介绍:
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
A new set of guidelines is unveiled to regulate China's vast museum sector, but experts say more needs to be done.
In China, finding a museum has seldom been a problem. But other than the big and established ones, many fail to be taken seriously by visitors because they don't have the resources to manage their collections or haven't been officially registered as museums.
Now, change is afoot. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set the course to make the country's museum sector less chaotic. He has signed China's first regulation of museums. The law is effective on March 20.
The new rules demand all museums to have collection reservation areas, complete management systems and approval documents.
Cultural officials hailed the law as a great breakthrough because it provides equal status to State-owned museums and private ones. The two are no longer treated differently in terms of duties, qualifications, financial support or supervision.
China had 4,000 registered museums by the end of 2013. Among them, 800 were privately owned.
All the museums together attracted more than 600 million visitors in 2013.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Beijing's big Chinese-character slogans and banners have been criticized as creating confusion about the city's international image. The slogans and banners are seen at many intersections and subway stations.
Adding to the confusion are many foreign-language signs, mostly in English. Many of the signs appear with grammatical mistakes, wrong information or words that might be misunderstood.
An official for China's overseas Chinese-language teaching program, Xu Lin is among the country's political advisers who were meeting in Beijing. Xu says slogans and banners in public places stem from the political campaigns half a century ago. They are usually ideologically charged and don't fit Beijing's current identity as an open, dynamic international city.
She says China's image depends heavily on Beijing. The city is host to more than 100,000 foreign residents, 4 million overseas visitors, and many multinational corporations and international businesses.
She says Beijing should make rules and offer guidance regarding posters and banners in public places. She suggested the city should phase out those that are highly ideological or confusing.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.
The world's biggest tourism trade fair is under way with a workshop on Chinese outbound tourism in Berlin, Germany.
The discussion at the international tourism fair focused on China's "second wave of outbound tourists", and their new destinations and consumption patterns.
Panelists from Europe and Asia exchanged views on the issue of "how can established destinations react, and what will the future of Chinese outbound tourism look like".
Last year, the number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad increased by 20 percent year-on-year to 110 million.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization, based in Madrid, Spain, says China is the world's largest outbound market since 2012.
During the recent Chinese Lunar New Year holiday last month, 5 million Chinese visitors travelled to Thailand, Japan, the United States and Europe.
That's around 10 percent more than during the previous year's festival.
The tourism sector in European countries is paying greater attention to Chinese tourists' shopping habits and consumption. At 12 of its retail outlets across Europe, London-based McArthurGlen Group launched a series of promotions during the Spring Festival holiday. It advertised on Chinese social media and provided discounts in its stores.
In New York, the high-end department store Bloomingdale's put up decorations featuring a giant Chinese coin towering above a blanket of red flowers.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Historical photos depicting the life of the earliest Chinese immigrants in the United States are on display at an art center in Houston's Chinatown.
The exhibition is organized by a local Chinese community group. It features the life of the immigrants who worked as coolies, or laborers, and their descendants.
The first wave of Chinese Americans came to the United States during the latter half of the 19th century. They were mostly from south China's Guangdong Province. The immigrants helped build the first transcontinental railroad, worked in the southern plantations after the American Civil War, and participated in setting up California's agriculture and fisheries.
Those first generations of Chinese Americans made their due contribution to the American society but often suffered discrimination and humiliation.
In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The law prohibited immigration from China for the following decade. The law was extended 10 years later and eventually lasted for more than 50 years.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in 2012, apologizing for the discriminating laws and the unjust treatment the Chinese American laborers received.
In May last year, the Chinese immigrants who worked on the transcontinental railroad were honored, by being included in the U.S. Department of Labor's Hall of Honor in Washington, D.C.
More than 12,000 Chinese laborers are the first Asian-Americans to be introduced into the Hall since its creation in 1988.
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