Day: August 6, 2020

(Xinhua)09:59, August 03, 2019

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — Chinese experts have called for breastfeeding support for mothers from family members, especially the father of the baby, during this years World Breastfeeding Week.

The difficulties of breastfeeding, including frequent night feeding and postpartum depression, combined with conflicts with family members, often make breastfeeding mothers want to give up.

The absence of fathers, such as their unwillingness to get up at night and inability to understand the difficulties of breastfeeding, is usually the final straw for mothers, and they give it up.

For infants within six months old, the exclusive breastfeeding rate of families in which the fathers are supportive is 10 percentage points higher than that of families with unsupportive fathers, according to a survey of over 10,000 Chinese mothers of children under one year old by the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF).

By helping more, the father of the baby can ease the burden on breastfeeding mothers and help them continue breastfeeding, Fang Jin, secretary-general of the CDRF, said at a forum on breastfeeding Thursday.

Experts also call for more efforts to promote breastfeeding and raise awareness among families and society.

This years World Breastfeeding Week, the 28th of its kind, lasts from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7.

(Xinhua)09:59, August 03, 2019

SHENZHEN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — Doctors from a southern Chinese hospital recently removed something unusual from a mans intestines: a 14-centimeter-long toothbrush he swallowed 20 years ago.

The No.3 Peoples Hospital of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province said it was among the most bizarre items doctors have found in a patients entrails, along with nails, coins and lighters.

The patient, a 51-year-old man surnamed Li, was admitted to the hospital for abdominal pain in late June, and a CT scan revealed a mysterious item in his duodenum.

Li then told doctors it could be a toothbrush he swallowed in a suicidal attempt 20 years ago when he was diagnosed with HIV contracted from using drugs. Feeling no discomfort after the failed suicide, he went on with his life and put aside the embarrassing experience.

The toothbrush stayed peacefully in his belly until 2014, when Li began to suffer from abdominal pain and gallbladder inflammation.

The toothbrush might have stayed in the stomach and duodenum for many years before sticking into the bile duct, causing the inflammation and pain. If left untreated, it could touch the liver and result in a fatal infection, said Liu Jialin, Lis surgeon.

Liu said they resorted to an endoscope to retrieve the toothbrush, which had a bare look with all its bristles dissolved.

Li said after the suicide attempt, he renounced drugs and began HIV treatment. He later got married and his wife gave birth to two healthy children.

I have long forgotten the toothbrush, assuming that it had expelled on its own, he said.

(Xinhua)10:00, August 03, 2019

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — A book based on the true story of a high-profile railway gang crackdown in China in the 1980s was published on Friday.

The Chinese-language Decoding Chinas No.1 Railway Crime Case takes readers back to a time when railway theft and robbery were rampant in China. In extreme cases, gang members even robbed firearms from railway police.

A 30-strong-member police squad was then formed to address the problem. The squad members made a lot of personal sacrifices and pooled their strength and wisdom to knock out one gang after another, restoring peace to railway cabins.

The author, Wang Zhonggang, is an expert on criminal investigation. In his 43-year police career, Wang has won numerous merit citations for his performance.

(Xinhua)15:20, August 03, 2019

HEFEI, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — Aynur Memet has never thought about realizing her and her mothers dream at a factory in east Chinas Anhui Province, which is about 3,500 km away from her hometown in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

My mom has a dream to open a convenience store in my village. Its my dream to help fulfill her dream, said the 20-year-old from a village in Pishan County of Hotan Prefecture.

Aynur is also a third-year student at Pishan County Vocational and Technical School. With the help of the education bureau of the Hotan Prefecture, over 500 students from the prefecture joined an internship program in November 2017 to work as interns at the Highbroad Advanced Material Co., Ltd. in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province. Aynur is among them.

The students were both excited and worried when they first came to Hefei, the place where they would spend a year or two. For most of them, it was the first time for them to go so far away from home.

Highbroad is a company that produces display parts for electronic devices, therefore, it requires very high standards of working environment where everyone needs to wear dustless clothes from hair to toe before entering the workplace.

The climate is very humid in Hefei compared with that in Xinjiang. Its not comfortable wearing the stuffy dustless clothes, said Aynur.

The Uygur girl would call her parents every time when she missed home. On one such call, she learned that her mother hoped to open a store in her village. It was tough to work in the plant in the first few weeks. There were several times I wanted to give up, but I did not because I wanted to help my mom, she said.

Another problem Aynur faced like many other students from Xinjiang was the language barrier. To solve the problem, Aynur wrote down all the technical terms in her notebook and reviewed them after work. In addition, her colleagues were so patient that they would teach her the skills over and over again until she finally got it.

After several months of arduous efforts, she made huge progress in terms of both working skills and Mandarin proficiency. Aynur quickly stood out among her peers.

She can now churn out 3,000 products each day, almost six times more than what she did at the beginning, her colleague Wang Yan said.

Impressed by Aynurs hard work and quick learning ability, the manager appointed her as the production line leader in March 2018, which was quite rare back then.

My salary has increased from 3,000 to 4,500 yuan (650 U.S. dollars) per month, but that also comes with greater responsibility. I am now in charge of the whole production line of 38 employees, including 16 local people from Anhui, Aynur said.

Aynur had a holiday this March for the first time since she came to Hefei. She brought back all her savings of over 50,000 yuan.

I took out about 25,000 yuan to help my mom open a convenience store of 30 square meters in the village. The rest of the money will be used to improve the familys living conditions and send my brothers to college, said Aynur.

Pairing assistance, a national strategy in China to channel financial and personnel support to less developed regions, has significantly boosted progress and social stability in Xinjiang and will continue to help the region achieve prosperity.

A total of 19 provinces and municipalities across China are engaged in pairing assistance for different parts of Xinjiang. Enterprises from Anhui Province have actively responded to the call by setting up factories at and accepting surplus labor from Hotan of Xinjiang, according to Han Dazhi, Party chief of Pishan County Vocational and Technical School.

After three weeks at home, Aynur returned to Hefei where she is going to spend the last few months of her internship. Born into a farming family in Xinjiang, the 20-year-old student still can not believe she has come so far.

The store has been open for three months. It runs pretty well with an average daily turnover of 1,500 yuan, Aynurs mother Buwizure happily told her over the phone.

(Xinhua)15:21, August 03, 2019

HONG KONG, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — Weeks of protests and violent incidents have started to dent Hong Kongs retail and tourism sectors, a key part of the economy of the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Business owners and industry insiders expressed growing worries and uncertainties as the demonstrations and violence continued to weigh on consumption sentiment.

Protests and violent incidents have forced me to close my shop for several weekends on end, said an owner of a seafood store in Sai Wan on the Hong Kong Island, who only gave his surname Cheung. Sales have badly dropped and I am losing quite some money.

Cheung hoped that the demonstrations could end quickly. It is important that the economy stays stable. We ordinary residents just want a peaceful life.

The Hong Kong SAR government said on Thursday that the value of total retail sales in June 2019 decreased by 6.7 percent compared with the same month in 2018, as local consumer sentiment turned more cautious and growth in visitor arrivals moderated.

A government spokesman said the near-term performance of retail sales will likely remain subdued, citing weakened global and local economic outlook and other headwinds.

The spokesman added that the recent demonstrations, if continued, would also dent the retail business further.

According to the Hong Kong Retail Management Association, large-scale rallies and protests have dampened Hong Kongs retail performance, with most of the members of the association recording single or double digit fall since June.

Wong Ka Wo, president of Hong Kong Federation of Restaurant and Related Trades, said weeks of protests have not only hurt visitor arrivals but also dampened consumption of local residents.

The catering business is very important to Hong Kong. A declining willing to consume will put pressure on businesses and dent Hong Kongs economy, said Wong.

Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong totaled around 5.14 million in June, down about 770,000 from the figure in May, according to Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Hong Kong has seen steady tourism volume in the first five months of the year, but since June, the sector has been hit hard by multiple violent protests, and safety concerns mounted, said Yiu Si-wing, a lawmaker and tourism industry insider.

Many have delayed or even cancelled their trips to Hong Kong, he said.

For Hong Kongs tourism sector, immediate recovery is not likely even if violence ceases soon, Yiu said.

But if violence continues, many of the tourism-related industries, including hospitality and retailing, will be hurting, and Hong Kongs overall economy will suffer, he added.

Michael Li, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, said the demonstrations in June have had an impact on Hong Kongs tourism, with the overall hotel occupancy rate dropping about 2 percent.

He estimated that the occupancy rate for hotels near the protest areas in the Hong Kong Island would decrease more than 10 percent in July and those in Kowloon would drop 5 percent to 8 percent.