.

The ordinance, at the same time, would make exceptions for the old, blind and severely disabled. They would not have to pay fees to keep various sorts of guide and assistants.

Cai said the revised ordinance would not place restrictions on the ownership of dogs in rural areas, largely because the dogs kept by farmers are often used as watch dogs and assistant dogs.

Even so, those who have dogs in such places should attach them to chains to prevent them from leaving their yards. If they do not, they will be fined.

Meng Zonglin, deputy director of the Xi\’an Public Security Bureau, said dog owners whose dogs seriously injure other people will be punished.

Source: Xinhua

Central government departments spent a great deal of their money on vehicle purchases and maintenance last year, underlining the slow progress China has made in reforming its central government departments\’ spending habits, the Economic Information Daily said Thursday.

As of Tuesday, 86 central government departments have disclosed their expenditures on vehicle purchases and maintenance, overseas trips and official receptions in 2010. Expenditures on vehicles amounted to 3.92 billion yuan (about 608.34 million U.S. dollars), accounting for 61.3 percent of the total amount spent by the departments on the three items, the report said.

The same departments have budgeted 3.79 billion yuan, or 60.5 percent of the total, for vehicle purchases and maintenance this year, the report said.

"Why are expenses on vehicle purchases and maintenance universally high among these government departments? It is possibly a systemic problem," the report cited Chen Ningyuan, an independent observer, as saying.

The government previously attempted to launch spending reforms in 1994 in order to regulate the purchase and usage of government vehicles, according to the report. However, the actual number of vehicles owned and used by the government remains unknown.

"Local authorities were the main drivers for previous reforms, which resulted in a lack of momentum. This pattern will meet more challenges in the future," Zhou Tianyong, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, was quoted as saying in the report.

"The difficulty of reform lies in the design of the reform mechanism.

Openness and transparency in the implementation and design of reforms are the keys to success," Jiang Wei, a professor with the Beijing Administrative College under the Beijing Municipal Government, said in the report.

The central government started publicizing its budgets for vehicle purchases and maintenance, overseas trips and official receptions this year as part of its efforts to improve transparency.

Central government expenditures on the three items, referred to by some as the "three public consumptions," have long been viewed as the main source of government corruption and waste.

Source: Xinhua

Twelve workers ended their 36-hour ordeal on Tuesday afternoon without suffering any injuries after being trapped in a tunnel in a coastal city in Northeast China.

The workers had been trapped in the north line of the Nanshan tunnel, under construction in downtown Dalian city of Liaoning province, after part of the tunnel collapsed on Monday morning.

Rescuers burst into cheers as all of the 12 workers climbed through a 1.3-meter-wide escape passage at about 4:14 pm on Tuesday, said Qiu Xiaocheng, an urban construction official who was a witness of the rescue efforts.

"They looked in good shape," Qiu said.

Medical examinations found that all of the workers were in good condition except one with high blood pressure that developed before the accident, Cui Wei, head of the medical team charged with their health, said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

A total of 1,800 rescuers had been deployed to drill an escape passage from the parallel south line of the tunnel, said Jia Ligeng, a senior official with Dalian city government.

The rocks between the two lines of the tunnel were so hard that rescuers had to set off five blasts with dynamite, said Jia.

Moreover, the workers had tried digging in the direction of the rescuers rather than waiting to be pulled out, said Ma Cheng\’en, head of the city\’s urban construction bureau.

The cause of the accident was still under investigation, said Ma.

Preliminary analysis showed that the cave-in occurred after a bunker over the tunnel collapsed.

"I was very, very happy when I heard my husband was saved," said Lan Aishui, who is six months pregnant.

Lan met her husband Tian Hongfu late Tuesday afternoon at the hospital and brought him some clothes.

Tian said when trapped in the tunnel, he had feared that Lan would be too worried about him.

The couple, both 25, are from South China\’s Guangxi Zhang autonomous region.

Tian said he had not been afraid after the accident because a few minutes later he heard sounds of people outside trying to pull them out.

Source: China Daily

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Thursday reiterated China\’s approach on resolving territorial disputes in the South China Sea, insisting that bilateral negotiations were the only way forward.

Yang made the remarks while meeting Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem on the sidelines of a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) related meetings on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Yang said the two countries should take bilateral ties and regional stability into consideration, solve maritime disputes through negotiations and avoid heating up the issue again.

Pham said Vietnam treasured its traditional ties with China and hoped to reach consensus with Beijing on the maritime dispute at an early date through peaceful negotiations.

On the same day, Yang and his ASEAN counterparts officially approved guidelines on conduct in the South China Sea, a sign of progress toward the peaceful solution to the issue.

The one-page document is intended to drive the process of making the 2002 Declaration of Conduct (DOC) in the South China Sea more concrete.

"This afternoon … the ministers of China and ASEAN countries formally endorsed the guidelines and also started implementation – fully and comprehensively – of the DOC," Reuters quoted Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin as saying.

"We are determined to increase our cooperation with ASEAN countries. We\’re looking to the future, we have a bright future," he said.

"We want to be a good friend, good partner and good neighbor with ASEAN countries."

Yang told his Vietnamese counterpart that China highly appreciates the agreement reached by senior officials from China and ASEAN nations on the guidelines of the DOC and called on all sides to take substantive measures to promote practical maritime cooperation.

China has repeatedly stated its indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their surrounding waters.

There was no dissension from any country over China\’s sovereignty of the area until the 1970s, when nations including Vietnam and the Philippines made claims.

In late May, the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense reported that a Chinese patrol boat slashed a submerged cable of an oil and gas survey ship operated by PetroVietnam, Vietnam\’s state energy company.

A similar incident occurred two weeks later when a Chinese patrol boat cut the cables of a Vietnamese ship conducting seismic surveys off its southern coast, Vietnam\’s Foreign Ministry reported.

China has denied the accusation, saying "the law enforcement activities by Chinese maritime surveillance ships against Vietnam\’s illegally operating ships are completely justified".

Also on Thursday, Yang met his counterpart Kim Sung-hwan from the Republic of Korea. They discussed inter-Korean relations and the resumption of the Six-Party Talks aimed at ending the nuclear program of the Democratic People\’s Republic of Korea.

Source: China Daily

Site of the Yuan Dynasty Upper Capital (Shangdu), also known as Xanadu, has been prepared for the application to be considered a World Heritage in 2012. It will be open to the public on July 15, said Liu Xinle, deputy governor of China\’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in a government work report.

With a 740-year history, the site is located in Xilin Gol League of China\’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 275 kilometers north of Beijing. In 1260 AD, Kublai Khan found the capital of the Yuan Dynasty here and four years later, he found another capital called Dadu (Middle Capital), geographically corresponding to today\’s Beijing.

Shangdu is among the few cities established by nomadic nations in history. And the site is also regarded as the best-preserved nomadic cultural heritage.

By People\’s Daily Online

"An old Chinese proverb says a man is supposed to be economically independent at the age of thirty, but according to our 2010 survey, we found that many of these ant people leave the big cities after three to five years of struggle without any improvement in their living standards and no career in sight," Lian said.

The transition from a rural setting to a bustling, competitive urban environment may be too much of an adjustment.

"Most of these ant people are from rural families or small towns, and their experiences in universities won\’t arm them well enough to compete in job markets in big cities," said Zhang Ming, a professor of politics at the Renmin University of China.

Zhang says the government should vigorously develop "second- and third-tier cities" to lure more graduates from big cities.

"I might go back to Tianjin, where the competition is not as fierce as in Beijing, if I can\’t find a suitable job soon," Han said.

DEMOLITION WON\’T HELP

Two years ago, Tangjialing was the most famous anthill for fresh graduates to gather, mostly because of its cheap rent and convenient commute to Zhongguancun, China\’s "Silicon Valley".

In Dec. 2009, Tangjialing was among 50 residential areas in Beijing that were slated for large-scale renovation.

Officials with the Beijing municipal government hoped the project would improve integration between the urban and rural areas, stimulate the low-end housing market and improve living standards for rural workers.

"Tangjialing disappeared but more than 10 villages around it mushroomed overnight," Lian said. "Ant people moved to farther places, such as Shigezhuang and Huoying, places that are along the subway line 13 that go beyond the north Fifth Ring Road."

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Source: Xinhua