www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
Air Seychelles intends to begin charter flights from the island of Mahe, where the capital city of Victoria is located, to Beijing in January 2016, flightglobal.com reports.
The national carrier will use use an Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the service, which will be operated once a week.
Flightglobal’s Innovata schedules show there is currently no scheduled air link between the Seychelles and China.
The new route is subject to government and regulatory approval.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
The authorities in Beijing, the capital of China, have issued their highest smog warning so far this year, www.bbc.com reported.
The “orange level” alert declared on Sunday is the second highest possible, requiring factories to cut production.
On Sunday, some pollution readings in parts of the city reached about 17 times the level considered safe by the World Health Organisation.
Air pollution is a chronic health-risk for those living and working in the capital and other major chinese cities.
China’s state media says the declaration of this orange level alert requires industrial plants to reduce or shut down production.
Building sites are not allowed to transport materials or waste and heavy-duty trucks are banned from the city’s roads.
Some reports suggest that visibility has fallen to a few hundred metres in some places.
At noon on Sunday, the air pollution monitor operated by the US Embassy in Beijing reported that the intensity of the poisonous, tiny particles of PM 2.5 reached more than 400 micrograms per cubic metre in some of the worst-affected areas.
The World Health Organization considers 25 micrograms per cubic metre to be a safe level.
Coal-powered industries and heating systems, as well as dust from construction sites, all contribute to the smog which has been exacerbated by humidity and a lack of wind.
A cold front, expected to arrive on Wednesday, should bring some relief.
Air pollution is a perennial problem in China’s northeast which is home to many heavy industries including coal mining.
Earlier this month, China’s state media and many residents criticised high pollution levels in the north-eastern city of Shenyang.
The People’s Daily said PM 2.5 levels exceeded 1,400 micrograms per cubic metre. Activists said that may have been the “worst ever” air quality seen in the country.
Earlier this year China’s environment ministry announced that only eight out of the country’s 74 biggest cities had passed the government’s basic air quality standards in 2014.
Most of the cities found to have the worst air were in the northeast.
China is attempting to cut pollution but still relies heavily on coal for its energy and industrial needs.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
Kina bygger verdens største flyplass, i hovedstaden Beijing. Åpning er allerede om fire år, skriver travelnews.no
Åpningen i 2019 er imidlertid bare første fase i prosjektet, skriver Arabian Business. Det er først innen 2040 at flyplassen skal ha kapasitet til 100 millioner passasjerer.
Om fire år skal fire landingsbaner være plass, som vil kunne ta imot 45 millioner passasjerer. Da er den mer enn dobbelt så stor som Oslo Lufthavn Gardermoen.
I 2025 skal kapasiteten være opp 72 millioner passasjerer, som er på høyde med London Heathrow. I tillegg skal fire millioner tonn gods transporteres over flyplassen.
I 2040 skal to rullebaner til være i bruk. Beijing blir da større enn det som er verdens største flyplass i dag – LAX i Los Angeles. Der er kapasiteten på 96 millioner passasjerer i året.
Beijing Capital International Airport som i dag er den kinesiske hovedstadens viktigste flyplass er imidlertid ikke så mye snauere – med en kapasitet på 83 millioner passasjerer per år.
Den er imidlertid relativt umoderne. Den nye vil være optimert for raskere håndtering både av bagasje og reisende.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
From November 22 to 23 China’s capital Beijing saw a thick blanket of snow cloak the metropolis, resulting in flight cancellations and highway closures, theweathernetwork.com reported.
Conditions were so bad that the Beijing Municipal Committee had 66,000 people help shovel snow through the overnight hours.
Although November snow can be expected in Beijing (the city’s airport saw snow around the same time in 2012 and 2009), the substantially cold draft of air is reportedly unusual at this time of year.
The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) released a statement Wednesday indicating a continued blue category warning for the cold air wave moving through much of the country.
“From November 26 to 27, in the wake of the strong cold front, below freezing temperatures will be felt all the way to the lower reaches of Yangtze River and its northern areas,” the CMA notes.
“The coldest temperatures in central and western Inner Mongolia and northern North China will reach 10 to 20 degrees below zero.”
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
Tourist spots in Beijing receive record visitors amid heavy snow. Photo: cctv-america.com
Famous tourist attractions in Beijing, including the Forbidden City and the Jingshan Park, were inundated with visitors on Sunday as snow blanketed the Chinese Capital, cctv-america.com reported.
Long queues could be seen at the entrance to the Forbidden City all day long, as the imperial palace was decorated with white snowflakes, which covered the golden glazed tiles and brightened the traditional red walls.
Thousands of visitors climbed to the top of Jingshan Park in order to have a panoramic view of the Forbidden City. According to the Beijing-based Legal Evening News, the park saw a record number of visitors on Sunday, even surpassing numbers usually only seen on the National Day Holidays. For safety concerns, the park later had to close roads to the hill top.
While citizens and tourists in Beijing enjoyed the beautiful snowscape, snowstorms in north China swept across a vast area on Sunday, disrupting traffic, grounding flights and slowing bullet trains in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Inner Mongolia.
Nearly 300 flights were cancelled with many delayed at the Beijing Capital International Airport due to the continuous snow. The snow has continued to affect large areas. Today schools are closed in mountainous areas of Beijing. Meanwhile, the Beijing Meteorological Station has issued alerts for icy roads and possible blizzard conditions.
China’s National Meteorological Center forecasts the cold front will cause temperatures to drop a further 12°C (53.6°F) from Sunday to Tuesday in regions in the country’s north, northwest, and most parts of central and northeastern provinces.
In some mountainous areas of Beijing, temperatures are forecast to be as low as -18°C (-0.4°F) while in urban areas, thermometers could drop to -12°C (10.4°F) .
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
Køkaos: ved denne bomstasjonen ved Beijing skapte stor ferietrafikk og en ny bomstasjon totalt kaos da millioner av kinesere skulle hjem fra ferie.
Da millioner av kinesere skulle kjøre hjem etter ferien, ble motorveiene til enorme parkeringsplasser rundt den nye bomveien inn til hovedstaden, skriver nrk.no
Bildet som er tatt fra et helikopter i Beijing, viser motorveien G4 Beijing?Hongkong?Macau hvor det ble full stopp da 50 felt skulle bli til 20 etter en bomstasjon.
Hendelsen var bare en av flere i Kina i løpet av de siste dagene, skriver britiske Daily Mail.
På alle motorveier i storbyer som Shanghai og Nanjing ble det meldt om totalt trafikkaos, men aller verst var det utenfor hovedstaden Beijing, skriver australske 9News.
Ifølge Kinas turistmyndigheter skal 750 millioner kinesere ha vært ute på veiene i perioden 1. til 7. oktober i forbindelse med ferien rundt nasjonaldagen, som ble markert 1.oktober.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
As part of the effort, the number of surveillance cameras on streets across the city has increased 29 per cent year-on-year, state-run China Daily reported.
Police in the Chinese capital city have for the first time covered 100 per cent of the sprawling city of over 21 million people under video surveillance and deployed more officers to improve the security facilities during the current weeklong holidays.
City police have covered every corner of the capital with a video surveillance system, the Beijing Public Security Bureau said stating that complete coverage by the video system during the National Day holiday is part of a move to tighten the capital’s security and avoid crimes in crowds.
The video surveillance system has covered 100 per cent of the capital during the holiday, the first time that the system has provided complete coverage in the city since being upgraded in 2012, a statement by the bureau said.
Additionally, the police presence has been improved in crowded places such as markets, bus stations and parks.
China is virtually shutdown for a week since October 1 to celebrate the National Day during which millions of people visit different cities putting pressure on the public security system.
The capital’s tourism committee said, a total of 2.7 million travellers visited 180 major scenic spots in the city on October 2, a 12 per cent increase year-on-year.
The measures followed number of tragedies including this year’s new year stampede at Shanghai’s beach front in which 36 people were killed and 42 others injured.
During the current holiday season, police so far had detained 23 people suspected of stealing and theft in crowded places in Beijing.
As the highest-level video surveillance system was launched in downtown Beijing, the Patrol Corps under Beijing’s Public Security Bureau also launched a video monitoring system throughout 19 sub-bureaus in districts and counties, as well as in 362 police stations, the bureau said.
As part of the effort, the number of surveillance cameras on streets across the city has increased 29 per cent year-on-year, state-run China Daily reported.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 4,300 police officers have been asked to take charge of their local video surveillance systems, the bureau said.
Based on the systems, the police solved more than 1,500 cases, up 22 per cent year-on-year, and caught 2,370 suspects, up 5 per cent year-on-year, it said.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
Beijing’s Tiananmen Square is usually filled with flowers, pot plants and topiary, but yesterday there were some new installations – hundreds of toilets, shanghaidaily.com reported.
For tourists needing to answer a call of nature, there are now 445 portable toilets in eight locations in the square, as well as 132 assistants to point visitors in the right direction.
-We expect a huge number of tourists during Golden Week, so we have brought in these extra toilets, said Zhang Zhiqiang from the Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group.
The weeklong National Day holiday began yesterday and more than 532 million domestic trips are expected to be made, according to the China Tourism Academy. Therefore, a variety of measures are being rolled out to ensure a safe, happy vacation for China’s tourists.
In Shanghai, for example, the local government has launched an app on the WeChat messaging service which allows visitors to check tourist flow during their visits.
The app provides suggestions for those wanting to go to the city’s top tourist destinations, such as opening times, how busy they are and their capacity.
Police have been stationed along the Bund, where 36 people died in a crush on December 31.
-I cannot wait for my trip to Shanghai, I would like to see the Bund and go to Xujiahui, said Chen Jie, a doctor from Sichuan Province in southwest China. -But I am concerned about the crowds.
More than 100 million passengers are expected to travel by rail during the holiday, China Railway Corp said earlier this week. A record 13.3 million passengers were due to take Trains yesterday, up 13.4 percent from the same day last year.
In Nanchang, one of the country’s busiest transport hubs, the local railway bureau has added 39 trains, including 31 bullet trains, to ease the pressure. The city in east China’s Jiangxi Province was expecting to transport 930,000 passengers by train yesterday.
Meanwhile, Guangzhou Railway Group Corp, which operates trains in migrant workers-concentrated Guangzhou and Shenzhen, has scheduled 39 extra trains to meet demand.
Many airlines said they had also increased the frequency of flights.
Even with these measures, however, many people still chose to travel by road and many major roads were congested. According to web portal Netease.com, traffic on many sections of the Beijing-Tibet Highway were slow yesterday. In the southern province of Guangdong, it said, 45 traffic accidents had been reported on 22 highways.
While many choose to spend the holidays in the country’s bustling cities, others prefer something a bit quieter.
Zhang Hongguang, a resident of Jinan, a city in east China’s Shandong Province, went to a rural outpost not far from where he lives to “get close to nature.”
-It is cheap to stay in Matao, and the locals are very kind, said Zhang. -I don’t understand why people choose to waste their vacations crammed into smelly, crowded Trains, Zhang said as he picked persimmons with his son.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, With a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]
Vinter-OL 2022 skal arrangeres i Kinas hovedstad Beijing. Det avgjorde Den internasjonale olympiske komite (IOC) på sitt møte i Kuala Lumpur i Malaysia i dag.
Vintersport utenfor Beijing
Etter at Oslo trakk sin OL-søknad i oktober 2014, stod det bare to søkere igjen: Almaty (tidligere Alma-Ata), den tidligere hovedstaden i Kasakhstan. Byen er kjent for vintersport, ikke minst for skøyter.
Opprinnelig var det seks søkerbyer, men både Lviv i Ukraina, Krakow i Polen, og Stockholm har trukket sine søknader. Videre var byer i Tyskland og Sveits mulige søkere, men her, som i Norge, manglet man støtte i folket.
Etter at vinter-OL i år gikk av stabelen i Sochi i Russland, er det Sør-Korea og byen Pyeongchang som er vertsland i 2018.
Almaty, tidligere kalt Alma Ata og Alma-Ata, er Kasakhstans største by. Den skiftet navn i 1993, og var hovedstad fram til 1998, da hovedstaden i landet ble flyttet til Astana.
Almaty har i mange tiår vært kjent for sine skøytekonkuranser, også internasjonale, på skøytebanen Medeo.
Beijing arrangerte sommer-OL i 2008.
Ellers avgjorde IOC i dag at Vinter-OL for ungdom i 2020 skal arrangeres i Lausanne i Sveits.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Med sine 300 millioner røykere er Kina landet i verden som både produserer og konsumerer mest tobakk. Fra i dag mandag 1.juni av blir det imidlertid forbudt å røyke i restauranter, kontorer, på offentlig transport og i nærheten av skoler og sykehus i hovedstaden, skriver Dagens Næringsliv / www.dn.no / NTB
Bøtene for brudd på røykeloven oppjusteres samtidig fra 10 yuan til 200 yuan, omtrent 250 kroner. Selskaper som ikke stanser røyking i sine kontorer og restauranter risikerer opptil 10.000 yuan, drøyt 12.000 kroner.
Dersom de nye bøtene ikke er nok, vil myndighetene kunne navngi, på myndighetenes nettsider, personer som har brutt loven tre ganger.
– Dette er nok ikke verdens strengeste røykelov, men den er blant de strengeste. Det er ingen fritak, unntak, og smutthull for røyking innendørs, sier Angela Pratt i Verdens helseorganisasjons (WHO) tobakksprogram.
