Is terrorism in China

On the past 28, October, a car hit the Jinshui Bridge, which is right in front of Tiananmen Square, causing 5 people died and 38 injured. Among those deaths and injures, 3 of them were inside the car and 2 of them were innocent tourists.

Today, police announced that this was a terrorism attack led by Islamic jihadists and 5 suspects have been arrested.

Here is the news from New York Times:

“BEIJING — The Chinese authorities announced on Wednesday the arrests of five people described as Islamic jihadists who they say helped orchestrate an audacious attack near Tiananmen Square, the political heart of the nation, that left five people dead.

In a brief message posted on its microblog account, the Beijing Public Security Bureau said the arrested men, all ethnic Uighurs from China’s western Xinjiang region, had enlisted a family of three to drive a vehicle across a crowded sidewalk on Monday and then ignite the car at the foot of the Tiananmen Gate. Two tourists were killed and 40 people were injured as the vehicle sped toward the entrance to the Forbidden City, just yards from the iconic portrait of Chairman Mao.”

If you’d like to see the full article, please just click the link.

 

China is preparing for moon landing

It has been 10 years since in 2003, the first time China launched a spaceship that carried one pilot, Yang Liwei. And now in 2013, China is preparing for moon landing. Will China be the second country that can successfully send human being to moon?

According to China daily:

“A Long March-3B carrier rocket is being transported towards the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China, after left Beijing Sunday morning, to prepare for the upcoming launch of Chang’e-3 moon probe.

The carrier rocket left the capital aboard a train and is scheduled to reach the launch center on Nov 1, said a statement from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

Compared with the carrier rocket of Chang’e-2 moon probe, this one has been equipped with a number of new technologies and its reliability has been further improved, the statement said.

All tests on the Chang’e-3 moon probe, which has been in Xichang since September 12, are going on smoothly, the statement added.

The Chang’e-3 moon probe is designed to carry China’s first moon rover and soft-land on the moon. Its launch is scheduled at the end of this year.

It is part of the second stage of China’s three-stage lunar probe program, orbiting, landing, and analyzing lunar soil and stone samples.”

Let us see what is going to happen.

30,000 turn out in Beijing Marathon

The 2013 Beijing International Marathon concluded on Sunday with Tadese Tola of Ethiopia breaking the event record set 27 years ago to win the men’s race and China’s Zhang Yingying claiming the women’s title.

In its 33rd year, the Beijing Marathon drew 30,000 participants this year with all registering in only 13 hours after bookings opened on Sept 8, setting a speed record for registration.

Professional runner Tadese Tola of Ethiopia, finished the race in 2:07:16, eclipsing the former event record set by Japanese runner Taisuke Kodama in 1986 by 19 second

Africans learn Kung Fu at Shaolin temple

Members of a Shaolin kung fu training course for African students perform at the course’s opening ceremony in Central China’s Henan province. To strengthen cultural exchanges between China and Africa, the Ministry of Culture launched the course and enrolled the first batch of 20 students from five African countries, who will study kung fu at Shaolin Temple for three months.

Interesting-looking Chinese buildings

Recently, many bloggers on China’s Sina weibo have been joking around about the shape of the new headquarters for the People’s Daily, which is China’s official government newspaper.  The building is designed to symbolize earth and sky, or from an aerial view, the Chinese character for the word of “people”(人）.

This is what the building should look like once construction is completed.

However, many residents of Beijing have observed that from one particular angel, this unfinished building looks like, eh, something else.

This building even went on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show. However, one thing in talk show he talked about was completely wrong. Chinese government never ever tried to prohibit people from talking about this building, not at all.

China reaches out to Vietnam

China’s diplomatic blitz through Southeast Asia continued on Sunday, as Chinese premiere Li Keqiang arrived in Hanoi to boost political trust and economic ties with Vietnam, where territorial disputes have, in the past, made for rocky relations.

After an hour-long meeting, Mr. Li and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed several bilateral cooperation agreements covering maritime research, finance, infrastructure and education.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-10/14/content_17029051.htm