Western China - news and development

[JSCh]

Boy's determination to buy new football touches hearts
By Ma Chi | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-05-15 15:02

A photo shows 8-year-old Abdehailk giving a wad of 1 yuan notes to his teacher to buy him a football. [Photo/Weibo.com]

A Xinjiang boy's love for soccer has touched the hearts of many people, the Beijing Youth Daily reports.

Sports teacher Abdenabijan put a post on social network WeChat on May 12 about a young student who presented him with a stack of 1 yuan notes and asked him to buy a new football.

The teacher at Er'cun Primary School in BoxErik township in Yecheng county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said the grade two student had saved up for several months.

One of the pictures shows 8-year-old Abdehailk grinning with a wad of wrinkled money in his hand.

"I am so moved. I hope to see more kids who love soccer," the teacher posted on his WeChat account.

The story was shared by many web users and became a hot topic on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service. A post about the boy's efforts, published by China Soccer Report on Weibo received nearly 50,000 likes and about 3,000 comments, with a lot of people expressing their willingness to help the boy.

A stack of small notes saved by the boy over several months. [Photo/Weibo.com]

Abdenabijan said the boy asked him several months ago how much it cost to buy a new football. Not taking it seriously at the time, he told him it cost 30 to 40 yuan and promised to help the boy buy one if he had enough money.

The teacher thought nothing more about the conversation until the boy came back to him recently with 39 yuan.

"When he gave the money to me, he was so happy. It seemed like a dream had come true".

"This has touched me deeply because I realized I have underestimated the kids' enthusiasm for football."

Abdnabijan said he founded a school football team four years ago, but due to his heavy workload running multiple courses including Chinese, science and physical education, the training became less and less frequent and the football team was put aside.

According to Abdnabijan, the school has 480 students and only 23 teachers.

Teacher Abdenabijan with his enthusiastic student Abdehailk. [Photo/Weibo.com]

As the first PE teacher at the school, Abdnabijan said not having a decent football ground and jerseys and boots were major difficulties.

Abdnabijan used some of his salary to buy make-shift jerseys for the students and turned an open space into a pitch. Although the field was bumpy, he said "the kids love playing soccer and they enjoy each PE class so much that they never want to be dismissed."

The boy's story touched many people on the web.

Among them was Dong Lu, a well-known soccer commentator. Dong managed to contact the teacher, promising to buy soccer gear for the students and help set up soccer teams in the other schools in the township. He also proposed to film a documentary about soccer-loving kids in the southern part of Xinjiang.

"I myself have a special affection for soccer. After seeing the wrinkled money the boy handed to his teacher, I decided to help them."

 

[beijingwalker]

What the hell is this in Tibet!? The huge crowds can easily turn to stampede and people may die from this. Why there are no police present to maintain the order and keep people safe.

 

[beijingwalker]

I am just curious of what they are doing in this video, why the crowds get so agitated and to some point it's coming to the brink of losing control. Any one knows?

 

[Wolfwind]

Yes that looked dangerous. It needs to be formalised with barricades, security, and police. The monks should have a designated path leading to their destination, and onlookers / photographers should be behind the barricades. There should be an entry fee as well to reduce the crowds, there was just too many people.

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

They had it well in hand. It looked like people were trying to touch the object of the parade.

At 2.30 mark the shot of the bridge was very grand.

 

[beijingwalker]

This western report is ridiculous, Xinjiang is very safe in recent years, how can a place's tourism be thriving if it was being attacked repeatedly? what a nonsense!


Tourism thrives in Xinjiang despited repeated attacks and ethnic clashes

 

[Echo_419]

What the hell is this in Tibet!? The huge crowds can easily turn to stampede and people may die from this. Why there are no police present to maintain the order and keep people safe.

I thought you were gonna bad mouth some country

 

[AndrewJin]

This is in Gansu Province, Northwest China.

 

[Beast]

Western loves to fabricate news to make them better becos reality is hard for them to accept as western world is declining.

 

[JSCh]

All aboard: Urumqi's first subway line nears completion
CGTN
Published on Jun 13, 2017

The first subway line in the capital of China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is nearing completion. Testing on Urumqi's Line 1 is expected to take place before the end of the year. Construction of the subway began in 2014. Once finished, the line will stretch 27 kilometers and serve 21 stations.

 

[TaiShang]

Tibet attracts unprecedented investment from central SOEs
Xinhua, June 14, 2017

Southwest China's Tibet Province is set to see a record influx of investment from central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as the region has signed cooperation agreements with 36 central SOEs for 347 projects.

The agreements, inked Tuesday at a meeting on strategic cooperation in Lhasa, the regional capital, cover energy, transport and industrial sectors among others. They will play an active role in developing industries, improving the livelihoods of locals and helping Tibet realize a moderately prosperous society by 2020 together with the whole nation, said the regional government.

The new projects marked unprecedented investment from central SOEs in the region with high-level and broader cooperation between Tibet and central SOEs, it added.

The participating SOEs include State Grid, China Baowu Steel Group, and China Power Construction Corporation.

Xiao Yaqing, head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said the commission and central SOEs will boost green development and contribute to poverty reduction in the region as part of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

Central SOEs must put environmental protection first, abide by national and local environmental laws, and strictly control highly polluting facilities, he said at the meeting.

http://www.china.org.cn/business/2017-06/14/content_41027582.htm

 

[AndrewJin]

All aboard: Urumqi's first subway line nears completion
CGTN
Published on Jun 13, 2017

The first subway line in the capital of China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is nearing completion. Testing on Urumqi's Line 1 is expected to take place before the end of the year. Construction of the subway began in 2014. Once finished, the line will stretch 27 kilometers and serve 21 stations.

Awesome news!

 

[JSCh]

China Focus: Scientists begin major expedition in Tibet in 40 years
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-17 22:04:20|Editor: MJ

LHASA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China on Saturday began its second scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to study changes in climate, biodiversity and environment over the past decades.

The last expedition of similar scale was conducted in the 1970s.

This time, the expedition will last five to 10 years and the first stop will be Serling Tso, a 2,391-square-kilometer lake that was confirmed to have replaced the Buddhist holy lake Namtso as Tibet's largest in 2014.

In the coming month, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will take more than 100 scientists to the lake area and the origin of the Yangtze, China's longest river. They will be divided into four groups and make a comprehensive survey of the plateau glaciers, climate change, biodiversity and ecological changes, said Yao Tandong, an academician with the CAS.

"Great changes have taken place in the plateau's resources and environment since the first scientific expedition," said Yao, director of the CAS Institute of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research. "We need further research to find out ways to cope with these changes."

China's first comprehensive scientific expedition to the Tibet plateau began in the 1970s and covered more than 50 disciplines including geologic structure, prehistoric life, geophysics, climate, zoology and botany.

"The scientists reported major discoveries and filled many gaps in plateau research," said Yao.

The new round of research, he said, will focus on changes.

Zhu Liping, a CAS researcher leading the lake observation team, said the surface of Serling Tso Lake, for example, had expanded 40 percent between 1976 and 2009.

Since 1990, water in the plateau's 1,000 lakes has increased by 100 billion cubic meters.

"The volume is equal to three times the water in Three Gorges Dam," Zhu said. Study will measure the impact on the ecology and its potential link to flooding and drought in the low-lying eastern monsoon region.

Zhu said data will be collected by scientists using automatic boats for the first time and a topographic map will be drawn.

"The plateau climate is becoming warmer and more humid," said Xu Baiqing, who leads another team to the glaciers.

The team will drill ice cores at three major plateau glacier groups. Buried in the cold interiors of glaciers, ice cores contain well-preserved and detailed records of climate change in a century.

The impact of climatic changes would be assessed and proposals for conservation and rational development of resources formulated.

On the archaeological front, scientists will look for evidence that can prove an earlier archaeological discovery of a Paleolithic ruins in the Serling Tso suggesting that humans might have been lived on this part of the world since some 30,000 years ago.

Archaeologists will try to answer why humans came to this plateau, where did they come from, and how did they adapt to high altitude living, according to team leader Deng Tao, deputy director of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, under CAS.

A fourth team will research the biological diversity on the plateau and draw up a habitat map for preservation and tourism purposes.

A national park might be set up in Serling Tso.

The expedition will also take scientists to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and a pass linking to south Asia.

 

[JSCh]

Shanghai expertise brings hope to Tibetan city
By Ke Jiayun | 00:01 UTC+8 June 19, 2017

SHIGATSE, the second-largest city in Tibet, is a long way from Shanghai, both in distance, wealth and culture. But there is a bond between the two cities that has endured and grown stronger for more than two decades.

Shanghai has been paired with Shigatse as part of a national assistance program, delivering experienced government officials, expertise and humanitarian aid from a rich city to a poorer backwater. Yesterday marked the eighth group’s anniversary.

Fifty-five program participants, including teachers and doctors, will be returning to Shanghai next month, with some new one-year team members taking over. A further 54 staff, mostly administrative, will stay on for two more years.

Most of the Shanghai participants in the program are men aged 25 to 55.

Wu Xing is one of 23 medical team members dispatched to Shigatse People’s Hospital last year. The neurosurgeon from Huashan Hospital will be returning home with 18 other medical staff. He said he had operated on more than 70 patients during his time in Tibet. Forty of the operations were complicated surgeries.

He recalled his first days in Tibet. “We were told to relax in the first week for adjusting to the high altitude,” he said. “However, on the sixth day there, a patient suffered a serious brain hemorrhage was sent to the hospital and I was called in.”

Wu’s first patient was a Tibetan man in 50s, who had a history of high pressure – a common affliction on the high plateau. When Wu arrived, his patient was bleeding in his brain. Emergency surgery was required. The operation was successful. “The longest surgery I ever had in Tibet was about 21 hours,” Wu told Shanghai Daily, referring to a brain tumor case. “It was truly hard work, and sometimes I had to rest awhile for oxygen inhale before continuing.”

In the past, without the help of the outside specialists, Tibetans could expect treatment only for surgeries outside the brain. But now, with the medical expertise and equipment Shanghai specialists took to Shigatse, brain operations and even deep locations are possible.

Since Wu and his team arrived, the death rate of neurosurgical patients at the Shigatse hospital has dropped by nearly a half.

“People used to give up when learning they had serious brain problems,” Wu said. “They had no hope. We have to give them that hope.”

Shanghai’s medical expertise obviously addresses a serious gap in the lives of Shigatse area residents. An equally important contribution is in educational development.

Fu Xin, vice principal of the High School Attached to Shanghai Normal University, has headed up the Shanghai Experimental School in Shigatse. He and a team of 39 members have turned the school into one of the best educational facilities in Tibet. It is the only school in the autonomous region that offers elementary to high school education under one roof.

Fu’s team introduced innovations like online classes, academic evaluation and a comprehensive database.

 

[TaiShang]

NW China province pilots 100% green power supply
By Ma Chi | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-06-19

Longyangxia Hydropower Station in Gonghe county, Qinghai province. [Photo/VCG]

As part of the country's efforts to develop in a low-carbon manner, Northwest China's Qinghai province has launched a week-long pilot program in which all electricity would be powered by clean energy.

Qinghai is located in the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Rich in renewable energy resources, the province produces 82.8 percent of its electricity through sustainable sources, said the State Grid Qinghai Electricity Power Co at a news conference on Sunday.

During the pilot project from June 17 to 23, 175 million kWh of electricity will be produced every day across the province, with 78.3 percent of it generated by water power and 21.7 percent by other renewable sources.

Han Ti, deputy general manager of the company, said a similar project was carried out in 2016 in Portugal, a country with a similar power consumption and energy mix as Qinghai.

Compared with the Portugal project which lasted for 107 hours, the Qinghai pilot program will be of longer duration, and boast a larger share of solar power, he said.

The pilot project is expected to set an example for the development of clean energy in China, he said.

Statistics show China's CO2 emission per unit of GDP dropped by 26.2 percent from 2011 to 2016. And the country pledged to cut emission intensity down to 60-65 percent lower than 2005 by 2030, according to the Paris Agreement.

It also aims to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy mix from 12 percent in 2015 to 20 percent by 2030.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-06/19/content_29797789.htm