China's two stock exchanges set a record high in combined transactions of 83.1 billion yuan on June 25, when the stock index rose to 1,700 and 4,364 points in Shanghai and Shenzhen, respectively. They broke the records on June 29, by closing at 1, 739 and 4,851 points.

Among the well performing stocks, a group of new and high technology stocks have moved up by over 100 percent since the middle of May, much higher than the composite increase of 50 percent.

The Shenzhen Development Technology Shareholding Co., for example, had its stock traded up to 32.52 yuan per share on June 25, up 124 percent from a month ago. That day, the company's Digital Signal Processing Laboratory, jointly set up with America' s Texas Instrument, went into operation.

The export oriented company based in Shenzhen, China's first special economic zone, is one of the world's three major computer magnet-head suppliers. It has sustained a 50 percent annual profit increase over the past few years.

In 1995, there were only 29 state approved new and high technology companies listed on the stock market. The number jumped to 135 by the end of last year, accounting for 16 percent of the total number of listings. They specialize in telecommunications, bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-engineering industries and the environmental sector.

In 1998, the per-share earning ratio of these companies averaged 0.2 yuan, 20 percent higher than the average level.

China is creating a more favorable climate for new and high technology industries. The country's first fair for the sector will be held in October in Shenzhen, which is expected to involve 15 billion yuan worth of capital transactions. Some 24 percent of the capital flow will go to telecommunications and 12 percent to the new materials industry, according to officials preparing for the fair.

The survey of some 4,000 elderly Tianjin residents, including 600 widows and widowers, revealed that 46 percent of respondents agreed that elderly people should remarry. In addition, some 68 percent of widows and widowers expressed the desire to remarry.

Sociologists noted that the responses indicate gradual abandonment of the traditional concept that elderly people should depend on their children for companionship and support, and that most widows and widowers are lonely and need new partners.

Statistics show that China has more than 120 million elderly citizens, including over 42 million widows and widowers. Tianjin alone is home to over 350,000 widows and widowers.

In spite of the common wish to remarry as indicated in the survey, only five percent of elderly Tianjin widows and widowers have in fact remarried. Most elderly people fear the rumors which quite accompany remarriages and some children selfishly dissuade their parent from remarrying in order to protect their inheritances.

Local meteorological data shows the rainfall is three times that of a normal rainy season and has surpassed the previous record of 571 mm in 1996.

The Shanghai Meteorological Station forecasts more rain for this week and predicts that this rainy season will not end until well into the first ten days of July.

The continuous wet weather has caused great inconvenience in transportation, vegetable supply and other sectors, but due to joint efforts by the local government and residents, both living and working conditions in the city are normal.

Gengque, the magistrate of Madoi County in Qinghai Province, noted that the mainstream had never before remained dry from one year to another.

The Yellow River is 5,464 km long, running through nine provinces and autonomous regions before emptying into the Yellow Sea. Headwaters initially flow into Zhaling Lake and on to Eling Lake before surging downstream to the middle and lower reaches of the river.

A recent survey revealed that the May water level in Eling was one meter below the 4,268 meter level in 1993, with the water flow rate falling from 7.8 cu.m. per second to 2.7 cu.m. per second.

Madoi County, an area covering 25,000 sq.km., originally had 4, 077 lakes covering more than one sq.km. each. However, over 2,000 smaller lakes which used to dot grasslands and river valleys no longer exist.

Gengque attributed the phenomenon to successive droughts, the shrinkage of grasslands and the deteriorating environment.

The TC-SCAN, the world's first container scanner, uses Cobalt-60 radioisotopes as a radiation source.

The scanner is expected to become a powerful weapon in the nationwide campaign against smuggling.

The scanner examines containerized goods with remarkably high accuracy, efficiency and safety, according to the China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation (CECIC).

It can scan 20 standard containers an hour. Items examined may be exposed to a small dose of radiation without posing a risk to humans.

In comparison with container scanners that use either electron accelerators or X-rays, the TC-SCAN occupies a smaller area and costs much less while performing similar tasks, experts said.

The TC-SCAN was jointly developed by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology of Qinghua University and CECIC. Its most distinguishing technological features include a gas ionization array detector, a Cobalt-60 radiation source and modern image processing and information retrieval capacity.

The institute has been granted a patent for the array detector in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

With the deepening of China's anti-smuggling campaign, there will be a growing demand for the TC-SCAN.

Containers are widely used throughout the world. However, the smuggling of drugs, weapons and other contraband in containers is a constant headache for customs. The conventional method of manually inspecting containers is complex and time-consuming.

The Chongqing No 1 Intermediate Court decided in a judicial ruling to freeze a 2-million-yuan (US$240,000) investment made by the Chongqing Taicun Industrial and Trade Company to Huixing Town in Chongqing's Yubei District.

The company was accused of owing huge amounts of money to a local construction company, the Democracy and Law Weekly of People's Daily reported yesterday.

However, legal consultants of the construction company told the court in March that the verdict remained unenforced.

The court found out it was the township government that interfered in the case settlement, the report said.

Finding it difficult to enforce the court decision, the court suggested reporting the case to the local people's congress.

The case immediately caught the attention of the Law Enforcement Committee of the local people's congress, which has made enforcing verdicts one of its top priorities.

The committee ordered the court to deliver a full account of the matter.

In its detailed report to the committee, the court decided to ask the township government to enforce the verdict.

The book exposition is now listed on the municipal government's Scheme in Spiritual Construction of Dalian During the Period of 1995-2000. The last two expositions in 1995 and 1997 were met with warm welcome from Dalian citizens and played a very positive role in upgrading citizens¡¯ cultural taste and quality.

This year, the book exposition will be grander than the last two as it is the year of the 50th anniversary of the founding of PRC and the 100th birthday of Dalian.

The exposition site will be moved to the newly-built Dalian Xinhua Bookstore Building which has an area of 5000 square meters, 2.5 times of the former one. And the exposition term will be doubled to 9 days, which allows more citizens and more time for visitors to choose their books among the 80 thousand kinds of books on display. 150 publishing houses from across China will be invited to meet directly with readers and they can exchange their thoughts face to face.

Besides, various activities will be held during the exposition. Art performers will give marvelous performances like symphony, singing and dancing, Peking opera, acrobatics; artists and calligraphists will give spot drawing and writing performance; some famous writers and comperes will be invited to sign for their new books.

The performance was given by Dalian Qianwei Jinzhou PE School. Chu Jianming performed TongBeiquan (a kind of Chinese boxing), Ermei Sword and Fan Lingling performed Shaolinquan (another kind of Chinese boxing), Shaolin Yunliu stick. Director Coach of DQJPES, Li Zengpu, also consultant of Wushu Monk Team of China Songshan Shaolin Temple, impressed the audience with his amazing foe-catching Kongfu.

Malagasy Army and Police and DQJPES are considering to sign an agreement, which will help improve Kongfu exchange between the two sides.