HONG KONG: Chinese Tourist Beaten To Death In Hong Kong

A 53-year-old mainland tourist was beaten to death in Hong Kong after becoming involved in a forced-shopping dispute.

Local police say the case will be classified as manslaughter.

The visitor was Miao Chunqi, a 53-year-old construction contractor from northeastern China's Heilongjiang province. He joined a tour group with a female colleague surnamed Zhang.

The three-day-trip was a shopping tour, comprising mainland visitors from Hubei, Heilongjiang and Shandong provinces. The group left Shenzhen on Sunday and was also scheduled to visit Macao on Tuesday.

The dispute occurred when the group was taken to a jewelry shop where they were expected to buy.

Miao and Zhang did not spend money because they thought the jewelry was overpriced. The tour leader, surnamed Deng, had an argument with them.

Miao was trying to mediate but they later, got into a fight during which Miao was dragged outside and beaten unconscious by a gang of four men.

He was later certified dead Tuesday morning.

The China National Tourism Administration has asked the local tourism bureau to investigate this incident and assist local government to deal with it according to local laws and regulations,read a statement.

We also hope the Hong Kong government find out the reason and take measures to secure mainland tourists' lawful rights and interests".




Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com

CHINA: 121st Session Of The Canton Fair

The concluding press conference of the 121st session of theCanton Fair was held in the Canton Fair Complex on May 5. Xu Bing, Spokesperson of the Canton Fair and Deputy Director General of China ForeignTrade Centre introduced the general situation of this session.

Xu pointed out that the 121st session is a critical sessionimplementing the outlines of President Xi’s congratulatory letter and PremierLi’s instructions, thus it is of great significance of continuing the past andbreaking new ground for the future.

With theattention and care of the central government, the State Council, with the support and the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce, Guangdong Province and Guangzhou municipal government, we stood firm in implementing the newdevelopment concepts, deepening reform and innovation and giving full play to Canton Fair’s platform of opening China up.

We’ve strived for specialization,information technology application, market orientation and internationalapproach of the Canton Fair, promoted upgrading and optimization of the foreigntrade mix and boosted the development of China’s open economy.

With theconcerted efforts of our staff, the 121st Canton Fair went onsmoothly and we reached our goals.

Xu said that the number and quality of overseas buyers both increasedthis session. Buyer attendance totaled 196,490 from 213 countries (regions), upby 5.87% over the 119th session.

In terms of buyer attendance of all continentsin descending order, the number of buyers from Asia totaled 112,314, taking up 57.16%of the total; Europe 32,664, accounting for 16.62%; Americas 29,998, accounting for 15.27%; Africa 15,085 with 7.68% share, and Oceania 6,429 with 3.27% share.

Compared with the 119th session, buyer attendance from Asia increased by 5.5%, from Europe increased by 4.97%,Americas up by 9.6%, Africa up by 3.72%, and Oceania up by 5.36%.

The number ofbuyers from countries in the “Belt and Road Initiative” stood at 88,574, up by8.55%.

Buyer attendanceof the top 20 countries and regions accounted for 61.59% of the total, roughlythe same share compared with the 119th session. The top 10 countriesand regions in terms of buyer attendance are Hong Kong, the United States,India, Taiwan Province, Thailand, South Korea, Russia, Malaysia, Australia, andJapan.

Buyer attendancefrom China’s top 10 trading partner countries and regions accounted for 58.49%of the total, roughly the same level compared with the 119th level.

Altogether 1,119 international chain companies attended the Fair. 109 out of the Top 250 GlobalRetailers in 2017 attended the Fair, 17 more than the 119th session.Among them there were 6 of the Top 10 retailers: Wal-Mart, Walgreen, Carrefour,Aldi, Tesco, and Amazon.

Regular buyerswith more than 10 times’ attendance totaled 48,914, up by 1.61%; buyers withmore than 15 times’ attendance 35,502, up by 4.45%.

Buyer attendance proportion in terms of their business line is: (top five) electronics andhousehold electrical appliances accounting for 40.02% of the total, dailyconsumer goods 31.86%, home decorations 28.95%, gifts 28.1%,and textile and garment 25.49%.

Xu mentionedthat this session witnesses stabilizing growth of the export transaction. The accumulatedexport transaction of this session totaled 206.357 billion RMB Yuan (or 30.02billion US dollars), an increase of 6.9 % over the 119th session.

The transaction volume in brand zone reached 10.9 billion US dollars, an increaseof 16.9% over the 119th session, accounting for 36.3% of the total;the transaction with the “Belt and Road” countries totaled 9.01 billion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%. Of all orders, 45% are short-termorders within 3 months, 35.9% are mid-term orders covering 3-6 months and 19.1%are long-term orders over 6 months.

Xu said that inthis session, structural reform on the supply side of foreign trade wasadvanced. Exhibitors stepped up their product design and research investment,developed new source of growth in the foreign trade development, moved to the higher end of the value chain and formed new advantage based on technology,brand, quality, and service.

Also they led innovation with strengthened R&D, and presented more products that have high technological content, high added value, and products that are smart, green and low-carbon, showing to theworld the technological and innovative capacity of Chinese companies and China’s smart manufacturing ability.

These products at the Canton Fair were verypopular among buyers. Exhibitors were very active in implementing branding strategy; they established brand design and marketing center, engaged in the registration and protection of their trademarks and patents in other countries and witnessed stabilizing growth of export turnover in products with their own brands.

Moreover, they also referred to advanced international qualitystandards, passed globally-recognized product test and acquired green and safety certification, accelerating their strategy of globalization.

They focused on improving after-sale service as an important means to explore internationalmarket, and expanded their serve range, improved service quality and efficiencyand perfected service support system. By using Internet plus and big data theyenhanced their service capacity and customer satisfaction.

Xu pointed out that in the new era Canton Fair has expanded new functions and made a betteruse of domestic and international markets and resources; it has become acomprehensive service platform with export transaction at its core andmulti-functions such as customer networking, display and negotiation,industrial communication, information release, product introduction and brand promotion.

Firstly, important plat form to increase export. Canton Fair serves as an important platform for exportas the total transaction volume each year stands at 60 billion USD. According to our survey, the transaction volume exhibitors achieved with customers met atthe Canton Fair accounted for 23.7% of their annual export volume on average;79.9% of Canton Fair transactions were made after the Fair and this number ison the rise.

Secondly, enhanced ability in leading design and innovation. Through design display, design match making and Canton Fair Design Awards, Canton Fair has been leading andencouraging exhibitors to enhance their product design and innovation capacity.

In this session 97 design agencies were consulted 20,000 times on design service, 40.53% of which are projects to follow up.

This shows enthusiastic bridging between exhibitors and design agencies and significant results ofdisplay. During global marketing summit and promotion conference for smar tMade-in-China, the demand for sourcing stood strong, indicating an innovativemodel for industrial matchmaking.

Canton Fair Design Awards has served as anengine for exhibitors to spur product innovation and establish their brands as the winning products enjoyed brisk transaction.

Thirdly, enhanced import function. In this session, the International Pavilion introduced industrial products with high technological content and high-end brands and consumer products that met the demand of the Chinese market.

Machinery and electrical industrial leaders from the US and Japan,household appliances brands from the “Belt and Road” countries, and consumer brands from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, India and Turkey all enjoyed excellent results such as receiving big orders, signing cooperation agreement, reaching cooperation intent, working with Chinese partners on production, and connecting with overseas buyers.

Fourthly, an important channel for meeting customers. During this session, the number of new buyers amounted to 80,397, a year-on-year increase of 7.29%. Our survey shows that exhibitors with the purpose of meeting new customers and buyers hoping to find new suppliers and products accounted for94.6% and 78.7% respectively.

Fifthly,promoted industrial exchange. In this session we held 27 conferences and forums, with the themes covering industrial summit, brand marketing, trend,R&D, company management, etc. These forums were welcomed by exhibitors,helped them explore markets, strengthen brands, boost foreign trade advantage,and provided a platform of opening up for local sectors and economy.

Exhibitors mentioned that forums broadened their horizon and brought insight for the future planning of their companies.

Sixthly,an important venue for new products and brand promotion. Many exhibitors brought new products to the Fair and some witnessed a new product update rate of 80%. Brand booths took up 20% of the total, and transaction volume accounting for 36.3%, indicating Canton Fair’s role in guiding brand development.

We held promotion activities for local sectors of Heilongjiang Province, Liaoning Province and Chengdu City as well as trade matchmaking activities in various forms. 38 display activities for exhibitors and brands were staged, providing image presentation, brand promotion, product demonstration for exhibitors to attract buyers.

Xu Bing also introduced that in this session we relied on Canton Fair official website,exhibitors and products search system, highlight products column, global social media, Best platform, smart security system to make new ways in Canton Fair marketing, smart management and convenient service.

We’ve continued to improve the official website, exhibitors and products search system, highlight products column, and customers’ attention, with visits to all these increased.

Xu mentioned that we’ve also driven green move-in in this session and strengthened elimination mechanism for construction companies of custom-built booths.We’ve standardized management of simplified decoration of standard booths, and stepped up onsite monitoring, inspection and approval for better evaluation of Canton Fair Green Development Plan.

With the concerted efforts of trading delegation,chambers of commerce, exhibitors, construction companies of custom-built booths and China Foreign Trade Centre, we’ve made positive results in making green move-in a permanent mechanism. The 100% green booth coverage rate has been achieved in this session.

The display result of green booths has been further improved; 2941 green custom-built booths applied for the related award.

CantonFair is China’s first exhibition to propose, practice and implement green development, providing a fresh example of green and low-carbon development for the Chinese exhibition industry.

Xu stated that in this session, the Canton Fair Complaint Station handled 476 IPR cases, with 595 exhibitors filed and 315 determined as constituting alleged infringement.

Compared with the previous session, the number of cases handled decreased by 16.05%,the number of filed enterprises decreased by 2.46%, and the number of alleged infringement down by 4.83%. The Station also dealt with 25 trade disputes, 11 less than the last session.

The significant drop in the number of cases, filed companies and IPR infringement companies demonstrated that exhibitors’awareness of IPR protection was enhanced and IPR protection at the Canton Fair has yielded great results.

Also in this session, China Foreign Trade Centre and Guangdong Intellectual Property Office signed “Strategic Partnership on IPR Protection at the Canton Fair” to explore new models of IPR protection and do a better job protecting IPR in a larger scope and higher level.

CHINA: Henan Airlines Flight 8387

Henan Airlines Flight 8387 (VD8387/KPA8387) was a domestic flight operated by Henan Airlines from Harbin Taiping International Airport to the new Yichun Lindu Airport, both located in Heilongjiang province, China. On the night of August 24, 2010, the Embraer E-190-100 LR operating the route crashed on approach to Yichun Lindu with 91 passengers and 5 crew members on board. This was the first hull-loss and the first accident with fatalities involving an Embraer E-190.

The final report,released in June, 2012 by Chinese State Security Agency for Work Safety (CSAWS) concluded that there was a failure of the crew for not observing the safety rules for landing under fog.

Flight 8387 departed Harbin Airport at 20:51, at 21:10 the aircraft obtained the weather from Yichun Airport and they were told the visibility was 2,800 m (9,200 ft) . At 21:16 the crew were alerted to dense fog at the airport and within the next ten minutes they confirmed a decision height of 440 m (1,440 ft) for a VOR/DME approach to Runway 30. At 21:28:19 the airport controller told the Flight 8387 that although the vertical visibility was ok the horizontal visibility was bad. At 21:28:38 the aircraft overflew the airport and was seen by the airport controller. At 21:33 they completed a procedural turn for the approach, at 21:36 the autopilot was disengaged. At 21:37 the aircraft had descended to the 440 m (1,440 ft) decision height but the pilot could not see the runway. At 21:38 the aural height warning started, although the crew could not see the runway and had passed the decision height they did not do a missed approach procedure and the aircraft hit the ground.

According to Yichun officials preliminary observations, the aircraft broke apart while it was in the process of landing at around 21:36 local time (13:36 UTC), while the airport was enclosed with fog. The aircraft touched down around 1.5 km (0.93 mi) short of the runway, then caught fire. The wreckage of the fuselage came to a rest 700 m (2,300 ft) from the runway. Some passengers escaped through gaps in the fuselage of the cabin.

Details surrounding the crash were unclear in the immediate aftermath of the incident; a local official reported that the aircraft broke in two as it was landing, and that passengers were thrown from the aircraft, though some survivors said that it remained intact until it came to a rest away from the runway.

Subsequent investigations concluded that the first impact was with trees, 1,100 m (3,600 ft) from the runway threshold, at 21:38:08. Thereafter, the aircraft hit the ground with the wheels of main landing gear, 1,080 m (3,540 ft) from the landing runway threshold, running on the ground a distance of 870 m (2,850 ft), when the engines collided with the ground. With this impact, the wing fuel tanks ruptured, spilling fuel and causing the fire. The survivors left aircraft by the door behind the cockpit and through openings in the fuselage. Due to the impact, emergency exits could not be opened, and a large amount of smoke accumulated in the cabin. The pilot, who survived the accident, could not organize nor conduct the passengers evacuation.

The aircraft was in a two-class configuration with six business seats and 92 economy seats but at the time of accident had only 91 passengers. As well as the passengers the aircraft had five crew (two flight crew, a purser, flight attendant and security officer), a total of 96 on-board.

Initial reports suggested that 53 people survived the crash, while 43 were found dead at the scene; later reports corrected the death toll to 42 because the body of one victim was torn apart. Most of the dead were seated in the rear of the aircraft.Of the 54 survivors, 17 had only minor injuries but two were seriously burned and died in hospital.

Many passengers were participants of a national conference on human resources and employment, including vice minister Sun Baoshu and other officials of the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Two participants from Chengdu were among the fatalities.

The pilot survived the accident, though he sustained heavy facial injuries.

Some survivors said that they escaped through a hole in the front of the plane.

On August 31, Henan Airlines announced that it would pay 960,000 yuan (around $140,000 USD) to the relatives of each person killed in the crash. The payment was required under PRC civil aviation law.

Crews immediately began searching for survivors, although the efforts were hampered by fog. This phase of the rescue operation lasted for around eight hours before personnel at the scene began clearing the wreckage the morning after the accident.

Henan Airlines cancelled all flights in the days after the incident and fired the airline's general manager. Nationally, Chinese airlines performed increased safety checks in response to the crash.

The Administration for Industry and Commerce of Henan Province announced days after the incident that it had rescinded the enterprise name registration of Henan Airlines, and demanded that the airline operator restore its original name of Kunpeng Airlines. The administration cited as reasons for its decision that the name Henan Airlines had caused public misunderstanding and greatly damaged the image of the province, which holds no stake in the airline operator. This move was immediately met with media criticism, which questioned the validity of the administration's interference with Henan Airlines' rights to choice of name. It was also revealed that the province had offered favorable conditions to attract the airline operator to adopt its current name, and celebrated the renaming afterwards.

Both the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the aircraft's manufacturer, Embraer, sent teams of investigators to the crash site. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board appointed an accredited representative, as the aircraft's General Electric CF34 engines were made in the U.S. The flight recorders were recovered at the scene and sent to Beijing for analysis.

Early in the investigation, the qualifications of the pilot were focused on, as it emerged that upwards of a hundred pilots flying for Shenzhen Airlines, Henan Airlines' parent company, had falsified their claims of flying experience.

Investigators from the State Administration of Work Safety concluded that the captain, on his first flight into Yichun, switched off the autopilot and approached the runway covered by radiation fog despite the fact that visibility of 2,800 m (9,200 ft) was below the minimum of 3,600 m (11,800 ft).

The crew descended below minimum descent altitude although visual contact with the runway had not been established.

The crew also failed to initiate a missed approach when the radio altimeter callouts indicated that the airplane was near the ground and the communication and cooperation within the crew was insufficient, despite the known safety risks at that airport.

The Embraer E-190AR was a twin-engined jet airliner registered in China as B-3130. It was built in Brazil in 2008, with manufactures serial number 19000223, and delivered to the airline on 4 December 2008. At the time of accident the aircraft had flown 5,109.6 hours and had completed 4,712 flight cycles.

Yichun Lindu Airport is located in Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province, has a runway 2.3 km (1.4 mi) long, 45 m (148 ft) width, qualified to operate with single-aisle airliners like Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. The airport started operations on 26 August 2009, one year before accident. On the day of the accident the airport had two flight controllers, they were both in good health conditions and qualified, the final report also confirmed that all safety procedures had been done correctly, the airfield navigation and communications equipment was working correctly and the runway was serviceable.

The airport is located in a valley, with about 90% relative humidity, especially in the afternoon, from 17:00 until 21:00. As the temperature drops rapidly in this period with little wind it is common for a rapid condensation of water vapor, the basic condition for a fog formation known as radiation fog, which characteristic is a thick and low fog, significantly impacting operations. In September 2009, one month after the start of Yichun airport operations, China Southern Airlines decided not to operate at night at that airport due to concerns with the safety of operations.

On the night of the accident, the airport meteorological observatory issued bulletins stating visibility conditions. At 19:00, the visibility was 1.0 km (0.62 mi), by 21:00 it was 8.0 km (5.0 mi). At 21:08 the airport issued a special bulletin reporting that visibility was reduced to 2.8 km (1.7 mi) and decreasing rapidly.