China will allocate 35 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) to improve the inland water navigable capacity of rivers in southwest China’s Sichuan Province between 2011 and 2015, the Southwest Commercial News said Tuesday, citing provincial government officials.

With a budget of 2.5 billion yuan ($384.34 million) allocated for 2011, two projects at harbors in the cities of Nanchong and Guangyuan are scheduled to begin operations within this year. In the succeeding four years, an integrated water-and-land transportation system will be established in the region, as part of China’s 12th Five-Year-Plan (2011-2015), Xu Dongming, head of the Shipping Administration Bureau at the Sichuan Transportation Department, made the statements during a survey in the region.

With an annual average allotment of 7 billion yuan ($1.08 billion), which exceeds the region’s total investment spent on navigation transportation in the past five years, the project involves constructing a framework that will combine the Yangtze, Minjiang, Jialing and Qujiang rivers and their branches. Six key ports in the province will be designated as hubs.

The project will allow vessels of 2000 to 3000 tons to sail from Yinbin Port to Chongqing through an overall distance of 228 kilometers. Vessels of a maximum of 1000 tons will be allowed in the Yangtze River’s Shuifu-Yinbin section of 30 kilometers, Minjiang River’s Leshan-Yinbin section of 162 kilometers and Qujiang River’s 131-kilometer stretch.

The annual volume of water freight in the province will exceed 100 million tons and the ports’ annual cargo throughput will exceed 120 million tons. Another 500 thousand shipping containers will also be added.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing

Hotels.com, a hotel booking website that came to China in 2009, is looking to expand in the ever-growing Chinese online travel market, the company’s Asia Pacific vice president said Wednesday.

“There is quite a lot of space for several players in China’s market, and we have our unique strengths,” Johan Svanstrom, vice president and managing director of Hotels.com Asia Pacific Region, told the Global Times.

“The total travel market in China is worth $60 -65 billion; however, only 7-8 percent is online. In the US, the online proportion of the travel market is 55-60 percent and it’s 40 percent in Europe,” he said.

Tencent Holdings Limited, one of the largest Internet service providers in China, acquired a 16 percent stake Monday in eLong Inc, one of China’s leading online travel service providers. Expedia Inc, the world’s largest online travel company and also the parent company of Hotels.com, invested a further $41.2 million to bump its majority stake in eLong up to 56 percent.

“Hotels.com has the advantage of a resource of international hotels, but it needs greater effort to build its brand through localization and knowing the hotel booking habits of Chinese consumers,” Su Ran, an analyst at Internet research firm iResearch, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Data from iResearch shows that the revenue of China’s online travel market totaled 6.16 billion yuan ($946.61 million) in 2010, up 58.4 percent over 2009, and revenue is expected to reach 24.56 billion yuan by 2014.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing

China is expected to see GDP growth at 9.6 percent this year and will continue to act as the engine for global economic growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest forecast released Monday.

Emerging economies, such as China and India, will continue their solid growth, despite concerns over rising oil prices and the fallout from the Japanese earthquake, the IMF said in its annual World Economic Outlook report.

However, the IMF warned that inflation is likely to build further and credit and that China’s credit and asset price behavior is disconcerting.

The IMF report said China is expected to see 5 percent inflation this year. In addition, price pressures that started in a narrow range of food products have now broadened to other sectors, including housing.

The IMF’s growth forecast echoes the results of a report released by the Asian Development Bank last Wednesday.

With inflationary pressure building and tight government monetary policy, China’s economy is expected to grow 9.6 percent in 2011 and 9.2 percent in 2012, the report from the Asian Development Bank stated.

China’s economy grew 10.3 percent last year, and registered an annualized rate of 11.2 percent over the past five years.

Meanwhile, the forecast report released by the China Center for International Economic Exchange on Monday said first quarter GDP is expected to grow at 9.4 percent, 2.5 percentage points down from the previous year.

The center attributed the projected slowdown in the first quarter economy to the fall of industrial added value, purchase management index (PMI) and exports numbers – which are closely related to GDP figures.

Industrial added value closely related to GDP was 14.9 percent for the first two months, down 20.7 percent from the previous year; the average PMI for the first quarter was 52.8 percent, a fall of 54.3 percent from last year.

China saw a trade deficit of $1.02 billion in the first quarter, Wang Jun, head of the macroeconomic division with the China Center for International Economic Exchange said.

The National Bureau of Statistics will release March economic data Friday, including GDP, CPI, industrial production and fixed asset investments.

“These forecasts indicate that China’s GDP growth is bound to moderate this year, which tallies with the target for sustainable growth of the economy set by government,” Tian Yun, a research director with the China Society of Macroeconomics said.

China set its annual economic growth target at 8 percent this year and at 7 percent for the next five years, Premier Wen Jiabao said in a government report last month.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing