介绍:
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
China will launch a number of major projects to restructure its energy layout in order to achieve a greener development with cleaner energy.
Premier Li Keqiang says China will push forward reform in energy production and consumption, and make energy use greener.
He made this remark recently at a meeting of the incumbent National Energy Commission.
Li said China will embark on new nuclear power plants equipped with state-of-the-art safety measures on the eastern coast at a proper time.
Other projects will mainly include construction of hydropower stations, wind and solar power stations, and ultra-high-voltage transmission lines to send power from the west to the east of the country.
China has seen rapid nuclear power growth in recent years, but became cautious about the development of new nuke programs after Japan's Fukushima nuclear fallout in 2011.
To make energy greener, China will try to boost the development of electric cars and upgrade coal burning power generators that fail to meet emission cut requirements.
Premier Li says China will wage a war against air pollution and smog, and step up ecological protection measures by further saving energy and cutting emissions.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
About one third of Beijing's PM 2.5 is from neighboring cities.
The Environmental Protection Bureau of Beijing says around 30 percent of the air pollutants in the capital are from nearby cities.
Motor vehicles, coal burning, industrial production and dust are major resources for Beijing's PM 2.5 pollution. Other pollutants come from cooking, livestock and paint.
PM 2.5 is fine particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter that causes hazardous smog.
The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center says vehicle emissions are the major pollutant responsible. Pollutants discharged by cars worsen air quality after mixing with dust.
The Beijing municipal government has pledged to reduce PM 2.5 density by 25 percent in the next three years.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The United Nations has celebrated its Chinese Language Day with a series of special activities to highlight the historical and cultural importance of Chinese.
The UN Chinese Language Day was established by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in 2010 to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity. It also aims to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organization.
Dozens of UN staff members and diplomats from different countries gathered in the UN headquarters to enjoy a host of events. As part of the celebration, an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy and paintings was held at the UN headquarters in New York.
The Chinese Language Day is observed annually on April 20, roughly corresponding to the day of Guyu in the lunar calendar. Ancient people celebrated Guyu to honor Cangjie, a legendary figure who invented the Chinese characters.
The Chinese language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, along with English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. More than 1 billion people speak Chinese, which means one in every seven people around the world communicates using Chinese.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Archaeologists have discovered new sections of the Great Wall in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
The 20-meter long wall was found in a valley in Zhongwei City. It is believed to be part of the Great Wall built during the Qin Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago.
The wall consists of three sections, one of which was built entirely with stones. The stone section is five meters long, four meters wide and six meters tall. The other two sections are 10 and 5 meters long respectively.
The remains are believed to have a history of around 2,500 years.
During the Warring States Period more than 2,200 years ago, the state of Qin defeated other powers and established the Qin Dynasty. To prevent foreign invaders from crossing the Yellow River when it was frozen in winter, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang, built the Great Wall along the Yellow River Valley.
The Great Wall in China was listed as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO in 1987.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
A General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists will be held in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in October.
The event is set for October 16 to 18 in the city of Baoji.
The World Fellowship of Buddhists is an international organization headquartered in Bangkok. It's the first time the organization has decided to hold its general conference in China.
The conference is expected to attract around 400 representatives from dozens of countries and regions across the world, as well as another 400 observers.
The vice mayor of Baoji Zhang Jing-yuan said preparations have begun; and the conference will help Chinese Buddhists strengthen ties with Buddhists from other parts of the world.
Founded in Sri Lanka in 1950, the World Fellowship of Buddhists is aimed at promoting the teachings of the Buddha. It also organizes all sorts of humanitarian activities.
