13/12/2019
- Sinkhole suddenly opened up near subway station in city of Xiamen but no one is killed or injured
- Taxi driver whose vehicle was swallowed up says he and his passenger were able to pull themselves free unaided
The hole opened up at a site in Xiamen. Photo: Weibo
Two cars have been swallowed by a hole that opened up in the ground near a subway station in southeast China.
It is the latest of a string of ground collapses involving subway projects in mainland cities this year.
The 500 square metre hole opened up just before 10pm on Thursday near Lucuo station in Xiamen, a city in Fujian province.
The city’s subway operator said no one had died or been injured in the accident and the people in the two cars had been able to get out on their own.
The accident also caused water pipes to burst, flooding the station.
No injuries were reported after the incident. Photo: Weibo
The road and station were temporarily closed after the accident, but normal services resumed on Friday morning.
One of the cars swallowed was a taxi, and the driver told Beijing News he had been driving along the road when he suddenly found the vehicle falling into the hole.
The man, surnamed Chang, dragged his passenger free and they were able to climb out of the pit unaided. He said the car had not been seriously damaged.
Three people are still missing after a similar accident in the southern city of Guangzhou earlier this month that swallowed a truck and electric bike.
Five workers were also killed in the eastern port city of Qingdao in May in an accident at a subway construction site.
Source: SCMP
Posted in accident, burst, cars, drivers, flooding, Fujian, ground collapses, Guangzhou, hole, lucky escape, Lucuo station, mainland, mainland cities, passengers, Qingdao, southeast China, station, subway projects, swallows, The Beijing News, Uncategorized, water pipes, Xiamen |
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12/12/2019
- Wang Fuman became an internet sensation after he was pictured with his head encrusted in ice after freezing trek to school
- Life has improved since then, but his dad says they are still struggling to make ends meet
Nine-year-old Wang Fuman’s family has now moved from their mud hut to a two-storey home. Photo: AFP
The father of the “Ice Boy” – who became an internet sensation after he was pictured with his head covered in icicles following a freezing trek to school in southwest China – has spoken out about being rejected for a poverty alleviation scheme.
Wang Gangkui’s son, Wang Fuman, was eight when a photo of him taken by a teacher went viral on social media in January last year. It showed the little boy with his hair and eyebrows covered in ice and his cheeks ruddy from the cold after he had walked for over an hour from his home in thin clothing and no hat along treacherous mountain paths.
The plight of the impoverished primary school pupil from Ludian county, a poor area in Zhaotong, Yunnan province, touched hearts across China, with many people expressing sympathy online for the hardships the boy, and other children like him, endured to get to school. Donations of money, warm clothes and heating flooded in.
The photo of Wang Fuman arriving at school with his hair and eyebrows covered in ice went viral last year. Photo: news.163.com
But according to his 30-year-old father, the family is still struggling to make ends meet. He said his application for the assistance scheme had been turned down for the past five years without a satisfactory explanation.
“It’s unfair and unjust that my application wasn’t approved,” Wang Gangkui said on Thursday. “There are allegations in media reports that I have various assets, and they’re just not true. And neither am I trying to take advantage of my son’s fame,” he said.
Families approved for the means-tested scheme, a nationwide programme that is administered at the local level, are given benefits ranging from subsidies to vocational training and job opportunities.
Geng Tao, the party secretary of Zhuanshanbao village, told China News Service on Monday that the Wang family did not meet the eligibility criteria for the programme, citing their two-storey house with a total area of 160 sq metres.
Wang was responding to criticism from internet users after he posted his complaint on social media app Jinri Toutiao on Sunday, a post he later deleted. Some accused him of taking advantage of his son’s fame to get access to government aid, claiming the family was being “greedy” as they were already doing better than others in the region because of the donations they received last year.
State media also weighed in, with Beijing News saying in an editorial on Tuesday that “the authorities should not be influenced by public sentiment towards the Ice Boy and should look at the family’s real situation when assessing if they are in need or not”.
Wang acknowledged that the media attention and subsequent donations from the public had eased the family’s situation, but said they only received a small share.
“There were a lot of donations, but most of them went to the school and were shared among all the pupils and their families here,” he said. “Our family only received a small amount of money.”
After Fuman’s photo went viral, the Ludian county education authorities said there were many “Ice Boys” in the area, and all donations received had been distributed to local families in need, according to China News Service.
A local charity organisation received more than 300,000 yuan (US$42,500) in donations from the public, and said the money was shared among pupils at the Zhuanshanbao primary school, with Fuman receiving just 500 yuan.
Life has improved for Fuman and his family since the photo was taken. He was a
– a term used to describe youngsters from poor families whose parents work in cities away from home, leaving them in the care of relatives. His parents have now returned to their hometown and his father works nearby at a construction site in Zhaotong, earning 3,000 yuan a month – a relatively high salary for the area. But he is the breadwinner for the family of five – his wife, Lu Dafeng, and their two children, Fuman and their 11-year-old daughter Wang Fumei, as well as his mother.
They moved out of their mud hut into the two-storey home, and with the donated funds, Fuman’s primary school was renovated and now has a dormitory equipped with heating. Fuman stays at the school during the week and returns to his home – a 20-minute walk away – on the weekend.
Wang Gangkui said his wife and mother could not apply for jobs designated as “public welfare” positions – such as a street cleaner post offering 500 yuan a month – because they were not recognised as a family in need under the scheme.
He also dismissed media reports that he had two cars, saying he had a second-hand van worth no more than 3,000 yuan. He said reports that his family also had cattle were not true.
Instead, he said he was paying off a loan of tens of thousands of yuan that he took out to build the family’s new house.
There were an estimated 16.6 million people living in poverty in rural China at the end of 2018, about 14 million fewer than a year earlier, according to official data. The ruling Communist Party set the ambitious target of eliminating extreme poverty in China by the end of 2020, and claims that more than 700 million people have already been lifted out of poverty over the past four decades.
Posted in ‘Ice Boy’, China News Service, China’s, Critics, donations, encrusted in ice, Family, father, flooded, freezing tre, head, heating, money, mud hut, poverty assistance scheme, responds, school, The Beijing News, two-storey home, Uncategorized, warm clothes, Yunnan Province |
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22/10/2019
- ‘Snow Dragons’ Xuelong and Xuelong II leave on China’s 36th Antarctic expedition
- Mission to resource-rich continent carries great scientific and economic weight
A ceremony is held for the maiden voyage of China’s home-built polar icebreaker Xuelong II in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Photo: Xinhua
China has sent two icebreakers to the
Antarctic in its most ambitious polar expedition to the Earth’s resource-rich southernmost continent yet.
The Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, left Shanghai on Tuesday morning with a crew of 107 and 1,450 tonnes of supplies on board. It is expected to meet another icebreaker, Xuelong II, at Zhongshan Station on Prydz Bay in East Antarctica in late November before the ships carry out separate missions in the region.
This will be the 36th official Antarctic expedition for China, and the first involving two research icebreakers. Xuelong II, the first Chinese-built vessel of its kind, was commissioned in July and left for its maiden Antarctic journey last week. The ships will be back in China by late spring next year.
The voyages have been hailed by state media as “the start of China’s new era of polar exploration”. Zhao Yanping, the captain of Xuelong II, was quoted by the Science Daily website as saying that experts believed the ships could significantly expand Chinese science missions in the polar regions.
China’s Xuelong icebreaker was bought from Ukraine in 1994. Photo: Handout
Xuelong II, with propellers at bow and stern, can make up to 15 knots (28km/h) in open water and three knots (5.6km/h) when breaking ice. Observers said it could pave the way for a nuclear-powered icebreaker.
Xuelong, the country’s first polar research vessel, bought from Ukraine in 1994, is to carry out surveys in the Amundsen and Ross seas.
A report by The Beijing News said that Xuelong’s crew would also visit Inexpressible Island in Terra Nova Bay on the Ross Sea to help in construction work on China’s fifth Antarctic scientific station, which is expected to be operational in 2022.
How Chinese access to Chilean port could give Antarctic exploration activities a boost
Since it joined the Antarctic Treaty in June 1983, China has steadily increased its stakes in a region that contains vast, untapped natural resources, including oil, gas and minerals.
Last year, China announced it would begin building its first permanent airfield on Antarctica – a 1,500 metre strip to be located on an ice cap about 28 kilometres from Zhongshan Station.
Meanwhile, Chinese businesses have taken an interest in the region. Food companies have been among the largest players in fishing krill – tiny, protein-rich shrimp-like creatures that are abundant in Antarctic waters. Tourists from China now account for 16 per cent of the total number of travellers to the world’s last great untouched wilderness, second to visitors from the United States, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.
While Beijing said its engagement in the Antarctic would be “peaceful” and the focus of its expeditions was on protecting the environment, its growing presence there has raised concerns in the West, particularly among established explorers such as Australia and the US.
Australia said at the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart, Tasmania, this week, that despite opposition from China and Russia, it would push for the creation of marine reserves off East Antarctica.
China’s new icebreaker Snow Dragon II ready for Antarctica voyage later this year
China and Australia have also been at odds over Beijing’s proposal to establish a code of conduct for the region around Dome A on the Antarctic Plateau, an area on the top of the ice sheet ideal for space and satellite observation. Canberra rejected the proposal, saying that Dome A is inside its territory.
Source: SCMP
Posted in airfield, Amundsen and Ross seas, Antarctic Plateau, Antarctic rendezvous, Antarctic Treaty, Australia, ‘Snow Dragons’, Canberra, ceremony, Chilean port, Chinese icebreakers, Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Dome A, guangdong province, herald, Inexpressible Island, International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, krill, mission, new era, polar exploration, polar icebreaker, Prydz Bay, resource-rich continent, Ross Sea, scientific and economic weight, set sail, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Snow Dragon II, Terra Nova Bay, The Beijing News, Ukraine, Uncategorized, United States, Xuelong, Xuelong II, Zhongshan Station |
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30/09/2019
- Three films that opened on Monday morning rake in US$76.6 million by midday
- Palme d’Or winner Chen Kaige heads bill with ensemble that has movie-goers in tears
My People, My Country looks at seven events in the past 70 years through the eyes of seven Chinese directors. Photo: Baidu
Three films that paid tribute to the People’s Republic of China on the eve of its 70th anniversary grossed a total of 546 million yuan (US$76.6 million) at the box offices hours after opening on Monday, Maoyan Entertainment, China’s largest movie ticketing app, said.
My People, My Country, consisting of seven short stories by seven directors led by Cannes Palme d’Or winner Chen Kaige, recounted major events since 1949. It took in 225 million yuan.
Milestones including the detonation of China’s atomic bomb in 1964; the handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China in 1997, and the staging of the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, brought back many memories and stirred feelings of national pride, film-goers said.
“I went to see the movie today and saw many primary school students with their parents. Tears welled in my eyes, and I felt touched and proud at the same time. Go China!” one Weibo user wrote.
True-life drama The Captain has proved to a big screen hit with mainland cinema-goers. Photo: Baidu
“This movie used directors of commercial movies, and most of those born in the 1960s and 1970s lived through these moments. I think young people will bring their parents to see the film,” another Weibo user wrote.
True-life drama The Captain, directed by Hong Kong director Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, ran in second with a box office take of 175 million yuan by noon on Monday. The film was based on events in May 2018, when the cockpit window of a Sichuan Airlines flight was shattered at 30,000 feet over the Tibetan Plateau in western China. The decompression pulled the co-pilot halfway out of the cabin as the pilot fought to land the flight safely.
Big-budget film The Climbers, directed by Hong Kong’s Daniel Lee Yan-Kong and featuring stars such as Wu Jing and Zhang Ziyi, retraced the steps of two generations of Chinese mountaineers who scaled Mount Everest by the perilous North Ridge in 1960 and 1975. The film posted earnings of 146 million yuan.
Tencent’s homage to modern China tops gaming charts on eve of 70th anniversary celebrations
Patriotic feelings have been running high this week as the celebration of the 70th anniversary draws near.
My People, My Country’s theme song, Me and My Mother Country, an oldie recorded by Hong Kong’s Faye Wang, has been heard in shops, restaurants and workplaces all across the mainland.
The Climbers was directed by Hong Kong’s Daniel Lee Yan-Kong. Photo: Baidu
Last week, 200 million WeChat users responded to a campaign by internet company Tencent to add a national flag or Happy National Day sticker to their social media profile picture, The Beijing News reported. Demand was so heavy Tencent’s servers were overwhelmed for a short time.
Source: SCMP
Posted in 70th anniversary, atomic bomb, Beijing, Big screen, box office hits, cabin, Cannes Palme d’Or, celebrations, Chen Kaige, Chinese mountaineers, co-pilot, Daniel Lee Yan-Kong, decompression, demand, detonation, flight, fought, gaming charts, halfway, handover of Hong Kong, Happy National Day, heavy, homage, land, mainland, mainland cinema-goers, Maoyan Entertainment, Me and My Mother Country, Milestones, modern China, Mount Everest, My People, My Country, national flag, national pride, North Ridge, overwhelmed, paid tribute, patriotism, People’s Republic of China, perilous, pilot, reported, restaurants, safely, scaled, servers, shops, Sichuan Airlines flight, sticker, Summer Olympics, take off, TENCENT, The Beijing News, The Captain, The Climbers, Tibetan Plateau, turns, Uncategorized, Weibo, Western China, winner], workplaces, Wu Jing, Zhang Ziyi |
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29/07/2019
- Chinese scientists say they have developed controls to help steer spent boosters crashing back to Earth
Lattice-like grid fins are used to guide spent boosters as they fall to Earth. Photo: Science and Technology Daily
China says it has successfully tested new fins on its Long March rockets to help guide spent boosters away from populated areas, possibly paving the way for development of reusable technology like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
China successfully launched a Long March 2C rocket on Friday using grid-fin technology to guide its spent booster to a landing spot in Guizhou province in the country’s southwest, state-run Science and Technology Daily reported on Sunday, citing China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), a key contractor for the Chinese space programme.
The report said China was the second country to master the technology, after the United States.
Grid fins are aerodynamic control surfaces that are folded during the launch but deployed in flight. In the more sophisticated applications such as the Falcon 9, the fins manipulate the direction of the rocket during re-entry.
A Long March-2C carrier rocket carrying remote sensing satellites blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Xichang, Sichuan province, on Friday. Photo: Xinhua
Shanghai-based online news outlet The Paper reported that the 2C’s grid fins were developed by a team of about a dozen engineers, all under the age of 35.
The team also designed a new companion electrical control system to control the fins, taking about six months to complete the task.
China has conducted frequent satellite launches in recent years, including 38 last year, the highest total for any country in 2018. But landing safety has become an issue as traditional zones grow more populated.
Chinese start-up rocket maker counts down to launching “shoebox” satellites
Chinese media reported in January 2018 that a booster from a Long March 3B rocket created a massive fireball after it fell from the sky and exploded in a residential area, though no casualties were reported.
And Shaanxi Television reported in May this year that debris was found on a motorway in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province, with residents saying they heard a loud noise and saw an object fall to the ground.
Under existing arrangements, authorities in projected landing zones have to evacuate the areas each time, not only inconveniencing residents but adding to the economic cost and difficulty of the work, according to the The Paper. The grid fins are expected to help ease some of those problems.
“The successful test of the [grid-fin] technology is of great significance to solving the landing issue,” the report quoted CASC assistant director He Wei as saying.
“It also lays a solid foundation for recoverable and reusable technologies.”
China plans more satellites to build up navigation system to rival GPS
Long Lehao, chief commander and designer of Long March 3A rocket series, said the development of reusable technologies could support large-scale development and use of space in the future, as well as make the space programmes more commercially competitive, The Beijing News reported.
Beijing sees space as an important driver for growth and an opportunity to promote hi-tech industries.
On Thursday,
became the first private firm in China to successfully launch a rocket into space.
Source: SCMP
Posted in China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China’s Long March, global space race, grid-fin tech, Guizhou Province, Lift-off, reusable rockets, Science and Technology Dail, shaanxi province, sichuan province, SpaceX’s Falcon 9, The Beijing News, Uncategorized, Xichang Satellite Launch Centre |
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08/07/2019
- Homes destroyed and trees uprooted as destructive forces rips area apart in 15 minutes
Residents try to pick up the pieces after a deadly tornado destroyed homes and factories in Kaiyuan, Liaoning province, on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Weibo
At least six people died and 190 were injured when a tornado struck a city in northeastern China on Wednesday, according to police.
The freak tornado formed in Jingouzi township in Kaiyuan, Liaoning province, at about 5pm, reaching speeds of about 23 metres per second before weakening after roughly 15 minutes, state news agency Xinhua reported.
A tornado carves a path of destruction through Kaiyuan in Liaoning province on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua
It tore through the township, demolishing homes, uprooting trees, and stripping factories of cladding in the city’s economic development zone, according to a Beijing News video posted online.
The Beijing Times website quoted a resident as saying that she saw at least one car tossed into the air and buildings smashed by the tornado.
Kaiyuan in Liaoning province is counting the toll of destruction from a deadly tornado on Wednesday. Photo: Weibo
“Power went off in surrounding areas as the tornado went by. About two or three minutes later there was thunder and then it hailed,” Red Star News quoted a high school student as saying.
Kaiyuan issued an emergency alert and sent about 800 police officers, firefighters and medical personnel to the area.
Two children killed as bouncy castle destroyed by tornado in China
By Thursday, about 210 people had been rescued and some 1,600 evacuated, The Beijing News said. About 10,000 people were also “displaced”.
“There are 63 people in hospital now with 15 in critical condition,” Beijing Times quoted Yu Shuxin, director of Kaiyuan’s emergency management bureau, as saying.
“Communication systems have recovered in most areas. Electricity infrastructure was severely damaged but we’ll try our best to get the power supply back up.”
The wild weather brought down power lines and cut communications in some areas. Photo: Weibo
Tornadoes are so rare in China, particularly the country’s north, that it does not have a specific alarm for it, according to a website backed by the China Meteorological Administration.
In 2016, 99 people died and more than 800 others were injured in a tornado in Funing county, Jiangsu province.
Posted in Beijing Times, buildings smashed, car, China Meteorological Administration, Communication systems, dead, deadly tornado, demolishing homes, Electricity infrastructure, emergency management bureau, factories, freak tornado, Funing county, homes, jiangsu province, Jingouzi, Kaiyuan, Liaoning province, specific alarm, stripping factories of cladding, tears through town, The Beijing News, township, Uncategorized, uprooting trees, Xinhua News Agency |
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05/07/2019
- Mountain park worker Wan Tiandi started making the near-1,000ft bungee jump every day as the most efficient way of delivering a hot meal to her colleagues
- She says it would take more than half an hour to drive down the mountain, but this way means she can get the food there within minutes
Wan Tiandi makes the 300-metre leap every lunchtime. Photo: Weibo
A woman working at a mountainous beauty spot in southwest China has started delivering hot meals to her colleagues by bungee jumping 300 metres (985ft) every lunchtime.
Wan Tiandi works at Dream Ordovician Park in Chongqing, where her duties include delivering lunches to more than 200 employees who are not allowed to leave their posts during their lunch hour, The Beijing News reported.
Because of the park’s geography it would take over half an hour to drive down the mountain to their work station.
To save time, she has now started bungee-jumping down the cliff to deliver the lunchboxes to her colleagues.
“Our park is huge. It will take me more than half an hour’s drive to send lunches to them, while this bungee jump takes only two minutes,” Wan was quoted as saying.
Wan Tiandi prepares to make the jump. Photo: Weibo
She said that in the past when her colleagues received the lunches, they were already cold.
She said she and her colleagues had discussed the problem and developed their unorthodox food delivery method.
“My colleagues need us to send them food but transport on the mountain is not easy. Some of them work at places where there are no roads except narrow mountainous paths,” Wan said.
Wan Tiandi bungee jumps off the cliff every lunchtime. Photo: Weibo
After she jumps from the cliff, Wan’s colleagues collect their lunchboxes that she carries in bags strapped to her waist.
Wan added that she enjoyed the thrill of bungee jumping and the sports enthusiast then jogged back to her office at the top of the mountain.
Her colleagues praised her for working hard to deliver hot food. “It is not easy. Her delivery is fast, steady and always on time,” one of her colleagues was quoted as saying.
Wan hands over the hot meals at the bottom of the cliff. Photo: Weibo
Source: SCMP
Posted in bottom of the cliff, bungee jumping, Chinese woman, Chongqing, colleagues, deliver lunch, delivering a hot meal, Dream Ordovician Park, drive down the mountain, drops in, height of 300 metres, jogged back, lunchboxes, most efficient way, Mountain park worker, sports enthusiast, The Beijing News, Uncategorized, work colleagues |
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23/05/2019
- Parent posts photos of son’s bruised bottom and it is claimed pupils are too scared to go to school
- Education authority says teacher is under investigation
The education authority said the teacher was under investigation. Photo: Shutterstock
A primary school teacher in eastern China has been sacked and detained for hitting a young boy on the bottom with a stick over 100 times, education authorities have said.
The teacher, surnamed Han, was dismissed by No 2 Experimental Primary School in Tancheng county, Shandong, the county’s education and sports bureau announced.
The boy, a first-year pupil surnamed Wang, sustained minor injuries from Han’s corporal punishment, the bureau said on Thursday in a post on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.
One of the boy’s parents posted pictures of his red and swollen bottom on social media. “It’s a shock to me,” they wrote, according to news outlet The paper. “I wish it were possible to take my son’s place to be beaten 100 times.”
Chinese kindergarten teachers arrested after camera shows beatings
A Weibo post by someone who said they lived in the county claimed the teacher had beaten the boy in a classroom on Tuesday after telling him to bend over so that he could strike the boy’s hip more easily.
One of the boy’s parents posted pictures of his bruises on social media. Photo: Weibo
“Now the students in that class are too scared to go to school,” they wrote.
The paper reported that, at a meeting between school staff and the boy’s parents, the principal blamed Han but acknowledged that the school, too, had been responsible. The principal did not say whether the school would compensate the boy, according to the report.
Han’s actions were being investigated jointly by the local police and education authorities.
Kindergarten teacher accused of stepping on child’s face, abusing two others
It is not rare for allegations to surface about mainland China’s pupils being beaten by teachers for making mistakes at school.
Last December, a primary school teacher from Huating in Gansu province was suspended and investigated for allegedly using a plastic water pipe to beat a third-year pupil who could not remember English words correctly, leaving the boy’s arms swollen and bruised, according to The Beijing News.
A maths teacher in Chenzhou, in Hunan province, was sacked and investigated in 2017 for allegedly lashing the bottom of a 10-year-old boy with a bamboo whip for three consecutive days for not finishing his homework, news portal qq.com reported.
Source: SCMP
Posted in 100 times, bamboo whip, beating boy, Chenzhou, Chinese primary school, Education authority, Gansu Province, homework, Huating, Hunan Province, Kindergarten teacher, news portal qq.com, No 2 Experimental Primary School, sacked, shandong province, stick, Tancheng county, teachers, The Beijing News, Twitter, Uncategorized, Weibo |
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25/04/2019
- Accident happened about 7.20am at residential development in Hengshui, Hebei province, authorities say
- Injured pair said to be in stable condition in hospital
Eleven people were killed when a lift fell at a construction site in Hengshui, Hebei province. Photo: Weibo
Eleven people were killed and two others seriously injured when a lift fell at a construction site in northern China on Thursday morning, municipal authorities said.
The accident happened at about 7.20am on the site of the Jade Huating compound, a residential property development under construction in the Taocheng district of Hengshui, Hebei province, according to a statement issued by the city government.
The two people hurt were being treated at a local hospital and in a stable condition, it said.
Police, work safety officials and construction authorities have begun an investigation to determine the cause of the accident, the statement said.
The accident happened at about 7.20am on the site of the Jade Huating compound. Photo: Weibo
A witness was quoted by The Beijing News as saying the crash happened in a matter of seconds.
“I heard a big bang and saw the lift had fallen,” the witness said. “Then six or seven ambulances arrived on the scene.”
Kindergarten flattened by falling debris from building site
The housing project is being developed by Hengshui Youhe Real Estate Development.
The firm said on WeChat earlier this month that the project was making good progress thanks to “reasonable construction with maximum efficiency”, despite work having to be suspended several times for environmental reasons. The post was later deleted.
Source: SCMP
Posted in ambulances, building site, China alert, environmental reasons, Hebei province, Hengshui, Hengshui Youhe Real Estate Development, Jade Huating compound, kindergarten, lift crash, North China, residential development, suspended, Taocheng district, The Beijing News, Uncategorized, WeChat |
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22/04/2019
- Embassy officials have contacted families of two Chinese nationals who were killed in the blasts on Easter Sunday, and visited five who were injured
- Four of the missing were travelling to the Indian Ocean on a study trip
Police and investigators work at the Shangri-La Hotel blast scene in Colombo on Sunday, where the two Chinese were killed. Photo: Xinhua
Five Chinese nationals remain missing following a series of suicide bombings in hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that claimed the lives of
At least 290 people were killed and more than 500 others injured in the blasts, according to a Sri Lankan government official on Monday, who said a local militant group was behind the attacks.
The Chinese embassy in Colombo had contacted the families of the two deceased Chinese and was awaiting police confirmation on the fate of the five still missing, state-run People’s Daily reported.
Two Chinese nationals sustained serious injuries in the blasts and three others minor ones. Embassy officials had visited them several times in hospital, the report said.
“The embassy will closely monitor the situation, urge Sri Lankan police to confirm the whereabouts of the missing persons and assist Chinese citizens and families to properly handle the aftermath,” the embassy was quoted as saying.
The two Chinese who died, cousins surnamed Tan, were caught in a blast at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, Red Star News quoted a Chinese businesswoman in the Sri Lankan capital as saying.
“Their families identified them at the scene,” she said.
Four of the missing Chinese are students from the First Institute of Oceanography at the Ministry of Natural Resources. Photo: FIO
Four of the missing Chinese – Li Dawei, Li Jian, Pan Wenliang and Wang Liwei – are students from the Ministry of Natural Resources’ First Institute of Oceanography who were going to take part in a study in the Indian Ocean, an institute staff member told Red Star News.
The institute has sent staff to
Four of the five injured are students from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, who were en route to a study trip in the eastern Indian Ocean.
“It is an annual scientific expedition programme and they were on the way to replace the 10 others who had completed their rotation,” a staff member told The Beijing News. “Some sustained bruising on their legs and one could hardly hear after the blast.”
Tourists who returned to Shanghai and Chengdu, Sichuan province, told the newspaper that their trip had to be cut short as shops were closed and a curfew imposed amid tight security.
“All the private cars, coaches, vans and buses had to open their doors for inspection. There were checkpoints every 10 metres,” said one tour guide from Chengdu.
A traveller from the same city said airport security had also been stepped up. “There was a bombing 20 minutes after we left a restaurant and another one outside the airport when we were waiting there. We had to pass through three or four very strict security checks at the airport,” she said.
Back in Shanghai, another woman said: “We were not scared there but we are very glad to be back home.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in Chengdu, China alert, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Colombo, embassy, First Institute of Oceanography, Five Chinese, Indian Ocean, Li Dawei, Li Jian, Ministry of Natural Resources, missing, Pan Wenliang, People’s Daily, Red Star News, return home, Shanghai, Shangri-La Hotel, sichuan province, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology,, Sri Lanka bombings, Sri Lankan police, suicide bombings, The Beijing News, tourists, Uncategorized, Wang Liwei |
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 