The Opening New Khalifa Bin Salman Port in Bahrain

Bahrain :

The New Khalifa Bin Salman Port location in the heart of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will make Bahrain an ideal choice for carriers transshipping containers to the important and rapidly expanding Upper Gulf Region, particularly related with the market in Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and northern Iran.

APM terminals, which signed a 25-years concession for Khalifa bin salman and the existing port of Mina Salman in November 2006, has already invested in modern equipment and systems.
According to APM Terminals Bahrain managing director Steen Davidsen, the company had started "reaping the benefits before the move".
"When we took over the port was managing six to 10 container movements per hour" said Davidsen. "In the space of a year we have improved that a 30 container movements per hour".
 

The area approximately 900,000 sqm of land as known the Bahrain gateway, will have substantial space for growth over the current capacity at Mina Salman port.
With a draft alongside of 15 meters, the port will be able to handle post-panamax vessels or container ships with capacity of up to 8,000 TEU's compared to the current maximum capacity for 3,000 TEU ships.

Davidsen also says that while the move to the new port has been specifically designed to upgrade and increase the capacity for container and bulk cargo, the deep water facilities will also allow larger cruise ships to berth in a dedicated terminal.

Finance Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa already inaugurated the new Khalifa bin Saman Port yesterday. (Gulf Weekly)

The Amazing Chongqing

The amazing view in the night

Chongqing is located at transitional area between the Qinghai and Tibet plateau and the flat area from middle and lower reaches on the Yangtze River. The land under Chongqing's jurisdiction is 470 km from east to west and 450 km from north to south. It borders on Hubei and Hunan provinces in the east, Guizhou in the south, Sichuan in the west and north and Shaanxi Province as its northeast corner.

Chongqing was known as Jiangzhou in ancient times, and later was called Ba Prefecture, Chu Prefecture, Yu Prefecture and Gong Prefecture at different times. Chongqing as the center administrative as state Ba covered a large area include Sichuan province, southern Shaanxi province, western Hubei province, northwestern Hunan province, and northern Guizhou province. Human activities can be dated back to the end of the Old Stone Age about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. In the 11th century B.C. when the Zhou Dynasty replaced the Shang Dynasty, the ba people established the state of Ba with present day Chongqing as its capital.

Chongqing is particularly rich in human landscape as well as in culture relics and historic sites. There are now 49 national, provincial and municipal preservation places of treasured historical in relics. In 1999, the UNESCO listed The Dazu Stone Sculptures on World Register of Culture Heritage. In its 12 museums and memorial halls displays and exhibitions are held every year. (The Shanghai Daily - Eastday)

   

Peacock Dance from China

In the mind of the Dai ethnic group on the southwest border of China, the peacock as a totem worshipped and stands for auspiciousness and beauty.  The excellent Peacock dance reflects their respect for peace, honesty, water and beauty. The Dai people believe in Hinayana that the Peacock Rajas (Bright King) is a Bodhisattva flying on a peacock, with lotus and peacock tail in hand. Therefore, the Dai people love peacocks, , tame peacocks and the peacock dance.

The Peacock Dance by a female group dance was first put on stage in 1956. According to folk custom, the peacock dance used to performed by males. They had to shoulder heavy stage props such as wings and, therefore, their actions were restrained.

Breaking through the boundaries of tradition, the creator tried to display peacock's beauty by giving the part to women. They got rid of the heavy wings and they wore long broad skirts decorated with peacock feathers.
When the dance debuted at the national dance festival in 1956, it found great favor with audiences for its uniqueness and elegance.  The next year it won gold award in the World Youth Festival . In the dance, a "peacock", with its tail feathers spreading, rushes from a high hill. Its wings changed into the "peacock girls", who dance around "King of Birds" according to beat of foot drums and gongs. With this grateful rhythm, they drink, bathe and fly. (The Shanghai Daily - Eastday)

   

Disneyland in Shanghai on 2014

Disneyland will open in Shanghai by 2014, it will be set on 1.5 square kilometers in the riverside Pudong District. The cost be estimated on 22.4 billion yuan  (HK$ 25.5 billion) and the amount four times bigger than

Hong Kong Disneyland.

Tourism official gave a positive comments, claiming Shanghai park will complement Hong Kong operation. More than 17 million people have visited Hong Kong Disneyland since its opening in September 2005 up to this end of this May. One-third of visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland are from mainland, one - third local and one - third from overseas including Southeast Asia.

Related with the double of Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland, a Disney spokesman said :

"The United States with a quarter of the population of China , supports two Disney theme resorts with six parks all together. The China travel market is also expected to continue grow rapidly over the next 20 years.

The two China parks, like all of our theme parks, will draw from separate and distinct guest bases."

Paul Tang, chief economist at Bank of East Asia, told Reuters : "Visitors from Guangdong and southern China will still find Hong Kong Disneyland more convenient, while Shanghai Disneyland attract visitors from northern and eastern China." (The Standard - HK)