Pollution, Steroids, and the Internet

These are several interesting article segments from ZG Briefs, an email China news update.

[I figured they would do this. Don't worry, though, I'm sure it's only temporary. After the Olympics, I'm pollution will be back to normal.]

China to Shut Factories to Cut Air Pollution Before Olympics (February 9, 2008, Bloomberg News)

China will shut coal-fired power plants, cement factories and chemical manufacturers near Beijing to reduce pollution before the Olympic Games in August. Operators of these sites have been told they will be closed 30 days before the Olympics begin Aug. 8 in Beijing, said energy newsletter publisher Platts, citing unidentified people. Ten ``major polluters'' have already been shut and more than 15,000 old buses and taxis in both Beijing and Tianjin have been pulled off the streets, the State Environmental Protection Administration said in a statement on its Web site dated Feb. 1. ``The Olympics are the main theme this year so all the companies will go in line with the government's directives on the environment,'' said Zhou Xizeng, an equity analyst who covers steel companies at Citic Securities Co. in Beijing. ``Summer is a good time to cut supply because it isn't a peak season traditionally.''

[ Sometimes I think I'd like to get into the organic, no preservatives, limited processed foods thing. But I know that I'm just going to go back to China and who knows what will be in my food. Since I don't have much control over it anyway, maybe it's better just not to think about it too much.]

Wary US Olympians will bring own food to China (February 9, 2008, The New York Times, by Ben Shpigel)

When a caterer working for the United States Olympic Committee went to a supermarket in China last year, he encountered a piece of chicken — half of a breast — that measured 14 inches. “Enough to feed a family of eight,” said Frank Puleo, a caterer from Staten Island who has traveled to China to handle food-related issues. “We had it tested and it was so full of steroids that we never could have given it to athletes. They all would have tested positive.”

[It's just interesting how fast things are developing and expanding.]

95% of villages to have access to broadband service in 2008 (February 10, 2008, Xinhua)

China's information industry authority plans to expand broadband service to more than 95 percent of the nation's villages in 2008. Some of the central and eastern provinces will have all their townships and villages covered by broadband service by the end of this year, according to the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Telephone service will be expanded further in the rural areas, the ministry said on Sunday, which vowed a more extensive Internet connection to the rural areas with better quality. Of late some 99.5 percent of the country's villages have access to telephone links, and the broadband connection have reached 92 percent of the villages nationwide. Last year, 73 million people were added to the nation's total netizen population. Of the increment, 29.17 million, or 40 percent,lived in rural areas. This brought the number of rural Internet users to 52.62 million at the end of 2007, up 127.7 percent year-on-year. The rate was much higher than the 38.2 percent for urban areas.