“Changing Faces” (变脸) is a traditional Chinese folk art. It consists of an artist swiftly changing masks, without the spectator noticing it. The designers of the Beijing pavilion for the World Expo Shanghai 2010 decided to take this concept one step further and apply it to their building.

The pavilion of the city of Beijing will be able to change appearance and look like four of the city’s landmarks: the Temple of Heaven (天坛), the Water Cube (水立方), the Bird Nest (鸟巢) and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (大剧院).

To realise this, the pavilion has been wrapped in panels of LED lights supported by movable arms. By changing their inclination and colours, these panels do the trick.

Traditional Changing Faces performance:

Chinese sources: 世博会北京馆采用LED屏实现变脸效果(组图); 上海世博会北京馆采用LED屏实现“变脸”

One more month, and the World Expo Shanghai 2010 will open its doors. China’s actual meteorological situation reminds us, that weather has always been a rather unpredictable phenomenon. However, it is a fair prediction to say, that the World Expo will experience some hot and busy days.

To ease the visitors’ journey, the World Expo is turning to water mist. A system of outdoor tiny water mist sprinklers will be installed on strategic sites of the expo area. The evaporation of the water mist has an endothermic effect, which results in a drop of temperature.

According to Wang Junfeng (王军锋), vice dean of the Energy and Power Engineering Faculty (能源与动力工程学院) of the Jiangsu University (江苏大学), where the technology was first developed, this system can locally make temperatures drop up to ten degrees centigrade. Furthermore Wang says it is very energy savvy and doesn’t emit any pollution. It was already put into use at the beach-volleyball site of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

TTC Rubymist, a company specialized in these kind of equipments that can also be used for esthetic reasons, will equip many of the expo’s pavilions as well.

Chinese sources: “细水雾”让游客夏日在室外享受”凉爽世博”

“I drive happily!” This could, in the near future, be the slogan of a car commercial, since the announcement by Ford of an agreement to sell Volvo to Geely (吉利). Volvo means “I drive”, “I move”  in Latin and Geely’s Chinese name means “happy”, “auspicious”.

As noted in Ford’s official announcement, “the sale is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010, and is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.” But the fact, that both Li Yizhong (李毅中), China’s minister of industry and information technology and Maud Olofsson, Sweden’s deputy prime minister and minister for enterprise and energy were present at the signing ceremony in Gothenburg is a sign that the deal is being supported both in Beijing and Stockholm.

Earlier this year, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial (四川腾中重工机械有限公司) said it didn’t receive the approval of the ministry of commerce (中华人民共和国商务部) to buy the Hummer brand from General Motors. The acquisition of a brand associated with secure and well designed cars (Volvo) by a company already making cars (Geely) should go more smoothly.

In 2009, Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings (北京汽车工业控股有限责任公司) agreed to buy some intellectual properties belonging to another Swedish brand, Saab, from General Motors. For Geely, Volvo is not the first overseas acquisition. At the beginning of last year, it bought Drivetrain Systems International, an Australian car parts maker.

The deal says, that Geely, which is China’s biggest private car manufacturer “will own 100 percent of Volvo Cars and its related assets”. Geely intends to maintain Volvo’s factories in Europe.

What to do when rain is much needed, but not falling? In traditional societies, people would pray the gods. In progress- and technology-minded contemporary China, the answer is to turn to man’s astuteness and self create what the sky isn’t providing. Both methods have their shortcomings and limitations.

In fighting southwestern China’s current drought, the local meteorological departments all rely on their rain provoking rockets and on the army’s planes. This is no miracle solution. It can only help bringing down the water from already existing clouds or expand the scope and volume of expected rainfalls. It means waiting for days for the right conditions.

A specialist from the “municipal command center for man-made weather impacting” (市人工影响天气指挥中心) of the city of Chongqing (重庆) says: “We have been waiting for that group of clouds for half a month. The amount of water currently provided to Chongqing by the sky is too miserable and not enough to alleviate the serious drought. We can only rely on our own methods and bring down the most possible rain from the clouds.”

The rain provoking method consists of injecting silver iodide into the clouds. This induces chemical reactions, which result, if the conditions are right, in rainfalls. The method is fairly easy, cheap and without side effects.

In all of the affected areas, the provinces of Yunnan (云南), Sichuan (四川), Guizhou (贵州) and the city of Chongqing, “man made” rain has been falling these days.

Chinese sources: 重庆千枚炮弹打下及时雨; 我国空军增调14架运输机执行人工增雨作业

It is called the AC313 and it is China’s newest aviation product. According to Chinese news sites, the large-scale helicopter made by Aviation Industry Corporation of China (中国航空工业集团公司) fills a gap in the country’s homemade offer. The AC313 took its first flight on the 18. March in Jingdezhen (景德镇), Jiangxi province (江西).

Capable of transporting 27 passengers or 15 injured and lifting up to 13,8 tons, the helicopter is designed for a wide range of civil applications like disaster relief, fire-fighting, sightseeing, etc… It has a maximum autonomy of 900 kilometers.

Its flight capabilities are suited both for assistance work in densely populated urban areas as well as for reaching remote mountainous places. It is thus an important tool for China’s diverse geographical and demographical realities. China Flying Dragon Special Aviation Company (中国飞龙专业航空公司) will be the first to make use of it.

Chinese source: 中国飞龙专业航空公司

“Better city, better life” is the Shanghai 2010 World Exposition motto. In accordance with it, one of the city’s airport becomes bigger, more convenient and more energy efficient.

Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (上海红桥机场)’s new Terminal No. 2 as well as a second runway officially opened on March 16. Hongqiao is the city’s second airport after Pudong International airport (浦东国际机场). It is mainly a big hub for inland flights. The new construction will increase the airport’s flight capacity by 60%. It will also improve the passengers’ comfort and diminish queuing time. Furthermore it is well connected to the city’s public transportation network with a new subway station.

During the reorganisation and expansion of the airport, a lot of effort went into energy saving measures like solar energy, etc.  As a result, the rejuvenated airport will be able to save up to 65% of its energy costs.

The opening comes in time, a month and a half before the beginning of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. The extension of the airport is part of the city’s equipment enhancement plan for this event.

According to the airport’s homepage, almost all inland flights have been moved to the new terminal.

Chinese sources: 上海虹桥机场2号航站楼16日投入运营; 上海虹桥机场2号航站楼正式启用(组图); 虹桥机场改扩建后节能65%

The Year of the Tiger (虎年) is now more than a week old; but major Chinese websites still wear the auspicious red and yellow colours, sign that the festivities are not over yet. The country is still in the return phase of its annual migration.

Every year on new year’s eve the Chinese Central Television (中央电视台) broadcasts a special live New Year’s Evening (春晚) program. For many, watching this program with the whole family has become part of the new year celebrations. It consists of a series of humorous sketches, performances by famous pop singers, acrobatics (杂技); etc.

With the massive popularization of the internet, this one-time event has now been multiplied in a series of small sequences that live on and can be viewed and reviewed on the net.

All big internet content providers have their dedicated page, where one can watch videos of the different performances from that night. If television provides a sense of synchronicity, where a whole family and most of the country, watches the same program simultaneously; the internet now offers the possibility to delay the viewing of the program and split it accordingly to ones preferences.

If you are just interested to see how Wang Fei (王菲), the famous actress and singer, performed on the stage of the Year of the Tiger program, you can do so. If you have been avidly following the Winter Olympics and didn’t have time to celebrate the new year, you can still catch up.

All big internet platforms are competing in celebrating the new year and offering related services to their readers. Even Google (surprise, surprise,…) is offering a special version of Google Maps, where one can check the train and plane timetables for the period of the spring transportation (春运).

Embedded bellow is a Chinese acrobatics performance from the Year of the Tiger show. The Chinese word for acrobatics, translated literally, means “mixed skills”. Chinese acrobatics are a variety of ancestral techniques and instruments. When done well, the result can be very entertaining:

On the 14. February it will be time to enter a new cycle according to the Chinese lunar calendar. The year of the tiger will replace the year of the ox. Every year around this time a flow of travelers returning home to celebrate the Chinese New Year festivities with their families puts the country’s transportation network under big stress. This massive population movement is called “Spring Transportation” (春运).

The period of the Spring Festival (春节), as the Chinese call their new year, is the country’s most important holiday season. Since the Reform and Opening-up Policy, restrictions on population movements have been loosened and people are encouraged to undertake private business activities. Combined with the country’s uneven rate of economic development, this has led many people to look for work outside of their home province. Many students also choose to study in other provinces. For many, the Spring Festival is the only occasion to return to their place of origin.

Altogether the Spring Transportation lasts for about a month, time for everybody to go home and than back to studies or work.  All means of transport are put under strain. After the roads it is the country’s railway network that has to support the biggest load of travelers, especially for long distance journeys. China is constantly improving its railway infrastructure; but the sheer number of passengers to be handled during this period pushes it to its limits. The station master and secretary of the station of Dongguan (东莞) in Guangdong (广东) province were sacked for helping passengers to climb into full trains through the windows.

One problem recurring every year is speculation with train ticket prizes: third parties buy a lot of tickets for popular destinations and than resell them to people in need of a ticket. To fight this, a name identification system (实名制) is being tested during this year’s Spring Festival holidays. When buying a train ticket and boarding the train, one has to show its identity card. The passenger’s names and ID numbers are printed on the ticket. This system is being tested now by the railway authorities of the cities of Guangzhou (广州) and Chengdu (成都), two of the country’s busiest train hubs. The system was thus applied to the new Wuhan-Guangdong high speed train (武广高铁).

Wang Yongping (王勇平), the head of the Railway Ministry (铁道), has already said that this new system had positive effects; but hasn’t completely eradicated the problem. In some cases it produced additional uneasiness for the passengers, Wang said. Therefore it hasn’t been decided yet, if the system will be generalized or not.

Chinese sources: 铁道部称实名购票制是否推广尚无定论; 铁道部：铁路春运客流进入高峰 来势迅猛

“Research and work out the country’s energy development policy; ponder the major issues related to energy security and energy development; plan and coordinate the exploitation of the country’s energy resources as well as the energy-related international cooperation.” These are the main responsibilities of the newly created National Energy Commission (国家能源委员会) as described in the State Council’s (国务院) official notice on the 12. of January 2010.

This National Energy Commission is now China’s highest ranking administrative body in energy matters. Before, there was no ministerial level entity specifically in charge of energy. The different duties were scattered among several institutions and ministries.

The creation of this new governmental institution is not a surprise. In the Proposal of Reform of the State Council’s Structure (国务院机构改革方案) from 2008, it was already question of strengthening the energy administration structures and the creation of an Energy Commission was mentioned. It underscores that energy is a key part of China’s plan for its own development. China’s energy dependency will be at the heart of the commission’s work. The more surprising fact, is that China didn’t have such a body until now.

The next step may be the creation of a Ministry of Energy. Ministries and National Committees are both on the same hierarchical level, under the supervision of the State Council, the country’s highest executive and administrative organ. Unlike a ministry, a commission doesn’t have its own personnel; it is composed of high-ranking members from other institutions. The names associated with the Energy Commission show its strategic importance. Wen Jiabao (温家宝), the State Council’s Premier assumes its direction. Among the members are the heads of the ministries of foreign affairs, science and technology, environmental protection, security, etc. The already existing Bureau of Energy (能源局) will assume day-to-day work of the commission.

Depending from what angle one looks at this story, it may just look like a cosmetic relooking, that happens every so often in an administration. But it also marks the growing importance of an issue, that some years ago didn’t seem strategic enough to have its own centralized institution. Instead of being treated locally by the different ministries, energy-related questions will now be coordinated and handled according to their own logic . From a technological point of view, this means an increasing demand for efficient energy management and new energy producing technologies.  

Chinese sources: 国家能源委高调亮相 强化能源统合管理; 国务院办公厅关于成立国家能源委员会的通知; 解读国家能源委员会

“Most companies fail during the five first years of their life. Those who survive, won’t last, if they don’t get ill at least once. I believe now is the time, when Alipay begins confronting its problems.” These were the words of Jack Ma (马云), the charismatic founder and CEO of the Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴集团) at Alipay (支付宝)’s annual meeting  earlier this January. Alipay is “China’s leading third-party online payment platform”. Founded in December 2004, it plays a key role in Alibaba’s activities as a provider of online trade and retail solutions.

During the same meeting, Jack Ma also exhorted Alipay employees to be less conservative and criticized the company’s consumer experience: “ If we don’t pay attention to our consumer’s experience, Alipay will slowly die away.” Right now Alipay doesn’t look moribund at all. It is clearly the market leader in China, as is Taobao (淘宝), Alibaba’s online retail website. But Jack Ma knows that e-commerce is developing very rapidly in China. Some have already predicted that 2010 will be the Golden Year (黄金年) of e-commerce.

Under these circumstances, resting on its laurels is definitely not the right strategy, if  the pioneer doesn’t want to be overtaken by new entrants. On the online payment front, Alipay is competing with Chinapay (银联电子支付) a service by China UnionPay (中国银联), the Chinese bankcard association.

The development of e-commerce in China is fuelled by the increasing number of internet users (384 million in 2009), the trend towards a more mobile web, and the fact that companies like Alibaba succeeded in gaining the trust of the consumers.

An example for the high expectations surrounding e-commerce is the recent investment by Legend Capital (联想投资) into 21cake.com. The venture capital subsidiary of Legend Holdings (联想控股), which is also the parent company of Lenovo (联想) invested ten million Yuan into a website, that sells European style pastries online.

Chinese sources: 马云:支付宝很多问题太过保守 要勇于承担责任; 2010是中国网络购物“黄金年”; 传马云批评支付宝用户体验