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

The future Chinese satellite navigation system Beidou (北斗) has one more satellite in the sky. On the 17. January, the third satellite was successfully launched from the Xichang (西昌) launching station in Sichuan (四川) province. The launching rocket was a Long March CZ-3C (长征三号丙).

A total of thirty-five satellites are planned for the navigation system to be fully operational: thirty non-stationary and five stationary. The number three is an important step, since it allows for the first time to create a real network of satellites.

By 2020, all satellites will be launched and the system will cover the whole globe. Around 2012, the Asia Pacific region will be covered.

Chinese source: 北斗”进入组网高峰

“Become Asia’s biggest production center for laptops.” This is the ambition of the authorities of the city of Chongqing (重庆) in Southwestern China. Some 2000 kilometers away from the sea, Chongqing is located at the confluence of Jialing River (嘉陵江) and Yangtze River (长江). Its situation next to these fluvial roads has made out of Chongqing an industrial city and an attraction pole for workers from neighbouring provinces.

Important industrial activities in Chongqing are car and motorbike factories, chemical industry and heavy industry (steel, aluminum). Furthermore, the region is rich in natural resources like natural gas and the service sector is rapidly expanding. But now a new activity is planned to multiply the city’s industrial capacity.

This is not wishful thinking. In 2009 the city of Chongqing signed a deal with HP. The US company is to build a production base in Chongqing and move its accounting centre for Asia to the city. Hp’s commitment to Chongqing has pulled big Taiwanese OEMs like Foxconn (富士康) and Inventec (英业达) to build production plants in the city. If everything goes as planned, the computer industry should replace the car and motorbike industry as the city’s biggest industrial activity in 2012. Other computer brands and OEMs are said to be moving to Chongqing as well.

There are both political and economical reasons that explain why Chongqing is now attracting these kinds of high tech investments:

• It was always (since 1978) the authorities’ intention to first develop the coastal regions; but then let the investments go westwards. Under the Western Big Development (西部大开发 ),established in 2000, and other policies, Western regions can offer lower taxes than coastal regions.
• Since 1997, the city of Chongqing and the surrounding countryside have been separated from Sichuan province and given the status of a provincial level municipality. Before 1997, Chongqing was a busy, but rather poor industrial town. Since 1997, the city’s government has the power and means of a province to plan the development of the city.
• This has let to major improvements in logistics and infrastructure. Chongqing is now connected to the rest of China and the world by a growing network of high speed roads, railways and a state of the art international airport. All these have taken over from the fluvial roads and seriously reduced the time between Chongqing and other big industrial hubs.
• The nearby Three Gorges Dam (三峡工程) ensures the regions future electricity supply.
• Chongqing is going through a massive urbanization phenomenon, where people from all kinds of places are attracted to the booming city. While this is not an easy thing to manage for the authorities, it also gives them the opportunity to plan the future of a city that has an urban population of more than 5’000’000. Most of the new computer industry will be located in Xiyongpark (西永微电子产业园区), in the new Western parts of the city. The park was specially built to attract the computer industry and meet all its needs.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the Chinese government and many institutions were transferred to Chongqing, and for a while Communists and Nationalists stopped fighting each other and fought together against their common enemy. The buildings of the US legation are among the buildings from that time. that are still standing.

Chinese sources: 重庆筹划建立“亚洲最大笔记本电脑基地”; 惠普富士康两大产业基地落户重庆 再造1/3个重庆工业

Ever since it stepped out of the European Galileo project, China has been developing its own satellite navigation system. The whole program goes under the name Beidou (北斗) and should be operational around 2015. Like the US Global Positioning System (GPS), China’s Beidou was primarily designed for the military; but it will be available for civilian purposes as well.

A base for the industrial application of satellite navigation is now being built in Shanghai’s Minhang district (上海闵行区). It is the first of its kind in China and will be located within Shanghai’s National Base for Civil Aerospace Industry (国家民用航天产业基地).

The new base will comprise several research and development centers in different satellite navigation-related areas. Companies associated with the Beidou project, will also have a presence on the base: the first two key companies (龙头企业) are Everthriving Satellite Technology (中兴恒和) and GZHPower (国智恒).

Similar to the motivations behind Gallileo (Europe) or Glonass (Russia), China’s aim is to be technologically and politically independent in this strategic area. The economic prospects are also potentially big, if Beidou succeeds in being the leading provider of satellite navigation for commercial use in China. There is no doubt that the different government entities will push in this direction.

Chinese source: 中国首个国家卫星导航应用产业项目落户上海

Many of the technological equipment and infrastructure of a country can be considered public goods. A state has several ways to invest into technology: it can build the infrastructure needed for the well-being and further development of its people; or it can support and channel the research and development in technologies it considers strategic.

China’s state apparatus being relatively powerful, its ability to shape the country’s path is all the more strong and important to understand. At technological China, we follow and analyse the latest developments in technology-related activities by the country’s governmental entities.

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