City swaps bullets for needles in death penalty

By the end of the year, criminals sentenced to death in Beijing will be executed by lethal injection rather than bullets. Authorities have decided to phase out the use of firing squads, which are thought to be cumbersome and traumatic for the executioners and the family of the deceased.

Animal abusers may face punishment

Animal abuse or harm may soon incur punishment as the nation’s first animal rights law takes shape. A preview copy of the bill will be available for public comment in August before it is submitted to the National People’s Congress.

Beijing among Asia’s most expensive

Beijing has become the fifth most expensive city in Asia, behind only the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe, according to a survey from ECA International, a human resources service provider.

Annual income only buys 4 square meters

The average price of commercial housing in China hit 4,000 yuan per square meter last year, according to a report by the Ministry of Land and Resources and its subordinate institution China Land Surveying and Planning.

New orphanage welcomes first children

Beijing SOS Children’s Village, the first of its kind in Beijing, opens in July. Located in Daxing district, the village is the 10th SOS in China, co-sponsored by the Beijing government and SOS Kinderdorf International. It will house up to 120 orphans, ages 4 to 12, selected by local civil affairs bureaus throughout the country.

New guidelines tell parents to separate children from cyberland

Two new guidelines advise parents on how to steer children clear of one of the country’s fastest-growing social problems: Internet addiction.

Bidding opens for a solution to city’s trash

The city is inviting engineers from around the world to fight odors looming over its three largest landfills as the hot summer months approach. The three particularly smelly landfills are part of its eight-landfill disposal network.

Capital called 4th most competitive city

By Jin Zhu
Beijing is the fourth most competitive Chinese city, ranking just behind Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai in the seventh edition of the Blue Book on Urban Competitiveness released Tuesday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
The report compared 294 cities on the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The top 10 [...]

Country’s first human-powered flying device lifts off in Shanghai

A 42-kilogram flying machine “Mozi,” China’s first human-powered aircraft, had a successful test flight, Shanghai OXAI Aircraft Company announced on Al 7.
Mao Yiqing, the aircraft’s 46-year-old designer, pedaled the vehicle to soar 126 meters in 20 seconds at 2.8 meters off the ground in Shanghai’s suburban Fengxian district, OXAI announced at its press conference.

Report says factories leave, but soil pollution stays

A fifth of all Chinese farmland– 20 million hectares – is contaminated. At least a tenth of the total farmland is contaminated by industrial waste, and 1.million hectares use raw sewage for irrigation.