Mexican President Felipe Calderon(R) meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the official house of Los Pinos in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, July 29, 2010. (Xinhua/Bao Feifei)

MEXICO CITY, July 29 (Xinhua) — Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in the official house of Los Pinos in Mexico City.

During the meeting, Calderon asked Yang to give his regards to his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and celebrated the 4th session of the China-Mexico Permanent Commission to be held on Thursday and Friday also in Mexico City.

Calderon also spoke highly of China’s efficient reaction to the world financial crisis and its steady economic growth.

Mexico and China are big developing countries and have huge cooperation potential, Calderon said.

Calderon said that Mexico attaches great importance to strengthening the strategic partnership ties with China and hopes to intensify the exchanges at top level and increase the bilateral trade and investments.

Calderon said he also expects to strengthen the communication and coordination with China at the multilateral mechanisms and jointly react to the global challenges, such as the climate change.

Meanwhile, Yang gave Calderon the regards from President Hu, saying that China and Mexico are important developing countries.

Yang said that under the currently complex and changing international circumstances, the strengthening of the strategic cooperation between China and Mexico, not only benefits the prosperity of both countries, but also is significant to intensify the unity and cooperation among the developing countries.

The strategic cooperation will also raise the integral strength of the developing countries and will promote the peace and development in the world, Yang said.

“China always views the China-Mexico relation at the height of a strategic level and considered Mexico as a good friend, a good partner in Latin America and it sincerely wants to carry out the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries,” Yang added.

Yang said that China also wants to expand the cooperation and intensify the coordination and collaboration with Mexico over important international issues and further push forward for the strategic partnership relations between China and Mexico.

Finally, Calderon expressed his sympathy for the victims of the recent flooding in many regions of China, while Yang thanked Calderon for his words.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News
in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy,
Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook,
Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing

Floods caused by heavy rains in northeastern China stranded tens of thousands of residents without power Wednesday, as the worst flooding in more than a decade continued to besiege many areas of the country.

Floods this year have killed at least 928 people with 477 missing and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, the State Flood Control and Drought Prevention office reported. More heavy rains were expected for the southeast, southwest and northeast parts of the country through Thursday.

About 30,000 residents in Kouqian town were trapped in their homes after torrential rains drenched the northeastern province of Jilin on Wednesday. Water began flooding the town after the nearby Xingshan Reservoir and the Wende and Songhua rivers overflowed and rescue crews were delivering supplies by boat and moving people to higher ground, state television reported.

Flooding has hit areas all over China. Thousands of workers sandbagged riverbanks and checked reservoirs in preparation for potential floods expected to flow from the swollen Yangtze and Hanhe rivers, an official with the Yangtze Water Resources Commission said Wednesday.

“Right now, the Hanhe river in Hubei province is on the verge breaching warning levels,” Zhang said.

The Hanhe is expected to rise this week to its highest level in two decades, Xinhua reported. The flood threat was greater than usual because the Yangtze, into which the Hanhe flows, was also reaching peak levels, it said.

Workers were prepared to blast holes in the Hanhe embankment to divert flood waters into a low-lying area of farms and fish ponds, from which more than 5,000 people were evacuated, Xinhua said.

Although China experiences heavy rains every summer, flooding this year is the worst in more than a decade because the flood-prone Yangtze River Basin has seen 15 percent more rain than in an average year, Duan Yihong, director of the National Meteorological Center, said in a transcript of an interview Wednesday posted on the Xinhua website.

“Rains should begin to slow down in August, but it is hard to predict now what exactly will happen, said Duan. “We have to be vigilant and closely monitor the weather … do a better job of forecasting.”

Thousands of rescuers in central China’s Henan province searched for survivors Wednesday after a bridge collapsed from heaving flooding in the Yi River over the weekend, killing 37 people with 29 missing.

Floods have also put the Three Gorges Dam to test. On Wednesday morning, the dam’s water flow reached 1.96 million cubic feet (56,000 cubic meters) per second, the biggest peak flow this year, with the water level reaching 518 feet (158 meters), about 10 percent less than the dam’s maximum capacity.

Around China, a total of 875,000 homes have been destroyed, 9.61 million people evacuated, and 22 million acres (8.76 million hectares) of crops ruined in this year’s flooding, according to the state flood control office.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing

Companies to cooperate on 500 kV cross-border project in Amur region

BEIJING – The State Grid Corp of China has signed a framework agreement with the Russian national grid operator to extend their collaboration on grid technology, cooperation and management, the company said on Wednesday.

The cooperation will cover “technology and experience exchange, power grid construction and management, equipment supply, and technology consulting”, State Grid said on its website.

According to Rusnews.cn, a Russian news portal, both companies will build a 500 kV, cross-border power line in the Amur region of Russia.

The project is scheduled to start in 2011. The investment value of the project was not disclosed.

The cooperation is in line with growing power cooperation between China and Russia, said analysts. In order to meet rising demand, China may increase power imports from Russia in the next few years.

The move is also in line with State Grid’s strategy of going abroad, they said. The company has accelerated its overseas development in recent years.

Imported electricity from Russia surged in 2009, up more than 316 times over 2008 figures to reach 738 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), according to statistics from northeastern China’s Harbin Customs. The power link cost China around $29 million, according to the provincial capital’s customs.

Around 1 billion kWh of electricity will be imported by the end of 2010, with a total value of over $40 million, according to Heilongjiang Electric Power Co.

As the world’s two major energy consumers and producers, China and Russia are planning to build several power transmission lines across their borders. This would involve “multi billion yuan” investments, said an official familiar with the project who asked not to be named.

Currently, there is no technology barrier in building such projects. And domestic companies are cooperating with foreign power giants such as Areva SA in feasibility studies on some electricity lines, said Hu Xuehao, an expert with the China Electric Power Research Institute.

Buying more electricity from Russia now is a reasonable way for China to meet its surging power demand, he said.

China may face temporary power shortages in some regions this summer due to the rapid increase in consumption, the State Grid said earlier.

Power shortages will occur in central, eastern and northern parts of the country during peak summer hours, as uncertainties still exist over demand and supply, the company said. The operator is responsible for supplying power to 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing