The municipal government of Xi,an, provincial capital of Northwest China¡¯s Shaanxi, has laid a deadline for the transformation of 432 coal-fueled boilers to alleviate the city¡¯s air pollution.
The listed boilers are required to finish transformation and be fueled with electricity or natural gas by the end of October. Those unqualified boilers must be demolished resolutely.
The air pollution is serious in Xi,an and the main pollutants include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and aspiratory particles, which account for 32% of the pollutants and far exceed the national standard. Research conducted by the city¡¯s environmental protection bureau concluded that coal soot is the main source of air pollution.
There are altogether, 1,561 coal-fueled boilers which consume over 4 million tons of coal a year. The listed boilers to be transformed right away are located within the area of the ancient city wall, economic and technical development areas as well as tourist resorts.
Northern Xinjiang: Oasis to Return
The eco-environment in northern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has suffered growing deterioration in the past 20 years due to abuse of land and water resources.
The lakes and streams dried up, woods and wild animals died, and desertification is expanding, which pose a serious threat to the local development of agriculture and living environment.
The severe situation aroused close attention of the government and a series of projects have been launched to restore the local ecological system.
The ongoing protection project for natural forest is the make effective measures to preserve the 600 acres of shrubs growing in the desert.
At the same time, towns and villages around the desert have jointly carried out the projects of sand-control and tree planting, water and soil conservation, as well as ecological preservation of pastures.
Shanghai: Special Bus Stop Signs for the Blind
The Bus Stop Guidance System for the Blind will soon be launched in Shanghai to free the blind people the trouble of riding bus, according to Shanghai Disabled People¡¯s Federation.
The guidance system comprises of a systematic ship set up at the bus stop. With a watch-sized transmitting device in hand and a touch on the button, a blind person can hear a voice announcing the name of the bus stop and guiding him to go there 20 meters away from the stop. And when a bus is coming, the system will announce softly the destination of the bus and the number of the bus line, as well as guide the user to get on board the bus.
It is reported that the preliminary test in successful.
Jobs for Mental Disabled
On 12 July 2002, dozens of mental disabled students, aged from 20 to 22, from Beijing Zhiguang Special Education & Training School, were formally employed by the Jingjing Meat Processing Factory. From now on they can live by themselves.
It is reported that most of the nearly 12 million mental disabled persons in China have to rely on their relatives. The jobs offered to these mental disabled students will enable them to work and live as any other people after three years of training.
Founded in September 1998, Zhiguang School is the only one of its kind to provide vocational training for mental disabled students. Enrolled at the school now are more than 200 students.
Li Xuemei, director of the investment department of the China Disabled Persons, Federation, said that Zhiguang,s cooperation with the Jingjing factory ¡°has set an example¡± for helping people with mental disability to be independent.
¡°It is a social issue worth the whole society¡¯s concern,¡± she said.
Free Education for Poor Children
The Honghuanglan Garden in Dalian, a beach city of northeastern China¡¯s Liaoning Province, is specialized in child development for kids up to 6 years old. Regarded as a leading institution for pre-school education, the garden is pursued by many parents who wish to send their kids in despite high charges.
Last summer the garden offered free education to five children from families living below the poverty line in the city. Liu Shichun, a five-year-old whose farther has suffered diabetes, and whose mother is laid off, is now enjoying himself in the garden with four other kids of the similar family background. None of them has been to any amusement parks before.
Blind Students Go to College
Blind students participated in the college entrance examination for the first time in Shanghai last summer. Four students from the city¡¯s school for blind people, Ren Zhenghao, Cai Jiafei, Li Dong and Zhu Hengyu, drew much attention of the society when passed the highly competitive tests and got admitted by colleges.
Yuan Jinxing, the school principal, said the school started its senior class for the blind kids who wished to go up to colleges four years ago, with support of the municipal government.
Special arrangement was made by the school and educational authorities of the city to facilitate the four students in their pursuit of their university dream. The Disabled Persons, Federation of Shanghai helped them with the tuition waver.
The four pioneers success has greatly inspired the 30 students now studying in the senior class.
In Beijing, more than 98% of the disabled school-age students have received the nine-year compulsory education. From 1996 to 2001, there were 300 disabled students admitted to the colleges in the city.
Guizhou: Loans for College Students
College students from poverty-stricken families will not worry about their tuition fees any more in Southwest China¡¯s Guizhou Province. To date, a total of 8,872 college students have got financial-aid-to-student loans, with a total of 22 million yuan granted by the local banks.
The financial-aid-to-student loan was initially launched in the autumn of 2000. In 2001, the state-owned commercial banks gave more attention to the work. The Industrial and Commercial Bank made an investigation on the family situations of students who applied for a loan, while the Agriculture Bank started to offer loans to the freshmen.
Two Million Yuan for Dropouts
To help the dropouts in disaster-stricken areas return to school, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, All-China Youth Federation and China Youth Development Foundation have jointly launched a campaign to donate money for them.
To date, members of the National Committee of All-china Youth Federation have already donated a total of 2 million yuan.
Since last June disastrous floods have inundated many areas in China, posing a threat to people¡¯s life and production. Many school students were affected by the floods and could not continue their studies.
The China Youth Development Foundation will deliver the donation to the schools in areas most adversely struck by the floods as soon as possible.
Beijing: Textbooks to Be Cheaper
Beijing is to cut the price of textbooks and offer free textbooks to students from poverty-stricken families in the near future.
The municipal government has promulgated regulations and mandates concerning the price cut and further reform of textbook administration for primary and secondary schools.
According to the mandates, no educational administration or their subordinate institutions and schools should collect fees for developing and promoting new textbooks, or for training. And such expenses should not be counted as the cost of textbooks.
From the autumn of 2002, the Beijing municipal government will offer free textbooks to local students from poverty-stricken families during their compulsory education period. Schools should not collect fees under any excuse or in any form students who are eligible to enjoy free textbooks.
Chongqing: Legal Advice for Prisoners
A Legal Advice Center for Prisoners was set up recently in Chongqing City, to offer free law consultation service to inmates.
¡°The center will not only provide a convenient channel for prisoners to seek solutions to their problems, but also offer valuable materials for legal research and teaching¡±, said Professor Zhao Changqing, a famous expert on criminal laws.
¡°This kind of consultation is much more authoritative and convincing. It will enable us to better understand our faults, ¡°said Li Xuechun, an inmate convicted of robbing.
On its inauguration day, more than 300 prisoners in the Chongqing Jail sought legal advice.
The law experts and lawyers of the center will visit the jail on an irregular basis every year and offer legal advice to prisoners. Prisoners can also get a written reply from lawyers if they ask questions in written form.
UN Program for Rural Women
Talking about a United Nations (UN) loan program available to them, some village women in Southwest China¡¯s Yunnan Province deal as ¡°a hen for a buffalo¡±.
Jiang Dongzhi from Longling County once did not have enough to feed and clothe her family. Now she earns an annual income of 12,000 yuan (US$1, 445.8), thanks to the Social Development Program for Poor Areas (SPPA) under the United Nations Children¡¯s Fund.
SPPA is a program targeted at women in poverty-stricken areas and aims to help them get rid of poverty. Besides providing loans, the program also run training workshops for rural women, giving them agricultural instructions and advice.
The program has provided 7.6 million yuan (US$915,663) in loans in Jiang,s county and has given 220 practical training courses on subjects ranging from planting, breeding, to processing. According to official statistics, a total of 18,000 women (Person time) have attended the courses.