Mainland tourists to Taiwan hit record high

BEIJING - Chinese mainland visitors to Taiwan topped 1.97 million in 2012, up 57.6 percent year on year, hitting a record high, the cross-Straits tourism authority said Sunday.

The Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits said more than 1.78 million were group tourists, with the rest being individuals.

Group visitors rose nearly 46 percent year on year, and individual tourists surged 553 percent in 2012 from the previous year, according to the association.

Mainland visitors accounted for about 36 percent of Taiwan's total inbound tourists in 2012, ranking this group first, according to relevant departments of Taiwan.

Taiwan opened for group tourists from the Chinese mainland in 2008, and for individuals in 2011.

Source: Xinhua

China to Build North-south Trans Western High Speed Railway

(CRI) Chinese rail experts are holding meetings in China's western hub city of Xi'an to discuss the feasibility creating a new high-speed rail line linking Inner Mongolia in the north with Hainan in the south.

The line would cut through six provincial-level regions, including Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong before ending on the island of Hainan.

The idea is to run the line through many of the regions in China home to this country's ethnic minorities, which are very popular tourist destinations.

Proposals will see the line make stops in the tourist cities if Yan'an, Xi'an, Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Yulin and finally in Hainan, after crossing the Qiongzhou Strait between Guangdong and the island province.

However, caution for the plan is already being voiced, as the proposed line would run through a number of ecologicially-sensitive areas of China.

The cost of the proposed link hasn't been laid out.

But it's said to be under consideration for the Chinese government's next 5-year planning cycle, which is scheduled to begin next year.

Source: CRI

Made in China at Hanoi's oldest market

(Xinhua) Visiting Dong Xuan Market, the largest and the oldest wholesale market in Hanoi, one can immediately see that most of the products and items being sold there are made in China.

Built by the French in 1889, Dong Xuan Market has been renovated several times, the latest in 1994 after a fire almost destroyed the market.

Currently, Dong Xuan Market is considered the largest wholesale market in Hanoi with some 2,000 shops selling everything from electronics, clothes, household appliances, toys, fashion accessories and foodstuffs.

According Tinh, a 70-year-old female shopkeeper, products made in China, particularly cheap electronics and fabrics, are the favorite of Vietnamese shoppers at the market.

She said almost 80 percent of the products sold in the market come from China.

Tinh, who has been selling fabrics at the market for over 30 years, said unlike before, it is now easy to buy goods from China.

"Years ago, there was a man who bought fabrics from China and delivered them to us, but then my family decided to go to China to buy products ourselves. It is more convenient and we earn more profits," Tinh told Xinhua.

According to Tinh, her customers patronize Chinese-made fabric not only because they are cheaper but also because of their beautiful design and excellent quality.

Thanh, who owns four shops at the market selling watches, accessories and jewellery for more than 10 years, told Xinhua that he goes to China two to three times a month to buy the items sold in his shops.

"Selling Chinese products is quite profitable as many Vietnamese, especially the young people, like products with beautiful designs at comparatively lower prices," Thanh said.

Thanh said one time he bought Chinese-made accessories worth about 10 billion Vietnamese dong ($472,000).

Thanh said he goes to China, orders the goods that he needs and pays for them and the goods are delivered to his shops without much hassles.

Hoa, a 28-year-old male shopkeeper, said if he cannot travel to China, his business partner in China will send him photos and information about Chinese-made products via email or Wechat.

"After I make my order and remit a partial payment, the items will be delivered to me in Vietnam," Hoa said.

"When I have time, I will go to China's Guangxi where I can do the purchasing myself. Many people there speak Vietnamese so I need no interpreter. It would be very easy for me to transact business," Hoa added.

Le Thi D, a 50-year-old textile dealer, said many traders at Dong Xuan have built close business contacts with Chinese partners for a long time.

"About 70 percent of the fabrics in my shop are from China's Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces. 

Once a year, traders from China come to meet Vietnamese partners for doing yearend balance sheet. 

We have kept close relations with them for years. They even took their families here to meet their Vietnamese partners and also to visit Vietnam," Le said.

According to the latest figures from Vietnam's General Statistics Office, in 2014, Vietnam imported some $43.7 billion worth of products from China, an increase of 18.2 percent compared to the 

previous year.

Among the imports, fabrics posted an increase of 20.7 percent, machinery, tools and equipment up 19.7 percent, while imports of phones and electronic accessories up 9.5 percent year-on-year.

In 2014, Vietnam was estimated to incur a trade deficit of $28.9 billion with China, up 21.8 percent compared to 2013, said the statistics agency.

"A good relationship between the two countries will make trade and business activities between the two peoples more convenient and stable. As Vietnam and China are neighbors, I hope that the two countries will keep their bilateral relations intact because this will benefit the two peoples," said Le, who has been selling textile at Dong Xuan Market for nearly 18 years.

Source: xinhua via china daily

China Southern Airlines Removes More Executives Amid Investigation

(WSJ) China Southern Airlines Co. said on Monday that it removed its chief financial officer and an executive vice president from their posts amid a police investigation.

The move brings to four the total number of executives the state-run Chinese airline has said is under investigation. The company said last week that it removed its director of flight operations as well as an executive vice president from their posts for similar reasons.

The Guangzhou-based company said the probe was “due to suspicion of job-related crime,” but it hasn’t provided further details. Company representatives weren’t immediately available for comment late Monday.

China Southern on Monday said that it was notified of an investigation into CFO Xu Jiebo and Executive Vice President Zhou Yuehai.

China Southern, which has the country’s largest airline by fleet size, said the removals wouldn’t have an impact on its business or operations. The company has the largest domestic presence of China’s big three state carriers but like its peers has struggled due to slowing domestic economic growth and a frugality campaign that has weighed on sales of first- and business-class tickets.

The latest probe into China Southern comes amid China’s anticorruption campaign, which has gathered momentum since President Xi Jinping took office two years ago. Communist Party leaders have acknowledged that perceptions of corruption threaten their grip on power.

Source: Wall Street Journal by Wayne Ma

Ctrip Announces Investment in Travelfusion

(PRNewswire) Ctrip.com International, Ltd., a leading travel service provider for hotel accommodation, ticketing services, packaged tours and corporate travel management in China, today announced that they have completed an investment transaction in Travelfusion by purchasing a majority stake in the company.

Travelfusion is a UK-based leading online Low Cost Carrier (LCC) travel content aggregator and innovator of Direct Connect global distribution solutions. Aggregating 200+ LCCs, Full Service Carriers (FSCs), rail operators and 30+ leading hotel consolidators, Travelfusion's Direct Connect distribution platform enables the world's travel agents, travel search and mobile travel services to search and book this content through Travelfusion's API, desktop or internet booking engine technologies and facilitates global payment and settlement solutions.

"Travelfusion has built a great GDS system for LCCs globally," said James Liang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ctrip, "The strategic relationship we built with Travelfusion will further extend our leadership in China's international travel market, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our IT system by leveraging Travelfusion's advanced technology. We are excited to work with Travelfusion's team to create greater value for our customers."

"China is expected to be the largest travel market in the world, and Ctrip is the clear leader in the online and mobile travel industry in China. After 15 years of building Travelfusion to be an industry leader, we are thrilled to take further steps to realize and fulfil our potential in such a great market with such a powerful industry leader," said Mr. Moshe Rafiah, Chief Executive Officer of Travelfusion.

Source: PRNewswire

Harbin Ice Festival Kicks Off

The world’s largest ice festival, in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, starts January 5 and last until February 25


Source: Wall Street Journal 

Lantern festival facing cancelation

(Shanghai Daily) Talks are under way over the fate of the annual lantern festival at Shanghai’s Yuyuan Garden following the Bund tragedy.

Several public events have already been called off because of the crush incident of December 31 that ended in the loss of 36 lives and injuries to 49 others.

The Spring Festival celebration would be the 15th held at the Yuyuan Garden, an event that in recent years has attracted around 60,000 visitors a day.

Yuyuan will put more emphasis on handling huge visitor numbers in the future, said Xu Yihua of the Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart Co Ltd, operator of the historical area.

Two guards have been deployed at each end of the popular Zigzag Bridge, built 400 years ago, to keep order and the number of guards will increase to six on important holidays, when 150 volunteers will also be on duty to help keep order over the entire Yuyuan Garden area.

The bridge will allow people to travel in one direction only when the number of visitors in the area reaches 20,000, and when it goes beyond 30,000 a one-way system will be introduced throughout the business and tourist area, said Xu.

The bridge will be closed if numbers surge to 40,000 and no more people will be let into the Yuyuan Garden area if visitor flow reaches 50,000, he said.

The company has installed more than 300 cameras outdoors and 400 indoors, as well as 48 sets of counters at road crossings to monitor visitor flow.

Meanwhile, city officials, including Party Chief Han Zheng and Mayor Yang Xiong, were on an inspection tour yesterday that included Metro lines, shopping malls, disease control centers and some schools.

At the Qufu Road Metro station, an interchange for Lines 8 and 12, Han examined fire control measures and security checks. He said all staff should hold frequent drills to enhance their ability to deal with emergencies. Such exercises should also raise passengers’ safety awareness.

The mayor visited the Shenergy Group’s gas distribution center and noted of water, electricity and gas supplies were the city’s lifelines.

“You should never relax when you are familiar with your work,” he told workers

At the Global Harbor shopping mall, the mayor inspected its fire control center and the facilities of its firefighting team.

“Safety related work is extremely important at densely populated places like shopping malls,” the mayor said, suggesting that the management company appoint a dedicated safety official, deploy more staff and hold more safety drills.

Source: Shanghai Daily by Yang Meiping