After 25 years of operating in Fuchengmen, Tianyi Market, the largest small goods wholesale market in Beijing, will close on Sept. 16, 2017.

Tianyi Market, the largest small goods wholesale market in Beijing, will close on Sept.19, 2017. [Photo by Gong Jie/China.org.cn]

It is part of a citywide crackdown on Beijing’s wholesale markets as part of efforts to decrease the population in the city. The low-end businesses and wholesale markets will be transferred to neighboring Hebei Province.

The Beijing government is planning to remove all of the wholesale markets within its Fourth Ring Road by 2020 in order to keep Beijing’s population under control.

Vendors will be compensated by Tianyi Market and relocated to Heibei.

“I have not found a new market to continue my business, but I think I will take a rest and then find a new market to do business in the future,” said Mrs. Li, a vendor in Tianyi Market.

Some vendors in Tianyi Market have already begun to move to online retailing. “We can use WeChat to inform customers of our new address, any other news as well as conduct sales,” said Mrs. Wang, who has been in Tianyi Market for more than ten years.

With the deadline approaching, many customers including foreign residents have come to find bargains as the vendors begin to clear their stock.

“Tianyi Market has always been my first choice because the quality of products are good and the price is cheap, and I can buy almost everything here,” said an old customer, who brought his foreign son-in-law and two grandsons to the market.

According to the Xicheng government, Tianyi’s closure will make space for technology, finance, and other high-end services.

Four villagers in Shiqu county in Southwest China’s Sichuan province found three snow leopard cubs in a cave in the Luoxu White-lipped Deer Nature Reserve on Friday.

Three snow leopard cubs huddle in a cave in the Luoxu White-lipped Deer Nature Reserve in Shiqu county, Southwest China’s Sichuan province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

On Thursday afternoon, a villager found a dead blue sheep in the reserve. The next day he and three other villagers found a cave near the site of the dead sheep.

In the cave were three snow leopard cubs, said Wan Xu, a leading official in the reserve’s management committee.

Although snow leopards are sighted from time to time in Shiqu, it is rare to find them so near to a village. The three snow leopard cubs are only two kilometers away from the nearest village, he said.

Forestry workers are monitoring the cubs far from the cave. They will withdraw if the mother leopard returns. If something goes wrong with the mother and she does not return, the forest workers will rescue the cubs, he said.

In the past five years, infrared cameras at the reserve have captured images of snow leopards more than 20 times. Villagers have taken pictures of them with their cell phones, too.

There might be more than 30 snow leopards in the reserve, which is Sichuan’s largest snow leopard habitat, Wan said.

Frequent sighting of snow leopards in Shiqu has much to do with the increase in the number of blue sheep in the reserve, a result of conservation methods, he said.

China’s number of snow leopards ranks first in the world, accounting for about 40 percent of the total, he said.

Planners have mapped out a 400-million-yuan ($61 million) development plan to turn a red rock basin in China into a Mars scientific research base and eco-tourism site.

Planners have mapped out a 400-million-yuan development plan to turn a red rock basin in China into a Mars scientific research base and eco-tourism site. [Photo/Xinhua]

Liu Xiaoqun, from the moon and deep-space exploration department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said on Tuesday that a planning meeting was held in Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Northwest China’s Qinghai province to determine the development of the Mars simulation base.

“As China’s only Mars science and recreation base, we hope it will focus on the scientific theme of space exploration,” he said.

The red rock area in Qaidam basin in western Qinghai has been called the most “Martian” place on Earth, with its natural features, landscape and climate all similar to those on the red planet.

The government of Haixi and the Chinese Academy of Sciences signed an agreement in November last year to build the base, and they have since begun discussing the project’s location.

A number of CAS scientists have participated in the planning of the Mars simulation base in Haixi.

Liu said the base is expected to consist of a “Mars community” and a “Mars campsite.” The campsite will have a number of experimental module-like accommodations. It will be built as a one-stop base for experiential learning in aerospace, astronomy, geography and new energy.

China has started an unmanned Mars probe project and plans to launch a Mars probe around 2020.

“The building of the Mars simulation base has both scientific and ecological significance. It can improve public awareness of space exploration while bringing economic benefits to Haixi,” said Zhang Biao, vice mayor of Delingha city, Haixi.

A pregnant woman’s relatives and a hospital in Yulin, Shaanxi province, are blaming each other for rejecting the woman’s request to have a C-section, which allegedly led to her jumping to her death from the fifth floor of the hospital.

The 26-year-old woman, Ma Rongrong, who was a week away from delivery, was admitted to the First Hospital of Yulin on Wednesday to give birth, the hospital said in a statement dated on Sunday.

Medical checks showed the baby’s head was bigger than normal, suggesting higher risks during natural birth, the statement said.

Ma’s doctor advised her and her family to give Ma a C-section, but her family refused and signed a document at the hospital confirming that Ma would deliver naturally, the statement said.

She was transferred to the delivery room on Thursday morning but later left the room several times because of pain. She asked her husband to allow a C-section. Her doctor and nurses also advised her husband to allow the surgery, but all requests were rejected, the statement said.

Ma became emotional and lost control due to pain, and jumped out of the building later that day and died, the statement said.

Yan Zhuangzhuang, Ma’s husband, said in a statement that she left the delivery room at about 6 pm on Thursday, adding that his wife had asked to have a C-section and that he had agreed immediately.

The husband’s statement said the doctor checked Ma’s condition and said she was going to give birth soon and did not need a C-section.

After more than an hour a nurse came out of the delivery room and told him Ma had disappeared. He later saw Ma’s body being lifted from the ground and put onto a stretcher, the statement said.

According to Huashang Daily, Ma fell from the fifth floor of an inpatient building at about 8 pm on Thursday and died after rescue efforts failed. The police ruled out foul play.

Neither Yan nor the hospital answered phone calls from China Daily on Tuesday.

Under a regulation released by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, medical institutions must get consent from patients and a signature from a family member before performing surgery, but doctors can make decisions without consent in emergencies.

Gong Xiaoming, a gynecologist at Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, said pregnant women should have the right to decide whether to have a natural birth or C-section.

“In reality, in many cases in China the decision to have a C-section is made by the patients’ family members and the doctors,” he said.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Starting a new term can be a tough time for any student－especially when it’s at an entirely new school 40 kilometers away because the last one was destroyed in an earthquake.