BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) — China is expected to attract 126 billion U.S. dollars worth of foreign investment in 2015, hitting an all-time high, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Tuesday.
In the first eleven months of 2015, the total number of new-established foreign-funded enterprises amounted to 23,648, up 11 percent year on year.
During the period, actually used foreign capital in China grew 7.9 percent on year to 704.33 billion yuan. Enditem
SHIJIAZHUANG, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — A one-month environmental protection inspection of north China’s Hebei Province began on Monday, at the behest of central authorities.
The inspection will continue till Feb. 4, examining implementation of Party and state environment policy by the provincial Communist Party of China (CPC) committee and local government, including their handling of environmental problems and what they are doing to improve the situation.
The inspection team has set up a hotline and a mail box for public consultation.
Inspectors nationwide are focused on how provincial-level Party committees and governments carry out their environmental duties, according to the Ministry of Environment. Teams report major problems to the central authority and inspection results are passed to the organization department of the CPC Central Committee as part of official appraisals.
Central authorities plan to inspect each of the provincial regions in China every two years, “China Environment News” reported last month. Enditem
CHENGDU, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — Trains made nearly 180 round trips between Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province and Lodz, Poland, in the last two and a half years.
Since 2013, three trains a week have made the 9,826 kilometer trip on the Chengdu-Europe fast rail, reaching Poland via Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus.
“Commodities are transported to Europe within 15 days,” said Xu Pingfu, vice director of the Chengdu logistics office. “It is the fastest freight railway between China and Europe.”
Around 300 trains will ply the route in 2016, which will extend to Hamburg in Germany and Tilburg in the Netherlands. Commodities from coastal cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xiamen are transported to Chengdu and from there to Europe because of the line’s low cost and high reliability.
“The price of transporting commodities on the Chengdu-Europe line is one fifth of the air freight cost, and it is three times faster than shipping,” said Xu.
Chengdu will spend a total of 1.9 billion yuan (300 million US dollars) in the next three years building China’s largest international railway port, said Chen Zhongwei, director of Chengdu logistics office.
Many leading exporters are considering moving to Chengdu for these reasons, according to Chen.
“We aim to be the pivot between Europe and Pan-Asia by building international railways and establishing a European commodity distribution center in the next three years,” Chen said. Enditem
Editor: Xuefei Chen Axelsson
HOHHOT, Jan. 4 (Greenpost) — A direct air route opened Sunday between Hohhot, capital of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the Thai capital Bangkok, for the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.
According to the Baita International Airport in Hohhot, the AirAsia flight is scheduled between Jan. 3 and Feb. 18 to serve tourists during Spring Festival, a peak holiday period in China.
The flight takes off from Bangkok at 2 p.m. local time, and arrives in Hohhot at 7:30 p.m. local time. The returning flight departs from Hohhot at 8:30 p.m. and lands in Bangkok at midnight. The trip will take 4 hours and 30 minutes, according to the airport.
During last Spring Festival holiday, Chinese outbound group travel tourists reached 5.2 million. Thailand was the most favored destination. Enditem
Source Xinhua Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
NANNING, Jan. 1 (Greenpost) — The first nuclear power plant located in one of China’s ethnic autonomous regions began commercial operation of its first reactor on Friday.
The No. 1 reactor of the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region can supply 24 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a day, catering to the needs of a medium-sized city, said Gong Guangchen, the plant’s spokesperson.
Based on the domestically developed CPR-1000, the No.1 reactor began generating power in October 2015. The plant’s No. 2 reactor is expected to begin operating in the second half of 2016, Gong said.
The two reactors are expected to contribute 8 billion yuan (1.2 bln U.S. dollars) to the local GDP and create 64,000 new jobs annually. They will also cut coal burning by 4.82 million tonnes and CO2 emissions by about 11.9 million tonnes every year.
China has seen rapid nuclear power growth in recent years, but it suspended approval of new programs after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Construction projects did not resume until 2014.
China currently has operating capacity of 25.5 million kilowatts and aims to raise installed nuclear power to 58 million kilowatts by 2020 in order to reduce pollution from coal-burning generators and deliver on its promise to reduce carbon emissions. Enditem
Source Xinhua Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Greenpost) — Films screened in China raked in more than 44 billion yuan (6.78 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, a 48.7 percent yearly increase and the highest since 2011, the country’s film watchdog said.
Domestic films took in 27.1 billion yuan, or 61.58 percent of the total, maintaining a clear dominance over the country’s cinema market, according to a statement released late Thursday by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
In 2015, a total of 81 features surpassed the 100 million yuan box office threshold, including 47 Chinese titles.
Meanwhile, Chinese films gained 2.77 billion yuan in overseas sales, up 48.13 percent year-on-year.
The country also saw a 51.08 percent increase in the number of cinemagoers, reaching 1.26 billion people.
The SARFT noted a series of high-quality domestic films, including “Monkey King: Hero is Back,” a 3D animation based on a classic ancient story, and “Monster Hunt,” a live action-animation hybrid.
“Domestic films no longer merely rely on the box office. In 2015, more films achieved both outstanding box office performances and critical acclaim,” the statement said, citing surveys conducted in key cinema seasons.
Notably, “Monkey King,” while taking in more than 800 million yuan between July and Sept., was rated 8.4 out of 10 by nearly 260,000 votes at douban.com, the country’s leading art and entertainment database site.
In addition, a total of 8,035 screens were newly installed this year, at the rate of 22 screens added every day. The total amounted to 31,627 screens. Enditem
Source Xinhua, Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
北欧绿色邮报网报道（记者陈雪霏）－－瑞典今天气温零下19度到零下11度。虽然天气晴朗，但是格外的冷。
昨天前天下雪，但这次雪没有马上化。在今后的五天里几乎天天有雪，但是到周日，气温可能回零。明天依然是零下，但回到－5到－8度之间。
希望大家保暖，外出要多穿点儿，否则就在家里锻炼吧！
北欧绿色邮报网报道（记者陈雪霏）－－1月7日，中国驻苏丹大使馆捐赠苏丹6所小学2700套学生服。
在苏丹喀土穆州雅尔穆克学校，学生们在捐赠仪式上与中国驻苏丹大使李连和合影留念。
当日，由中国驻苏丹使馆组织的“新希望 新校服”首批校服捐赠仪式在苏丹喀土穆州雅尔穆克学校举行，当地6所贫困学校共接收绣有“中苏友谊”字样的校服2700套。
新华社记者 李紫恒 摄
北欧绿色邮报网报道（记者陈雪霏）－－1月5日，长春李晶在展示萌宝主题的面塑作品。
“面揉心声”是面塑师李晶的传承主题和创业梦想，33岁的她从事并探索面塑这项中国民间艺术5年来，已完成万余件“萌萌哒”面塑作品。她说，要用彩色的面揉出孩子们喜欢的艺术形象，让这项有着千余年历史的“老手艺”能够以创新的方式传承和普及下去。
2001年毕业于吉林艺术学院的李晶目前是吉林省民间文艺家协会会员、非遗传承人，5年前一次偶然的机会让她接触到面塑，使她燃起了童年时代对街边摊手工艺品的憧憬。于是，她放弃了艺术设计工作，选择面塑为创业项目。天分、基础、梦想等因素使然，使她的作品风格独树一帜，并多次受邀在长春市一些中小学授课。
李晶如今更多地将创作视角锁定在引起孩子们共鸣的题材上。她说，在大众创业、万众创新的时代，她既要坚持传统也要不断创新，“如今，靠做面塑养家糊口不成问题了，但我还想出一本书，让更多的人了解、学习到这门‘老手艺’。”
北欧绿色邮报网图片报道（编辑陈雪霏）－－哈尔滨冰雪节精彩图片。新华图片
12月26日，240多名冬泳爱好者横渡长江，武汉长江救援志愿队安排了10艘船只、近30名队员全程保护。图为武汉长江救援志愿队发起人、名誉队长俞关荣在观察江面情况。
武汉长江救援志愿队自2010年成立以来，无论是烈日炎炎的盛夏，还是寒风凛冽的严冬，队员都会冒着受伤甚至牺牲的危险勇救江中遇险群众，用生命守望着生命。
目前救援队有30多个支队，队员上千人。身份不同、家境各异的队员们汇聚在一起，轮流值守江边，承担起守望生命的重任。
新华社记者 金立旺 摄
BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Several laws and regulations will take effect in 2016, and change the day-to-day lives of the Chinese people.
From allowing a second child and making it easier for migrant workers to settle down in big cities, to measures that make the stock market more stable and market-oriented, these new rules touch on the deeper problems facing the Chinese and will go down in history.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
From the first day of 2016 the lives of tens of millions of Chinese couples will change when the amended family planning law takes effect,allowing all couples to have two children.
This historic move is part of efforts to balance the population structure.
Chen Li, who works at a public institute in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, has always wanted a second child.
“Thanks to the amended law, my husband and I can plan for another child. My daughter will have a younger sibling, and they can take care of each other,” said Chen, who is in her forties.
China’s family planning policy was first introduced in the 1970s to rein in the surging population. For decades, most urban couples were limited to one child, while rural couples were allowed to have two children if the first was a girl.
The policy gradually relaxed as a number of social problems arose. In 2013, China began to allow couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child.
Guo Zhigang, a sociologist with Peking University, said around 35 percent of the population will be over 60 by 2050. “The new law will help balance the decreasing labor force and aging population,” he added.
CITY LIFE
The new year also brings good news for the 250 million migrant workers in cities, mainly from rural areas. They will be able to apply for residence permits that will give them better access to local public services from Jan. 1.
According to the new regulation, applicants must have lived in the city in which they are applying for residency for at least six months and either have a stable job, stable place to live or be studying.
Those granted the new residence permits will gain access to more basic public services, including nine years of compulsory education for children and basic health care. The new permits will also bring conveniences such as passport issuance and automobile registration.
“For decades, migrants have experienced inconveniences in places they work and live in because they are not locals,” said Wang Han, 31, a software engineer in Beijing. Wang came to Beijing in 2006 from the northeast province of Jilin.
Although Beijing has issued residence permits since 2003 for migrants who have made extraordinary contributions or those who are classified as urgently needed talent, Wang found it difficult to get one. “The regulation will ensure migrants have more equal access to social services received by local ‘hukou’ holders,” said Wang. In China, people with a city’s “hukou” enjoy better educational opportunities, employment support and social welfare.
A STABLE MARKET
China will introduce a circuit breaker next year in addition to the existing daily trading limit for individual stocks to ward off major swings in the country’s stock market.
Market gyrations during the summer this year ended a bull-run of Chinese stocks since late 2014 and wiped out trillions in market value.
The circuit breaker will force trading at exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen to suspend for 15 minutes if the Hushen 300 index falls five percent. Trading will halt for the rest of the day if the index plunges more than seven percent.
There were 25 days when the index fell over five percent between the beginning of 2014 and the end of October this year, including 11 days when the decline exceeded 7 percent, data compiled by Ping An Securities shows.
Meanwhile, new stock offerings on the domestic market will see less bureaucratic meddling as registration-based IPO rules will replace the approval-based listing process. The supply of new stocks will gradually increase and more companies can access fundraising through the stock market under more flexible listing requirements.
Under the registration-based IPO rules, regulators will only need to ensure thorough information disclosure for IPOs and let the market determine the value of new stocks rather than hand-pick companies for listing, a practice that has bred corruption among officials who get to decide on which company goes to market.
IT’S EASY TO BE GREEN
A new law on air pollution control will become effective on the first day of 2016. This new legislation was amended and passed this year amid worsening air pollution across China.
Beijing and its surrounding region in northern China were among the regions worst hit by smog containing hazardous air-borne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter, known commonly as PM 2.5.
China has made similar legislation in the past, but existing regulation has been seen as increasingly outdated and less effective in reducing pollution.
The new law metes out tougher punishments to industries and seeks to curb air pollution at its root.
In the past, companies and organizations that failed to comply with legal requirements on air pollution faced fines of up to 500,000 yuan (around 80,600 U.S. dollars). That limit is gone in the new law, in the hope that reckless polluters will no longer be able to afford to pollute.
The new law also mandates that gasoline be produced at a higher quality and alternative energy used to reduce coal consumption.
Local governments will also be assessed and monitored over what they do to improve air quality. They have largely ignored environmental protection in the past in their growth-at-all-cost approach to economic development. Enditem
HANGZHOU, Dec. 30 (Greenpost) — China has witnessed a boom of rural e-commerce with 780 villages each having online shopping transactions exceeding 10 million yuan (1.5 million U.S. dollars) in 2015, according to a report released by Alibaba.
AliResearch, the research arm of the Alibaba Group, issued the report on Tuesday saying that this was a surge of 268 percent year on year.
E-commerce prosperous villages are called “Taobao villages,” as business is mainly conducted via Alibaba’s trading platform Taobao. In addition to the transaction volume, a Taobao village should have more than 100 businesses, or at least 10 percent of households involved in e-commerce, according to AliResearch.
The 780 Taobao villages are located in 17 Chinese provinces and regions with Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces having the most.
AliResearch found that rural e-commerce business clusters are taking shape in these coastal regions, where Taobao villages are modernizing thanks to encouragement from their local governments.
This year also saw the emergence of rural e-commerce in the northeastern, mid- and western provinces and regions of Hunan, Yunnan, Jilin, Liaoning and Ningxia, where Taobao villages appeared for the first time. Among them, 176 Taobao villages are in impoverished regions. Enditem
Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson
Stockholm, Dec. 31(Greenpost)– A report published on Alaska News Dispatch but from Washington Post said a powerful winter cyclone — the same storm that lead to two tornado outbreaks in the United States and disastrous river flooding — has driven the North Pole to the freezing point this week, 50 degrees above average for this time of year.
From Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, a mind-boggling pressure drop was recorded in Iceland: 54 millibars in just 18 hours. This triples the criteria for “bomb” cyclogenesis, which meteorologists use to describe a rapidly intensifying mid-latitude storm. A “bomb” cyclone is defined as dropping one millibar per hour for 24 hours.
NOAA’s Ocean Prediction Center said the storm’s minimum pressure dropped to 928 millibars around 1 a.m. Eastern time, which likely places it in the top five strongest storms on record in this region.
“According to the center’s records, the all-time strongest storm in this area occurred on Dec. 15, 1986, and that had a minimum central pressure of 900 millibars,” Mashable’s Andrew Freedman reported on Tuesday. “The second-strongest storm occurred in January 1993, with a pressure of 916 millibars.”
As this storm churns north, it’s forcing warm air into the Arctic Circle. Over the North Sea, sustained winds from the south are blasting at 70 mph, and gusting to well above 100 mph, drawing heat from south to north.
Although there are no permanent weather stations at the North Pole (or really anywhere in the Arctic Ocean), we can use weather forecast models, which ingest data from satellites and surrounding surface observations, to estimate conditions at Earth’s most northern location.
On Wednesday morning, temperatures over a vast area just to the east of the North Pole were somewhere between 30 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and for at least a brief moment, surpassed the 32-degree threshold at exactly 90 degrees North, according to data from the GFS forecast model.
“Consider the average winter temperature there is around 20 degrees below zero,” wrote the Post’s Jason Samenow on Monday. A temperature around the freezing mark signifies a departure from normal of over 50 degrees, and close to typical mid-summer temperatures in this region.
In other words, the area around the North Pole was about as warm as Chicago on Wednesday, and quite a few degrees warmer than much of the Midwest.
Meanwhile in habitable areas around the North Atlantic, winds are howling and waves are rocking the coastline. In Britain, a week of excessive rainfall has pushed rivers and streams well beyond their banks, stranding vehicles and buckling bridges.
In a blog post on Monday, the U.K. Met office said that December has been a record-breaking month for rainfall in parts of the United Kingdom. A Christmas weekend storm brought up to 8 inches of addition rainfall on saturated soil. The Met Office listed just a small portion of the December records that were set last weekend, in some cases blowing away the previous December records by 10 inches.
By Xuefei Chen Axelsson
Stockholm, Dec. 31(Greenpost)–As a tradition since 2001, Chinese President sends New Year’s greetings to Chinese people home and abroad and friends all over the world through China Radio International, China National Radio and China Central Television Station.
The following is the whole text translated by Xuefei Chen Axelsson, Chief editor of Green Post:
After a couple of hours, the New Year’s bell will toll. We shall say goodbye to 2015 and welcome the first ray of sunshine of 2016. At this moment, I would like to say New Year blessings to you, people of all ethnic groups in the whole nation, to compatriots in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao SAR, to Taiwan compatriots and compatriots overseas, to all friends from all countries and regions in the world! Happy New Year!
No pains, no gains. In 2015, Chinese people made great efforts and harvested a lot. China’s economic growth continutes to rank the first in the world, reforms have begun in almost all fields, reform in judicial system continues to be deepened, the “three stricts and three solids” thematic education has improved the political ecology, the anti-corruption struggle continues to deepen. Through the joint efforts of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, the 12th five-year plan has successfully ended with a sense of fulfillment in some sense for the vast masses.
This year we held a grand celebration on the 70th anniversary of victory in Chinese people’s anti-Janpanese War and the World’s anti-Fascist war. We held a grand military parade showing the truth that justice shall win, peace shall win and the people will win. We have implemented a comprehensive reform strategy to consolidate our military strength and announced that we shall cut our military personnel by 300 thousand. I have met Mr. Ma Yingjiu in Singapore and shaken hands with him after 66 years, showing that the peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait is the common will of our compatriots on both sides of the strait.
This year Beijing won the rights of hosting the 24th Winter Olympics and the RMB was included in the SDR basket of IMF. The assembling line of C919 airplane developed by Chinese has been in operation. China’s super computer broke the world record and won its sixth consecutive championship. Dark matter exploring Satellite developed by the Chinese scientists has been launched into the universe. Tu Youou became the first Chinese scientist who won the Nobel Prize…these all prove that as long as we are persistent, our dreams will be realised sooner or later.
This year we had joy, but we also had sorrow. The accidents such as the capsized Oriental Star passenger ship in the Yangtze River, the most serious explosion at the Tianjin Port and the landslide in Shenzhen have deprived many compatriots’ lives, let alone the dreadful incident that quite a few compatriots were cruelly killed by terrorists. We missed them, may them rest in peace and may the alive healthy.There are still some difficulties and irritations in the lives of the masses. The party and government are determined to continue to make efforts to guarantee the safety of people’s lives and property, improve people’s living standards and health.
2016 is the first year of the decisive period China enters to build comprehensive wealthy and healthy society. The 5th session of the 18th plenary session of the Communist Party of China has set up clear directions for the development in the following five years. The prospect is encouraging and inspiring, but the happiness doesn’t come from the sky. We should be confident and continue to make efforts in implementing the development concept of being innovative, harmonious, green, open and sharing, pushing forward the structural reform, pushing forward reform and opening up, and doing our best to promote equity and justice and create clean and transparent political environment to make a good start for the decisive period of building comprehensive wealthy healthy society.
To build comprehensive wealth and healthy society, it needs the joint efforts of the 1.3 billion people. It is my great concern to improve the living standards of the hundreds of thousands of poor people in the rural areas.
We have blown up the trumpet to win the campaign of poverty alleviation. All the party members and the people of all ethnic groups should join hands in the battle to ensure that all the poor people should alleviate their poverty as scheduled. We should take care of all the people who have difficulties so that they can feel the warmth from their inner heart.
We only have one earth, and it is the common home of all the people in all nations. This year, Chinese leaders participated in many international conferences, conducted many diplomatic activities, pushed forward some tangible progress in the construction of “one belt and one road”, participated in the United Nations 2030 sustainable development agenda and the Paris Climate Change Conference. The world is large and problems are many. The international community anticipated to hear China’s voice, see China’s solutions and China cannot be absent. We should not only have empathy and be sympathised with those who are suffering from difficulties and war fires, but also take responsibility and action. China will forever open its heart to the world and stretch her hands to those who are in difficulty so that our “friends circle” will be larger and larger.
We sincerely hope that the international community will make joint efforts to have more peace and cooperation, change the antagonism into cooperation, replace the spears with the silk, jointly build a human community jointly owned and shared by the people of all nations.
Thank you all.
新华社12月31日电：国家主席习近平通过中国国际广播电台、中央人民广播电台、中央电视台，发表了二○一六年新年贺词。全文如下：
再过几个小时，新年的钟声就要敲响了。我们即将告别2015年，迎来2016年的第一缕阳光。在这辞旧迎新的时刻，我向全国各族人民，向香港特别行政区同胞和澳门特别行政区同胞，向台湾同胞和海外侨胞，向世界各国和各地区的朋友们，致以新年的祝福！
有付出，就会有收获。2015年，中国人民付出了很多，也收获了很多。我国经济增长继续居于世界前列，改革全面发力，司法体制改革继续深化，“三严三实”专题教育推动了政治生态改善，反腐败斗争深入进行。经过全国各族人民共同努力，“十二五”规划圆满收官，广大人民群众有了更多获得感。
这一年，我们隆重纪念了中国人民抗日战争暨世界反法西斯战争胜利70周年，举行了盛大阅兵，昭示了正义必胜、和平必胜、人民必胜的真理。我们全面实施改革强军战略，宣布裁军30万。我和马英九先生在新加坡会面，实现了跨越66年时空的握手，表明两岸关系和平发展是两岸同胞的共同心愿。
这一年，北京获得第24届冬奥会举办权，人民币纳入国际货币基金组织特别提款权货币篮子，我国自主研制的C919大型客机总装下线，中国超级计算机破世界纪录蝉联“六连冠”，我国科学家研制的暗物质探测卫星发射升空，屠呦呦成为我国首位获得诺贝尔奖的科学家……这说明，只要坚持，梦想总是可以实现的。
这一年，我们有欣喜，也有悲伤。“东方之星”号客轮翻沉、天津港特别重大火灾爆炸、深圳滑坡等事故造成不少同胞失去了生命，还有我们的同胞被恐怖分子残忍杀害，令人深感痛心。我们怀念他们，愿逝者安息、生者安康！群众的生活中还有一些困难和烦恼。党和政府一定会继续努力，切实保障人民生命财产安全、保障人民生活改善、保障人民身体健康。
2016年是我国进入全面建成小康社会决胜阶段的开局之年。中共十八届五中全会明确了未来5年我国发展的方向。前景令人鼓舞、催人奋进，但幸福不会从天降。我们要树立必胜信念、继续埋头苦干，贯彻创新、协调、绿色、开放、共享的发展理念，着力推进结构性改革，着力推进改革开放，着力促进社会公平正义，着力营造政治上的绿水青山，为全面建成小康社会决胜阶段开好局、起好步。
全面建成小康社会，13亿人要携手前进。让几千万农村贫困人口生活好起来，是我心中的牵挂。我们吹响了打赢扶贫攻坚战的号角，全党全国要勠力同心，着力补齐这块短板，确保农村所有贫困人口如期摆脱贫困。对所有困难群众，我们都要关爱，让他们从内心感受到温暖。
我们只有一个地球，这是各国人民共同的家园。这一年，我国领导人参加了不少国际会议，开展了不少外交活动，推动“一带一路”建设取得实质性进展，参与了联合国2030年可持续发展议程、应对全球气候变化等国际事务。世界那么大，问题那么多，国际社会期待听到中国声音、看到中国方案，中国不能缺席。面对身陷苦难和战火的人们，我们要有悲悯和同情，更要有责任和行动。中国将永远向世界敞开怀抱，也将尽己所能向面临困境的人们伸出援手，让我们的“朋友圈”越来越大。
我衷心希望，国际社会共同努力，多一份平和，多一份合作，变对抗为合作，化干戈为玉帛，共同构建各国人民共有共享的人类命运共同体。
谢谢大家。
