Hundreds of thousands of users on Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter-like social media platform, have flocked to and followed the tw
aidu signs comprehensive deal with Ctrip-depth partnersh
hinese internet search giant Baidu Inc inked an in-depth partnership with China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip, in its latest efforts to drive the development of intelligent tourism in China.
Under the agreement, Baidu will deploy its cloud services and artificial intelligence capabilities to provide Ctrip with solutions tailor
ed to tourism scenarios and businesses. Baidu Cloud, the cloud unit of Baidu will help Ctrip impr
ove operational efficiency and customer experience and reduce costs in marketing and sales, customer acquisition and online traffic conversion.
The two companies will also continue to explore a variety of smart services in more scenarios
based on Baidu’s AI capabilities, such as speech technology and autonomous driving.
“The tourism industry is growing rapidly and Ctrip is the industry leader. Baidu looks forward to working wi
th Ctrip to upgrade tourism services with ‘cloud plus AI’, enhance customer experience, and ex
plore a viable path to intelligent tourism for the entire industry,” said Zhang Dongchen, vice-president of Baidu.
“With the vigorous development of tourism, consumer needs are more and more diversified. To better serve our customers, Ctrip
needs to be enabled by advanced cloud computing and AI technologies,” said Xiong Xing, executive vi
ce-president of Ctrip and CEO of air ticketing business unit and international business unit of the company.
Xiong said they hoped to collaborate with Baidu to create smarter customer service and more value for users.
This partnership is not limited to IT infrastructure. With Baidu Cloud’s capabilities, big data
analytics can be conducted on users’ interests, habits and preferences. Different tourism products can
be packaged by Baidu’s AI and machine learning technologies to offer every user customized solutions.
Over the past three years, Baidu Cloud has collaborated with more than 2,000 partners in
over 30 industries, such as finance, security, transportation and education, and created over 100 solutions.
Actor puts spotlight on Peking Universityan actor, has bec
get of plagiarism allegations because he, having obtained a PhD at the Beijing Film Academy and been freshly enrolled by Peking University f
or postdoctoral research, was found to not know about the China National Knowledge Infra
structure (CNKI), a Chinese database of academic resources. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:
To anyone who has ever written an academic essay in the Chinese language, Zhai not knowing
about CNKI is as absurd as a self-claimed chemist not knowing the periodic table of elements. CNKI is an
online platform that allows students and scholars to search for academic articles and papers published in
China, and read the materials they need for their dissertations at their college libraries’ expense. Unless a st
udent claims an exception, their dissertation will be included as reference for other researchers.
The allegations against Zhai have naturally stirred up a hornet’s nest of opinions online. B
y Tuesday morning, at least nine hashtags about the incident had appeared on Sina Weibo, China’s equi
valent to Twitter. Added together, these hashtags have been read 3.9 billion times in all.
It should be noted that the incident is not entertainment gossip, but a serious matter about academic plagiarism. If any research instituti
on allows a person to obtain a degree by plagiarizing the work of others, those with real potential for do
ing genuine academic research will lose the opportunity, which in turn hurts the academic environment as a whole.
Imax shatters Chinese New Year opening box office record
Imax box offices set a new record over the Chinese New Year period starting on Feb 5, grossing 217 million yuan ($32.3 million) across its 599 theaters in China.
Imax Corporation and Imax China said in a news release on Feb 11 that the results were driven by the
strong performances of three local-language films – The Wandering Earth, Crazy Alien and Peg
asus. The sales figures marked Imax China’s best Chinese New Year performance ever, up 40 percent year-on-year.
The Wandering Earth, China’s first big-budget sci-fi film, led the pack by grossing more than
185 million yuan in Imax theaters to become the highest grossing local-language film in Imax hi
story, surpassing Mojin: The Lost Legend. Imax screenings accounted for more than 9 percent of the film’s gross ov
erall takings. The film also set new Imax records for the biggest opening week, surpassing Avengers: Infinity War, as
well as the biggest single day and best three-day performance for a local-language title.
“We are very pleased with these record-breaking Chinese New Year results, which are particularly significant when com
pared to 2018’s record performance that was up 80 percent over the previous year,” said Imax CEO Richard L. Gelfond.
Wang said his department encourages companies to pr
mote scientific and technology innovation to make them more competitive.
Zhou Yawei, a member of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Committee of the Communist
Party of China and secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Guangzhou D
evelopment District, said the district has registered more than 20,000 science and
technology companies and took the lead in innovation among 219 State-level development zones in China last year.
It is the first time the district – which is home to Sino-Singapore Know
ledge City, Guangzhou Science City and Guangzhou International Island – has led State-level de
velopment zones in scientific and technological innovation. It ranked second in 2017.
“The district, in the eastern part of Guangzhou, introduced preferential policies to promot
e scientific and technological innovation years ago,” Zhou said. “Priority was given to the dev
elopment of the information, artificial intelligence and biopharmaceutical industries.
“Scientific and technological innovation are expected to play an even bigger role in
the district’s economic development and industrial upgrading in the years ahead.”
Zhou promised to attract more high-end talent from home and abroad t
his year to help boost the district’s scientific and technological innovation efforts.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs has urged national-level
industrial organizations and chambers of commerce to lower membership fees and refr
ain from imposing unreasonable charges to reduce the burden on businesses.
The ministry said in a statement on Feb 3 that it will conduct the annual examination
of national-level social organizations, and such organizations are also expected to report fee adjustments in their annual reports.
The lowering of membership fees will be an important criteria for the ministry in evaluating na
tional organizations. Other criteria include whether the organizations have imposed charges against regulations or been found to have m
isused funds. Those who fail the evaluations will be disqualified, the ministry said.
Social organizations found to be engaged in activities that harm national reunification, national security, ethnic un
ity or jeopardize the national interest will also be disqualified and punished according to law, the ministry said.
A third-party will conduct random on-site verification of information submitted, it added.
High-end Chinese restaurants in London celebrates Year of the Pig
In celebration of Chinese New Year, from 28th January to 24th February Hakkasan Hanway Place and Hakkasan Mayfair will reinvent the
classic fortune cookie, commissioning renowned author Will Self to pen the fortunes.
The fortunes will be written on a ribbon and placed around the Hakkasan m
acarons, to create the fortune macaron. Instead of housing a traditional fortune, each macaro
n will feature one of Will Self’s 88 witty, satirical and sometimes dark musings on the topics most relevant to m
odern day life in London. The fortune macarons will be available as part of the Chinese New Year set menu and also a la carte.
Will Self is an English novelist and journalist, was a food critic for The Observer, and h
as written for titles including The Guardian, Harper’s and The London Review. Self writes to as
tonish people with his fantastical style, and wrote ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker’, a collection of no
n-traditional restaurant reviews for the New Statesmen. His 2002 novel ‘Dorian, an Imitation’ was long listed for th
e Booker Prize and his novel ‘Umbrella’ shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He is known for his unique style and tone of voi
ce, which will be a defining feature of the Hakkasan fortune macarons. Speaking about the partnership he said。
In addition, Wisconsin has seen a tightening labor market in t
the last few years, with the unemployment rate steadily registering 3 percent or lower in nin
e months, which made it difficult for companies to look for workers, let alone skilled ones or engineers.
Kurt Bauer, president and CEO of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, s
aid that the association has about 3,800 members, half of which are m
anufacturing companies. Around 80 percent of the members have seen a labor shortage in one way or another.
Ian Robertson, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison college of Engineering, said the college has 800 gr
aduates every year. They have about 6,000 job opportunities to choose from, most of which are outside of the state.
To meet the demand for engineers, the college plans to expand their enrollment from around 4,500 t
o 5,200 in the next few years. But after graduation, how many of the students will be hired by Foxconn is hard to say.
Robertson said many companies in need of engineers tend to build long-term relationships wit
h the university by establishing labs and offering internships. “Foxconn is just one of them,” he said.
Australian trade minister expresses confidence in Sino-Austra
CANBERRA – Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham has said he has confidence tha
t the relationship between Australia and China will continue to prosper in 2019 in his Chinese New Year Message.
In a statement confirmed by the Australian embassy in China on Friday, Birmingham e
xtended his “best wishes of health, happiness, success and prosperity to everyone who is celebrating the Lunar New Year”.
“With over 1.2 million people of Chinese heritage living in Australia, it is a s
pecial time for many communities and families across our nation,” he said.
“As the Australian Minister for Trade, I am very aware of the strong economic re
lationship between our two nations. China is Australia’s largest trading partn
er and both our countries continue to reap the benefits of the landmark China-Australia Free Trade Agreement,” he said.
Birmingham saw “this strong trade and investment relationship in
action” when he visited Shanghai last November for the China International Import Expo.
“It’s a brand-new experience for us,” said Zheng, one of the
nce who came with his family. “We’re attracted by the unique and novel style of Tan Dun.”
