China's Dead Sea: Yanchi in Yuncheng city

Yanchi, located in Yuncheng city of Shanxi province, is China’s famous inland salt lake. It covers an area of 130 square kilometers, with a length of 30 kilometers and a width of 2.5 kilometers.

Because of its high salinity, fishes cannot survive in Yanchi, and people can float on the surface of the lake. Therefore, Yanchi is named as Dead Sea in China.

The exploration of the Yanchi, one of China’s oldest salt pond, dates back to 3,000 years ago

Source: china.org

China's Spring Airlines Plans Shanghai IPO

(WSJ) Spring Airlines Co. is planning to raise about 2.53 billion yuan ($405 million) in an initial public offering ahead of a listing in Shanghai, as China's biggest budget carrier looks to expand its fleet to drive earnings growth.

The Shanghai-based low-cost carrier proposed to offer up to 100 million shares, or 25% its total capital after the IPO, according to a draft prospectus published Thursday by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

The country's civil aviation market faces intensifying competition. The government has moved to liberalize the domestic airline market and, for the first time, promote the growth of budget airlines though air travel in China is booming.

The government in February unveiled long-awaited guidelines to jump-start the budget-airline market, including pledges of financial support, as well as measures to help existing budget carriers expand more quickly.

The measures follow a shift in the government's commercial-aviation policies, which for years had favored the three state airlines. In May last year, Beijing lifted a six-year ban on setting up new independent airlines.

Low-cost carriers now account for below 5% of China's aviation market by passenger capacity, far lower than the 50% market share budget carriers enjoy in Southeast Asia.

Analysts have said they believe Spring Airlines, which sells a large proportion of its tickets via the Internet, is among the biggest beneficiaries of the new regulatory environment.

For years, the aviation regulator's priority was boosting state-owned airlines, which have been criticized for their inefficiency and poor service. To protect them, the government in 2007 stopped accepting applications for new airlines after briefly experimenting with liberalization in the middle of the last decade. State-owned airlines, which remain dominated the domestic market, saw profits drop by more than a quarter in 2013 as intensifying competition weighed on ticket prices, despite growing demand for air travel.

Spring Airlines said the proceeds would be used to buy as many as nine Airbus A320 jets and three Airbus flight simulators, and to supplement working capital, the company said. It operates a fleet of 39 Airbus A320 jets and flies 64 routes across China and around Asia. The average passenger load factor, which measures the proportion of seats filled with paying passengers, is 94%.

The release of its draft IPO plan marks a step toward listing after years of waiting. The CSRC typically arranges the "preliminary disclosure" of a draft IPO plan after accepting a listing application, followed by several rounds of feedback and reviews before giving a go-ahead to the issuer.

Spring Airlines, which was created by Wang Zhenghua in 2004, has stuck with a low-cost structure, charging 30% less than competitors and remaining profitable. Its 2013 net profit was 732 million yuan, up 17% from 625 million yuan in 2012, while revenue rose 16.5% to 6.56 billion yuan from 5.63 billion yuan.

China hasn't seen any IPOs of airlines since 2006 when Air China raised 4.59 billion yuan ahead of a listing in Shanghai. Spring Airlines is set to become the country's sixth listed airline once the deal completed.

Source: Wall Street Journal 

Ho Family Garden: The most important garden in Late Qing Dynasty

The five Chinese characters inscribed on the wall outside the Ho Family Garden literally mean "the most important garden in Late Qing Dynasty", Yangzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, April 7, 2014

Located at Huayuan Lane in Xuningmen Street of Yangzhou City, east Jiangsu Province, Ho Family Garden, also named "Jixiao Heights", is regarded as "the most important garden in Late Qing Dynasty".  An official surnamed Ho of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) from Hubei Province spent 13 years building it as his residence, hence the garden's name.

Ho Family Garden consists of three parts: the back garden, the residential area, and the Pian Shi Shan Fang. The garden is famous for its excellent combination of western architecture art and eastern garden characteristics.

All the iron for railings and window glass were imported from abroad.  The houses are also decorated with western items. Around the pool of the garden stands a variety of pavilions that are linked together to form an architecture belt.  The garden is also known for its zigzag paths and winding corridors.

Its profound cultural background and ingenuity of buildings are much admired. The integration of strong points of imperial gardens and those of private gardens south of the Yangtze River resulted in a refreshing and tasteful ambience. Source: china.org

Air China Expects First Quarter Profits to Tumble

Chinese flag carrier Air China Ltd. says it expects first quarter net profits to fall by up to 65%, citing soaring finance expenses due to the weaker Chinese yuan.

The profit warning from the Beijing-based carrier comes just days after rival China Southern Airlines Co. warned it was likely to post a net loss for the three months ended March 31, also because of the yuan's depreciation.

A weak yuan has a significant impact on Chinese airlines' bottom lines as a lot of their debt for the financing of aircraft purchases isn't denominated in the Chinese currency. A large proportion of that debt is dollar-denominated and airlines also have dollar-denominated aircraft lease and jet fuel purchase obligations.

The Chinese yuan fell by 2.7% in the first quarter against the U.S. dollar, after several years of consistently strengthening as the government moved to depreciate the currency.

Air China late Monday said it expects to report a 55%-65% decline in first quarter net profit, compared with a net profit of 249 million yuan ($40 million) in the first quarter of 2013.

At the end of last year, Air China's net debt was worth 111.60 billion yuan, of which 70% was denominated in U.S. dollars. China Southern's net debt was worth 104.35 billion yuan.

The weaker yuan adds pressure on China's state airlines, which last year saw net profits drop by more than a quarter as intensifying competition weighed on ticket prices, despite growing demand for air travel. Still, the weakening yuan could have a limited impact, especially if the currency stabilizes, as foreign-exchange losses at Chinese state airlines are mostly noncash losses because they are required under accounting rules to revalue their substantial foreign-currency debts at the end of every quarter.

The other Chinese state carriers—Air China Ltd. and China Eastern Airlines Corp.—are due to release first-quarter results in late April, and the government is moving to liberalize the domestic airline market and promote the growth of budget airlines.

Source: Wall Street Journal Jeffrey Ng

Shandong Airlines to buy 50 Boeing planes

China's Shandong Airlines signed a contract on Monday with the US based Boeing Company to buy 50 Boeing 737 passenger airplanes.

The airliners, including Boeing's 737 NG and 737 MAX models, will be delivered to Shandong Airlines during the 2016-2020 period, said Ma Chongxian, chairman of the company, which is based in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong province.

Shandong Airlines aims to increase its fleet to over 140 at the end of 2020, which will be a surge of almost 100 percent, Ma said.

Shandong Airlines already operates 74 passenger aircraft, including 67 Boeing 737 planes.

Source: xinhua via china daily

Best places to enjoy spring flowers in Beijing

Beijing Botanical Garden

Beijing Botanical Garden is situated in the western outskirts of the city between Xiangshan Park and Yuquan Mountain. With intriguing rockeries, clear ponds and elegant bridges, the garden is a wonderful place to explore natural beauty. Beijing Botanical Garden is the largest in North China, with a great variety of greenhouses, rare trees and stunning flowers, as well as a number of historical attractions, such as Cao Xueqin Memorial and Liang Qichao Tomb


Summer Palace

Situated in the northwest suburbs of Beijing, the Summer Palace is the largest and best-preserved royal garden, and one of the four most famous gardens in China. It was first built in 1750 and restored in 1886 as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi after being destroyed during the Second Opium War in 1860.The Summer Palace landscape features a variety of palaces, gardens and other ancient-style architectural structures.

Beijing Zoo

Beijing Zoo was known for a short time after the founding of the People's Republic as the Western Suburbs Park (Xijiao Gongyuan). The grounds combine cultivated flower gardens with stretches of natural scenery, including dense groves of trees, stretches of grassland, a small stream, lotus pools and small hills dotted with pavilions and halls.

Beijing Zoo mainly exhibits wild and rare animals of China. The Giant Pandas are one of the most popular exhibits, but other popular animals including the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, Manchurian tigers, white-lipped deer, yaks from Tibet, enormous sea turtles, polar bears from the North Pole, kangaroo from Australia, and zebra from Africa.

The zoo is also a center of zoological research that collects and breeds rare animals from various continents.

Beihai Park

Beihai Park, located to the west of the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park, is the oldest and best-preserved ancient imperial garden in China. It was the former royal palace for successive dynasties. The park has an area of 68 hectares, half of which is covered by the Taiye Lake. On the Mid-Autumn Day evening, rowing a boat in the glistening water, with glorious full moon up in the sky, artificial hills, pavilions and corridors flowing around, your body and soul will be relaxed.

Tanzhe temple

As a typical Buddhist temple, Tanzhe Temple stands on Tanzhe Hill in the western outskirts of Beijing. Its origins certainly predate the formation of much of Beijing, as the first reference to the site was noted in the Western Jin Dynasty (265－316), but most of what forms the temple today was constructed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Covering an area of over 41,000 square meters, the temple consists of some pavilions, prayer halls, group of pagodas, courtyards and gardens dating from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. The gardens contain various kinds of trees and flowers, but the magnolia flower is the most famous, some of which are of 300-year-old history.

Taoranting Park

Taoranting Park, located in the southwest, derives its name from the Joyous Pavilion that once stood on the grounds of the Temple of Mercy (Cibeiyuan).

Jiang Zao, a secretary in the Ministry of Works, built the pavilion in 1695 during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. Therefore, it was also known as Jiang Pavilion. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, a brick kiln was built in the neighborhood of the Temple of Mercy at what is now the Kiln Terrace.

Jingshan Park

Jingshan Park, also known as "Prospect Hill Park", is situated just north of the Palace Museum, next to Beihai and Houhai. During the Yuan Dynasty (1206－1368), it was for royal family members and was only opened to the public after 1928. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the park has been renovated several times, and has now become one of the most ancient parks in the capital. Covering an area of more than 230,000 square meters, the park is famous for its large peony garden. Each year, a Peony Flower Show is held including hundreds of kinds of peony from home and abroad.


Source: people's daily via china.org

China's 1st Self-service Baggage Delivery System Begins Operation

Travelers place their luggage onto a self-service baggage delivery system on Friday, April 18, 2014 at Tianjin airport, during the trial of the first of this type of automatic machine in China. The new system integrates baggage inspection, identification authentication and seat selection processes in an effort to increase efficiency


Source: CRI