介绍:
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
Spring Festival is not only a traditional seven-day holiday when Chinese residents go home for family reunions. It's also a time many people prefer to spend traveling.
Ctrip.com International, the largest online travel agency in China, forecasted that around 6 million outbound trips would be taken during this Spring Festival, setting a record for the Golden Week.
Meanwhile, Chinese travelers' budgets for trips have been increasing in recent years. The agency says the average spending of Chinese outbound travelers for Spring Festival would exceed 10,000 yuan, roughly 1,500 U.S. dollars, excluding local shopping costs.
The main expenses are for air tickets, accommodation, tour guides, transportation, visa fees and insurance.
Some self-guided tourists also like to spend a lot on unique experiences, including hot-air balloon rides in New Zealand, opera in London, or whale watching in Hawaii. During the Golden Week, Chinese get into a generous holiday mood.
Statistics from Mafengwo.cn found that online bookings per capita for overseas independent trips increased 30 percent to 6,800 yuan this year. The tourism information-sharing website says people used to care about the price, but they focus more on the quality of the trips now.
Some more affluent Chinese travelers have even turned to luxury and private tours.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
A man wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years in China has been declared innocent for insufficient evidence and has been released from a prison in south China's Hainan province.
Fifty-three-year-old Chen Man from Sichuan province in southwestern China was given a two-year suspended death sentence in 1994 for homicide and arson. Chen was freed in Haikou, the provincial capital. He had been held in prison before being sentenced.
Chen said after being released that he was happy and could not wait to return home to celebrate Spring Festival with his parents, who are in their 80s.
His lawyer, Wang Wanqiong, took up the case in 2013. He says he was excited about Chen's acquittal, adding that it marks progress with the rule of law in China.
The lawyer adds that the correction of his client's verdict shows that judicial bodies in the country have changed their ideas about dealing with cases where there is doubt.
Officials at Hainan High People's Court bowed and apologized to Chen and told him that he could apply for State compensation.
In another development, 27 officials, including police officers, prosecutors and judges, in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region were penalized over the wrongful conviction and execution of a man for rape and murder when he was 18 in 1996.
Feng Zhiming, who was in charge of the case against Hugjiltu at the time, is suspected of job-related crimes and has been placed under further investigation.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Beijing police have cracked down on a major fraud ring accused of using E Rent Treasure, an online financial platform, to illegally collect up to 50 billion yuan, roughly 7.6 billion U.S. dollars, in funds. The illegal collection of funds affected 900,000 investors across 31 provinces and regions.
Ding Ning, former chairman of Yucheng International Group, the owner of E Rent Treasure, has been arrested on suspicion of fund-raising fraud, illegally acquiring funds and possessing firearms.
Twenty other senior managers in the company have also been arrested by national prosecuting departments on suspicion of illegally acquiring funds from investors.
In February 2014, Yucheng International Group purchased a Beijing network and technology company. In July, Yucheng changed the company's name to E Rent Treasure, operating it as an online financial company.
Yucheng was registered abroad and consisted of eight business operation centers across the country, including in Beijing, Shanghai and Anhui province, that allegedly used fake information and fabricated financing and leasing projects.
The group allegedly lured members of the public to invest money, promising returns of 9 percent to 14 percent.
Between July 2014 and December last year, Yucheng illegally acquired as much as 50 billion yuan from 900,000 victims.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.
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