Top Ten Cities for Quality of Life

THE recently-concluded 2005 Chi- na City Forum Beijing Summit marked publication of the Report on the Quality of Chinese Urban Life. The report was researchedand compiled by the Beijing International In- stitute for Urban Development, and took a year to complete. It includes an index of urban life quality in China's top 100 cities, ranked accord- ing to their average GDP from 2001 to 2003. The final ranking was based on statistical evalu- ation and an Internet survey. The Internet su…     

The Price of a Better Life

Life in China,the world's most populous nation,is generally more afflu- ent than ever before.But since the onset of opening up and reform some 30 years ago,its citizens are also subject to greater strain.A more meritocratic approach enables Chinese people fully to exert their talents and achieve personal dreams.Growing marketization has remarkably boosted produc-     

The Single Life

Looking back five or ten years into China's past, such a phenomenon is unimaginable.But in today's Chinese metropolitan areas like Beijing and Shanghai, a large number of well-educated and well-paid white-collar female workers are enjoying a comfortable single life.     

The Color of Life

WANG Changkai, a student of Wu Guanzhong, graduated from the Beijing Academy of Art in the late 1950s. He spent the next few decades creating his own unique style of Chinese oils, and finally made the breakthrough in the late 1980s.     

The Private Life of Deng Xiaoping

AUGUST 22 marked the centenary of Deng Xiaoping's birth. During his lifetime, Deng Xiaoping was punctilious about keeping his political and family lives separate. Seven years after his death, one hundred books extol-     

Life in Tianjin-Old and New

THE history of Tianjin, a port city near the Chinese capital Beijing, dates back some 600 years to 1404. The old city had a population of 80,000, and over the years, its people have borne witness to Tianjin's many changes. As time passed, the origi-nal city grew older, and a large concentration of traditional, single-story houses formed within the new city. In 1995, Tianjin began to renovate its run-down areas. Residents were relocated, and although happy to move into their brand-new apartments, when the day came, they were also a little sad at leaving their past behind.     

Second to None The Beauty of China＇s Smaller Cities

IT is a common attribute of people absorbed in the humdrum of their daily lives that they fail to see the special qualities of the cities they call home. How many New Yorkers have never visited the Empire State building？ How many Beijingers have never walked on the Great Wall nor explored the Forbidden City？ We do not see what is directly around us when the pressures of the ＂real world＂ dictate how we spend our time and on what we focus our energies.     

Marriage： A Haven in Life？

RECENT statistics show that in the first quarter of 2011,the divorce rate in China rose to 14.6 percent, continuing a seven-year trend.Although people who choose to end their marriage are still a minority,it is clear that people’s attitudes to marriage have changed dramatically over the last few decades.     

Life of Plenty in a Century-old House

BINADA lives in a 100-year-old house in Jiantang, a Tibetan settlement in Yunnan Province. Binada married and moved to Jiantang 40 years ago and this century-old house bears witness to the vicissitudes of her life. The Tibetan wooden structure is simple, tall and spacious, and though it has stood there for     

Tradition and Modernity——The Life of the Hui People in Ningxia

LOCATED in northwest China, Ningxia is the country’s only Hui autono-mous region. Of its 6 million inhabitants, more than 2 million are Hui. While embracing modern life, the Hui people still keep faith with their own traditions and beliefs.     

Two Bon Vivants and Their Sweet Life in China

JEAN-HUGUES Depigny and his wife are from France. They have lived in China for 10 years and are known by the Chinese names Yang Peiyi and Yang An. Their home is resplendent in Chinese furnishings and ornaments. Jean-Hugues Depigny is vice president of Airbus China customer services in Beijing. Airbus and China have been in cooperation since 1985, when China Eastern Airlines, formerly the CAAC East Regional Administration, became its first client in China. Since then, Airbus and the China aviation manu-     

The Pan-Pearl River Delta： A Breakthroughin Regional Cooperation

Regional cooperative development apart,the Pan-Pearl River Delta also aims at the international market.     

A Taste of Beijing Life： Olympic Homestays

DURING the Olympic Games, Beijing is expected to host about 250,000 foreign spectators a day. When visiting Chinese spectators and general domestic and overseas tourists are added to this figure, the total number of visitors is expected to be around 550,000 a day during the Olympic weeks. With insufficient hotels to accommodate this number, tile city has adopted another strategy. In March 2007, the Beijing Tourism Bureau announced its Olympic Homestay Plan, the perfect choice for those wishing to experience the life of ordinary Beijingers.     

Zhang Kun：Capturing the Beauty of Real Life

The first thing that strikes anyone looking at a figure painting by Zhang Kun is a strong sense of realism. Zhang never distorts his figures with exaggerated lines and shapes, nor does he blindly follow any particular fashion, instead concentrating on the depiction of real life. Not only does Zhang imitate nature, he simplifies and orders it so as to capture its essence, and any adjustment he attempts is in order to bring greater depth to such simplicity. His consummate skills contribute to the purity of his paintings, his poetic language being heard through his representation of ordinary life. His works present man and nature in a simple and harmonious relationship, the very thing that modem people yearn for,     

The Pompeii of Tibet

THE Guge Kingdom in Ngari. Tibet, is discussed within archeological circles in similarly reverential tones as the Mayan Civilization and Pompeii. The three have in common that they were abruptly destroyed at their peak and obscured from the world for centuries. Also that when ex-     

Painting for His Life—The Beginning of the Story of Jimmy Liao

JIMMY Liao is undoubtedly one of the hottest illustrators in Chinese publishing circles. The Taiwanese artist has published 17 popular books so far, and they have been translated into English, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean and other languages. It seems difficult to define his literary genre; imaginative and a riot of color, they are often called children＇s books; however, the readers are usually adults living in urban centers the world over.     

The Role of China＇s Imports in the Global Economy

ENTERING the WTO in 2001 has not only brought China a share in trade dividends but also opened up greater opportunities for the world economy.     

Yabuli：The Making of a“Chinese Davos”

ALBERT Suen,presi-dent of the Associa-tion for the Promotionof Trade and Eco-nomic CooperationbetweenMacaoandHeilongjiang,and