Voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the 6,400 km (4,000 mile) wall snakes its way across 11 Chinese provinces and draws millions of tourists every year, mostly to restored sections near the capital, Beijing.

Away from the tourist trail, however, some parts of the wall are being allowed to crumble away.

About 200 km (124 miles) southwest of Beijing, in rural Laiyuan county in Hebei province, dozens of small mines are threatening the stability of the centuries-old wall as prospectors dig for copper, iron, molybdenum and nickel, state news agency Xinhua reported. Some mines have excavated within 100 meters of the wall.

But since many of these mines have legal permits, there is nothing conservationists can do, said Dong Yaohui, Vice Chairman of the Great Wall Society.

“The exploitation of the mineral resources falls under the jurisdiction of the Land Resources Bureau, so if the bureau issues mining permits to the mining companies, they can legally extract the mineral resources within areas designated in the contract,” Dong said.

“But in this process the Land Resources Bureau does not take into consideration the Great Wall as a factor, or consult the opinion of the Department of Cultural Heritage as there is no rule requiring a consultation as such. So this creates the mess in organization.”

The Laiyuan Land Resources Bureau blames the destruction on small, illegal mines, and Xinhua quoted them as saying that operators of such mines use sophisticated communication devices to dodge law enforcement.

Each year, the department of Cultural Heritage is given funds to repair damaged segments of the wall, but Dong said it cannot prevent that damage from taking place.

“Money is not the major issue in the protection of the Great Wall. If you just put down a rule requiring that mining cannot take place within a specific distance from the Great Wall, would that cost money?” he said.

“No, it wouldn’t cost anything.”

This is not the first time the Great Wall has come under threat.

Bomb attacks during the Sino-Japanese War, from 1937-1945, destroyed large sections, and residents in surrounding villages looted bricks to build roads and houses in the 1950s and 1960s.

China’s State Council issued a ban on vandalism of the Great Wall in 2006, but critics say it has not been enforced in the more remote areas.

Cultural protection experts say that more than 70 percent of the Wall lies in ruins, with just a little over 20 percent of it in good shape, Xinhua said.

In Laiyuan county, residents who previously relied on agriculture have turned their land over to the miners. This is evident in the trucks rumbling along the rural roads, carrying away their excavated spoils.

“Our village is empty, the whole southern area is empty. In the North, they’ve dug a hole going all the way through to Tielingzi and even 1.5 kilometers beyond that to a place called Geziling,” said 60-year-old resident Ding Qingzhong.

Another resident said she disagreed with the idea of making money at the expense of preservation.

“Ancient landmarks should be restored, and at the same time resources should also be extracted,” said Tong Zhongrong.

“But don’t destroy the ancient landmark just for the sake of mining and for selfish profit. That is wrong.”

(Editing by Elaine Lies)

Biden and his entourage ordered five bowls of black bean sauce noodles, 10 steamed buns, smashed cucumber salad, mountain yam salad, shredded potatoes and Coca Cola at Yao’s Chao Gan restaurant for lunch last Thursday, racking up a tab of 79 yuan ($12.40).

Staff at the small restaurant said the number of customers ordering the noodles has risen by four times since then, with many coming in to order what they call the “Biden Set” even if it is not on the menu — though owner Yao Yan plans to include it soon.

“U.S. Vice President Joe Biden came to my restaurant for lunch just like an ordinary customer, and we treated him like an everyday guest who came from far away,” she told Reuters Television.

“We didn’t give him any discounts or special offers.”

On a recent day all seats were full in the simple restaurant, where diners sit on backless chairs and eat from plain white dishes. A line snaked through the room, with hungry customers eyeing other treats such as fried spring rolls.

Economic concerns dominated Biden’s visit last week, with the two nations turning their backs on a range of thorny problems including human rights and trade in favor of showing shared confidence and co-operation in the face of a jittery global economy.

A few customers expressed surprise that Biden had chosen such an inexpensive eatery for his meal, which Chinese media called “noodle diplomacy.”

Some Chinese bloggers interpreted his visit to the restaurant as an indication of support for the yuan to keep on rising, although there was nothing to suggest this. Washington has pressed for the yuan to appreciate faster against the U.S. dollar to combat a hugely lopsided trade balance.

Shrugging this off, ordinary customers are now flocking in, forcing the restaurant to hire more staff.

“I travelled from Inner Mongolia to Beijing, and the taxi driver told me this restaurant was famous because the U.S. vice president came for lunch a few days ago,” said a 30-year-old tourist who gave only his last name, Wu.

“We are here particularly to try what he ate.”

(Editing by Elaine Lies)

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) – The school day has ended but class is not yet over for students heading for their local community center and a very different sort of classroom — one built from shipping containers.

The children, who are from China’s “floating population” of migrant workers, don’t hold Beijing residency, which means they do not have the right to access free education at public schools.

Migrant families who have settled in Beijing are now so permanent that city officials tolerate, but do not certify, about 260 private schools dotted around the capital specifically to serve migrant children. These schools are also often located on marginal land earmarked for other projects, and can be subject to sudden demolition.

This was why Compassion for Migrant Children’s Education has decided on the unusual solution of shipping containers for their latest community center, located in a grimy northeastern Beijing suburb called Heiqiao, where it runs after-school programs for children of migrant workers.

“In the event that we need to move because of urban development, we can just pick up these containers and move with the families,” said Yin Chia, the NGO’s Australian-Chinese manager.

“These classrooms, they are built out of shipping containers, they are completely renovated.”

The charity has already lost one community center to Beijing’s bulldozers as the migrant workers living around it were moved to make way for a shopping center.

All the programs and classes at the shipping container school are free, making the center popular. The after school program is limited to 200 students, though anyone can use the basketball court and sports equipment.

The evening is divided into hour-long sessions, with teachers spending the first hour overseeing homework, and sports and arts classes afterwards. The project aims to fill a gap for students who would otherwise spend their evenings home alone while their parents work.

“The homework the teacher gives us to do in the evenings is quite hard,” said 9-year-old student Li Jianjing.

“Here we can ask the teacher if we can’t do it. That is why we come here.”

The Chinese government counted 261.4 million “migrant” workers in 2010, mostly farmers from poor inland areas who have moved to the booming cities and coastal areas to find work.

Lacking the option of state-run schools, migrant worker parents– who earn around 2,000 yuan ($300) a month — have to spend at least a month’s salary to pay for private schools, where the standards are often lower.

Heiqiao’s local private school has more than 600 students and class sizes range from 30 to 50 pupils. Many children drop out when they reach the age of 14 or 15 to join their parents, working long hours for little pay.

“Often the class sizes in the migrant schools are very, very big, often resources are quite limited, and the children are often not receiving the attention that they need,” said Chia.

“Children love to learn and if you provide them with attention, you can do wonders with that interest for learning. With our after-school program what we are really trying to do is encourage interest in learning — and hopefully that will encourage them to stay in the education system longer as well.”

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Ben Blanchard)

Employees at the Tianjin Mitsumi Electric Co. factory
continued a stoppage that began on Tuesday.

Handmade banners with workers’ demands hung from the
factory gate and about 30 workers gathered near an entrance in
rain, cheering reporters outside. The factory is owned by
Tokyo-listed Mitsumi Electric (6767.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a maker of electronics
components.

“Human traffickers are not welcome” read one banner at the
factory gate. “We want a pay rise” and “We want fair treatment”
said other banners, some several metres long.

Mitsumi Electric said the factory, with over 3,300
employees, had stopped production because “some of its
employees demanded higher wages and improved benefits”. The
company said it was talking with the striking workers, and the
“impact of the stoppage is limited at this point.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^ TAKE A LOOK-China labour in the spotlight [ID:nSGE65103V]
For a graph on China’s averages wages, click
here
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^ The factory is the latest high-profile target in
slow-burning but persistent labour unrest that has hit
foreign-owned companies, often left vulnerable by their
position in complex supply chains and by a tightening labour
market.

Over past weeks, striking workers have demanded higher
wages from car parts makers and other manufacturers, especially
Japanese auto parts companies with operations in the south.

Workers, many of them migrants from poor villages, say
their wages have not kept up with rising prices or the profits
reaped by companies using China as a low-cost production base.

“These strikes show that workers feel more confident that
the labour market is moving in their favour,” said Li
Changping, a former Chinese local official who studies rural
issues.

“Part of it is that they feel left out of the wealth, but
another part of it is that they feel they have gained enough
from rising wages that they can take a stand, demand a fairer
share,” said Li, who now works for a non-government
organisation with an office in Beijing.

Police guarded the Mitsumi plant and stopped reporters from
speaking to the workers inside, and empty coaches were parked
outside the gate to block filming of the protest, underscoring
the sensitivity of the unrest for the Communist Party-run
government, wary of challenges to its grip on power.

There were no signs of production at the darkened factory,
but pelting rain appeared to deter workers from either coming
outside or turning up at all. Locals said they saw hundreds of
the Mitsumi workers milling around the plant on Wednesday.

COMPANIES VULNERABLE

Japanese companies, with their usually tight supply chains,
appear especially vulnerable to the industrial unrest. But a
Chinese plant of U.S. listed Ingersoll-Rand Plc, (IR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) which
makes air conditioning systems, was also recently hit by a
strike.[ID:nN28263020]

It was unclear what level of pay rise the workers were
demanding. One earlier told Xinhua he received just 1,500 yuan
($220) a month after working on Saturdays and putting in two
hours overtime every working day. [ID:nTOE65T083]

“You have to be really willing to work. My daughter left
because she was too tired, they work more than ten hours
there,” said the mother of one former employee, who like many
of the plants’ workers, lives nearby.

China’s domestic media have been largely mute about the
strikes, apparently due to state censorship. But Xinhua has
issued reports about the unrest on its English-language
service.

Labour costs in China have been rising, partly encouraged
by a government that wants to turn farmers and workers into
more confident consumers, even as it tries to keep a lid on
strikes.

Earlier strikes disrupted production at auto makers Toyota
and Honda, and have laid bare the rising demands of China’s 150
million migrant workers, especially younger ones wanting to
secure a foothold urban prosperity.
(Writing by Chris Buckley; Additional reporting by Chris
Buckley in BEIJING, Sachi Izumi in TOKYO, editing by Miral
Fahmy)

About a tenth of Mongolia’s livestock may have perished, as deep snows cut off access to grazing and fodder.

The damage to the rural economy could increase demands on Mongolia’s already-stretched national budget, which relies on mining revenues to meet spending commitments.

The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal for 1 million Swiss francs to assist Mongolian herders, after it estimated that 4.5 million livestock have died in the country since December.

“The numbers of livestock that have perished have gone up very, very quickly and dramatically now to about 4 million which is roughly a tenth of the whole livestock population,” Francis Markus, communications director for the Red Cross’ East Asia delegation, said in Beijing after returning from Mongolia.

“This means that thousands of families, mostly coming from the poorest and most vulnerable layers of the herder population, have lost their entire flocks of animals and have been left in a very, very distraught and very, very desperate state.”

Roughly one-quarter of Mongolia’s 3 million people are nomads, while others also raise livestock in fixed settlements. Many go deeply in debt to buy and raise their herds, in hopes of making the money back by selling wool, meat and skins.

A similar combination of a summer drought, followed by heavy snow and low winter temperatures, which is known in Mongolian as a ‘zud’, caused widespread hardship in Mongolia a decade ago.

As a result, impoverished herder families flocked to the slums outside the capital, Ulan Bator, straining the city’s ability to provide basic services.

“The herding community’s situation is very hard now. The best off are those who still have around 40 percent of their livestock left and in the worst 50 cases are those who have lost absolutely everything,” said Zevgee, speaker of the county parliament in Bayangol, southwest of the capital.

This zud was the worst for several years, with temperatures dropping to 40 degrees Celsius below zero or colder in 19 of Mongolia’s 21 provinces, according to a World Bank report.

Around 63 percent of Mongolia’s rural residents’ assets are their livestock, it said, and at least 35 percent of the population earn a living from their animals.

Herder Tsendjav said that she had no option but to rely on the government and aid to survive the weather.

“I have seen many zuds that have caused the loss of numerous animals but I have never seen a zud as bad as this one,” she said at a Red Cross aid dispensary.

(Writing by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Both gold medallists from Turin four years ago, women’s
short track speed skater Wang Meng and men’s freestyle skier
Han Xiaopeng, have recovered from injuries to take their places
among the 91 Chinese competitors for the Feb. 12-28 Games.

China topped the medals table with 51 golds at the 2008
Beijing Summer Games, but the country is much weaker in winter
sports and officials have targeted just matching their haul of
two golds, four silvers and five bronzes from Turin.

“We started taking part in winter sports much later and we
face great obstacles … generally speaking we are below the
level of the summer sports,” Zhao Yinggang, secretary general
of the delegation, told a news conference on Thursday.

“We are working hard on narrowing the gap between China’s
winter and summer sports.”

“We should win no fewer medal than last Games, and try to
improve from last time,” added Zhao, who will be one of 91
officials and coaches accompanying the athletes.

Han will lead a strong Chinese challenge in both men’s and
women’s freestyle skiing aerials, while Wang, three strong
figure skating pairs teams, women’s snowboarders and the
women’s curling team are all strong medal hopes.

“We hope our performance at the Winter Olympics will
attract the attention and support of the Chinese people and
increase participation in winter sports,” said Zhao.

Zhao said the state system was a key to developing winter
sports, as it had done so succesfully for Summer Olympic
disciplines.

“Thanks to the state system, China’s competitive sports
have enjoyed great development, particularly at the Beijing
Olympic Games,” he said.

“Winter sports, which are part of China’s Olympic strategy,
have to use the advantages of such a system to improve our
work.”

(Editing by Nick Mulvenney)

To query or comment on this story email
sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

As Copenhagen’s climate talks draw near, more and more critics are turning to the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and asking how much damage has been done and what is being done about it?China’s booming double-digit growth came with a price. Coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels produces 80 percent of the country’s energy. But China says change is already well underway. The government recently announced that it aims to cut 2005 carbon intensity levels by 40-45 percent by 2020. Wu Changhua, Greater China Director of think tank The Climate Group, argues that while China’s pollution levels are closely monitored, it’s green efforts often go unnoticed:   

 The great retreat…

Glaciers melt by the road to Copenhagen.High up on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, according scientists at China's Institute of Sciences.The Himalayan glaciers are receding at a rate of 20 metres every year, at this speed they may disappear altogether by 2035, according to a United Nations report.  Video credit: Jimmy Jian and Phyllis XuClick here to watch the full Reuters Report. 

 Proud to plug in their car

China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is also home to the electromobile.It buzzes along at 50 kilometres an hour and it's got its own cult following in its native Shandong province.But at the moment that is the only place it can drive, until it is given official approval.After that, the Shifeng Group who created the electromobile hope to turn their technology to all manner of vehicles.  Video credit: Christina Hu and James TongClick here if you would like to watch the full video on Reuters Reports.