Chinese Daily Photos, 2011 to 2019!

"Nearly 100" held in Inner Mongolia
Posted: 06 June 2011 2043 hrs

BEIJING : At least 90 students, herders and ordinary residents have been arrested in Inner Mongolia, a rights group said, amid serious ethnic unrest fuelled by resentment over Chinese rule.

Around 40 ethnic Mongol students and herders were detained in flashpoint areas in the Xilingol area of the vast northern region, the US-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center said.

An estimated 50 students and residents were also arrested during several protests in the regional capital Hohhot last month, the rights group said late Sunday.

Calls to police in Hohhot and Xilinhot, a city in Xilingol, went unanswered.

The vast region of Inner Mongolia has been hit by a wave of demonstrations sparked by the May 10 killing of an ethnic Mongol protester who tried to block a coal truck driven by a member of China's dominant Han ethnicity.

The incident led to protests across the region. China moved swiftly to tighten security, including sealing off some restive college campuses, and residents in protest-hit areas have reported a tense calm has returned.

An employee at a hotel in Hohhot next to the city's main Xinhua Square told AFP on Monday that roads were open but police were still patrolling the square.

The rights group said students were still confined to school campuses, in an apparent bid to avoid further unrest.

"Internet is cut off and cell phones are blocked. It is outrageous and boring," it quoted a student from the Inner Mongolian University of Agriculture as saying in an email.

"Anybody who wants to go out must get approvals from the school... and the security office."

There is simmering anger among ethnic Mongols over concerns that Chinese culture is swamping their way of life.

In particular, a Chinese government policy to move traditional Mongol herders off the steppe to preserve the grassland ecology is widely considered a pretext to seize lands holding coal and other minerals.

China has issued a series of promises to appease Mongol concerns, and the regional government has said grassland herders will receive subsidies to help spur their livestock production.

Meanwhile, the official Xinhua news agency reported that four people arrested over the death of the Mongol protester -- a herder -- have been charged and would face a public trial in Xilingol.

- AFP/ir

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GUIYANG/BEIJING - Continuous downpours have triggered floods and left one person dead and 15 others missing in southwest China's Guizhou Province, the province's civil affairs bureau said on Monday.

The heavy rains, which have struck parts of Guizhou since June 3, have impacted 200,000 people in the province and forced the evacuation of more than 60,000 residents, according to the bureau.

The rains have also damaged 9,383 hectares of farmland and resulted in direct economic losses of 170 million yuan ($26.23 million).

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Cosplayer perform at 2011 Xi'an Cartoon Fair in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, June 4, 2011. Cosplayers from over 100 Comic Societies participated in the cosplay show. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

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Singer Wakin Chau performs during his solo concert in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, June 4, 2011. (Xinhua)

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Yin Shuying, one of the three women who hand-sewed the 90-square-meter CPC flag, is accompanied by a military officer at the Meridian Gate (Wu Men) square inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, June 6, 2011. The 90-square-meter flag was hand-sewn by three women from East China's Shandong province as a gift for the 90th anniversary of the CPC on July 1. [Photo/Xinhua]

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A woman puts cinnabar on a child's forehead in a ceremony commemorating the annual Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, in Beijing, June 6, 2011. The festival commemorates Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself on the day in 277 BC. Children often wear cinnabar during the day to keep away evil and disease. [Photo/Xinhua]

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Workers hold the dragon boat heads, before a dragon boat race to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, on a river in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province June 6, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

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Participants compete in a dragon boat race to mark the annual Dragon Boat Festival at Hong Kong's Aberdeen fishing port June 6, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

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South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, June 2, 2011. The legendary squad dubbed the "Iron Red Women Outpost of the South China Sea" has been performing duties since forming in 1962. Their major tasks keep shifting from national defense, port construction, and public order maintenance in its early days to the economic development as well as social service at present. Nine generations have joined in the past 49 years, and some customs have been inherited. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

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Schools shut in two Chinese towns after toxic leak
Posted: 07 June 2011 1748 hrs

BEIJING - Authorities have closed schools in two towns in China after industrial waste contaminated the water supply for 200,000 residents, officials and state media said on Tuesday.

Locals in the towns of Pingyao and Liangzhu in the eastern province of Zhejiang have complained their tap water has a strange taste and smell, an official from the local environmental protection bureau surnamed Shen told AFP.

Shen said the cause of the smell was under investigation, but the official Xinhua news agency said factories at a nearby industrial park had leaked waste into the Shaoxi River, which is the source of the drinking water supply.

The waste includes benzene, which can cause vomiting, stomach irritation, dizziness, convulsions, a rapid heart rate and even death, according to the government body US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The factories have been told to stop discharging the waste, the report said.

"The water quality still meets national standards, but for safety reasons, we advise residents not to drink it, although they can still use it," said Shen, deputy head of the bureau in Yuhang district, which oversees the towns.

An official at the Yuhang education bureau told AFP that schools in Pingyao and Liangzhu had been closed due to the pollution.

China - the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter - has some of the globe's worst air and water quality after more than three decades of unrestrained growth and resulting pollution.

Major poisoning incidents linked to pollution have repeatedly occurred over the years, causing concern among residents about the overall impact on their health.

This is the second environmental incident to hit Zhejiang in the past few days after a truck accident on Saturday resulted in a chemical leak into a river that provides many parts of the province with water.

The truck was carrying phenol - used in the manufacture of nylon and other synthetic fibres - when it broke down, the Hangzhou Daily newspaper reported.

As it was being repaired, another truck crashed into it, breaking the chemical tank and causing 20 tonnes of the chemical to seep into the nearby Xinan River, said the report - posted on the Hangzhou government website.

One repairman was killed in the accident, it added.

Worried residents in Hangzhou, the provincial capital, rushed to buy bottled water, the Hangzhou Daily said in a separate report.

But Zheng Binghui, a researcher at the National Institute of Environmental Sciences at the scene, tried to ease public concerns, saying tests had revealed the water quality was still up to standard, it added.

- AFP/al

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An elderly Chinese woman smokes on a street in Beijing, China, Tuesday, June 7, 2011.

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A child reacts as a dog reaches for a plastic bottle in Beijing, China, Tuesday, June 7, 2011.

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A group of men gather to watch others playing Chinese chess on a roadside in Beijing, China, Tuesday, June 7, 2011.

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A student, accompanied by his father, leaves Jianping High School after the first day of college entrance exams, known as "gaokao", in Shanghai June 7, 2011. About 9.33 million students make a start on China's national college entrance exams, a fiercely competitive test that is seen as make-or-break for getting ahead, Xinhua News Agency reported.

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An unidentified volleyball player looks at the Chinese Cheerleaders during their warm-up at the Swatch World Tour Beach Volley Ball competition at Chaoyang Park in Beijing, China Tuesday, June 7, 2011.

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Chinese Cheerleaders prepare for the Swatch World Tour Beach Volley Ball competition at Chaoyang Park in Beijing, China Tuesday, June 7, 2011.

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A young man poses for photos beside a sculpture in Beijing 798 Art Zone in Beijing, capital of China, June 6, 2011. (Xinhua/Wang Xibao)

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Photo taken on June 7, 2011 shows an electric multiple unit (EMU) in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province. The first EMU manufactured for Rio de Janeiro of Brazil was launched at Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. (CNR CRC) on Tuesday. A total of 30 electric multiple unit produced by CNR CRC will serve during the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. [Xinhua/Wang Haofei]

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Wedding photo of actor Deng Chao and his years-long girlfriend Sun Li was revealed. After the six-year love affair, the pair announced they were married at a registry in February. The wedding ceremony is held on June 7 in Shanghai. [Sina]

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Liu Jiafu, 65, plays with iron and hula hoops, which weigh about 5 kilograms, at Longtan Park in Beijing, June 6, 2011. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

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A border defense officer in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, displays two lobsters that were intercepted by authorities from smugglers on Tuesday. More than 30 bags of lobsters were confiscated by officers. [Photo/Xinhua]

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Yao Jiaxin at his trail in March 2011.

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XI'AN, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Yao Jiaxin, a university student who stabbed a young mother to death to cover up a hit-and-run accident, was executed on Tuesday in Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, with the approval of the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

Yao, 21, a student at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music, was convicted of murdering Zhang Miao last October in Xi'an to prevent her from reporting an earlier incident in which Yao hit her with his car.

Yao was sentenced to death by the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court on April 22. He appealed his sentence after the trial.

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China floods kill 52 as 100,000 flee homes
Posted: 08 June 2011 2309 hrs

BEIJING - Floods triggered by torrential rain in southern and central China have killed 52 people and forced more than 100,000 to flee their homes, state media reported on Wednesday.

Another 32 people were missing in the floods which have inundated parts of 12 provinces since the start of June, Shu Qingpeng, deputy head of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, told a conference, Xinhua news agency said.

The southwestern province of Guizhou was the hardest hit, with 21 dead, more than 30 missing and some 100,000 evacuated, Xinhua said in a separate report citing the ministry of finance.

Guizhou's Wangmo county recorded 122.5 millimetres (4.8 inches) of rainfall in one hour, the most in 200 years, Shu said.

The floods across China have destroyed nearly 7,500 houses and submerged 255,000 hectares (630,000 acres) of farmland, causing direct losses of 4.92 billion yuan (US$760 million), he said.

Shu warned local authorities to monitor rainfall and water levels as further heavy rains are expected to hit many parts of the country over the next few days.

In the province of Hunan, which neighbours Guizhou, around 16,000 people were evacuated in Loudi city during rainstorms, Xinhua reported on Monday.

The province has recently been hit by a severe drought, and the recent rains had helped alleviate the situation.

China suffers from serious summer rainfalls every year. In 2010, torrential downpours across large swathes of the country triggered the nation's worst floods in a decade.

More than 4,300 people died or went missing in China last year in landslides or floods, including 1,500 people who were killed in one devastating mudslide in the northwestern province of Gansu in August.

China's flood control and drought relief headquarters said Monday that the recent downpours had helped ease a severe drought along the Yangtze river, but warned that more than two million people still faced water shortages.

Weather authorities warned that rainfall this month, while relieving drought-hit areas, would also trigger floods in other parts of the country, Xinhua reported.

- AFP/al

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Japanese Porn Star Sora Aoi Phenomenon in Chinese Weibo
* Staff Reporter
* 2011-01-24
* 09:41 (GMT+8)

As soon as Japanese porn star Sora Aoi opened her Sina Weibo account appropriately on Nov. 11, 2010, Chinese Singles Day, she immediately became one of the hottest bloggers in China. In the world of the microblogging, the attention focused on the AV actress is beyond imagination and she is now listed no. 1 in the most influential microblogger polls.

Although she only posted a short notice on the first day , announcing she has opened an account on the Sina Weibo website as saying, "Hello to all Chinese friends, I'm Sora Aoi. Very pleased to meet you all. I have officially opened my Sina Weibo account, hopefully through this account we can get to know each other well. "

In her first six hours, Sora Aoi gained 130,000+ followers, exceeding her numbers on Twitter. By the end of the first day, her followers reached 220,000. Afterwards, in just over two months, she has accumulated 950,000+ followers; a number which continues to increase at a rate of over 10,000 per day.

Sora Aoi first rose to online fame when a Chinese netizen discovered her account on Twitter and shared to Sina Weibo: "Do you want to be face to face with Sora Aoi? Then go onto Twitter. Can't get on twitter? Then send email to [email protected], it has auto reply." Clearly, not all Chinese netizens who leap the Great Wall are political dissidents.

Sora Aoi decided to join Sina Weibo after a flood of Chinese followers found her on Twitter.

Even China's police pay close attention to Sora Aoi's blog, with the online blog of a police station in Dalian making her blog their sole interest.

Sora Aoi's presence is controversial in a country where porn is illegal,but also extremely popular. In fact, more and more foreign stars-of all professions, but especially Taiwanese pop stars-are using Weibo to connect to an eager mainland Chinese audience.

The reason for her popularity on the blog, according to the media, is that she entertains but never spams. She broadcasts but also listens and engages. Lastly, her posts are clearly authentic-clearly her-rather than a hired PR gun.

One of her posts said, "I know Chinese don't understand Japanese, so I try to write in English. but when I wrote in Japanese, I can't translation in English. SORRY!!"

She also expressed respect for Chinese culture. Sora Aoi gained popularity when she appealed to followers on her Twitter account to donate to those hit by the deadly earthquake in Qinghai Province, China in April 2010.

The most important thing maybe the daily renewal of Sora Aois photos.

Many celebrities view Weibo as a one-way channel of communication, but Sora Aoi interacts with her fans in ways that win their continued loyalty.

There are tens of thousands of porn stars out there, but no other has nearly a million fans on Sina Weibo. Sora Aoi has clearly made the most of her opportunity.

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For those who don't know who she is, she used to be a hardcore porn actress (Japan's equivalent of XXX, but with mosaic). Now, she is a softcore porn actress (M18 type films). Apparently, she also stars in mainstream movies as well, including 1 that was produced in Indonesia.

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