A woman shows a box of ejiao at a pharmacy in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province in 2011. [Photo/IC] Xinjiang port handles 8,000 animals in first quarter of year The number of live donkeys being imported to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from Central Asia has soared in the past year to meet demand for ejiao, a traditional Chinese medicine made from boiled donkey hide. Imports in the first quarter through the Irkeshtam Port - the only port in Xinjiang that handles live animals - more than doubled year-on-year to 8,000, according to data from customs authorities in Urumqi. The donkeys are mainly sold in Shandong province, which produces about 90 percent of all ejiao products in China. The live donkey trade was worth 10.03 million yuan ($1.57 million) last year. The gelatinous medicine is mainly used as a treatment for anemia and menopause-related ailments. However, an online post in February by a health service center under the former national health authority advised the public not to purchase ejiao, saying the traditional medicine is not as nutritious as chicken eggs for the human body. It later apologized for creating misunderstanding. Irkeshtam Port began importing live donkeys from Kyrgyzstan in August 2016 and has handled more than 27,000 to date. Since then, the number of companies importing live donkeys has increased from one to six, with more expected to join the trade this year. Companies involved in the live donkey trade need to have a Chinese quarantine permit. The live donkeys arrive at the port in Xinjiang after a two-day journey through Kyrgyzstan. They are then kept in quarantine for 14 days on the Chinese side of the border. The donkeys' blood is tested when they pass through to port to make sure the animals are healthy. Annual production of ejiao, a lucrative product, has totaled 5,000 metric tons in recent years, using 4 million donkey hides. The high demand, coupled with a decline in China's donkey population, has resulted in a marked rise in the number of skins being imported each year. The number of donkeys in China fell from 9.4 million in 1996 to 4.6 million in 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The decline is partly the result of urbanization: Many farmers, who once used donkeys as work animals, migrated to cities. Also, traditional cultivation techniques are gradually being replaced by machines. There are now only enough donkeys to meet half of China's annual demand for ejiao. In response, producers have turned to overseas markets to secure the needed donkey hides. Qin Yufeng, CEO of Dong'e Ejiao, the largest ejiao manufacturer in China, said about 40 percent of the donkey skins it uses are imported. The General Administration of Customs announced in December that it would lower the tariff on imported donkey hides beginning on Jan 1, with the import tariff on entire hides of a certain weight cut from 5 percent to 2 percent. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates there are about 44 million donkeys worldwide, mainly in Asia, North Africa and South America. personalised rubber bracelets ukpaper bracelet templatewristbands onlinewrist band com coupon coderubber wristbands in bulkthe wristband factory
China launches two Type 055 guided-missile destroyers, widely considered Asia's biggest such combat vessels, at a shipyard in Dalian, Liaoning province, on Tuesday. [Photo/LIU DEBIN FOR CHINA DAILY] China launched on Tuesday two Type 055 guided-missile destroyers, widely considered Asia's biggest and mightiest such combat ship, according to witnesses outside a shipyard in Dalian, Liaoning province. Weapons enthusiasts published photos taken near Dalian Shipbuilding Industry, which has built two aircraft carriers, on internet military forums. They also described what they saw of the two giant ships' launches. When ships are moved into the water, their construction is basically finished. It is regarded as the most important step before sea trials. Water started to be pumped into dry docks where the vessels were built around 7 am, before the docks' gates were opened, witnesses said. Photos showed that there was a small launch ceremony at the shipyard with hundreds of workers standing in formation in front of the two Type 055s, each decorated with a huge national flag and ceremonial banners. Then the ships were pushed into open waters by several tugboats, the photos showed. The next steps usually are for engineers to test and fine-tune equipment already mounted on the ships and continue installing other devices. Then they will conduct mooring tests and sea trials before the ships are commissioned in the People's Liberation Army Navy. Four Type 055s have now been launched, but none are yet commissioned. The first of the class was launched in late June 2017 at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, the second in late April at the same shipyard. Type 055 is China's newest generation of guided-missile destroyers. It has a displacement greater than 10,000 metric tons and will be equipped with new types of air defense, missile defense and anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons, according to the Navy. It has 112 vertical launching cells that can fire various kinds of missiles, including China's long-range land-attack cruise missile. Its firepower is thought to be twice that of the Type 052D, the largest and most powerful surface combatant commissioned in the PLA Navy. While the Type 055 is classifed as a destroyer, outside China it would be considered a cruiser as its large size and heavy displacement are comparable to that of the United States' Ticonderoga class cruiser. Li Jie, a senior researcher for the PLA Navy, said the vessel displaces about 13,000 tons. The latest version of the United States' Arleigh Burke class, the largest family of destroyers in the world, has a full displacement of 9,800 tons. South Korea's Sejong the Great class displaces 11,000 tons while Japan's Atago class displaces 10,000 tons. Cao Weidong, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that compared with other destroyers in the Navy, the Type 055 features stealth design, stronger strike prowess and higher information capacity and will tremendously boost the PLA Navy's long-range operational capability. He also said such ships will greatly strengthen the country's carrier battle groups.
