China holds group wedding for earthquake survivors  

by Angie

Copyright:flickr.com

China is to pay for a group wedding of 40 survivors who lost spouses in last year’s Sichuan earthquake to help them make new families, and officials will be given priority, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

“Twenty families will finally be chosen, 10 of which must have one official at least, and the other 10 couples will be ordinary people,” the Sichuan-based Tianfu Morning Post said, citing a government announcement.

mental pressure after the disaster

The May 12 earthquake killed more than 80,000 people, flattening towns and villages in southwest China and leaving millions of people homeless.

There are no figures for how many people lost their spouses in the disaster, but newspapers have reported stories of local government officials killing themselves after losing relatives and working under huge mental pressure in rescue and rehabilitation work.

a free trip to Hainan

The group wedding will be held next Month and each couple can invite eight friends to the ceremony, the newspaper said. After the ceremony, the couples will be given a free trip to the southern tropical island of Hainan.

For more details about what happened in the earthquake and the circumstances after that please visit the following websites.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/earthquakes/sichuan_province_china/index.html

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/sichuans_earthquake_six_months.html

http://www.jackypeng.com/blog/2008/05/17/some-video-from-the-sichuan-earthquake/

Chinese authorities on Wednesday rejected the
takeover of China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd, a leading producer of
fruit juices, by the Coca Cola Company, the world’s largest maker of
beverages.
A takeover could “disturb market competition” the Ministry of
Commerce said in a statement following an investigation with “exactly
followed relative laws and regulations,” the official Xinhua news
agency said. Coca Cola’s bid failed to meet China’s anti-monopoly
law, the ministry added.
“If the acquisition of Huiyuan went into effect, Coca-Cola is very
likely to take a dominating position in the domestic market and the
consumers may have to accept the high price fixed by the company as
they don’t have more choices,” the statement said.
Coca Cola’s 2.3-billion-dollar cash offer for Huiyuan would have
been the biggest takeover of a Chinese business by a foreign company.
The US-based beverage maker’s offer was well above Huiyuan’s
Hong-Kong listed share price.
Huiyuan is China’s largest privately owned juice producer.
Coca Cola said the three largest shareholders, who among them hold
66 per cent of Huiyuan, had already given their agreement to the
deal. French food company Groupe Danone holds 23 per cent of the
Chinese juice maker.
The US company said earlier this month it wanted to invest more
than 2 billion dollars in new bottling plants and infrastructure in
China.
The ruling was regarded a first test of China’s new anti-monopoly
legislation, which came into force in August 2008.

How time flies!  Almost two years have passed since I left the cosmopolitan city in June 2007. For an unforgettable period of time, however, I will never feel reluctant to give it a flashback.  Let me share with you one of my  articles written at that time:)

I’ve been in Moscow for more than three months, and I’ve got a lot to say about the city and my life here.

First of all, I am impressed by the size of Moscow. It is huge! I would like to prove it by describing my own feeling instead of using numbers. The city is like a big square of a large capacity. It is said that the population of Moscow is more than 10 million people, but there seemed not so many people due to a large square of space. In fact, Moscow is so big that all the buildings and people inside it seem small. No matter how loudly you speak in the open air, your voice disappears as soon as words come out of your mouth.

I am also touched by Moscow’s terrific nature scenery. There are a lot of woods here! How happy would I be if there were as many woods as Moscow in Beijing! I still remember the first time I strolled around the streets in Moscow. One day at the end of October 2006, it was still warm with sun shining gently and kindly. Slowly and peacefully, I walked along the Lebedeva street, which was paved with golden leaves. I could not help but feel that I was walking in the wonderland of a fairy tail. Moscow is quite a lovely and attractive city during the sunny days. Unfortunately, it rains quite often. In the rainy days, my shoes and trousers are always spotted, no matter how careful I try to be. The weather here often gives me recalls of my hometown, where it often rains, too. So I suppose I am not very homesick due to the similar weather in Moscow.

Moscow is a city of music. Numerous concerts are played here every day. There are even bands playing along the sidewalk to the metro. I wish my grandpa were here, for he loves music very much. I am told that all the Russians are gifted with the musical talent, and it is true. I once listened to the concert played by a group of small kids, and I found them playing quite well. I have found that people in Moscow have a craving for music. That’s why the tickets of concerts are usually sold out. Music is an indispensable part of the city life.

Moscow is the heaven of chocolate and ice cream lovers like me. There are so many brands, so many flavors and so many choices. I once planned to taste them all, but later found impossible. Just too many!

Now I want to mention what I appreciate most here——the fantastic architecture. The city’s government has done a wonderful job in protecting the old sites. Although skyscrapers and commercial centers have being built on, the city is generally immersed in the ancient atmosphere. In the museums, I have found that both the staff members and the visitors put a high importance on protecting the exhibits. It is not allowed to take photos on most of the occasions, and you are expected to wrap over your shoes so that not to dirty the ground. Russian people cherish their culture. When visiting the historical museum, I saw several groups of school children visiting the museum led by their teachers, who vividly explained to them the history of Russia. I think it is one of the Russian ways to build up patriotism.

There are several differences between people in Moscow and in cities of China, some of which I find very interesting. For example, in Chinese cities, when a beautiful woman passes by, men will turn around and look at her. In Moscow, however, nobody turns around. Another example is that young parents in Moscow speak to their small kids in a normal way while in China a cartoon way is generally preferred when adults communicate with young children. When Russian students greet each other, girls often kiss each other on the face, while boys shake hands. (I was told before that boys kissed each other, too, but I didn’t know whether it was true or not)  In China, more often than not, only the leaders or officials of high rank shake hands on formal occasions, say, a meeting; in daily lives, we simply smile to each other. So it was a little bit amusing for me to see young boys with naïve faces shake hands, but now I have already got used to it.  

Despite the differences in behavior, there are also differences in conceptions. The most obvious one is that teenage girls in Moscow (presumably in all Russian cities) are generally accepted or even encouraged to get beautifully dressed and use make-ups, on the contrary Chinese teenage girls are not encouraged to do so. Most of them have to wear uniforms to go to class; they are not allowed to keep long hair, or to wear jewelries to school, let alone to use make-ups. It is believed that spending time on these issues will distract girls from learning, which is their principal issue. It is also common for Russian girls to drink and smoke, while Chinese girls seldom smoke. Those who smoke are considered badly educated.

I have also found something I don’t like in Moscow. There are too many big dogs here, whose big size and frightening barking make me scared. I once bought a bag of bread, but soon I saw a big dog, which was gazing at me with envy eyes. He was very close to me, which made me quite nervous.  He had shown no sign of leaving, so I threw the paper bag as far as I could, and the dog ran toward it, which made me take a big breath at last.

I also feel unhappy in Moscow when I find the prices of museums for foreigners are much higher than the ones for citizens of Russia. I don’t think it’s fair and reasonable. It seems to me that Moscow does not welcome foreigners. In Beijing the prices do not differ between Chinese and foreigners.

I don’t like the high prices of vegetables, either. The cheapest vegetables in China cost a lot more here in Moscow.

The worst of all is the safety for foreigners. It is said that there are often attacks toward foreigners.

Generally I like Moscow, only to hope that we will always be safe here.

I will leave Moscow in less than five months, and I am sure I will miss her from time to time after that. I will miss the kind professors, the lovely Russian friends, the wonderful architecture, the beautiful nature scenery as well as the tasty chocolates and ice creams.  Perhaps I will return someday, or perhaps never. God knows. Now I am trying to enjoy every day here.