Steady Progress in RMB Internationalization

ON April 18,2012,HSBC Holdings PLC issued the first RMBdenominated bond in London. Marketed to investors in Britain and Continental Europe,the bond issuance is expected to eventually raise more than RMB 1 billion.     

On Target for Posterity Yang Fuxi Upholds China’s Bow and Arrow-making Legacy

THE bow and arrow craftsmanship of the Ju Yuan Hao workshop in Beijing was recognized as one of China’s National Intangible Cultural Heritages in 2006.It was among the first cultural traditions to be given the title.At the time,48-year-old Yang Fuxi was one of the few master craftsmen remaining adept at traditional Chinese bow and arrow construction.Yang’s workshop,called Ju Yuan Hao for generations,produces some of the more complex bow and arrow designs of ancient China.Creating them today still requires many hours of     

Changes in China that Amount to Revolution——Former Peru President Alan García Pérez on China’s Progress

ALAN García Pérez has always considered himself an admirer of the late former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the former president of Peru told China Today. Perez twice came to power inPeru, serving as president from 1985to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011. Dur     

Regional Art, Universal Appe

FOSHAN in Guangdong Province has been synonymous with pottery since ancient times. It was one of China’s four main market towns during the Song Dynasty (9601279). Shiwan Town in particular has a 5,000-year history of ceramics industry, as witnessed by the late Neolithic Age embossed pottery items excavated from Beiqiu Site. Shiwan became a manufacturing base for domestic ceramics when foreign trade began to flourish. Shiwan Gongzai, as Shiwan works of ceramic art are popularly known,     

Smart Agriculture

PULLING in RMB 40 million of revenue from a 14-hectare block of farmland - that’s RMB 2.86 million per hectare - sounds nigh-on impossible in this age of stiff competition and slim margins. And yet in 2010,Beijing Futong Horticulture Co.,Ltd.managed just such a feat. How did they do it?It’s quite hard to earn decent profits by relying solely on traditional planting methods,says Zhang Tianzhu,general manager of Futong Horticulture,affiliated with China Agricultural University. Due to the high cost of land,labor and logistics in Beijing,strong profits are out of reach unless we get smart with our use of technology.     

Capital Changes

THE handover clock in Tian’anmen Square counting down the seconds till Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, smatterings of Cherokee jeeps, yellow miandi mini-buses and red Xiali taxis amid a sea of bicycles, and waistbands sporting bibiji are characteristics of the 1996 Beijing streetscape long since gone.     

Custodian of Huizhou’s Lacquer Art Traditions

GAN Erke was born in 1955 in Huangshan, Anhui Province. Today, Gan has considerable expertise in painting, carpentry, carving, and traditional lacquer techniques. Over the last three decades he has been instrumental in revitalizing the Huizhou pineapple lacquer tradition. Gan has also played an important role in bringing a local strand of lacquer inkslab art back from the brink of extinction.     

Labor of Love Embracing the Volunteer Spirit in Education

FEELING her way carefully down the long, dark pathway of a bicycle shed in Shijingshan District’s Laoshan Community, 72-year-old Yu Shuhua reaches a small room It’s a chilly winter’s day in Beijing, and at 4 p.m. the afternoon light is dwindling. Luo Meiqi, the 12-year-old daughter of a migrant worker who runs the shed and also calls it home, is waiting inside. Yu, a retired college teacher-come-volunteer, tutors little Luo every day after school. I first met Luo’s children on a summer day in 2008 when they were doing their homework in front of the shed.     

Further,Deeper Rural Medical Reform

HEFEI,capital of Anhui Province,is the site of the experiment that has defined the course of China’s development since the late 1970s.The household-based land contract system it invented heralded in the nation’s opening-up and reform.Three decades later Hefei has once again come into the limelight,leading medical reform in rural areas.     

Balance Environmental Protection and Economic Prosperity——Nanchang Looks to European Technology for Green Development

FOREST City, Garden Nanchangis an apt slogan for the development of Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province. An emerging big city of around five million residents,its abundant natural resources warrant protection amid rapid economic development. Nanchang is hence a pilot for low-carbon development. With this aim in