SOCIETY

Lottery Sales Boom

A man checks his lottery ticket in Xinjiang County, Shanxi Province.

China’s lottery ticket sales rose 21.1 percent year on year to 28.56 billion yuan ($4.65 billion)in April, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance on May 15.

The ministry attributed the jump to the release of new lottery games, the promotion of quiz-style games and more outlets for online lottery games.

Job-Hunting Support

The Central Government outlined measures to help college graduates in their job hunts on May 15 amid this year’s grave employment situation.

According to a statement released after a meeting of the State Council, China’s cabinet, about 6.99 million college students will graduate this year.

The State Council called for the implementation of existing policies favorable to graduates’ employment,broadened ways and increased job vacancies, and for guiding graduates to seek jobs in small and mediumsized enterprises, private businesses and at the grassroots level.

The Central Government also encouraged graduates to turn toward self-employment and start their own businesses, promising to provide training subsidies, petty loans, tax breaks and other incentives.

Employment services should also be improved, according to the statement, which added that graduates from low-income families will receive financial assistance.

‘Left-behind’Children

Nearly 100 million rural Chinese children’s parents work in cities,according to a special report released by the All-China Women’s Federation on May 9.

The report, titled Research Report on Rural Left-Behind Children and Migrant Children, said that the number of “left-behind” children cared for by elderly relatives in the countryside hit 61.02 million as of 2010, accounting for 37.7 percent of rural children and 21.88 percent of the country’s child population. The figure was 2.42 million more than that in 2005.

The number of migrant children,which refers to children migrating with their parents to other places,neared 36 million in 2010, an increase of 41 percent compared with 2005, according to the report.

COLORFUL APPEAL

Children create paintings during a water conservation event in Yantai, east China’s Shandong Province, on May 12

New Media

China has the world’s largest new media market, highlighted by the country’s growing Internet penetration and a vibrant range of new media applications, according to an industry report published by Xinhua News Agency on May 15.

China has made great strides in pushing development in sectors that are key to the emergence of new media, such as mobile telecommunications and information technology,says the Report on China’s Rising New Media.

Data from the China Internet Networks Information Center show that China’s online population had reached 564 million as of the end of last year, with the number of mobile Internet users hitting 420 million.

The fast expansion of network coverage has fueled a surge in the variety of Internet applications, ranging from instant messaging and video-sharing to shopping and banking, as well as social networking.

The growing number of applications will help new media become China’s most significant social and information platform, the report says.

Low-Rent Housing

The Chinese Government has allocated 8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) to support low-rent housing projects in 2013, the Ministry of Finance (MOF)announced on May 15.

The funds will provide subsidies for the rental, purchase or rebuilding of low-rent housing units.

Of the total, 4.33 billion yuan($704 million) and 3.41 billion yuan($554 million), respectively 54.2 and 42.7 percent of the total, went to the country’s central and western regions. East China, the country’s most developed region, received the remaining 253 million yuan ($41 million), according to the MOF.

HANDY-CAPABLE

A member of the dance troupe of the Harbin Disabled Art Group trains in the northeastern city in Heilongjiang Province on May 14. The troupe is made up of 18 people with hearing and speech difficulties

High-Up Experiment

Chinese scientists have launched a sounding rocket to conduct an experiment in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on May 14 that the rocket blasted off at 9 p.m.on May 13 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

The experiment was designed to investigate energetic particles and magnetic fields in the ionized upper atmosphere and near-Earth space.

According to a preliminary analysis by the center, the experiment has reached expected objectives,allowing scientists to obtain data on the atmospheric environment at extreme altitudes.

Mo’s New Job

Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan was appointed director of the International Writing Center of his alma mater,Beijing Normal University.

At the International Writing Center’s inauguration ceremony on May 13, Mo said he hoped to develop the facility into “a place for writing, a research institute and a platform for international academic exchanges.”

World-famous writers, poets,translators, Sinologists and scholars will be invited as guest writers to engage in writing, research and academic exchanges at this university established a century ago.

The center will aim to be a literature education base and an incubator for Chinese writers.

Postgraduates and doctoral students will be enrolled to study creative writing, according to Mo.

Mo was granted a master’s degree in literature and arts in 1991 after studying for a postgraduate program at Beijing Normal University.

Survey in Sansha

To advance the construction of China’s newest city, an official delegation completed a field survey of the islands and waters within the jurisdiction of Sansha City on May 14, according to the provincial authorities of Hainan.

Sources with the Hainan provincial government said the survey was conducted in preparation for the formulation of Sansha’s regional development plans.

With its government office based on Yongxing Island in the South China Sea, Sansha was established last July to administer three island groups—Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha—and their surrounding waters.

To facilitate local resource development and environmental protection efforts, the survey focused on the marine resources and environment of Sansha.

Organ Distribution System

China will cooperate with Italy and Spain to improve its human organ distribution system, ensuring safety of organ donors and receivers and enhancing professional training,according to agreements signed on May 11.

The Chinese Research Center for Organ Distribution and Sharing System signed cooperation agreements separately with an Italian organization and a Spanish one in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, in a bid to learn from their experience and practices.

There are annually 300,000 patients in China waiting for organs, said health authorities.China has 164 hospitals quali fied to practice human organ transplantation.

China’s national organ distribution and sharing system, which was put into use in April 2011 to ensure fair and transparent organ distribution, has helped 626 patients in need.

Baaah-reakthrough

Tianjiu, a sheep that survived 62 days with an art ificial heart implant using cutting-edge aerospace technology, shows off at a press conference in north China’s Tianjin on May 13.

The development of the heart was jointly conducted by scientists from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and Tianjinbased TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital.

Researchers used magnetic suspension and hydrodynamic bearings to design and produce a mechanical pump used to support heart function and blood flow in people with weakened hearts.

Once the device is marketed,it may help end suffering for the 16 million people in China with failing hearts.