Smelly taxis
BEIJING taxi drivers should take seriously the smell inside their cabs, which could tarnish the city’s image during the 2008 Olympic Games, a political advisor has said.
Shi Xiangpeng, from Hong Kong, attending the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said on the basis of his own experience about one-third of the taxis in Beijing smelled.
“Sometimes I could smell an unbearable stink once I got into the cab, but was afraid of being too rude to get out immediately. So I had to roll down the windows, regardless of how cold it was outside,” said Shi. He attributed the odor to some suburban drivers’ bad habits.
Defense budget
THIS year’s defense budget is expected to hit 350.92 billion yuan (US$44.94 billion), 17.8 percent higher than that last year, a spokesman for China’s top legislature’s annual session said yesterday.
This year’s defense budget accounts for 7.5 percent of the nation’s budgeted fiscal expenditure, compared with 7.7 percent in 2004, 7.3 percent in 2005 and 7.4 percent in 2006, said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the Fifth Session of the 10th National People’s Congress (NPC).
Jiang said the defense budget is being raised to further increase the salaries and allowances for servicemen and army retirees, so as to ensure their income is lifted together with economic and social development.
More money will also be spent on improving the army’s drilling and living conditions, he said.
Ministry urged
FOLLOWING the failure to achieve its annual energy consumption control goals, the country’s lawmakers are urging the government to set up a new ministry to ensure the efficient and sustainable use of energy resources.
“China’s energy supervision department is seriously understaffed. Without a professional and strong administrative team, laws and regulations cannot be well implemented,” said Wang Weicheng, a deputy to the National People’s Congress.
China abolished the Ministry of Energy in 1993. Currently, energy control falls under the National Development and Reform Commission.
Migrant workers
WANG YUANCHENG, deputy to the NPC, said more deputy seats should be reserved for the nation’s rapidly growing number of migrant workers.
He noted that at present, every 960,000 rural residents can have one NPC deputy, but the same number of urban residents can have four NPC deputies. Wang, a migrant-worker-turned vocational training school principal in Taian in Shandong Province, said his motion this year is vital to ensure social equality.
Ticket supply
ENTRANCE tickets to Potala Palace sold like hot cakes in railway-linked Tibet last year, but political advisors and legislators worry that more tourists will be disappointed by scant ticket supplies.
Tourism to Tibet is soaring with the operation of the new railway line which opened last July. Ngoezhub Puncog, a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC from Tibet, said that in the best tourist season last year, about 4,500 to 5,000 visitors came to Lhasa each day, but
Potala Palace placed a 2,300-tickets-per-day cap on tourist admittance.
Smelly taxis
BEIJING taxi drivers should take seriously the smell inside their cabs, which could tarnish the city’s image during the 2008 Olympic Games, a political advisor has said.
Shi Xiangpeng, from Hong Kong, attending the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said on the basis of his own experience about one-third of the taxis in Beijing smelled.
“Sometimes I could smell an unbearable stink once I got into the cab, but was afraid of being too rude to get out immediately. So I had to roll down the windows, regardless of how cold it was outside,” said Shi. He attributed the odor to some suburban drivers’ bad habits.
Defense budget
THIS year’s defense budget is expected to hit 350.92 billion yuan (US$44.94 billion), 17.8 percent higher than that last year, a spokesman for China’s top legislature’s annual session said yesterday.
This year’s defense budget accounts for 7.5 percent of the nation’s budgeted fiscal expenditure, compared with 7.7 percent in 2004, 7.3 percent in 2005 and 7.4 percent in 2006, said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the Fifth Session of the 10th National People’s Congress (NPC).
Jiang said the defense budget is being raised to further increase the salaries and allowances for servicemen and army retirees, so as to ensure their income is lifted together with economic and social development.
More money will also be spent on improving the army’s drilling and living conditions, he said.
Ministry urged
FOLLOWING the failure to achieve its annual energy consumption control goals, the country’s lawmakers are urging the government to set up a new ministry to ensure the efficient and sustainable use of energy resources.
“China’s energy supervision department is seriously understaffed. Without a professional and strong administrative team, laws and regulations cannot be well implemented,” said Wang Weicheng, a deputy to the National People’s Congress.
China abolished the Ministry of Energy in 1993. Currently, energy control falls under the National Development and Reform Commission.
Migrant workers
WANG YUANCHENG, deputy to the NPC, said more deputy seats should be reserved for the nation’s rapidly growing number of migrant workers.
He noted that at present, every 960,000 rural residents can have one NPC deputy, but the same number of urban residents can have four NPC deputies. Wang, a migrant-worker-turned vocational training school principal in Taian in Shandong Province, said his motion this year is vital to ensure social equality.
Ticket supply
ENTRANCE tickets to Potala Palace sold like hot cakes in railway-linked Tibet last year, but political advisors and legislators worry that more tourists will be disappointed by scant ticket supplies.
Tourism to Tibet is soaring with the operation of the new railway line which opened last July. Ngoezhub Puncog, a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC from Tibet, said that in the best tourist season last year, about 4,500 to 5,000 visitors came to Lhasa each day, but Potala Palace placed a 2,300-tickets-per-day cap on tourist admittance.
