China’s government unveiled its most detailed survey ever of the pollution plaguing the country (more details here, here and here), revealing that water pollution in 2007 was more than twice as severe as official figures that had long omitted agricultural waste.

The first-ever national pollution census, environmentalists said, represented a small step forward for China in terms of transparency. But the results also raised serious questions about the shortcomings of China’s previous pollution data and suggested that even with limited progress in some areas, the country still had a long way to go to clean its waterways and air.

The pollution census, scheduled to be repeated in 2020, took more than two years to complete. It involved 570,000 people, and included 1.1 billion pieces of data from nearly 6 million sources of pollution, including factories, farms, homes and pollution-treatment facilities, the government announced at a news conference.

But the comprehensiveness of the survey also resulted in stark discrepancies between some of the calculations and annual figures that the government has published in the past.

By far the biggest of these involved China’s total discharge of chemical oxygen demand — the main gauge of water pollution. These discharges totaled 30.3 million tons in 2007, the census showed.

In recent years the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has done a much narrower calculation of these discharges, excluding agricultural effluents like fertilizers and pesticides as well as fluids leaking from landfills. By that narrower measure, discharges came to only 13.8 million tons in 2007, which officials described at the time as a decline of more than 3 percent from 2006 and a “turning point.”

Zhang Lijun, the vice minister of environmental protection, sought to play down the differences with previous data. He noted that the census counted 13.2 million tons of agricultural effluents for the first time, and another 324,600 tons of discharges from landfills.

The census keepers had also employed updated methodologies and reached many more parts of the countryside and industrial sites than had official statistics, which helped account for the much larger figure in the census, Mr. Zhang said. Were it not for the vastly expanded scope of the survey, the chemical oxygen demand level in 2007 would stand at only 5.3 percent higher than previously calculated, he said.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a nonprofit research group in Beijing, said that government planners estimated that the country’s rivers and lakes could handle only 7.4 million tons a year of chemical oxygen demand. The scale and significance of agricultural effluent was seldom recognized in previous government planning, which focused on bringing down mainly industrial emissions to around 7 million tons a year from 13.8 million tons, said Mr. Ma, a leading expert on water pollution in China.

The new total of more than 30 million tons suggests a much bigger problem. “We believed we needed to cut our emissions in half, but today’s data means a lot more work needs to be done,” Mr. Ma said.

The extent of agricultural waste could prove a more intractable problem than the many factories dumping effluent into China’s rivers and lakes.

“When it’s millions of farmers, it’s more difficult to bring it under control,” Mr. Ma said.

Steven Ma, of the Beijing office of Greenpeace, said that the government’s decision to calculate and release figures for agriculture would start to have an effect on the policy debate over water pollution in China. “Everybody knew there was a problem with agricultural pollution in China, but now there are numbers,” he said.

China, the world’s largest grain producer and top consumer of fertilizers, should reduce its reliance on chemical fertilizers by as much as 50 percent because excessive use has resulted in serious pollution, according to another research report. “Not many people are aware that agriculture is the largest polluter in China, which should be a subject for serious concern,” said Wen Tiejun, head of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China.

Mr. Zhang said that the findings of the census were roughly in line with official expectations. “There were no major surprises,” he said.

Based on the narrower approach, officials say China is on track to meet or exceed the nation’s pollution goals: to trim levels of chemical oxygen demand as well as sulfur dioxide, a major air pollutant, by 10 percent between 2005 and 2010. For now, the census would not change how those targets are evaluated, Mr. Zhang said.

“Current results of the census will not be linked to environmental performance,” he added.

In terms of sulfur dioxide emissions in 2007, in fact, the census totaled only 23.2 million tons, compared with 24.7 million tons in the official data released in 2008. But census figures for other important metrics, such as soot and ammonia nitrogen, another indicator of water quality, were higher than the previous data by double-digit percentages.

The census also broke down China’s pollution toll into a considerably greater number of categories and sectors than the government does regularly. Some Chinese environmentalists and media outlets took particular note of the amount of poisonous discharge of heavy metals like arsenic, mercury and lead, a frequent source of protests in towns and villages over mass contamination from nearby factories.

The census would help the government take a more “targeted and focused” approach to combating pollution in coming years, Mr. Zhang said. The government has indicated it will add emissions of ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxides, which are discharged from vehicles and power plants, to a list of reduction targets from 2011 to 2015.

via Chinese Pollution Census Reveals Greater Reach of Water Contamination – NYTimes.com.

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The Blue Paper says that house prices are 3 to 6 times greater than people’s incomes; therefore it will be very difficult to buy a house for citizens. Furthermore, the average ratio of house prices to incomes in China, 2009 will be 8.3, well beyond the scope of reasonable affordability.

In fact, it will be 22.08 for migrant workers and 29.44 for farmers in 2009. Because of this, 85 percent of Chinese families do not have the ability to buy their own future houses.

To restrain house price increases, the government has to protect low income people both in cities and rural area with a social security system, not just leaving them vulnerable to market forces. For middle-income people, assuring their right of abode, meaning each can rent a house, is the most important; at the same time, it should be a market operation under a social security system, and houses for renting should be divided into high, middle and low level for renters to choose.

via 85% of Chinese families can’t afford houses – People’s Daily Online.

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via BBC – Digital Revolution Blog: Rushes Sequences – Xiao Qiang interview – USA (Video).

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Hawaii has beaches and its famed “aloha spirit” as its siren call. Las Vegas offers gambling and its entertainment-oriented attractions. San Francisco can boast high-end shopping and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Beset by one of the worst recessions in decades, the U.S. destinations are spending significant sums on marketing campaigns in China’s most populous regions, and are urging U.S. embassy officials and Chinese airlines to ease the logistical burdens of flying to the United States.

The payoff could be substantial — particularly in Hawaii, the closest U.S. destination to China but which is, at least for now, harder for the Chinese to reach by air.

“It could be huge” for Hawaii, said Ted Sturdivant, who has long published a Hawaii travel guide for Chinese, Japanese and other foreign tourists.

Attracting more Chinese tourists “will bring back a lot of jobs” to Hawaii, Gov. Linda Lingle said recently, after returning from a tourism and economic mission to China.

About a half-million Chinese traveled to all U.S. destinations last year, and that number is expected to grow by double digits in each of the next four years mainly because of China’s growing economy and new wealth, according to the U.S. Travel Association. Tourism officials note that the Chinese middle and upper classes each rivals the size of the entire U.S. population, so luring just a fraction would produce huge numbers.

“Everybody looks at China and sees a country with 1.3 billion people and a growing economy, and they say, ‘Oh my God, it’s the greatest travel market that ever was,’” said Frank Haas, an instructor at the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii.

Hawaii’s tourism market has generally been propped up by two regions — the U.S. West Coast and Japan. Both market segments declined this year, as did the number of Chinese visitors — this despite a late 2007 agreement that China and U.S. signed lifting some travel barriers.

To lure the Chinese, the Hawaii Tourism Authority has budgeted a total of nearly $2.7 million this fiscal year for marketing there and in Korea, said David Uchiyama, HTA’s vice president of marketing. That includes $447,000 to participate in the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, which begins in May.

But for the Chinese traveler, preparations for a trip to the U.S. can still be a hassle. Only the U.S. embassy in Beijing and four consulates located mostly on China’s eastern coast handle visa applications, which require an in-person interview. However, traveling in groups, which tourism experts say Chinese prefer, can ease those impediments.

Then there is getting to the United States. There are non-stop flights from Beijing and other Chinese cities to popular U.S. destinations, but Hawaii is not among them. Traveling to Hawaii usually means a stop at busy Narita Airport outside Tokyo.

That could change next year if China-based Hainan Airlines follows through with plans to begin flying to Honolulu from Beijing non-stop. Even so, Hainan at first will fly only once a week to Hawaii. In comparison, Japan has about a dozen daily flights to the islands.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also is eying Hainan, said John Bischoff, a vice president with the organization. The authority may be interested in a deal in which Hainan passengers stop in Hawaii on their way to Las Vegas or during their return to China, he said.

The Chinese tend to travel to the United States for multiple weeks, so it’s to the advantage of U.S. tourism officials to cooperate on tour packages and travel agent training, Bischoff said.

However the Chinese get to Hawaii, the islands are counting on them not to be frugal. Chinese travelers spend more than counterparts from any other country — about $7,200 per person per trip, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

But Hawaii’s tourism industry knows it needs to make the islands more culturally inviting to the Chinese. Many hotels, restaurants and retail stores have offered Japanese-speaking clerks for years, along with signs and menus in Japanese. Such aid is infrequently provided in Mandarin.

At the request of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, Kapiolani Community College, located just outside the tourist hub of Waikiki, has begun offering classes in basic Chinese phrases and customs to travel industry employees.

“What we’re really doing with China is sort of just scratching the surface a little bit deeper…and (trying) to get to the level of comfort we presently have with our Japanese visitors,” said Barry Wallace, executive vice president for Outrigger hotels.

California drew 237,000 Chinese visitors last year. State and local tourism officials are meeting counterparts in China and offering new travel packages that brand the Golden State as a “dream destination.”

Las Vegas’ marketing efforts focus less on gaming, since the Chinese can easily travel to Macau for that, said Bischoff. Instead, Vegas highlights entertainment and sightseeing attractions, including the Grand Canyon Skywalk located 122 miles away, which was built by a Chinese American businessman.

“Estimates are,” Bischoff added, “that the Chinese tourist market is one of our brightest increasing sources of tourists.”

via U.S. destinations target affluent Chinese tourists – USATODAY.com.

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More than 200 foreigners living in the Pudong New Area and Changning District’s Hongqiao area were interviewed by two students and a teacher at Shanghai International Studies University about their degree of satisfaction with local services.

About 49 percent said they were dissatisfied with cabs because few drivers can speak English. For the same reason, 34 percent said they weren’t happy with buses.

“Many foreigners avoid taking buses alone,” said Luo Xuemei, a professor of the school’s s International Finance and Trade Department. She added: “They have to use tourist manuals or call others to tell the taxi driver about where they want to go.

“Complaints about taxis have regularly topped city surveys of expat grievances. Previous reports revealed a great number of complaints about overcharges due to deliberate detours and refusals to accept short rides.

“Shanghai needs to improve its English service in the public transport network before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo next year to exempt expats of the worries of communications,” Luo said.

About 31 percent of the expats also expressed dissatisfaction with Shanghai shopping.

“Though many big shopping malls have English signs and service centers, individual sales worker’s English is always too poor to meet the needs of expats,” Luo said.

Also in the survey, about 15 percent said they are dissatisfied with the English service in medical institutions.

“A high-level medical service is indispensable to maintain foreign professionals,” Luo said.

via Shanghai Daily | English Window to China News.

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Users have purchased more than 141,000 copies of SketchBook Mobile and have downloaded more than 900,000 versions of the free* Autodesk SketchBook Mobile Express on the App Store, bringing total downloads to more than one million. Autodesk’s first commercial mobile application was the number one entertainment App and number three top grossing App in the United States in its first few weeks on the market. Sales performance for SketchBook Mobile currently ranks it among the top 100 grossing Apps in the U.S., and it has been awarded “Apple iTunes: Best App of 2009“.

Autodesk SketchBook Mobile uses the same engine as Autodesk SketchBook Pro painting and drawing software, delivering much of the power and functionality as the desktop application. Content created in SketchBook Mobile can be saved in the Photo Library or emailed directly as PNG or PSD format for further refinement in SketchBook Pro. There are more than 100,000 SketchBook Pro users, representing a wide range of designers, illustrators, graphic artists, students and hobbyists.

SketchBook Mobile is available for $2.99 from the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore. To learn more about SketchBook Mobile, visit www.autodesk.com/sketchbookmobile.

via Autodesk SketchBook Mobile Surpasses One Million Downloads on the App Store.

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Growth in the wind industry has been driven by a strong resource base, supportive policies, improving economics and grid upgrades, they said in a note to clients issued recently.

“The Chinese government has implemented supportive policies for wind growth, while total cost per watt is declining due to decreases in wind turbine costs and centralized operation of wind farms,” the analysts said.

The government is also building ultra-high voltage transmission lines to send electricity from western China to the eastern coastal regions, they said.

Given that, Yuanta expects beneficiaries to include component manufacturers with dominant market share in China, direct-drive turbine manufacturers and key engineering, procurement and construction providers to wind farm operations, along with the wind-farm operators themselves.

Wind would make a particularly good choice for a nation whose environmental problems have been growing along with its population.

“China’s environment has deteriorated significantly over the previous decades,” the analysts said, with glaciers in the nation’s northwest decreasing in size by 21% since the 1950s, all of China’s major rivers having shrunk over the past five decades and annual average air temperature increasing by 0.5 to 0.8 degree Celsius.

The reason for the toxic emissions is simple: China’s main source of energy supply comes from coal.

In 2008, 76% of China’s electricity generation came from coal, which is “being rapidly depleted,” with China’s 115 gigatonnes (billion metric tons) of coal reserves expected to run out in 48 years, the Yuanta analysts said, citing data from a survey by McKinsey.

Wind as an energy source, however, is “one of the most cost-competitive of renewable energies, at a levelized cost of 500 yuan ($73.23) per megawatt hour for 2008,” said Li and Wang.

They also expect the cost per megawatt hour to fall further — to below 400 yuan in 2020.

By comparison, natural gas costs $101 per megawatt hour for a 500-megawatt combined-cycle power plant, while a 50-megawatt geothermal binary plant costs $92 per megawatt hour, according to the Geothermal Energy Association, which cited a 2007 report from the California Energy Commission.

Wind is also quite abundant in China, and the industry has plenty of room to expand.

The national “possesses huge potential wind-power generation capacity due to its vast geographical area,” the analysts said.

The China Renewable Energy Industries Association estimates that China’s exploitable onshore wind capacity is 380 GW, with offshore wind capacity at 750 GW.

Current utilization is less than 5% of onshore capacity, Yuanta analysts said

via China finds that energy security’s a breeze Asia Markets – MarketWatch.

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The cities are evaluated on a comprehensive assessment basis including the size of the economy, number of employees, fixed assets investment, gross output of industrial enterprises, per capita GDP, population urbanization, added value of the first, second and third industries, disposable income of the urban population, eco-environment, location and infrastructure, endowment insurance engagement, new job opportunities, dwelling space per capita and scientific research.

China’s top 10 fast-developing cities in 2009 are as follows:

The growth of China’s cities in the past 30 years has been dramatic. By the end of 2008, China’s urban population had surpassed 600 million for the first time, with urbanization level reaching 45.7%, according to the “2008 China’s Urbanization Report” compiled and edited by the China Association of Mayors. The report found that in 2008, China had a total urban population of 606.67 million.

According to statistics regarding the non-agricultural population living in urban areas, the number of cities with a population of more than 2 million people nationwide was 23, cities with populations between 1 million to 2 million people was 35, cities with population between 500,000 to 1 million people stands at 82, cities with population between 200,000 to 500,000 people was 233, and there were a total of 282 cities with a non-agricultural population of less than 200,000 people living in urban areas.

A United Nations report on urbanization supported findings about China’s rapid urbanization, and predicted that in less than a decade, more than half of the Chinese population will be city dwellers.

via China’s top 10 fast-developing cities in 2009 – China.org.cn.

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