介绍:
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
The top medical authority aims to root out the practice of reselling hospital outpatient appointments.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission said the campaign will be rolled out across Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
In addition, policy will follow, aiming to address the deep-seated problems feeding hospital appointment scalping.
A system is needed to enable patients to go to different hospitals according to their illness, rather than crowding big hospitals regardless of their actual needs.
Moreover, referral services will be promoted, so that patients can book doctor visits via their community doctors or family doctors.
Hospital appointment scalping entered the media spotlight earlier this year following a video posted online that showed a woman in a furious fit of rage with a scalper after she failed to get an appointment.
The woman said she had been waiting for an outpatient appointment for two days, and could still not get a ticket. A scalper offered her an appointment for 4,500 yuan, roughly 680 U.S. dollars, a huge markup on its 300 yuan face value.
The video amplified public ire over access to medical care.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Travel agents across China are advising outbound tourists to be extra cautious as three of the country's Zika patients caught the virus while on vacation.
Hangzhou travel agency has urged travelers to avoid places with a Zika problem.
The Zika virus spreads to people through mosquito bites. The symptoms include fever, joint pain, rash, conjunctivitis, as well as headaches and muscle pain.
Many countries in South America have been labeled risky, including Brazil, which will host the Olympic Games this year.
The agency says the risk of infection will be reduced during the second half of the year when temperatures drop in the Southern Hemisphere.
China's National Tourism Administration has urged travelers to keep up-to-date with information from the World Health Organization, the Chinese government and tourism destinations. Travel agencies are also asking outbound tourists to protect themselves against mosquito bites to prevent potential infection.
With five confirmed infections, China is on high alert against the virus.
In Shanghai, health authorities have prepared emergency sickbeds and held training sessions for staff. Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center plans to carry out research on how the virus develops and its long-term impact on human health.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
One downside of the two-child policy will be a shortfall in pediatricians.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission says China will strive to increase the number of pediatricians from 118,000 to 140,000 by 2020. That means there will be an average of 6 pediatricians for every 10,000 children.
China's 36,000 health institutions with pediatric departments receive 470 million outpatient visits annually, and provide care to 22 million inpatients on average.
In per capita terms, each pediatrician has to see 17 outpatients every day, more than double the average of other specialists.
To ease the shortfall, China will improve the training of pediatric resident doctors, train doctors who shift to pediatric care, and provide bespoke courses.
The Ministry of Education is addressing the demand for pediatricians triggered by the introduction of the two-child policy.
The ministry requires the country's top 38 medical schools to enroll more students on post-graduate pediatric courses, and aims to have at least one higher learning institute in each region offering undergraduate pediatric courses.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The Ministry of Public Security has released a host of measures to help Beijing's Zhongguancun Science Park attract and hold overseas talent.
The measures took effect on Tuesday, and are aimed at four groups including high-end foreign professionals, overseas Chinese who start businesses in Beijing, foreign students in Beijing and foreigners who work for entrepreneurial startups in the city.
The ministry is working with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security to set up a service center to review residency and visa applications from foreign professionals working in the Science Park. The science park is a high-tech hub in the capital that covers 500 square kilometers and currently has more than 20,000 companies.
The center will also provide consultation services to foreigners.
Foreign nationals can consult or submit applications at the Beijing security bureau's exit and entry administration hall in Dongcheng district or at the bureau's administration office at Beijing Capital International Airport.
The ministry stipulated that immigration officers must respond to applications for permanent residence by high-end foreign professionals within 50 working days after an application is submitted. The current review requirement is 180 days. Those professionals' spouses and children under the age of 18 will also be qualified to apply for permanent residence in China.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Two smog hot spots in the already badly polluted Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei cluster have been identified by a national environmental think tank.
China Research Academy of Environmental Sciences said the areas not only suffer from worse air pollution than their neighbors, but also have longer lasting smog.
The hot spots are located in the cluster's northern and central areas, covering some parts of Beijing as well several cities in Hebei province. The area has consistently been among the worst of China's 74 major domestic cities for smog since 2013.
An official from the academy says the hot spots needed "extra strict" regulations to reduce pollutant emissions and help alleviate regional smog issues.
The minister of environmental protection has previously highlighted the importance of tackling air pollution in the core cities including Beijing and Tianjin through regional control efforts that include adopting unified standards on issuing smog alerts.
Since November, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster has been hit by three bad spells of smog.
In December, the average concentration of PM2.5 climbed to 143 micrograms per cubic meter, the highest monthly reading since February 2014. PM2.5 is particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 microns that is hazardous to health.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto NEWSPlusRadio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues.
Amid outcries for reform of the taxi market, a tourist destination in Eastern China's Jiangsu province has abolished the monthly franchise fees charged to taxi drivers as of March 1.
The new policy in Suzhou city near Shanghai means each taxi driver is freed from at least 1,000 yuan, roughly 150 U.S. dollars a month. Suzhou is an ancient city located on the lower reaches of Yangtze River and known for its stone bridges and meticulously designed gardens.
The change affects 9,000 taxis in the city, including 500 electric cars and thousands of cabs in some regions that already benefit from the new policy. Some 40 million yuan will be returned to taxi companies or other operators.
China's taxi management companies have to pay local traffic authorities for the right to operate their businesses. The cost is actually paid by the taxi drivers and deducted from their monthly income.
The taxi industry is struggling and drivers are upset by growing competition from ride-hailing apps backed by Alibaba and Tencent. Drivers have been demanding a reduction in rental contract fees that cut into their profit.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Family members will be encouraged to share the same tombs, and ecologically friendly funerals will be promoted over the next five years in China. That's according to a guideline jointly issued by central government departments designed to save land resources by stepping up funeral reforms.
The guideline has been issued by nine departments including the Ministry of Civil Affairs and National Development and Reform Commission. It says the country will further promote eco-friendly funerals in the next five years. Eco-friendly funerals include sea burials and tree funerals, where ashes are buried and a tree is planted on the spot.
The guideline promotes burials that take up little or no land. In densely populated areas, authorities suggest vertical burials, including ways to store cremated remains in buildings, walls or towers.
The authorities are urging the use of smaller tombs and tombstones. Funerals that leave no ashes of the deceased are encouraged.
The guideline notes that the funeral traditions of ethnic minority groups will be respected, and it is calling on people from these groups to choose burial methods consistent with both their cultural traditions and the eco-friendly burial requirements.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
A guide dog that was stolen from a blind masseur in Beijing has been returned with a note from the dognappers, asking for forgiveness.
The 7-year-old black Labrador was stolen by an organized gang of dog thieves.
The dog's owner, 47-year-old Tian Fengbo, from Shunyi district, says the gang approached and took the dog when a worker at his massage parlor was walking it around outside.
The worker did not use a lead and the dog was grabbed by the occupants of a silver van that was passing by.
The distraught owner called the police, and the Beijing Public Security Bureau immediately released information about the incident on its micro blog, hoping for public assistance. Local police also investigated.
The thieves sent the dog back secretly the following day. A note with apologies was pasted onto the dog.
The thieves are still at large.
Guide dogs, often Labradors or golden retrievers, are sent to foster families as puppies for almost a year of socialization. Dogs that show promise receive another year of training before becoming guide dogs of the families.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
The deaths of seven Przewalski's gazelle, a species even more endangered than the giant panda, have aroused debate over whether grassland fences should be removed completely.
The antelopes were killed by barbed wire fences around Qinghai Lake, the last stronghold of the species, in northwest China's Qinghai Province. The animals were caught by fences when they tried to jump over.
The deaths were discovered by an environmental volunteer and herdsman when he was patrolling the lake on his motorcycle.
The local government has sent investigators to the site.
The antelopes died in different locations and at various times. Some may have been chased by predators when they tried to jump the fences.
Przewalski's gazelle has China's highest level of protection. Once the animal was found all over north and northwest China, but now the gazelle is seen only around Qinghai Lake.
It was named after the Russian explorer who collected a specimen and took it back to St. Petersburg in 1875.
This is not the first time that fences have killed gazelles during their migration. The tragedy questions the future of the fences, originally built to restrict the movement of livestock, mark ownership of grassland, and increase productivity.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
（全文见周六微信。）
