Society

Chongqing is the safest and most stable city in China, according to a league table cited in the Chongqing Evening News Wednesday.

This annual evaluation, by the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, reflects the overall level of social order, stability and safe construction and is based on more than 70 indexes including mass sense of safety, dispute resolution and mediation, comprehensive management of grass-roots infrastructure and social management.

Chongqing scored 93.48 points in 2010 evaluation, taking the top spot for the first time, up from 13th place in the 2009.

China has decided to lower the operating speed for its bullet trains due to safety concerns amid an overhaul of the high-speed rail system.

The decision, made by an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday, came after a bullet train crash last month in which 40 people died and nearly 200 were injured.

The decision is a signal that China is slowing its ambitious high-speed rail program, which has put the country in the same league as Japan and Europe in terms of high-speed rail development, experts said.

Tibet Lhasa Economic & Technological Development Area became the first new national industrialization demonstration base in Tibet approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, People's Daily Overseas Edition said.

The newspaper reported the development area performed well and its tax revenue in the first half of 2011 totaled 660 million yuan ($102.5 million), up 94 percent year-on-year.

During the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), Tibet made efforts to cultivate well-known plateau brands by taking advantage of mineral, Tibetan medicine, ethnic handicraft, tourism, and farming and green food industries.

There have been more than 3,300 enterprises in specialty industries with registered capital exceeding 30 billion yuan in total.

Dunhuang 2nd Aug. 2006

China has pledged to conserve water resources in the renowned oasis city of Dunhuang to prevent it from being destroyed by desertification, a top official has said.

Dunhuang of Gansu province in Northwest China, located on the ancient Silk Road, was known for the Mogao Grottoes, China's first World Heritage site, as well as its beautiful scenery.

But over-exploitation of water resources has already caused environmental deterioration, Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei told a conference on water utilization and ecological protection in Dunhuang on Saturday.