Chinese coal mines are never far from domestic headlines and are increasingly gaining international attention as Copenhagen’s climate change talks approach.

The talks will focus on setting emissions cuts to fight global warming and China, the world’s largest polluter, is heavily reliant on fossil fuel.

It also has the most dangerous mining industry in the world, in the first half of this year 1,175 people died in officially recorded mine accidents across China.

Most recently, 104 people have been killed in a gas explosion in a mine northern Heilongjiang province on Saturday 21 November.

China’s murky safety record in mining means most mines shy away from foreign journalists but a rare invitation to Tashan mine in north-eastern Datong province allowed a glimpse of one of China’s more safety-conscious mines.

Video credit: Wang Shubing

Deep in mountainous Sichuan province, locals are relying on one of the world’s last passenger steam trains as their only form of transport.

This living relic has never been updated since 1959, when it was rolled out to transport coal from a local mine. It runs along narrow gauge tracks roughly half the width of modern train tracks.

It’s passengers are less pleased with the noise, its once every 3 hours departure, the dust, and its slow trundle to its destination at 20 kilometres an hour.

The locals want a road and a bus service. If they have their way the locomotive may chug its last sometime in the near future.

Fierce competition for jobs and university places, and great expectations from parents, are pushing China ’s only children to their limits.
Two-three year olds learn English, and experimental classes aim to put “little geniuses” in university seven years ahead of their peers.
Are the children in this video losing their “right to play”, as stated by UN in the Convention of the Rights of the Child?

Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 31:

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

Video credit: Wang Shubing and Kitty Bu

See Panda Diplomacy report on reuters.com

A tough time for trade and diplomatic ties between China and Australia, but the loan of this cuddly couple may repair the rift.
Wang Wang and Fu Ni, from China’s southwest Sichuan province, will be sent to the Adelaide zoo by yearend in a 10-year loan for research purposes.
Relations have been tense between China and Australia after Chinese state-owned metals firm Chinalco failed in a $19.5 billion bid for a stake in Rio Tinto, and separately four Rio employees were arrested on suspicion of corporate espionage. A decision by Australia’s government in July to grant a visa for exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer further soured ties. But panda diplomacy may be answer.

Video Credit: Guan Yongning

Aides say U.S. President Barack Obama really enjoys sightseeing breaks during the hectic schedules of his foreign trips, since they let him clear his head.

The blustery wind on the Great Wall on Wednesday may have helped as well, as Obama broke away from tour guides and walked alone for a few minutes to Badaling’s third watchtower.

Mao said “Bu Dao Changcheng Fei Hao Han” which can mean “You aren’t a great man until you’ve been to the Great Wall” but also implies “You aren’t a good Chinese until you’ve been to the Great Wall.”

Nixon said “I think you would have to conclude that this is a Great Wall and it had to be built by a great people.”

And Obama?

“It’s magical. It reminds you of the sweep of history and our time here on Earth is not that long and we better make the best of it.”

He hadn’t brought a camera, but he did seem reluctant to leave, instead posing for photos with American and Chinese ambassadors.

“It gives you a good perspective on a lot of the day to day things. They don’t amount to much in the scope of history,” Obama added.

Video credit: Jimmy Guan

Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, arguably the world’s two most powerful men, stand shoulder to shoulder for their respective national anthems in Beijing on Tuesday.

But there are few smiles ahead of a morning of bilateral meetings on everything from the value of China’s currency to global warming. With their nations’ fates so bound to the relationship, and faced with the challenge of juggling trade and Tibet, it’s anyone’s guess what’s going through their minds.

It doesn’t help when a slightly disorientated Obama bumps into Hu’s back. But the Chinese President comes to the rescue with a gentle tug in the right direction.

“Which way are we going?” Obama asks Hu (who is not known to speak much English) as they leave their joint press briefing.

The question others may be asking is: “Who’s leading whom?”

Photo credit: David Gray

Video credit: Mark Chisholm, Jimmy Guan 

To watch the Reuters report click here

                                              By Lucy Hornby

The setting for Barack Obama and Hu Jintao’s “date night” on Tuesday was magnificent — the Gold Room in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, with its lush red carpets and elaborate murals. 

The chef was cautious, choosing a menu of chicken and tofu soup, steak and grouper without any of the spicier or exotic fare common to Chinese banquets. For the wine –  a little vin d’appellation Hebei, c 2002, otherwise known as Great Wall, gave Obama, a foretaste of his trip on Wednesday to the Great Wall itself.
 
And the music? The military band of the People’s Liberation Army serenaded Hu, Obama and the 150 other guests with a selection that combined keen hopes for the future with a whiff of the karaoke playbook.

“Wonderful Night” gave way to “America the Beautiful,” “We Are the World” segued into the Chinese tune “Step by Step Higher”. But then the band turned coy - “I Just Called to Say I Love You” was met with “In that Faraway Place.” The band finished off with “In the Mood” before the two went their separate ways, returning home through the chilly night and the empty Beijing streets.

Guan Yongning is a senior cameraman with Reuters Television in Beijing . In  15 years in the field,  he has covered stories ranging from natural disasters to politics and major sporting events.  Guan was one of the chosen few reporters able to follow U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit in China up-close.  He tells the story of what reporters have to go through to capture a few precious shots of the U.S. leader.

The reporters able to cover Obama’s visit up close might be considered the lucky ones. Following the American commander-in-chief means long hours working days,  skipping meals, lugging around heavy gear and enduring the harsh Beijing winds. But would they give up the chance?

How does one measure how U.S. President Barack Obama was received by the Chinese government?

I like to read the tea leaves and decided one measure might be to compare the reception Obama got in comparison with that given his predecessors.

For me, an indication is the most senior Chinese official greeting an American president at the airport.

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping was the first Chinese leader Obama met in Beijing when Air Force One touched down on Monday. Xi had rushed back on the same day to the Chinese capital from the northern province of Shaanxi, where he was on an inspection tour.

An Internet search showed that in 2002 and 2005, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing was on hand when U.S. President George W. Bush arrived. Li’s replacement, Yang Jiechi, turned up when Bush landed in 2008.

Judging from the rank of the top official greeting the two U.S. presidents, China appears to like Obama more than Bush.

It is no coincidence that Xi was tapped to welcome Obama.

Shortly after Bush was elected to his first term, he had riled China when he pledged to help Taiwan defend itself and offered the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own the biggest arms package in a decade. Bush is also unpopular in China for invading Iraq.

But even Obama’s red carpet greeting pales in comparison with the honour bestowed on U.S. civil  rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. after he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. Then-Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong looked on from the Gate of Heavenly Peace over Tiananmen Square,  where hundreds of thousands of Chinese had converged, to condemn the assassination and to show his support for King’s civil rights struggle.

Photo Credit: U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (centre L) walk past an honour guard during Obama’s arrival in Beijing November 16, 2009. REUTERS/Jim Young

Beijing’s local Americans believe Obama can maintain his popularity with the Chinese public just as long as he focuses on their main interests - trade relations and the fate of the huge Chinese holdings of U.S. government debt.

Tim’s Texas BBQ restaurant offers Beijing’s several thousand expat Americans grilled ribs, beer and live TV coverage of the President’s visit to China, from  November 15 to 18.  Chinese President Hu Jintao and American President Barack Obama are expected to discuss a wide range of issues from trade to currency imbalance and climate change to human rights.