Friday - June 13

Dog meat sales plummet prior to festival

Sales of dog meat reportedly have plummeted days before the controversial "Summer Lychee and Dog Meat Festival" in Yulin city, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and vendors predict greatly reduced profits.

The annual event, which falls on June 21, has attracted a huge public outcry online, and drawn protests from animal right protesters who arrived in the city from various parts of the country.

Many dog meat restaurants covered the word "dog" on their advertising while some put posters on their walls, reading "Protecting the animals". (Photo 1)

Wealthy pay a high price for going into space

It's just a five or six-minute trip and the cost starts at $599,999, but some of China's wealthy have signed up for trips to outer space.

Orders opened on Thursday to book a trip with the Dutch firm Space Expedition Corp, known as SXC, and 305 buyers purchased trips in the first minutes after the registration opened, according to Taobao.com. Four entrepreneurs from Chengdu and two from Shanghai are among those who signed up for space travel, said the company, which did not reveal their identities.

According to SXC, the spaceship can carry only one astronaut and one tourist, who sits in the co-pilot seat. The craft remains in space for five to six minutes, when the tourist can enjoy a view from space and experience weightlessness.

Fees include the space travel, as well as a round trip from China to the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center in the United States for the launch.

Monday - June 16

Underground pipelines to be upgraded

China will upgrade old and massive underground urban pipelines in five years to reduce potential risks in expanding cities.

The massive pipelines running underground play a major role in urban development, carrying the water, sewage, gas, electricity, telecommunications, cable signals and other necessary supplies for daily life as well as industrial production.

With the rapid urbanization in China, larger cities with fast-growing populations witnessed more accidents with severe economic losses and casualties.

An explosion in a gas line in Qingdao, Shandong province, in November killed 62 people and injured 136. Leakage in a petrochemical pipeline contaminated the water supply in Lanzhou, Gansu province, in April. On May 11, a torrential rain hit Shenzhen, Guangdong province, flooding more than 2,500 roads in the city and causing an economic loss of about 80 million yuan ($12.9 million).

Chemical plant closed in lead poisoning probe

A chemical plant in central China's Hunan province was shut down on suspicion of being linked to the lead poisoning of more than 300 local children.

Meilun Chemical Materials Limited Co is suspected of discharging untreated water and waste, according to the Hengdong county government.

A report by China Central Television (CCTV) on Saturday said that blood tests on more than 300 children in Dapu township of Hengdong county found excessive levels of lead since 2012, indicating heavy metal poisoning. The blood tests showed that the lead densities among local children reached as high as 501 micrograms per liter, far above the national standard of 100 micrograms per liter for children. Reports from CCTV said that the closer to the factory the children live, the higher the lead levels in the tests.

Tuesday - June 17

Military adjusts recruitment standards

The Chinese military has lowered the height requirement and raised the weight limit to attract new recruits with higher education backgrounds. And the policy on tattoos has been relaxed.

The height requirement for a male candidate has been adjusted to 160 centimeters from 162 cm and for female candidates to 158 cm from 160 cm, according to the Defense Ministry's recruitment office.

The upper weight limit for male enlistees was also relaxed to allow more portly young men into the military. The new standards also lowered eyesight requirements because nearly 70 percent of high school and university students in China are nearsighted.

The People's Liberation Army is also more tolerant of tattoos, which had been regarded as a taboo in the military. People who have less than 2 cm of tattoos showing on their body while in uniform or 10 cm of total ink are allowed to join. Tattoos with obscene or violent matter or referring to illegal organizations will disqualify candidates. (Photo 2)

UBS will invest in commecial real estate

UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, will expand its Chinese property investment business with a move into commercial real estate.

Office, retail and industrial properties are "where investor demand is certainly moving to" in China, Trevor Cooke, head of global real estate for Asia-Pacific at UBS Global Asset Management, said. "The stock of investment grade assets in China is growing at about 35 percent per year."

The bank will work with a developer or a company with an ability to source existing assets, he said.