Beijing to better manage household garbage

Dust cabins in a resident community. [Photo/Xinhua]

Beijing plans to take new measures to better manage household garbage.

The city management committee, which was set up in 2016, will combine the previously separate systems of recycling household garbage and recyclable resources this year, in order to better sort and recycle garbage.

Citizens used to sell their reusable garbage and throw away other household garbage directly in their neighborhoods, often resulting in a mixture of all garbage in the community. With the new measures set to be introduced this year, residential garbage will be sorted at the beginning and the recycling work will be improved.

At a trial site of the city’s Chaoyang District, residents are encouraged to sort and sell their kitchen waste and recyclable garbage to a recycling company which will give them daily necessities or services in return. The garbage is then either sent to the city’s sanitation unit for further disposal or to companies that can reuse garbage as resources.




Beijing further improves infrastructure

A rendering of a planned airport in Beijing. [File photo] 

Beijing made much headway in infrastructure construction last year highlighted by the building of its new sub center, a new airport and a one-hour commuting circle, according to a press conference held by Beijing Municipal of Commission of Development and Reform.

The construction of the new airport, including a terminal and a takeoff area, scheduled to be finished in 2019, is proceeding smoothly. Highways, railways and transit lines that serve the area surrounding the new airport are under construction.

An intercity railway network that will connect Beijing, Tianjin and surrounding cities is expected to create the one-hour commuting circle in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

With the opening of Beijing-Taipei Expressway, highways in Beijing have an operational length of more than 1,000 kilometers.

Xingyan Expressway, Beijing-Qinhuangdao Expressway, the Capital Ring Highway (Tongzhou-Daxing Section), Yanqing-Chongli Expressway, New Airport Highway and the widening project of Beijing-Kaifeng Expressway are under construction, with a combined length of 184 kilometers.




Two injured in chemical plant explosion in Anhui

Two people were slightly injured in a boiler explosion at a chemical plant in Tongling City of east China’s Anhui Province on Wednesday night, local authorities said.

The two suffered minor cut from glass fragments and were sent to hospital for treatment.

The accident happened at around 10:50 p.m. in a suburb area, according to Tongling’s fire department. The fire had been bought under control.

Video footage on microblog Sina Weibo showed huge fire, and heavy smoke billowed into the sky.

Preliminary investigation showed the explosion was caused by fuel oil burning, and no dangerous chemical products were involved, said Zou He, director of the public security bureau of Tongling.




China vows to continue surrogacy crackdown

China will continue to crack down on the practice of surrogacy, banning medical institutions and professionals from performing surrogate techniques of any kind, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said Wednesday.

Many older Chinese couples want to have a second child after the family planning policy was loosed.

At a press conference held Wednesday, Mao Qunan, commission spokesperson, said China wants to ensure it offers safe, regulated and effective assisted reproductive services.

He said surrogacy, which raises various legal, ethical and social issues, is prohibited in many other countries.

A document on assisted reproductive technology issued by the health authority in 2001 bans surrogate techniques.




China’s fixed broadband speed hits almost 12Mbps

A report released by Broadband Development Alliance, a third party research organization, shows the development of broadband speed in China. According to the report, China’s broadband speed grew steadily in the fourth quarter in 2016, with average fixed broadband download speed reaching 11.9 Mbps, that of 3G and 4G network respectively hit 3.89 Mbps and 11.93 Mbps.

With efforts from the Chinese government, broadband speeds have grown very fast since 2015. The coverage of the 4G network expands and the speed increases continuously. China has built the largest 4G network worldwide. The amount of 4G network users accounts for 55% among all mobile users.

There are 13 provincial administrative regions with an average fixed broadband download speed over 12 Mbps. The report ranked the top five provincial administrative regions in fixed broadband download speed as Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangsu, Beijing and Fujian. Among the capital cities and municipalities, Shanghai, Jinan, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou and Beijing are the top five cities in the fixed broadband download speed list.

Judging from the speed of mobile broadband of different operators, China Unicom’s 3G and 4G network download speeds are the highest among the three major operators, which are 4.81 Mbps and 13.72 Mbps respectively.

Meanwhile, according to the report, the average time for fixed broadband users to open the first page is 1.15 second in the fourth quarter in 2016, and the average download speed for web video has reached 9.34 Mbps. Both are faster compared with the previous quarter.