QINGHAI, August 09, SinoCast -- China is planning to build two new railways from Golmud, Qinghai province respectively to Korla, Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Dunhuang, Gansu Province, making Golmud the transportation center in the whole northwest region.

The feasibility study report on the would-be railway from Golmud to Korla has been completed, expected to start in the eleventh or twelfth Five-Year Plan period. The railroad will be a second convenient passage connecting Xinjiang with China inland and a part of China's second Eurasia Bridge.

It has permitted the construction plan on the railway from Golmud to Dunhang, expected to start working in the eleventh Five-Year Plan period.

Thu Aug 10, 3:50 AM ET 

BEIJING (AFP) - A Chinese online encyclopedia has closed down due to government pressure as China continues to crack down on Internet information it sees as dangerous, an international rights group said.

e-Wiki, a collaborative Internet encyclopedia modelled on the hugely successful Wikipedia, closed itself down in late July, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement received here Thursday.

e-Wiki decided to close after it called Taiwan the "Republic of China" and posted information on James Lung, a Hong Kong activist who is close to the banned Falungong movement, the press watchdog said.

 Always On the 15 th Day of the 8th Month by the Chinese Lunar Calendar
(If you are interested, want  to experience personally, Want to feel an enchanting night please contact me  We are in Lijiang_Yunnan_China)

The Moon Festival is a holiday in China. It's an occasion for family reunion. Chinese families like to get together to eat the moon cakes and watch the moon at the Moon Festival night. For the people are out of town or for Chinese are from China stay in everywhere, they miss their family or the lover at home and share the same moon at the night of the Moon Festival before the Internet gets popular.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese vets and dentists are considering implanting three false teeth into a giant panda injured in the wilds of the northern province of Shaanxi, Xinhua news agency said.

The operation would help the panda -- who also suffered a fractured skull, broken legs and chest injuries after an apparent fall into a ravine -- to take in more nutrition and help it recover, Xinhua said late on Wednesday.

"With the three teeth, the giant panda will be able to eat bamboo with ease," Xinhua quoted Li Liujin, a military hospital doctor, as saying.

The animal, found by tourists on July 1 by a river at a scenic spot near Shaanxi's provincial capital, Xian, had already sparked a frantic hunt for panda blood plasma for a transfusion.

My girlfriend has mentioned this "plant" to me a few times, but I didn't believe what she was talking about.

YAJIANG - Amid towering mountains stretching from western China into Tibet, a tiny fungus is luring herders into a feverish treasure hunt that promises wealth to people who have often been bystanders at China's economic party.

At a mountain pass more than 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) above sea level outside Yajiang County in Sichuan province, a herder, Tangba, and a dozen other men have joined tens of thousands of Tibetans hunkered on treeless slopes across the region, squinting for signs of what Chinese call "worm grass" -- a prized medicine.

. . . remote Chinese village of Huangyangtan which hosts what must be the strangest military installation ever spotted by the Google Earth Community:

Zooming in for a closer look, we have what appears to be a 900x700m scale model of a mountainous landscape complete with lakes, valleys and snow-capped peaks.

It's clear that a huge amount of time and resources has been invested in this perplexing scale model, which incidentally represents an area of around 450 by 350 kilometers. The big question is: why?

BEIJING (Reuters) - Fighting people smugglers and drug runners is old hat for China's border police who now have a new duty -- defusing marital squabbles and other disputes.

Police officials said on Tuesday that the policy -- called "love the people, consolidate the borders" -- made perfect sense, as a happy populace that trusts the authorities helps make China's frontiers safer.

"It provides a protective screen for the social and economic development of the country in this important strategic period," Chen Weiming, director of the Ministry of Public Security's frontier bureau, told a news conference.

A student in Wuhan, capital of China's central province of Hubei, used earphones so small that they slipped into his aural canal and perforated his eardrum, the China Daily newspaper said.

Another student's earphones required an operation for their removal, the paper said, while an electronic device connected to headphones and strapped to a third student's body exploded, leaving a bleeding hole in his abdomen.

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Chinese cities have been ordered to put back their cycle lanes in the hope of restoring the nation's image as the land of the bicycle.

The government is also considering following London's lead and introducing congestion charges to cut traffic.

"Some Chinese cities are cutting back on bicycle lanes to make more room for cars, just as some western cities are beginning to build more of them," the unusually environment-conscious vice-minister of construction, Qiu Baoxing, told a planning conference yesterday. He said China should remain what he called the kingdom of bicycles.

Translated from the entrance examination for Chinese civil servants. 

From the entrance exam for Chinese civil servants. Last year, 365,000 people applied for 10,282 openings; they had 120 minutes to answer 130 questions. Translated from the Chinese by Eric Abrahamsen. Originally from Harper's Magazine, February 2006.

1. Why don’t polar bears live in Antarctica?
2. Why do crocodiles cry when they encounter food?
3. Why did Britain discontinue weather reports during WWII?
4. Why is the air especially fresh after a summer thunderstorm?
5. Why can’t seawater be consumed?
6. Fill in the next number in the sequence: 2, 3, 13, 175, ___.
7. Color blindness is a hereditary disease. But more men are observed to be color-blind than women. Why?
8. Often, when a thing is just begun, it is impossible to know how it will end, much less whether society will acknowledge it. If you want success you must make every possible effort, you must keep a cool head and resist anxiety. If you work calmly and steadfastly, you will attain happiness. But if you are constantly focused on the fruits of success, the loneliness will be unbearable; you’ll be unable to stay the course and will end up empty-handed. During these times we should remember that ________.
1. Good things all come at a price.
2. No pain, no gain.
3. If winter is here, can spring be far behind?
4. The road is winding, but the future is bright.

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