Nyang River in Linzhi, Tibet

Photos taken March 29, 2014- The Nyang River in Linzhi County, Tibet Autonomous Region.

The 307.5-kilometer Nyang River is a major tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River

Source: Xinhua

Jinxi Water Town, the sleeping maiden

Jinxi, an ancient water town, with its delicate architecture and laid back lifestyle, is a popular tourist site in Jiangsu province.

Jinxi water town, near Suzhou city, was described by the eminent Chinese writer Shen Congwen as "a sleeping maiden" during his stay in the 1970s.

Source: china.org

Yuanzai enjoys outdoor activities at Taipei Zoo in China's Taiwan

Giant panda cub "Yuanzai" during its outdoor activities at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, March 20, 2014


Source: Xinhua

Chinese State Airlines' 2013 Profit Drops on Lower Fares

HONG KONG—China's top three state-owned carriers saw their net profits drop by more than a quarter last year, as intensifying competition weighed on ticket prices despite continued growth in air-travel demand.

The state carriers— Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co. and China Eastern Airlines Corp.—this week posted a combined 2013 net profit of around 7.62 billion Chinese yuan ($1.24 billion), down 28% from a year earlier.

Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines, the last of the top three state-run airlines to report its full-year earnings Friday, said its 2013 net profit was 1.99 billion yuan, according to international accounting standards, down 24% from a net profit of 2.62 billion yuan a year earlier. Its revenue fell 1% to 98.55 billion yuan from 99.51 billion yuan.

China Southern Airlines' earnings mirror the disappointing performance from Beijing-based rival Air China, which Tuesday reported a 32% decline in 2013 net profit to 3.36 billion yuan, signifying ongoing competitive pressures in the industry.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines said Wednesday its 2013 net profit fell 25% to 2.38 billion yuan as intensifying competition weighed on its profitability.

Despite the nation's air-travel boom, China's three major state carriers face rising pressure on yields, a measure of profitability, in the domestic market, where intensifying competition is seen amid moves by the government to liberalize the domestic airline market and for the first time promote the growth of budget airlines. Slower economic growth and a frugality campaign by Chinese President Xi Jinping had also weighed on sales of first- and business-class tickets.

Foreign-exchange gains helped cushion Chinese carriers' earnings as they have a lot of non-yuan debt to finance the purchase of aircraft. China Southern said it booked a net foreign-exchange gain of 2.90 billion yuan, much bigger than a gain of 267 million yuan it recorded a year earlier, as the yuan appreciated at a faster pace against the dollar in 2013.

The three carriers recorded a combined net foreign-exchange gain of 6.82 billion yuan in 2013, compared with a 534 million yuan of net foreign-exchange gain in 2012.

China Southern's weak earnings performance comes as the Chinese carrier, which has the biggest domestic presence, seeks to boost its international reach amid increasingly congested home market. It plans to operate four weekly flights into New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport from Guangzhou starting in August, extending its North American reach to the East Coast beyond existing gateways of Los Angeles and Vancouver.

The carrier is building its international hub in the southern city of Guangzhou, and last year launched direct flights to Moscow, while increasing frequencies to cities in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and Canada.

Source: Wall Street Journal by Joanne Chiu

Spring in China: Daming Lake in Jinan

Located in the center of Jinan, capital of Shandong province, Daming Lake, a natural lake formed from many springs, covers 460,000 square meters. The lake is regarded as one of the city's main natural and cultural landmarks


Source: china.org

Egrets dance on lake in Liuzhou,Guangxi

Egrets dance on a lake at the Queshan Park in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 25, 2014


Source: Xinhua

More Satellite Sightings, But Weather Slows Search

SYDNEY—New satellite images showed more floating objects in the southern Indian Ocean Thursday, but bad weather forced authorities to abandon the aerial search forMalaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Images taken from a Thai satellite showed 300 objects in the ocean, the country's space technology agency said Thursday afternoon, about 200 kilometers away from where a French satellite had earlier spotted dozens of objects.

Air and sea searchers, stymied by poor weather and the remote location of the search zone, have yet to successfully track down the satellite leads.

All planes involved in the search return to Perth Thursday afternoon, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement posted on its official Twitter account. It marked the second time this week that the search was curtailed because of weather—though a number of ships remained in the search area Thursday. The authority—which is leading the multinational search for the missing plane—forecast the poor weather would continue for the next 24 hours.

The country's weather bureau said a low-pressure system was moving through the northern parts of the search area Thursday, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and low cloud. On Friday, it forecast a cold front would bring strong southwesterly winds and scattered showers that would ease later in the day.

Military aircraft have been swooping as low as 300 feet in the hunt for the missing plane, as cloud and fog obstruct efforts to spot possible debris.

Before the search was called off, 11 planes and five ships had been scouring a remote section of the southern Indian Ocean about 1,550 miles off Australia's west coast.

The satellite images released Thursday showed floating objects about two to 10 meters in size (6.5 to 32 feet) in size that were scattered over an area of 450 square kilometers, about 2,700 kilometers southwest of Perth, said Anond Snidvongs, executive director of the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency. The satellite images were taken on March 24, Mr. Anond said.

"We hope that these images will be useful," he said. "We have been taking hundreds of satellite images from everywhere from day one, including the Gulf of Thailand, south of Vietnam, the Malacca Strait, and so on."

The satellite images provided by a division of Airbus Group on Wednesday appeared to show 122 objects in an area of 400 square kilometers (160 square miles).

Authorities continue to race against time to find the missing plane's black box flight recorder before its batteries run out. The black box is designed to emit signals indicating its location for 30 days—a deadline that is fast approaching. The Malaysia Airlines plane vanished from radar screens early March 8.

So far authorities have no conclusive debris to work with—other than a few items sighted by low-flying aircraft—and pixilated satellite images of debris that may have nothing to do with the plane.

Oceanographers have warned that with every day that passes, the tools and techniques used to pinpoint the crash site by monitoring ocean currents are reaching the limits of their usefulness. If searchers don't find any evidence that can be conclusively linked to the missing jetliner soon it could take months, or even years, to pinpoint the wreckage.

Source: Wall Street Journal byDavid Winning, Rachel Pannett and Warangkana Chomchuen

Airbus Extends China Assembly by 10 Years as More Deals Awarded

Airbus Group NV (AIR) deepened its commitment to the Chinese aviation market by agreeing to keep a joint assembly line for narrow-body models running for 10 more years after the country announced an order for 70 aircraft.

China made a commitment for Airbus planes including 27 A330 wide-body airliners held up for more than a year by wrangling over carbon levies. The commitment also included 43 single-aisle aircraft, in an accord announced in Paris today.

China suspended 55 aircraft orders after the European Union sought to unilaterally curb aircraft emissions in 2012, restoring some when the EU weakened its stance while holding back on contracts for 27 A330s.

Besides agreeing to operate the A320 single-aisle assembly line in Tianjin for longer, Airbus and China announced a series of accords, including one to boost the capacity of Chinese air space by developing a state-of-the art air traffic management system. Airbus and relevant Chinese parties are also working on a wide-body aircraft interiors center in China.

“It’s not simply about the number of planes sold, it’s a real industrial partnership,” French President Francois Hollande said after the contract signature, which took place at the presidential palace on the occasion of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The aircraft agreement was part of a package of 21 accords and contracts signed today involving Chinese and French companies.

Chinese Assembly

China will supplant the U.S. as Airbus’s biggest single market within 20 years, the European company said in its most recent forecast. The Asian nation is already the No. 1 buyer of the twin-engine A330 and is being specifically targeted by Airbus through the development of a new, shorter-range variant.

Airbus has encouraged Chinese orders for single-aisle jets by establishing a factory in Tianjin that assembles four A320s a month. Airbus owns 51 percent of the joint project and China’s Avic the rest. The facility began delivering A320 jets in 2009, with the 100th plane handed over in mid 2012.

Even as China and Airbus work together on the single-aisle planes, state-controlled Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd. aims to have a rival plane with 168 seats in service before the end of this decade, targeted initially at the domestic market.

The company delayed the maiden flight of the plane, called the C919, to 2015 from an earlier plan for 2014.

The largest contract ever placed by China with Airbus was in 2007, when the country’s premier announced a $17 billion deal for 160 jetliners. In 2005, the company won a $10 billion deal for 150 aircraft, also announced in Paris.

Source: Bloomberg News by Andrea Rothman | Photo: Reuters 

Malaysia Flight 370 Sent Final 'Partial Ping' That Could Aid Investigation

Investigators revealed that eight minutes after the last complete transmission from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, there was a "partial ping" from the aircraft that could help unravel what happened to the missing jet before it stopped flying.

The final partial transmission from the missing Boeing Co. 777-200ER, which disappeared from civilian radar on March 8, "originates with the aircraft for reasons not understood," said Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president of Inmarsat PLC, which operates the satellite.

The company is investigating the partial ping—or digital handshake between the jet and the satellite—as "a failed login" to its satellite network or as a "potential attempt by the system [aboard the aircraft] to reset itself," Mr. McLaughlin said.

The cause of the partial ping could have several possible explanations, he added, but that human interaction with the satellite communications system had been ruled out.

"We're not looking at this [partial ping] as someone trying to turn on the system and communicate," he said.

The partial ping is the latest in a series of clues that have presented new questions for investigators as they try to piece together what happened to the missing aircraft and the 239 people aboard.

Unlike the partial final ping initiated by the aircraft, the earlier, roughly hourly contacts originated as part of automated communications between Inmarsat ground stations, its satellite and the jet. Those transmissions are intended to ascertain if the jet is able to send and receive information.

A statement released earlier Tuesday by Malaysian authorities indicated the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch determined there was "evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station" that followed the last complete ping eight minutes earlier.

Investigators said "at this time this transmission isn't understood and is subject to further ongoing work," but didn't elaborate.

Mr. McLaughlin in an interview said Inmarsat's engineers and investigators were trying to understand the conditions that could cause a final incomplete ping, but added that this "does not affect the plot for the probable end location of the flight" in the southern Indian Ocean.

After the jet disappeared from radar, it linked up roughly once every hour for six hours with a satellite operated by Inmarsat. By analyzing specific features of these digital handshakes between the jet and the satellite, Inmarsat officials were able to plot a direction and general course for Flight 370.

By the time the next regularly scheduled ping was supposed to occur, nearly an hour later, "the aircraft no longer was able to communicate" and presumably had gone down, Malaysia's Defense Minister and Acting Transportation Minister Hishammuddin Hussein minister told reporters Tuesday by computing the plane's estimated speed, fuel consumption and other factors, investigators are trying to project the most likely point at which it hit the water.

Deciphering the reasons behind the partial handshake, according to people familiar with the technical details, could be an important step toward understanding what aircraft systems were doing shortly before impact.

Potential causes include electrical system fluctuations and flight maneuvers, say people familiar with the technical details.

To better understand Inmarsat's data and analysis, Malaysian authorities on Tuesday said they had set up "an international working group, comprising agencies with expertise in satellite communications and aircraft performance."

Source: Wall Street Journal by Jon Ostrower and Andy Pasztor

Wutai Mountain through the lens

Situated in Xinzhou City of Shanxi Province, Mt.Wutai is crowned as one of four famous Buddhist mountains in China. Presently, there are 95 Buddhist monasteries located nearby Taihuai Town. Mt. Wutai is one of the few religious holy lands for Buddhism in China


Source: china.org

Snapshots of victims on flight MH370

No one onboard flight MH370 survived when it apparently tragically crashed into south Indian Ocean, announced Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak on March 24. The plane was supposed to fly from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China, on March 8, but changed its route -- the reason for which remains unclear. Let's take the last glimpse of the 239 people on board


Source: china.org

Top leisure cities in China

The 2013 China International Leisure Development Forum has recently published its newly updated list of the top 10 Chinese leisure cities

Lijiang, Yunnan Province

Located in northwest Yunnan Province, at 527 kilometers from Kunming, Lijiang is a city boasting a popular UNESCO world cultural heritage -- Lijiang Ancient Town -- which has a history of more than 800 years. This town is famous for its unique architectural style which blends the different elements from several cultures.

Lijiang is also renowned for its snowy mountains, river valleys, pastures, gorges and lakes, which compose picturesque sceneries. It's a tremendous place to relax and enjoy a cool summer.

Guilin, Guangxi Province

Guilin is famous for its wonderful scenery, rivers and karst peaks covered in lush greenery. Located in the northern part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the city claims its hills and rivers are among the greatest in the world. Compared to other Chinese cities, Guilin is relatively small and compact; getting around presents no serious obstacles. Locals ride their bicycles everywhere, even when it is raining.

Sanya, Hainan Province

Sanya, a seaside city situated at the southernmost tip of Hainan Province, is a noted tourist resort. With its tropical monsoon climate, the weather there is favorable, hot in the summer but pleasantly warm during the other three seasons. Therefore, it makes for the perfect place to spend your winter break. Its long coastline attracts large numbers of tourists both from home and abroad every year.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province

Hangzhou is the capital city of southeast China's Zhejiang Province, with a history of more than 2,000 years. Dubbed the "Paradise under Heaven," the city is well-known across the globe for its splendid natural scenery, numerous historical relics, fine silk and Longjing tea. It is one of China's major ancient cities, as well as one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in the country.

Hangzhou is famous for its splendid natural scenery and historic relics. Its most popular tourist site is the West Lake, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Additional must-sees such as the Linyin Temple and Six Harmonies Pagoda are also good options to visit.

Qingdao, Province

Qingdao, a major city in Shandong Province, lies on the southern coastline of the Shandong Peninsula overlooking the Yellow Sea. Called the "Eastern Switzerland," the city is an important seaport, naval base and industrial center in China. Its beautiful coastline, a unique blend of water and mountains, and favorable living environment make it one of the most popular travel destinations around the country and in the world.

Kunming, Yunnan Province

As the capital of Yunnan, Kunming is known as the City of Perpetual Spring for its pleasant all-year-round spring climate. The city is one of China's most popular tourist destinations.

Kunming has a history spanning more than 2,400 years, and features numerous must-see attractions such as the Dianchi Lake and Yunnan Ethnic Village. The wide variety of its historical and natural beauty makes it one of the top 10 most popular tourist cities in all of China.

The city has a large ethnic minority population, lending it a varied and rather exotic minority cultural vibe. Kunming is also noted for its many local delicacies, including the well-known "Across the Bridge Rice Noodles (Guoqiao Mixian)."

Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, is a historical city as well as a business center, with a history dating all the way back to 611 B.C. It boasts a great number of natural and cultural heritage sites.

The city features one of the most important centers of Taoism, the oldest existing irrigation project in the world and a large habitat for giant pandas. It is a livable city due to its mild climate and rich resources. Famed for its hot and spicy cuisine, the city was named City of Gastronomy by UNESCO in 2010. It is also well-known for its appetizing delicacies and slow pace of life.

 Nanjing, Jiangsu Province

Located in eastern China, Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, features a glorious history, unique culture and amazing night scenery. Known as one of China's Four Great Ancient Capitals, the city boasts countless historical relics, including the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Nanjing City Wall, ruins of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Palace, the Confucius Temple and the Ming tombs -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In addition, visitors who love the night sky must not miss out on the Qin Huai River, a place which offers its visitors a most spectacular night scenery. It is also the birthplace of ancient Nanjing culture.

Dalian, Liaoning Province

Situated in the southernmost part of Liaoning Province, right on a peninsula separating the Bohai and Yellow seas, Dalian is one of China's most vibrant and modern cities. With its clean air, beautiful beaches and pleasant summertime temperatures, Dalian has become an ideal destination for those who want to escape the summer heat and the hustle and bustle in metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai.

Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province

Located in central Jiangsu Province, Yangzhou is a city with a history of 2,500 years. Since ancient times, it has been a leading economic and cultural center, as well as a major port for foreign trade and exchanges on the lower reaches of the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers. Historically speaking, it was one of the wealthiest cities in all of China, known for its great merchant families, poets, painters and scholars.

The most famous attractions of the city include Slender West Lake, Ge Garden and Daming Monastery. Its “Three Knives,” kitchen knife, pedicure knife and hair knife, are the city's three traditional products.

Featuring a favorable leisure environment, it won the United Nations' Habitat Scroll of Honor Award in 2006.

...

The list, published every three years, covers more than 60 candidate cities. This year's ranking, the third of its kind, was based on public polls, an online survey and expert opinions. The criteria included are the scale of the city, its leisure environment, government support, residents' satisfaction and leisure activities.

Source: china.org by xu lin