Saturday, 8 January 2011
Very Very Fast Train, Beijing-Shanghai
Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Rail
The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway will be put into operation by the middle of June this year, Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun said at a conference Tuesday.
The high-speed link connecting the country's two most important cities will open ahead of its original schedule, previously set in 2012.
The construction of the 1,318-km railway was started in April 2008 with total investment estimated at 220.9 billion yuan (around 32.5 billion U.S. dollars).
The railway is expected to cut travel time between Beijing, China's capital in the north, and Shanghai, the country's economic center in the east, to less than five hours, compared with the current 10-hour rail journey.
On Dec. 3, 2010, a China-made CRH380A train set a new speed record of 486.1 km per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.
Also at the conference, Liu said the combined length of China's operating high-speed railways had reached 8,358 km by the end of 2010.
Total length of high-speed railways would reach 13,000 km by 2011, and 16,000 km by 2015, Liu said.
China plans to invest 700 billion yuan for the construction of railways this year, Liu said.
He said the total length of China's railways had reached 91,000 km by 2010, and the railways would reach 120,000 km in five years.
In 2010, 1.68 billion passenger journeys were conducted through the nation's railways, up 9.9 percent year on year. The railways had also transported 3.63 billion tonnes of goods, up 9.3 percent.
The high-speed link connecting the country's two most important cities will open ahead of its original schedule, previously set in 2012.
The construction of the 1,318-km railway was started in April 2008 with total investment estimated at 220.9 billion yuan (around 32.5 billion U.S. dollars).
The railway is expected to cut travel time between Beijing, China's capital in the north, and Shanghai, the country's economic center in the east, to less than five hours, compared with the current 10-hour rail journey.
On Dec. 3, 2010, a China-made CRH380A train set a new speed record of 486.1 km per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.
Also at the conference, Liu said the combined length of China's operating high-speed railways had reached 8,358 km by the end of 2010.
Total length of high-speed railways would reach 13,000 km by 2011, and 16,000 km by 2015, Liu said.
China plans to invest 700 billion yuan for the construction of railways this year, Liu said.
He said the total length of China's railways had reached 91,000 km by 2010, and the railways would reach 120,000 km in five years.
In 2010, 1.68 billion passenger journeys were conducted through the nation's railways, up 9.9 percent year on year. The railways had also transported 3.63 billion tonnes of goods, up 9.3 percent.
CHINA President to visit USA President for Official State Visit
Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay a state visit to the United States from Jan. 18 to 21 at the invitation of U.S. President Barack Obama, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei announced Friday.
RABBIT YEAR
Thursday, 6 January 2011
New Links between Thailand and China
China to build $1.5 bn trading centre in Thailand
BEIJING, January 6, 2011 (AFP) - China will build a "commercial city" in Thailand worth $1.5 billion that will allow traders to re-export Chinese-made goods and avoid costly tariffs, state media said Thursday.
More than 70,000 Chinese traders are expected to operate in the China City Complex in Bangkok, helping them miss levies on products shipped directly from China, the China Daily said, citing officials involved in the development.
The 700,000-square-metre (7.5 million square foot) centre -- equivalent to 100 football pitches -- will resemble the world's largest wholesale market for small products in the city of Yiwu in eastern China, the report said.
Construction of the centre will begin on January 18 and is expected to be finished by 2013, it added.
"Apart from the business opportunities in Thailand, Chinese exporters can also promote their products to developed markets such as the European Union and the United States through this project," Yang Fangshu, chairman of the ASEAN-China Economic and Trade Promotion Centre, was quoted as saying.
China signed a free trade agreement with Southeast Asian countries including Thailand in January 2010 which reduced or removed tariffs on traded goods.
Export-driven China has seen its trade surplus with the rest of the world balloon in recent years, reaching $196.1 billion in 2009 and triggering rows with trading partners who complain their shelves are been flooded with cheap Chinese-made products.
China was targeted in a record 127 cases brought by trading nations in 2009, the report said, without providing details.
The country's trade surplus likely topped $190 billion in 2010, a commerce ministry official said recently. China is due to release full-year trade data next week.
There have been a series of trade spats between China and its key trading partners, the United States and Europe, from chicken products and modems to steel fasteners and China's yuan exchange rate policy.
Washington has led a chorus of complaints that China's exchange rate controls have made the country's exports artificially cheap and given its manufacturers an unfair advantage.
BEIJING, January 6, 2011 (AFP) - China will build a "commercial city" in Thailand worth $1.5 billion that will allow traders to re-export Chinese-made goods and avoid costly tariffs, state media said Thursday.
More than 70,000 Chinese traders are expected to operate in the China City Complex in Bangkok, helping them miss levies on products shipped directly from China, the China Daily said, citing officials involved in the development.
The 700,000-square-metre (7.5 million square foot) centre -- equivalent to 100 football pitches -- will resemble the world's largest wholesale market for small products in the city of Yiwu in eastern China, the report said.
Construction of the centre will begin on January 18 and is expected to be finished by 2013, it added.
"Apart from the business opportunities in Thailand, Chinese exporters can also promote their products to developed markets such as the European Union and the United States through this project," Yang Fangshu, chairman of the ASEAN-China Economic and Trade Promotion Centre, was quoted as saying.
China signed a free trade agreement with Southeast Asian countries including Thailand in January 2010 which reduced or removed tariffs on traded goods.
Export-driven China has seen its trade surplus with the rest of the world balloon in recent years, reaching $196.1 billion in 2009 and triggering rows with trading partners who complain their shelves are been flooded with cheap Chinese-made products.
China was targeted in a record 127 cases brought by trading nations in 2009, the report said, without providing details.
The country's trade surplus likely topped $190 billion in 2010, a commerce ministry official said recently. China is due to release full-year trade data next week.
There have been a series of trade spats between China and its key trading partners, the United States and Europe, from chicken products and modems to steel fasteners and China's yuan exchange rate policy.
Washington has led a chorus of complaints that China's exchange rate controls have made the country's exports artificially cheap and given its manufacturers an unfair advantage.
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