CHINA / Foreign Media on China
Bank hints at new renminbi rise
By Mure Dickie (FT)
Updated: 2006-08-10 10:23
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/46b07590-27d6-11db-b25c-0000779e2340.html
China's central bank stoked
CHINA / News
A taste of Chinese beer
By (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-08-10 11:38
The 16th Qingdao International Beer Festival starts on August 12 in
Qingdao City,
east Shandong Province. Qingdao boasts a beautiful coastline and a
pleasing climate in the summer when it's unbearably hot in Beijing. It is
also slated to host the sailing matches of the 2008 Olympics. Sounds like
a good idea to go and see what happens at this beer festival.
Qingdao International Beer Festival began in 1991. It opens on the second
weekend of August each year, in the middle of tourist season in Qingdao,
and lasts for 16 days. The festival includes many activities like beer
tastings, literary evenings and beer-drinking competitions.
This year's festival will be held in three main venues; Qingdao
International Beer Town, Huiquan Plaza and Dengzhoulu beer street.
Qingdao International Beer Town Located in the Shilaoren National Tourism
Resort, Qingdao International Beer Town has been the main event place for
the festival since it's 6th season.
It is a top-grade amusement park with large theaters for the festival's
literary events, the Qingdao Beer Palace for tastings and contests and
over 20 rides and activity centers.
Dengzhoulu Beer Street
Located beside the old Qingdao Beer Factory workshops, reconstructed
Dengzhoulu is a bar street that features European style architecture.
Tourists can find the freshest beer and all local snacks on this street.
Jiajia, 2006 Qingdao Beer Festival's mascot.
More than 40 restaurants and bars line this 1,000-meter-long street.
Among them are Beer House and Beer Palace, as well as some feature bars,
like the noisy Oulala and the quiet Jingbar.
In addition to various sculptures of different brands of beer, beer
bottles and even the dog Jiajia, the festival's mascot, China's first
beer museum is also located on this street. Here tourists can the origin
of beer, the long history of Qingdao beer and what a real beerhouse is
like.
Huiquan Plaza
Qingdao is the sole partner city of Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. This
fact is reflected in Huiquan Plaza's theme sculpture that incorporates
the five Olympic rings. During the Beer Festival the Olympic Sail
Landscape Sculpture will be unveiled. It's made from abandoned beer cans,
which is a good illustration of the green Olympic concept.
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Today's Top News
� Share swaps approved in takeovers by foreign firms
� 500,000 evacuated ahead of storm
� Daily Xinfu reports ordered - MOH
� China pledges to boost imports
� Beijing Olympic planners make marathon effort
Top China News
� China to extend new Tibet railway
� Foreign investors' domestic acquisition tightened
� 2, 660 civil servants punished for mine stakes
� China to create millions of new jobs this year
� CPC regulations target nepotism in govt
Alibaba is the largest B2B marketplace in the world. Source model ship,
wooden puzzle, one-piece toilet, RC hovercraft, photo album, prom dress,
pocket bike, Vaginal Speculum, Samurai Sword, String Panty and PVC Pipe.
Learn Chinese, Chinese Mandarin
expectations of further renminbi appreciation
on Wednesday by saying the exchange rate could play a role in addressing
international payments imbalances.
The statement, in the People's Bank of China's second quarter monetary
report, came a day before China announced a record trade surplus for the
third straight month in July, news which would add to the pressure on
Beijing to adjust its currency.
There has been speculation that Beijing is poised to take a bolder
approach toward the renminbi after keeping it under tight control since
scrapping its peg to the US dollar a year ago.
The renminbi has risen just 1.66 per cent since Beijing's 2.1 per cent
revaluation last July, in spite of soaring trade surpluses and complaints
from the US that the currency is undervalued.
However, the PBoC has recently permitted slightly greater daily
volatility in the renminbi-dollar rate and allowed a series of record
highs for the currency. This has fuelled predictions it will widen the
current 0.3 per cent daily trading band and allow a more rapid
appreciation.
The PBoC insisted in its report that the focus of efforts to reduce the
imbalance in international payments should be an expansion of consumption
and reduction of savings, which would improve the quality of growth,
while cutting exports and boosting imports.
The bank stressed, in its section on policy thinking, that international
payment imbalances could "certainly not be resolved solely by relying on
exchange rate appreciation".
However, it said "appropriate use" should be made of the "special
effects" the exchange rate could have in efforts to adjust the structure
of the economy and achieve "overall balance".
"As part of a package of measures, the exchange rate can play a certain
role in addressing the imbalance in international payments," the bank
said.
It gave no details and the statement falls far short of a commitment to
either appreciation or even significantly greater flexibility in the
renminbi exchange rate - which the bank repeated should be kept
"basically stable at a reasonable balanced level".
But some analysts said the report supported the view that a consensus was
forming among Beijing policymakers behind a stronger, more flexible
currency.
Huang Haizhou, head of Greater China research for Barclays Capital, said
the statement should be seen in the context of reports that China's July
trade surplus would hit a new record and the recent emphasis Wen Jiabao,
the premier, put on the need to address external imbalances.
The likely impact of a significant renminbi revaluation on China's trade
surplus remains a matter of fierce debate, however, with some economists
saying it could actually increase the surplus in some traded goods.
According to China's custom bureau on Thursday, the trade surplus in July
rose to $14.6bn from $14.5bn in the previous month. Total trade surplus
for the first seven months hit $76bn, up 51 per cent from the same period
last year.
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Today's Top News
� Share swaps approved in takeovers by foreign firms
� East China braces for typhoon Saomai
� Daily Xinfu reports ordered - MOH
� China pledges to boost imports
� Beijing Olympic planners make marathon effort
Top China News
� China to extend new Tibet railway
� Foreign investors' domestic acquisition tightened
� 2, 660 civil servants punished for stakes in mines
� China to create millions of new jobs this year
� CPC regulations target nepotism in govt
Alibaba is the largest B2B marketplace in the world. Source model ship,
wooden puzzle, one-piece toilet, RC hovercraft, photo album, prom dress,
pocket bike, Vaginal Speculum, Samurai Sword, String Panty and PVC Pipe.
Learn Chinese
