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Those who work in remote locations like Brazil's Pantanal may want to look into special insurance coverage. Photo: Brian Clark Howard
?
By Allen Tellis
Environmental workers are doing very important things in today?s changing world. It can be hard and dangerous work to relocate to remote locations, which can have myriad problems such as disease and an unfriendly environment.
Because of this risk, it?s often difficult to find good, low-priced health insurance for those who work in the field. One of the main problems is that usual types of workplace health insurance don?t cover unforeseen problems that might happen to an environmental worker in these different locales. It would be difficult for any individual health insurance company to be able to make all the exceptions due to the many risks.
Another disadvantage is the perceived legitimacy of this type of workplace as seen through the eyes of health insurance companies. They?re in the business to first and foremost stay in business and environmental work can be tenuous as well as low paying, if there is any payment at all. Many environmental workers have a true passion and belief in the work they?re doing. This can mean others will assume they may place themselves in harms way for the sake of saving endangered locations.
There is light at the end of the tunnel for environmental health insurance, however, and the internet helps you to find it very easily. Environmental insurance allows codicils (amendments) for these long-distance locations, with protective liability insurance for damages such as accidents, contamination of water and air, and other risks pertaining to hazardous areas.
When researching these companies, you?ll find that many of them place urban environmental insurance at the top, as it is the main type of coverage qualifying for the workplace. When searching for environmental health insurance specifically, look for ?agribusiness? or ?remediation.? While agribusiness may be closely related enough, it still may be too specific, and remediation contractors cover most aspects of reversal or stopping of damage, which often can pertain to the environment as well.
For the specifics of health insurance coverage in this area, you might seek an environmental risk management firm or environmental advocate group for sound advice. They will be able to give you an idea of what to expect when searching for the best health insurance at the lowest prices.
While preventing further damage to our rainforests and other remote areas is an important job, you must be well prepared before embarking to protect your own future as well.
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Public release date: 4-Apr-2012
Share ] Contact: Robert Mitchum
robert.mitchum@uchospitals.edu
773-795-5227
University of Chicago Medical Center
Low doses of a commonly used atypical antipsychotic drug improved survival in a mouse model of anorexia nervosa, University of Chicago researchers report this month. The result offers promise for a common and occasionally fatal eating disorder that currently lacks approved drugs for treatment.
Mice treated with small doses of the drug olanzapine were more likely to maintain their weight when given an exercise wheel and restricted food access, conditions that produce activity-based anorexia (ABA) in animals. The antidepressant fluoxetine, commonly prescribed off-label for anorexic patients, did not improve survival in the experiment.
"We found over and over again that olanzapine was effective in harsher conditions, less harsh conditions, adolescents, adults it consistently worked," said the paper's first author Stephanie Klenotich, graduate student in the Committee on Neurobiology at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences.
The study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, was the product of a rare collaboration between laboratory scientists and clinicians seeking new treatment options for anorexia nervosa. As many as one percent of American women will suffer from anorexia nervosa during their lifetime, but only one-third of those people will receive treatment.
Patients with anorexia are often prescribed off-label use of drugs designed for other psychiatric conditions, but few studies have tested the drugs' effectiveness in animal models.
"Anorexia nervosa is the most deadly psychiatric disorder, and yet no approved pharmacological treatments exist," said Stephanie Dulawa, PhD, assistant professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medicine and senior author of the study. "One wonders why there isn't more basic science work being done to better understand the mechanisms and to identify novel pharmacological treatments."
One challenge is finding a medication that patients with anorexia nervosa will agree to take regularly, said co-author Daniel Le Grange, PhD, professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience and director of the Eating Disorders Clinic at the University of Chicago Medicine. Drugs that directly cause weight gain or carry strong sedative side effects are often rejected by patients.
"Patients are almost uniformly very skeptical and very reluctant to take any medication that could lower their resolve to refrain from eating," Le Grange said. "There are long-standing resistances, and I think researchers and clinicians have been very reluctant to embark on that course, since it's just littered with obstacles."
Both fluoxetine and olanzapine have been tried clinically to supplement interventions such as family-based treatment and cognitive-behavioral therapy. But their direct effect on anorexia nervosa behavior in humans or animals is lacking in sufficient data.
To test the effectiveness of these drugs in laboratory mice, Klenotich adapted the ABA protocol from previously published rat studies: Mice given 24-hour access to a running wheel but only six hours a day of food access become hyperactive, eat less and rapidly lose weight, with a 25 percent reduction from baseline considered to be the "drop-out" survival point.
In Klenotich's study, mice were pretreated with fluoxetine, olanzapine or saline before starting the ABA protocol, and treatment continued throughout the ABA period. Researchers then measured how many mice in each group reached the drop-out point for weight loss over 14 days of food restriction and exercise wheel access. Treatment with the antipsychotic olanzapine significantly increased survival over the control group, while fluoxetine treatment produced no significant effects on survival.
Importantly, a low dose of olanzapine did not decrease overall running activity in the mice, indicating that sedative effects of the drug were minimal. In future experiments, the researchers hope to use different drugs and genetic methods to determine exactly how olanzapine is effective against symptoms of anorexia nervosa, perhaps pointing toward a better drug without the negative image or side effects of an antipsychotic.
"We can dissect the effect of olanzapine and hopefully identify the mechanisms of action, and identify what receptor systems we want to target," Klenotich said. "Hopefully, we can develop a newer drug that we can aim towards the eating disorders clinic as an anorexic-specific drug that might be a little more acceptable to patients."
The study offers support for the clinical use of olanzapine, for which clinical trials are already under way to test in patients. Le Grange said the development of a pharmacological variant that more selectively treats anorexia nervosa could be a helpful way to avoid the "stigma" of taking an antipsychotic while giving clinicians an additional tool for helping patients.
"I think the clinical field is certainly very ready for something that is going to make a difference," Le Grange said. "I'm not saying there's a 'magic pill' for anorexia nervosa, but we have been lacking any pharmacological agent that clearly contributes to the recovery of our patients. Many parents and many clinicians are looking for that, because it would make our job so much easier if there was something that could turn symptoms around and speed up recovery."
Additionally, the study demonstrated the innovative experimental design and translational results that can come from a collaboration of laboratory and clinical experts.
"We don't talk to one another often enough in basic science and clinical science," Le Grange said. "More of that would be helpful for clinicians to understand the neurobiology of this disease. I'm very excited about the way this project is going, and I think it's going to be clinically very informative."
###
The paper, "Olanzapine, but not fluoxetine, treatment increases survival in activity-based anorexia in mice," was published online March 7 by Neuropsychopharmacology (doi: 10.1038/npp.2012.7). In addition to Klenotich, Dulawa and Le Grange, authors include Mariel Seiglie and Priya Dugad of the University of Chicago and Matthew S. McMurray and Jamie Roitman of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Funding for the research was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health.
For more news from the University of Chicago Medical Center, follow us on Twitter at @UChicagoMed, or visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/UChicagoMed, our research blog at sciencelife.uchospitals.edu, or our newsroom at uchospitals.edu/news.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 4-Apr-2012 Share ] Contact: Robert Mitchum
robert.mitchum@uchospitals.edu
773-795-5227
University of Chicago Medical Center
Low doses of a commonly used atypical antipsychotic drug improved survival in a mouse model of anorexia nervosa, University of Chicago researchers report this month. The result offers promise for a common and occasionally fatal eating disorder that currently lacks approved drugs for treatment.
Mice treated with small doses of the drug olanzapine were more likely to maintain their weight when given an exercise wheel and restricted food access, conditions that produce activity-based anorexia (ABA) in animals. The antidepressant fluoxetine, commonly prescribed off-label for anorexic patients, did not improve survival in the experiment.
"We found over and over again that olanzapine was effective in harsher conditions, less harsh conditions, adolescents, adults it consistently worked," said the paper's first author Stephanie Klenotich, graduate student in the Committee on Neurobiology at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences.
The study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, was the product of a rare collaboration between laboratory scientists and clinicians seeking new treatment options for anorexia nervosa. As many as one percent of American women will suffer from anorexia nervosa during their lifetime, but only one-third of those people will receive treatment.
Patients with anorexia are often prescribed off-label use of drugs designed for other psychiatric conditions, but few studies have tested the drugs' effectiveness in animal models.
"Anorexia nervosa is the most deadly psychiatric disorder, and yet no approved pharmacological treatments exist," said Stephanie Dulawa, PhD, assistant professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medicine and senior author of the study. "One wonders why there isn't more basic science work being done to better understand the mechanisms and to identify novel pharmacological treatments."
One challenge is finding a medication that patients with anorexia nervosa will agree to take regularly, said co-author Daniel Le Grange, PhD, professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience and director of the Eating Disorders Clinic at the University of Chicago Medicine. Drugs that directly cause weight gain or carry strong sedative side effects are often rejected by patients.
"Patients are almost uniformly very skeptical and very reluctant to take any medication that could lower their resolve to refrain from eating," Le Grange said. "There are long-standing resistances, and I think researchers and clinicians have been very reluctant to embark on that course, since it's just littered with obstacles."
Both fluoxetine and olanzapine have been tried clinically to supplement interventions such as family-based treatment and cognitive-behavioral therapy. But their direct effect on anorexia nervosa behavior in humans or animals is lacking in sufficient data.
To test the effectiveness of these drugs in laboratory mice, Klenotich adapted the ABA protocol from previously published rat studies: Mice given 24-hour access to a running wheel but only six hours a day of food access become hyperactive, eat less and rapidly lose weight, with a 25 percent reduction from baseline considered to be the "drop-out" survival point.
In Klenotich's study, mice were pretreated with fluoxetine, olanzapine or saline before starting the ABA protocol, and treatment continued throughout the ABA period. Researchers then measured how many mice in each group reached the drop-out point for weight loss over 14 days of food restriction and exercise wheel access. Treatment with the antipsychotic olanzapine significantly increased survival over the control group, while fluoxetine treatment produced no significant effects on survival.
Importantly, a low dose of olanzapine did not decrease overall running activity in the mice, indicating that sedative effects of the drug were minimal. In future experiments, the researchers hope to use different drugs and genetic methods to determine exactly how olanzapine is effective against symptoms of anorexia nervosa, perhaps pointing toward a better drug without the negative image or side effects of an antipsychotic.
"We can dissect the effect of olanzapine and hopefully identify the mechanisms of action, and identify what receptor systems we want to target," Klenotich said. "Hopefully, we can develop a newer drug that we can aim towards the eating disorders clinic as an anorexic-specific drug that might be a little more acceptable to patients."
The study offers support for the clinical use of olanzapine, for which clinical trials are already under way to test in patients. Le Grange said the development of a pharmacological variant that more selectively treats anorexia nervosa could be a helpful way to avoid the "stigma" of taking an antipsychotic while giving clinicians an additional tool for helping patients.
"I think the clinical field is certainly very ready for something that is going to make a difference," Le Grange said. "I'm not saying there's a 'magic pill' for anorexia nervosa, but we have been lacking any pharmacological agent that clearly contributes to the recovery of our patients. Many parents and many clinicians are looking for that, because it would make our job so much easier if there was something that could turn symptoms around and speed up recovery."
Additionally, the study demonstrated the innovative experimental design and translational results that can come from a collaboration of laboratory and clinical experts.
"We don't talk to one another often enough in basic science and clinical science," Le Grange said. "More of that would be helpful for clinicians to understand the neurobiology of this disease. I'm very excited about the way this project is going, and I think it's going to be clinically very informative."
###
The paper, "Olanzapine, but not fluoxetine, treatment increases survival in activity-based anorexia in mice," was published online March 7 by Neuropsychopharmacology (doi: 10.1038/npp.2012.7). In addition to Klenotich, Dulawa and Le Grange, authors include Mariel Seiglie and Priya Dugad of the University of Chicago and Matthew S. McMurray and Jamie Roitman of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Funding for the research was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health.
For more news from the University of Chicago Medical Center, follow us on Twitter at @UChicagoMed, or visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/UChicagoMed, our research blog at sciencelife.uchospitals.edu, or our newsroom at uchospitals.edu/news.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2011 file photo, former Vice President Dick Cheney is seen in Washington. Cheney has been released from a Northern Virginia hospital after having a heart transplant. The former vice president?s office said in a statement that the 71-year-old Cheney was released Tuesday from Inova Fairfax Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute 10 days after receiving a new heart from an unknown donor. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2011 file photo, former Vice President Dick Cheney is seen in Washington. Cheney has been released from a Northern Virginia hospital after having a heart transplant. The former vice president?s office said in a statement that the 71-year-old Cheney was released Tuesday from Inova Fairfax Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute 10 days after receiving a new heart from an unknown donor. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Former Vice President Dick Cheney was released from the hospital Tuesday, 10 days after getting a new heart, his office said.
Cheney, 71, received the organ from an unknown donor on March 24 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va.
"As he leaves the hospital, the former vice president and his family want to again express their deep gratitude to the donor and the donor's family for this remarkable gift," aide Kara Ahern said in a statement.
Cheney waited nearly two years for the transplant. His lifelong history of heart disease includes five heart attacks, with the first one striking him at age 37 and the most recent one in 2010.
That year, Cheney also had surgery to implant a small pump to help keep his weakened and diseased heart beating. The "left ventricular assist device," or LVAD, helps a person live a fairly normal life while awaiting a heart transplant, although some people receive it as permanent therapy. It was one the few steps left, short of a transplant, to keep Cheney alive in the face of what he had acknowledged was "increasing congestive heart failure."
In January 2011, Cheney said he was getting by on the battery-powered device and hadn't made a decision on a transplant. But he said he'd "have to make a decision at some point whether I want to go for a transplant."
More than 3,100 people are on a national waiting list to receive a new heart. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Some 330 people died while waiting.
According to UNOS, 332 people over age 65 received a new heart last year. The majority of transplants occur in 50- to 64-year-olds. Cheney's surgery led some to question whether he was too old to be given a new heart.
The odds of survival are good. More than 70 percent of heart transplant patients live at least five years, although survival is a bit lower for people over 65.
Cheney was President George W. Bush's vice president for eight years, beginning in 2001, and was a lightning rod for criticism. Opponents said he often advocated a belligerent U.S. stance in world affairs during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Associated Presspeyton manning 49ers andy pettitte tyler clementi kevin kolb sarah shahi george clooney rutgers
THE battle to save the fulfilment industry?s VAT relief is over.
Ministers in Jersey and Guernsey yesterday announced they will not appeal against the High Court?s ruling that the UK government was within its rights to shut down the Channel Islands? access to Low Value Consignment Relief.
The so-called tax loophole has enabled the online mail order industry to flourish in the islands by allowing firms to sell low-value goods to the UK VAT free.
? See Tuesday?s JEP for full report
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[ [ [['beyond the incredible personal tragedy', 3]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/stand-ground-laws-not-just-gop-policy-records-053103956.html', '[Related: \?Stand your ground\? laws not just GOP policy\, records show]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['I went out on to my porch and heard a bang', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dozens-killed-in-russian-plane-crash-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/87/b870130db8e1341aaa3e3f4a2aefcfcd.jpeg', '500', ' ', '(AP Photo/Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations press service)', ], [ [['Afghan security forces and police killed three', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/H9BcJE', '[Related: Bales\' wife on his alleged shooting: \'He would not do that\']', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['looking for fireworks between the opposing camps', 16]], 'http://yhoo.it/GSvEsj', '[RELATED:\?It?s going to be a circus\?: Activists begin protests outside Supreme Court]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 8]], 'http://yhoo.it/GE6jSh', '[RELATED: Obama\?s health care law passed 2 years ago, but where are we now\?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Witnesses said the gunman pulled up on a black scooter', 7]], 'http://yhoo.it/GzwOIW', '[Related: New York police tighten security at Jewish sites]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['test Zimmerman for alcohol or drugs', 11]], 'http://yhoo.it/Gzn6VF', '[Related: White House says Trayvon Martin is local issue]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Oikos University', 8]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/deadly-oakland-university-shooting-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120402/shooting.jpg', '450', ' ', 'REUTERS/Reuters TV/KNTV/Handout', ], [ [['Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood', 7]], 'http://yhoo.it/GUovUP', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/2/61/261d2c36bccf0971c2734a4d4398aa5a.jpeg', '512', ' ', 'AP/David Goldman', ], [ [['Can you create commerce in order to regulate it', 9]], 'http://yhoo.it/GSgtu8', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/7/78/778e2416573870cd705774e92403447d.jpeg', '630', ' ', 'AP/Charles Dharapak', ], [ [['associated with such a small earthquake', 4]], 'http://yhoo.it/GTco9z', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/0/b4/0b493c1a47b6e3f97f8f48a2b251d7d4.jpeg', '630', ' ', 'AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger', ], [ [['Fox News host Geraldo Rivera sparked outrage', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GKMVTk', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/2/7c/27c7367bc512d233ae1790b320a5e92c.jpeg', '630', ' ', 'AP Photo/John Minchillo', ], [ [['The charges signed against Bales include', 1]], 'http://yhoo.it/wZT5zV', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/7/a0/7a07c51b2aa0f39b1a23355046d13870.jpeg', '512', ' ', 'AP Photo/DVIDS\, Spc\. Ryan Hallock\, File', ], [ [['George Zimmerman, if I had a son', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/thousands-protest-fla-teen-death-1332387124-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/03/22/d761a49f3fcc99080a0f6a70670053cd-jpg_150905.jpg', '500', ' ', 'AP Photo/John Minchillo', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
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 |  |
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We?ll discuss the proposed repeal of Michigan?s motorcycle helmet law, police unions giving payouts for officers involved in shootings, the story of Esther Bejarano a holocaust survivor who now makes hip hop music, we?ll also talk about Anonymous? threats to ?take down the internet?, the boycott Modern Warfare 3 day and Xfinity launches on the Xbox 360. Oh and we check out the bill for the Soundset 2012 fest.
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Although buying ? home ?s never ? simple process, ?t does n?t h?v? t? b? ? particularly difficult ?n? either.
As l?ng ?s y?u d? your research ?nd g?t th? proper h?lp wh?n ?t ?s needed, y?u should b? able t? find th? house ?f your dreams ?n ? decent amount ?f t?m?.
TIP! Choose two easy-to-remember d?ys ?f th? y??r t? check ?nd replace, ?f necessary, th? batteries ?n your carbon monoxide ?nd smoke detectors. New Year?s Day ?nd th? Fourth ?f July ?r? ideal t?m?s t? perform th?s task.
Wh?n y?u buy ? home ?nd flip y?u c?uld end up making ? nice profit. S?m? people buy run d?wn homes ?nd fix th?m up t? sell f?r ? higher price. However y?u must understand th?t th?s c?n t?k? t?m?, money ?nd effort t? d?. M?k? sure th?t y?u h?v? th? skills and/or th? money t? g?t ? place fixed up correctly t? code.
TIP! Install ? lazy Susan ?n th?s? odd corner cabinets. It c?n b? difficult t? properly use th? storage space th?y provide, ?f y?u h?v? t? g?t d?wn ?n your hands ?nd knees t? search f?r th? items ?n th? back corners.
D? n?t buy ?ny property w?th?ut having ?t inspected first. Y?u d? n?t want t? need t? t?k? th? seller t? court ?ft?r th? sale b?c?us? y?u found ?ut too late th? seller was able t? hide flaws due t? n? inspection. An inspection c?n ?ls? h?lp y?u learn ?b?ut honest omissions ?b?ut th? property?s condition th?t m?y h?lp y?u negotiate ? better price, too.
TIP! In home improvements th? kitchen usually m?k?s up th? foundation ?f th? home. Putting ?n n?w wooden cabinets along w?th shiny n?w faucets ?nd ? marble countertop, c?n immediately add brightness t? ? room ?nd m?k? ?t such ? much m?r? enjoyable space.
F?r homes th?t h?v? larger backyards, y?u m?y want t? consider getting ? house ?n th? corner yard. N?t ?nly w?ll y?u g?t m?r? space ?n your back ?nd front yards, but chances ?r? y?u w?ll n?t b? ?s close t? your neighbors. However, ?f y?u h?v? small children, m?k? sure your yard h?s ? fence.
TIP! If your home was built ?n th? seventies ?r earlier, chances ?r? good th?t ?t was built w?th ?nly ? v?ry thin layer ?f insulation throughout th? entire structure. Ideally, th? layer should b? approximately 27 centimeters ?r 10.
H?w many homes should y?u h?v? t? look ?t? Generally th? number ?s und?r ?r around ten. Any m?r? th?n th?t, ?nd ?t c?n become n??r impossible t? m?k? ? decision. B? realistic; d? n?t expect t? s?? ?v?r twenty homes. It m?y b? physically possible, but y?u m?st likely w?ll n?t remember specific details ?b?ut th?m.
TIP! Is your flooring looking ? bit old? If y?u ?r? ambitious, y?u c?n pull up your floor ?nd lay d?wn sticky wood flooring. Wh?l? many m?y th?nk th?s flooring ?s cheap, ?t ?s actually v?ry nice.
If you?re n?t finding an ideal home ?n your price range within desirable neighborhoods, considering fixer-uppers w?ll open options f?r y?u. Th? neighborhood ?s such an important factor ?n being happy ?n your home, y?u m?y want t? lower th? standards ?f th? house ?n?ugh t? m?k? ?t affordable t? stay ?n th? better neighborhood. Fixing up ? house ?s ? great w?y t? m?k? ?t truly your home!
TIP! B? flexible w?th your t?m?. Wh?l? y?u m?y expect ? project t? b? done ?n ? f?w weeks, y?u m?y need t? plan ?n advance f?r ?t t? t?k? ? b?t longer.
D? n?t purchase ? home by th? airport ?f y?u ?r? ? person wh? does n?t like ? lot ?f noise. Many airplanes h?v? planes arriving ?nd departing ?t ?ll hours ?f th? d?y ?f th? night, wh?ch c?n disturb your daily activities ?nd sleep. If y?u d? g?t ? home n??r an airport, buying ear plugs f?r sleeping ?s ? good idea.
TIP! Replacing th? light switch covers ?n y?ur home ?s an easy ?nd quick w?y t? brighten up ? room. F?r ?b?ut $20, y?u c?n replace ?ll ?f th? switch covers ?n an average-sized home w?th nice clean white ones.
B? careful t? avoid relying ?n verbal agreements wh?n y?u ?r? buying ? home. As ? general rule, y?u want t? stay away fr?m th?s? types ?f deals b?c?us? th?y ?r? unreliable. However, ?f y?u d? m?k? ? verbal arrangement w?th someone, put your agreement into writing ?s soon ?s possible ?nd h?v? ?ll interested parties sign th? document.
TIP! If your kitchen ?s looking old ?nd worn d?wn, y?u should try putting ? n?w sink ?n. A n?w sink w?ll m?k? your hom? look instantly better.
D? n?t l?t your emotions overrule th?ngs ?t th? negotiation table wh?n making an offer ?n ? home. Prepare yourself t? m?k? compromises th?t m?y n?t m?k? y?u happy but w?ll m?k? th? seller m?r? willing t? find ? w?y t? meet y?u ?t an agreement th?t y?u ?r? both content w?th.
TIP! B?f?r? investing ?n n?w hardwood floors, check w?th ? professional ?b?ut looking ?t th? current floors ?n y?ur home. Sometimes y?u m?y h?v? beautiful, natural hardwood hiding underneath layers ?f carpet ?r linoleum th?t ?s just waiting t? b? refinished.
Y?u should factor ?n living costs b?f?r? y?u m?k? th? decision t? purchase ? home. F?r example, ? home ?n upstate New York w?ll require m?r? ?n heating costs th?n ? home ?n Arizona. Alternatively, water w?ll cost m?r? ?n Arizona th?n ?n Mississippi. Decide what?s m?st important t? y?u, ?nd factor ?t ?n.
W?th th? real estate market being ?s cutthroat ?s ?t ?s sometimes y?u need t? m?k? sure th?t y?u follow ? f?w simple steps th?t w?ll h?lp t? m?k? th? entire transaction ? lot easier. Either w?y y?u w?ll h?v? ? property t? call your own wh?n everything ?s complete.
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Real Estate in Seattle WA News is updated every week with a variety of information that you can use in and around your home. In the Real Estate in Seattle WA News, we share home decorating and home improvement ideas, as well as information on senior living, green living and much more.
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FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2008 photo, A Texas state trooper makes photographs at a bus accident scene on U.S. 75 North bound that killed several people in Sherman, Texas. Months after their state-certified vehicle inspection station was cited by federal authorities for failing to notice defects in a bus that crashed in North Texas, killing 17 passengers, brothers Alam and Cesar Hernandez shuttered their firm. But that didn?t mean they were out of the vehicle inspection business. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2008 photo, A Texas state trooper makes photographs at a bus accident scene on U.S. 75 North bound that killed several people in Sherman, Texas. Months after their state-certified vehicle inspection station was cited by federal authorities for failing to notice defects in a bus that crashed in North Texas, killing 17 passengers, brothers Alam and Cesar Hernandez shuttered their firm. But that didn?t mean they were out of the vehicle inspection business. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2008 photo, an emergency worker wrestles with the steering wheel on a wrecked bus that several people died on in an early morning accident on U.S. 75 North bound in Sherman, Texas. Months after their state-certified vehicle inspection station was cited by federal authorities for failing to notice defects in a bus that crashed in North Texas, killing 17 passengers, brothers Alam and Cesar Hernandez shuttered their firm. But that didn?t mean they were out of the vehicle inspection business. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
In this Feb. 13, 2012 photo, Yen-Chi Le sits in her Houston office talking about the loss of her mother, pictured on the wall. Le's mother died in a bus crash in North Texas that killed 16 others. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
HOUSTON (AP) ? Months after their state-certified vehicle inspection station was cited by federal authorities for failing to notice defects in a bus that crashed in North Texas, killing 17 passengers, brothers Alam and Cesar Hernandez shuttered their firm. But that didn't mean they were out of the vehicle inspection business.
Instead, they opened another station in the same Houston neighborhood and continued to inspect buses like the one involved in the accident. And they did it with the approval of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The Hernandez brothers' story underlines a phenomenon that highway safety advocates say has long existed with deadly consequences ? the lack of oversight for the businesses that perform state inspections of buses and other large commercial vehicles.
Records examined by The Associated Press show that three of the deadliest bus crashes in recent years raised questions about the commercial vehicle inspection programs in Texas, Illinois and Mississippi and prompted calls from the National Transportation Safety Board for better oversight. Forty people died in those wrecks, yet the agency to which the recommendations were directed, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, has refused to act.
Anne Ferro, the FMCSA's administrator, declined through a spokeswoman to comment. The agency has previously termed additional scrutiny of state programs unnecessary.
The inaction has rankled safety advocates, who believe government regulators aren't attentive to the needs of bus travelers.
"If you can't afford to take a plane and have to take a bus, you are going to be subject to second-class safety standards, both in terms of equipment and oversight by the federal government," said Jacqueline Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
Federal regulations require that commercial vehicles be inspected annually. Those inspections can be conducted by state personnel, private garages or even the companies operating the vehicles. Passing a roadside inspection also can meet the requirement as long as it occurs within the previous year.
More than half the states have no prescribed inspection requirements, leaving it open to the motor carriers themselves. And even those with approved private garages are not required to subject those companies to oversight or quality assurance.
Safety legislation approved in the Senate on March 14 as part of the highway funding bill would force the federal government to evaluate state inspection programs, but the legislation has stalled in the House.
Former FMCSA head John Hill said the agency doesn't have the resources to monitor state commercial vehicle inspections. States typically employ people to do that, he said.
"If the person chairing the NTSB were the head of the FMCSA, I guarantee he or she would talk differently," said Hill, now a trucking industry consultant.
Documents recently obtained by the AP shed new light on the crash in the North Texas city of Sherman, one of the worst in U.S. history.
NTSB investigators determined that a blown tire caused the bus carrying members of Houston's Vietnamese Catholic community to a retreat in Missouri in August 2008 to careen off the highway. But they also found evidence calling into question the inspection conducted by the Hernandez brothers' business, 5 Minute Inspections, eight days earlier.
The NTSB report cited evidence indicating the bus had passed inspection despite defects that included a retread tire illegally affixed to the front axle and grease contamination in one of the brakes.
The NTSB investigation followed concerns expressed by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, who requested an audit of both 5 Minute Inspections and the inspector, Cesar Hernandez.
"In light of all the circumstances, I seriously feel this 'inspection' was 'pencil-whipped,'" the trooper wrote in a memo after the accident.
Despite those issues, the DPS granted the Hernandez brothers approval for their new business in May 2010, and it remains in good standing, records show.
Yen-Chi Le, a Houston medical researcher whose mother died in the crash, expressed outrage when she learned that the brothers were still able to inspect buses.
"We thought there was no way they'd stay in business," she said. "This makes my stomach turn."
A DPS spokesman said the agency didn't find the issues raised by the NTSB or the trooper "sufficient to justify action" against the station. However, further inquiries have led the department to seek Cesar Hernandez's suspension for bogus inspections of passenger vehicles, the spokesman said.
The DPS employs more than 200 officers and auditors to support its vehicle inspection program, and it improved its investigative process under a reorganization plan instituted two years ago, the spokesman said.
Messages left for the brothers were not returned. An attorney for Cesar Hernandez said his client did not want to discuss the matter.
Another accident points to similar problems with a bus that passed inspection in Illinois.
The NTSB's investigation of the 2004 crash in Arkansas determined an inspection conducted by a state-approved garage in Chicago two months earlier failed to notice cracks in the rail supporting the engine. The defect wasn't the cause of the wreck, which killed 15 members of a tour group, but it should have kept the bus off the road, according to the NTSB.
The garage was conducting inspections at the time even though three months earlier it had pleaded guilty to failing to notice a hole in a school bus' muffler, according to Illinois Department of Transportation records.
An IDOT spokesman said the garage wasn't under any restrictions when it inspected the bus because the school bus case had yet to be heard by a judge. The firm later received a one-month suspension because of the school bus infraction, and it then stopped inspecting vehicles altogether, the spokesman said.
Questions about the effectiveness of allowing motor carriers to inspect their own vehicles emerged after a church bus from Texas crashed in Louisiana in 2003, killing eight passengers.
The bus hit a tractor trailer from Mississippi that was parked on the shoulder because its brakes were smoking. The NTSB blamed the crash on the bus driver, but it also found that the tractor trailer was being operated in a "serious state of disrepair" despite passing an inspection conducted by the president of the company six months earlier.
Mississippi Lt. Donald McCain said his state believes roadside inspections conducted by law enforcement are adequate for making sure commercial vehicles are being properly maintained.
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| Coordinates | 28?36?50?N77?12?32?N |
|---|---|
| Name | Beijing |
| Official name | Municipality of Beijing ? |
| Native name | |
| Settlement type | Municipality |
| Total type | Municipality |
| Map caption | Location of Beijing Municipality within China |
| Coordinates display | inline,title |
| Coordinates region | CN-11 |
| Subdivision type | Country |
| Subdivision name | People's Republic of China |
| Parts type | Divisions?- County-level?- Township-level |
| Parts | 16 districts, 2 counties289 towns and villages |
| Government type | Municipality |
| Leader title | CPC Ctte Secretary |
| Leader name | Liu Qi |
| Leader title1 | Mayor |
| Leader name1 | Guo Jinlong |
| Area total km2 | 16801.25 |
| Elevation m | 43.5 |
| Population total | 19612368 |
| Population as of | 2010 |
| Population density km2 | auto |
| Population blank1 title | Ranks in China |
| Population blank1 | Population: 26th; Density: 4th |
| Population demonym | Beijinger |
| Demographics type1 | Major ethnic groups |
| Demographics1 title1 | Han |
| Demographics1 info1 | 96% |
| Demographics1 title2 | Manchu |
| Demographics1 info2 | 2% |
| Demographics1 title3 | Hui |
| Demographics1 info3 | 2% |
| Demographics1 title4 | Mongol |
| Demographics1 info4 | 0.3% |
| Timezone | China standard time |
| Utc offset | +8 |
| Postal code type | Postal code |
| Postal code | 100000 ? 102629 |
| Area code | 10 |
| Blank name sec1 | GDP |
| Blank info sec1 | 2010 |
| Blank1 name sec1 | ?- Total |
| Blank1 info sec1 | CNY 1,377.79?billion US$ 209.3?billion (13th) |
| Blank2 name sec1 | ?- Per capita |
| Blank2 info sec1 | CNY 70,251 US$ 10,672 (3rd) |
| Blank3 name sec1 | ?- Growth |
| Blank3 info sec1 | 10.2% |
| Blank4 name sec1 | HDI (2008) |
| Blank4 info sec1 | 0.891 (2nd) ? high |
| Blank5 name sec1 | License plate prefixes |
| Blank5 info sec1 | ?A, C, E, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, P ?B (taxis)?G, Y (outside urban area)?O (police and authorities)?V (in red color) (military headquarters,central government) |
| Blank name sec2 | City trees |
| Blank info sec2 | Chinese arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) |
| Blank1 name sec2 | ? |
| Blank1 info sec2 | Pagoda tree (Sophora japonica) |
| Blank2 name sec2 | City flowers |
| Blank2 info sec2 | China rose (Rosa chinensis) |
| Blank3 name sec2 | ? |
| Blank3 info sec2 | Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) |
| Website | www.beijing.gov.cn |
| Footnotes | }} |
Beijing (, , ), also known as Peking ( or ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, educational and military center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's largest state-owned companies. The metropolis, located in northern China, borders Hebei Province to the north, west, south, and a small section to the east, and Tianjin Municipality to the southeast.
Governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the national government, Beijing is divided into 14 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties. It is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and motorways passing through the city, and the destination of many international flights to China.
Few cities in the world have served as long as the political and cultural centre of an area as immense. Beijing is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. It has been the heart of China?s history for centuries, and there is scarcely a major building of any age in Beijing that does not have at least some national historical significance. The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, and huge stone walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have long made it a centre of culture and art in China.
Peking is the name of the city according to Chinese Postal Map Romanisation, and the traditional customary name for Beijing in English. It, together with its variants, is still used in many languages. The name originated with French missionaries four hundred years ago and corresponds to an older pronunciation predating a sound change in Mandarin from to . ( is represented in pinyin as j, as in Beijing. The latter is best approximated in English as "bay-DJING", rather than the hyperforeign pronunciation "bay-ZHING".) The pronunciation "Peking" is also closer to the Fujianese dialect of Amoy or Min Nan spoken in the city of Xiamen, a port where European traders first landed in the 16th century, while "Beijing" more closely approximates the Mandarin pronunciation of the city's name.
The city has been renamed several times. During the Jin Dynasty, it was known as Zhongdu (), then later, under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, as Dadu () to the Chinese and Daidu to Mongols (also recorded as Cambuluc by Marco Polo). Twice in the city's history, the name was changed from Beijing (Peking) to Beiping (Peiping) (; Pinyin: B?ip?ng; Wade-Giles: Pei-p'ing), literally "northern peace", first under the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and again in 1928 by the Kuomintang (KMT) government of the Republic of China. On each occasion, the character meaning "capital" (?) was deleted to reflect the fact the national capital had moved to Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province. Each renaming was reverted, the first under the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who moved the capital from Nanjing back to Beijing, and again in 1949, when the Communist Party of China restored Beijing as its capital after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The abbreviation of the municipality is its second character (?) and is used on licence plates, among other things.
Yanjing (; Pinyin: Y?nj?ng; Wade-Giles: Yen-ching) is and has been another popular informal name for Beijing, a reference to the ancient State of Yan that existed here during the Zhou Dynasty. This name is reflected in the locally brewed Yanjing Beer as well as Yenching University, an institution of higher learning that was merged into Peking University.
The earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic homo sapiens also lived there more recently, about 27,000 years ago. There were cities in the vicinity of the site of present-day Beijing by the 1st millennium BC, and Ji (?/?), the capital of the state of Yan, one of the powers of the Warring States Period (473?221 BC), was established there.
After the fall of the Yan, the following Qin, Han, and Jin dynasties set up local prefectures in the area. During the fall of the Han, it was the seat of the warlord Gongsun Zan. During the Tang Dynasty, it became the headquarters for Fanyang jiedushi, the virtual military governor of what is now the northern Hebei region. The An Shi Rebellion began here in AD 755.
In 936, the Later Jin Dynasty (936?947) of northern China ceded a large part of its northern frontier, including the site of modern Beijing, to the Khitan Liao Dynasty. In 938, the Liao Dynasty set up a secondary capital on modern Beijing's location, and called it Nanjing (the "southern capital"). In 1125, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty conquered Liao, and moved its capital to Liao's Nanjing in 1153, calling it Zhongdu (??), the "central capital". Zhongdu was situated in what is now the area centered around Tianningsi, slightly to the southwest of central Beijing. Some of the oldest surviving relics in Beijing, such as the Tianning Temple, date to the Liao period.
Mongol forces burned Zhongdu to the ground in 1215 in what is now known as the Battle of Beijing. In 1264, in preparation for the conquest of all of China to establish the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan decided to rebuild it slightly north to the center of the Jin capital, and in 1272, he made this city his capital, renamed Dadu (??, Chinese for "great capital"), or Daidu to the Mongols, spelled Cambaluc or Cambuluc in Marco Polo's accounts. Construction of Dadu was completed in 1293. Kublai Khan's decision greatly enhanced the status of a city on the northern fringe of China proper. Dadu was centered slightly north of modern central Beijing, on what is now the northern stretch of the 2nd Ring Road, and stretched northwards to between the 3rd and 4th Ring Roads. Remnants of the Yuan-era wall still stand, and are known as the Tucheng (??, literally the "earth wall").
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang, soon after declaring himself the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, sent an army toward Dadu, still held by the Yuan. The last Yuan emperor fled north to Shangdu, and Zhu razed the Yuan palaces in Dadu to the ground. The city was renamed Beiping (??) in the same year, and Shuntian (??) prefecture was established in the area around the city. In 1403, the new (and third) Ming emperor ? the Yongle Emperor ? renamed this city Beijing, and designated it the co-capital, alongside the (then) current capital of Nanjing. Beijing was the site of a major construction project for a new Imperial residence, the Forbidden City that lasted nearly 15 years, from 1406 to 1420. When the palace was finished, the Yongle Emperor ceremoniously took up residence. From 1421 onwards, Beijing, also known as Jingshi (??), was the "official" capital of the Ming Dynasty, while Nanjing was demoted to the status of "secondary" capital. This system of dual capitals (with Beijing being vastly more important) continued for the duration of the Ming Dynasty. Thirteen of the sixteen Ming Emperors are buried in elaborate tombs near Beijing.
By the 15th century, Beijing had essentially taken its current shape. The Ming-era city wall served as the Beijing city wall until modern times, when it was pulled down and the 2nd Ring Road was built in its place. It is believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world from 1425 to 1650 and from 1710 to 1825. Another notable building constructed during the Ming period was the Temple of Heaven (built by 1420). Tiananmen, now a state symbol of the People's Republic of China and featured on its emblem, was first built in 1420, and rebuilt several times later. Tiananmen Square was built in 1651 and enlarged in 1958. Jesuits finished building the first Beijing-area Roman Catholic church in 1652 at the Xuanwu Gate, where Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552?1610) had lived; the modern Nantang (??, Southern Cathedral) has been built over the original cathedral.
The end of the Ming came in 1644, when Li Zicheng's peasant army captured and held Beijing for 40 days, and overthrew the government. When the powerful Manchu army arrived at the outskirts, Li and his followers abandoned the city, allowing the Manchus, under Prince Dorgon, to capture Beijing without a fight.
When Dorgon established the Qing Dynasty as the direct successor of the Ming, Beijing remained China's capital. The Qing emperors made some modifications to the Imperial residence, but in large part, the Ming buildings and the general layout remained unchanged. Beijing at this time was also known as Jingshi. The classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber is set in Beijing during the early years of Qing rule at the end of the 17th century.
During the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces captured the city, and looted and burned the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace in 1860. Under the Convention of Peking that ended the war, Western powers secured the right to establish permanent diplomatic presences in the Beijing Legation Quarter. In 1900, Beijing was again invaded by foreign powers, this time to quell the Boxer Rebellion. Some important Imperial structures in the city were destroyed during the fighting, including the Hanlin Academy and the Summer Palace.
China then fell under the control of regional warlords. The most powerful factions fought frequent wars (the Zhili-Anhui War, the First Zhili-Fengtian War, and the Second Zhili-Fengtian War) to take control of the capital. Following the success of the Kuomintang (KMT)'s Northern Expedition, which pacified the warlords of the north, Nanjing was officially made the capital of the Republic of China in 1928, and on 28 June of that year, Beijing was renamed Beiping (Peip'ing) (??), meaning "northern peace" or "north pacified".
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Beiping fell to Japan on 29 July 1937, and was made the seat of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state that ruled the ethnic Chinese portions of Japanese-occupied northern China; the government was later merged into the larger Wang Jingwei government based in Nanjing.
On 31 January 1949, during the Chinese Civil War, Communist forces entered Beijing without opposition. On 1 October of the same year, the Communist Party of China, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, announced in Tiananmen the creation of the People's Republic of China and renamed the city back to Beijing. Just a few days earlier, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference had decided that Beijing would be the capital of the new government.
At the time of the founding of the People's Republic, Beijing Municipality consisted of just its urban area and its immediate suburbs. The urban area was divided into many small districts inside what is now the 2nd Ring Road. The Beijing city wall was torn down to make way for the construction of the 2nd Ring Road, which was finished by 1981 in accordance with the 1982 city plan. That road was the first of a series of new ring roads intended for motor vehicles rather than bicycles.
Following the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping, the urban area of Beijing has expanded greatly. Formerly within the confines of the 2nd and 3rd Ring Roads, the urban area of Beijing is now pushing at the limits of the recently constructed 5th and 6th Ring Roads, with many areas that were formerly farmland now developed residential or commercial districts. According to a 2005 newspaper report, the size of the newly developed Beijing was one and a half times larger than that of old Beijing within the 2nd Ring Road. Wangfujing and Xidan have developed into flourishing shopping districts, while Zhongguancun has become a major centre of electronics in China. In recent years, the expansion of Beijing has also brought to the forefront some problems of urbanization, such as heavy traffic, poor air quality, the loss of historic neighbourhoods, and a significant influx of migrants from various regions of the country, especially rural areas.
On 13 July 2001, the International Olympic Committee selected Beijing as the host for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Beijing is situated at the northern tip of the roughly triangular North China Plain, which opens to the south and east of the city. Mountains to the north, northwest and west shield the city and northern China's agricultural heartland from the encroaching desert steppes. The northwestern part of the municipality, especially Yanqing County and Huairou District, are dominated by the Jundu Mountains, while the western part is framed by the Xishan Mountains. The Great Wall of China, which stretches across the northern part of Beijing Municipality, made use of this rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes. Mount Dongling in the Xishan ranges and on the border with Hebei is the municipality's highest point, with an altitude of 2303?m.
Major rivers flowing through the municipality include the Yongding River and the Chaobai River, part of the Hai River system, and flow in a southerly direction. Beijing is also the northern terminus of the Grand Canal of China, which was built across the North China Plain to Hangzhou. Miyun Reservoir, built on the upper reaches of the Chaobai River, is Beijing's largest reservoir, and crucial to its water supply. The urban area of Beijing is in the south-central part of the municipality and occupies a small but expanding portion of the municipality's area. It spreads out in bands of concentric ring roads, of which the fifth and outermost, the Sixth Ring Road (the numbering starts at two), passes through several satellite towns. Tian'anmen (the Gate of Heavenly Peace) and Tian'anmen Square are at the centre of Beijing, directly to the south of the Forbidden City, the former residence of the emperors of China. To the west of Tian'anmen is Zhongnanhai, home to the paramount leaders of the People's Republic of China. Running through central Beijing from east to west is Chang'an Avenue, one of the city's main thoroughfares.
In preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics and to fulfill promises to clean up the city's air, nearly US$17?billion was spent. Beijing also implemented a number of air improvement schemes for the duration of the Games, including stopping work on all construction sites, closing many factories in and around Beijing, closing some gas stations, and cutting motor traffic by half by limiting drivers to odd or even days (based on their license plate numbers) Two new subway lines were opened and thousands of old taxis and buses were replaced to encourage residents to use public transport. The Beijing government encouraged a discussion to keep the odd-even scheme in place after the Olympics, and although the scheme was eventually lifted on 21 September 2008, it was replaced by new restrictions on government vehicles and a new restriction that does not allow the use of a car once a week. In addition, staggered office hours and retail opening times have been encouraged to avoid the rush hour, and parking fees were increased.
Beijing became the first city in China to require the Chinese equivalent to the Euro 4 emission standard. Some 357,000 "yellow label" vehicles ? those that have too high emission levels ? have been banned from Beijing altogether.
The government regularly uses cloud-seeding measures to increase the likelihood of rain showers in the region to clear the air prior to large events as well as to combat drought conditions in the area.
According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), China has spent $17?billion over the last three years on a large-scale green drive. Beijing has added 3,800 natural gas buses, one of the largest fleets in the world. Twenty percent of the Olympic venues' electricity comes from renewable energy sources. The city has also planted hundreds of thousands of trees and increased green space in an effort to make the city more livable.
One year after the 2008 Olympics, Beijing's officials reported that the city was enjoying the best air quality this decade because of the measures taken during the Games. Nonetheless, Beijing still faces air pollution problems. The US embassy recorded levels of pollution beyond measurable levels on the 21 February 2011, and advised people to stay indoor as a thick smog was covering the city.
Municipal government is regulated by the local Communist Party of China (CPC), led by the Beijing CPC Secretary (??????). The local CPC issues administrative orders, collects taxes, manages the economy, and directs a standing committee of the Municipal People's Congress in making policy decisions and overseeing the local government.
Government officials include the mayor and vice-mayor. Numerous bureaus focus on law, public security, and other affairs. Additionally, as the capital of China, Beijing houses all of the important national governmental and political institutions, including the National People's Congress.
The following six districts encompass the more distant suburbs and satellite towns of the metropolitan area: Mentougou District Fangshan District Tongzhou District Shunyi District Changping District Daxing District Huairou District Pinggu District
The remaining two districts and the two counties located further out govern semi-rural and rural areas: Miyun County Yanqing County
Several place names in Beijing end with m?n (), meaning "gate", as they were the locations of gates in the former Beijing city wall. Other place names end in c?n (), meaning "village", as they were originally villages outside the city wall.
Beijing's 18 districts and counties are further subdivided into 273 lower third-level administrative units at the township level: 119 towns, 24 townships, 5 ethnic townships and 125 subdistricts.
Qianmen Tian'anmen Di'anmen Chongwenmen Xuanwumen Fuchengmen Xizhimen Deshengmen Andingmen Sanlitun Dongzhimen Chaoyangmen Yongdingmen Zuo'anmen You'anmen Guangqumen Guang'anmen Dongbianmen Xibianmen Hepingmen Fuxingmen Jianguomen Gongzhufen Fangzhuang Guomao Hepingli Ping'anli Beixinqiao Jiaodaokou Kuanjie Wangjing Wangfujing Dengshikou Wudaokou Xidan Dongdan Zhongguancun Panjiayuan Beijing CBD Yayuncun
Beijing is amongst the most developed cities in China, with tertiary industry accounting for 73.2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP); it was the first post industrial city in mainland China. Beijing is home to 26 Fortune Global 500 companies, the third most in the world behind Tokyo and Paris.
Finance is one of the most important industries. By the end of 2007, there were 751 financial organizations in Beijing generating revenue of 128.6?billion RMB, 11.6% of the total financial industry revenue of the entire country. That also accounts for 13.8% of Beijing's GDP, the highest percentage of any Chinese city.
In 2010, Beijing's nominal GDP reached 1.37?trillion RMB. Its per capita GDP was 78,194 RMB. In 2009, Beijing's nominal GDP was 1.19?trillion RMB (US$174?billion), a growth of 10.1% over the previous year. Its GDP per capita was 68,788 RMB (US$10,070), an increase of 6.2% over 2008. In 2009, Beijing's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were worth 11.83?billion RMB, 274.31?billion RMB, and 900.45?billion RMB respectively. Urban disposable income per capita was 26,738 yuan, a real increase of 8.1% from the previous year. Per capita pure income of rural residents was 11,986 RMB, a real increase of 11.5%. The Engel's coefficient of Beijing's urban residents reached 31.8% in 2005, while that of the rural residents was 32.8%, declining 4.5 and 3.9 percentage points respectively compared to 2000.
Beijing's real estate and automobile sectors have continued to boom in recent years. In 2005, a total of of housing real estate was sold, for a total of 175.88?billion RMB. The total number of cars registered in Beijing in 2004 was 2,146,000, of which 1,540,000 were privately owned (a yearly increase of 18.7%).
The Beijing central business district (CBD), centred on the Guomao area, has been identified as the city's new central business district, and is home to a variety of corporate regional headquarters, shopping precincts, and high-end housing. Beijing Financial Street, in the Fuxingmen and Fuchengmen area, is a traditional financial centre. The Wangfujing and Xidan areas are major shopping districts. Zhongguancun, dubbed "China's Silicon Valley", continues to be a major centre in electronics and computer-related industries, as well as pharmaceuticals-related research. Meanwhile, Yizhuang, located to the southeast of the urban area, is becoming a new centre in pharmaceuticals, information technology, and materials engineering. Shijingshan, on the western outskirts of the city, is among the major industrial areas. Specially designated industrial parks include Zhongguancun Science Park, Yongle Economic Development Zone, Beijing Economic-technological Development Area, and Tianzhu Airport Industrial Zone.
Agriculture is carried on outside the urban area, with wheat and maize (corn) being the main crops.
The development of Beijing continues at a rapid pace, and the vast expansion has created a multitude of problems for the city. Beijing is known for its smog as well as the frequent "power-saving" programmes instituted by the government. To reduce air pollution, a number of major industries have been ordered to reduce emissions or leave the city. Beijing Capital Steel, once one of the city's largest employers and its single biggest polluter, has been relocating most of its operations to Tangshan, in nearby Hebei Province. Residents and tourists alike frequently complain about the water quality and the cost of the basic services such as electricity and natural gas.
After Chongqing and Shanghai, Beijing is the third largest of the four directly controlled municipalities of the People's Republic of China. In the PRC, a directly controlled municipality (??? in pinyin: zh?xi?sh?) is a city with status equal to a province.
According to the statistical yearbook issued in 2005 by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, out of a total population in 2004 of 14.213?million in Beijing, 1.415?million (9.96%) were 0?14 years old, 11.217?million (78.92%) were 15?64 and 1.581?million (11.12%) 65 and over.
Most of Beijing's residents belong to the Han Chinese majority. Ethnic minorities include the Manchu, Hui, and Mongol. A Tibetan-language high school exists for youth of Tibetan ancestry, nearly all of whom have come to Beijing from Tibet expressly for their studies. A sizable international community resides in Beijing, many attracted by the highly growing foreign business and trade sector, others by the traditional and modern culture of the city. Many of these foreigners live in the areas around the Beijing CBD, Sanlitun, and Wudaokou. In recent years, there has been an influx of South Koreans, an estimated 200,000 in 2009, predominantly for business and study. Many of them live in the Wangjing and Wudaokou areas.
People native to urban Beijing speak the Beijing dialect, which belongs to the Mandarin subdivision of spoken Chinese. This speech is the basis for putonghua, the standard spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore. Rural areas of Beijing Municipality have their own dialects akin to those of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing Municipality.
Beijing or Peking opera (J?ngj?, ??), is a traditional form of Chinese theatre well known throughout the nation. Commonly lauded as one of the highest achievements of Chinese culture, Beijing opera is performed through a combination of song, spoken dialogue, and codified action sequences involving gestures, movement, fighting and acrobatics. Much of Beijing opera is carried out in an archaic stage dialect quite different from Modern Standard Chinese and from the modern Beijing dialect.
Beijing cuisine is the local style of cooking. Peking Roast Duck is perhaps the best known dish. Fuling Jiabing, a traditional Beijing snack food, is a pancake (bing) resembling a flat disk with a filling made from fu ling, a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine. Teahouses are common in Beijing.
The cloisonn? (or Jingtailan, literally "Blue of Jingtai") metalworking technique and tradition is a Beijing art specialty, and is one of the most revered traditional crafts in China. Cloisonn? making requires elaborate and complicated processes which include base-hammering, copper-strip inlay, soldering, enamel-filling, enamel-firing, surface polishing and gilding. Beijing's lacquerware is also well known for its sophisticated and intrinsic patterns and images carved into its surface, and the various decoration techniques of lacquer include "carved lacquer" and "engraved gold".
Younger residents of Beijing have become more attracted to the nightlife, which has flourished in recent decades, breaking prior cultural traditions that had practically restricted it to the upper class.
Among the best known religious sites in the city is the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), located in southeastern Beijing, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties made visits for annual ceremonies of prayers to Heaven for good harvest. In the north of the city is the Temple of Earth (Ditan), while the Temple of the Sun (Ritan) and the Temple of the Moon (Yuetan) lie in the eastern and western urban areas respectively. Other well-known temple sites include the Dongyue Temple, Tanzhe Temple, Miaoying Temple, White Cloud Temple, Yonghe Temple, Fayuan Temple, Wanshou Temple and Big Bell Temple. The city also has its own Confucius Temple, and a Guozijian or Imperial Academy. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1605, is the oldest Catholic church in Beijing. The Niujie Mosque is the oldest mosque in Beijing, with a history stretching back over a thousand years.
Beijing contains several well-preserved pagodas and stone pagodas, such as the towering Pagoda of Tianning Temple, which was built during the Liao Dynasty from 1100?1120, and the Pagoda of Cishou Temple, which was built in 1576 during the Ming Dynasty. Historically noteworthy stone bridges include the 12th century Lugou Bridge, the 17th century Baliqiao bridge, and the 18th century Jade Belt Bridge. The Beijing Ancient Observatory displays pre-telescopic spheres dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Fragrant Hills (Xiangshan) is a popular scenic public park that consists of natural landscaped areas as well as traditional and cultural relics. The Beijing Botanical Garden exhibits over 6,000 species of plants, including a variety of trees, bushes and flowers, and an extensive peony garden. The Taoranting, Longtan, Chaoyang, Haidian, Milu Yuan and Zizhu Yuan parks are some of the notable recreational parks in the city. The Beijing Zoo is a center of zoological research that also contains rare animals from various continents, including the Chinese giant panda.
There are over one hundred museums in Beijing. In addition to the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City and the National Museum of China, other major museums include the National Art Museum of China, the Capital Museum, the Beijing Art Museum, the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, the Geological Museum of China, the Beijing Museum of Natural History and the Paleozoological Museum of China.
Located at the outskirts of urban Beijing, but within its municipality are the Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty, the lavish and elaborate burial sites of thirteen Ming emperors, which have been designated as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The archaeological Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian is another World Heritage Site within the municipality, containing a wealth of discoveries, among them one of the first specimens of Homo erectus and an assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris. There are several sections of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Great Wall of China, most notably Badaling, Jinshanling, Simatai and Mutianyu.
Three styles of architecture predominate in urban Beijing. First, there is the traditional architecture of imperial China, perhaps best exemplified by the massive Tian'anmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace), which remains the People's Republic of China's trademark edifice, the Forbidden City, the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Temple of Heaven. Next, there is what is sometimes referred to as the "Sino-Sov" style, with structures tending to be boxy and sometimes poorly constructed, which were built between the 1950s and the 1970s. Finally, there are much more modern architectural forms, most noticeably in the area of the Beijing CBD and Beijing Financial Street.
In the early 21st century, Beijing has witnessed tremendous growth of new building constructions, exhibiting various modern styles from international designers. A mixture of both old and new styles of architecture can be seen at the 798 Art Zone, which mixes 1950s design with the new.
Beijing is famous for its siheyuans, a type of residence where a common courtyard is shared by the surrounding buildings. Among the more grand examples are the Prince Gong Mansion and Residence of Soong Ching-ling. These courtyards are usually connected by alleys called hutongs. The hutongs are generally straight and run east to west so that doorways face north and south for good Feng Shui. They vary in width; some are so narrow only a few pedestrians can pass through at a time. Once ubiquitous in Beijing, siheyuans and hutongs are rapidly disappearing, as entire city blocks of hutongs are replaced by high-rise buildings. Residents of the hutongs are entitled to live in the new buildings in apartments of at least the same size as their former residences. Many complain, however, that the traditional sense of community and street life of the hutongs cannot be replaced, and these properties are often government owned.
Publications primarily aimed at international visitors and the expatriate community include the English-language periodicals Time Out Beijing, City Weekend, Beijing This Month, Beijing Talk, That's Beijing.
With the growth of the city in the wake of economic reforms, Beijing has evolved as the most important transport hub in the People's Republic of China, and within the larger East Asian region. Encircling the city are five ring roads, nine expressways and city express routes, eleven China National Highways, several railway routes, and an international airport.
The city's main railway stations are the Beijing Railway Station, which opened in 1959; the Beijing West Railway Station, which opened in 1996; and the Beijing South Railway Station, which was rebuilt into the city's high-speed railway station in 2008. As of 1 July 2010, Beijing Railway Station had 173 trains arriving daily, Beijing West had 232 trains and Beijing South had 163. The Beijing North Railway Station, first built in 1909 and expanded in 2009, had 22 trains.
Smaller stations in the city including Beijing East Railway Station and Qinghuayuan Railway Station which handle mainly commuter passenger traffic. The Fengtai Railway Station has been closed for renovation. In outlying suburbs and counties of Beijing, there are over 40 railway stations.
From Beijing, direct Direct passenger train service is available to most large cities in China. International train service is available to Mongolia, Russia, Vietnam and North Korea. Passenger trains in China are numbered according to their direction in relation to Beijing.
Beijing is connected by road links to all parts of China as part of the National Trunk Road Network. Nine expressways of China serve Beijing, as do eleven China National Highways. Beijing's urban transport is dependent upon the five "ring roads" that concentrically surround the city, with the Forbidden City area marked as the geographical center for the ring roads. The ring roads appear more rectangular than ring-shaped. There is no official "1st Ring Road". The 2nd Ring Road is located in the inner city. Ring roads tend to resemble expressways progressively as they extend outwards, with the 5th and 6th Ring Roads being full-standard national expressways, linked to other roads only by interchanges. Expressways to other regions of China are generally accessible from the 3rd Ring Road outward.
Within the urban core, city streets generally follow the checkerboard pattern of the ancient capital. Many of Beijing's boulevards and streets with "inner" and "outer" are still named in relation to gates in the city wall, though most gates no longer stand. Traffic jams are a major concern. Even outside of rush hour, several roads still remain clogged with traffic.
Exacerbating Beijing's traffic problems is its relatively underdeveloped mass transit system. Beijing's urban design layout further exacerbates transportation problems. The authorities have introduced several bus lanes, which only public buses can use during rush hour. In the beginning of 2010, Beijing had 4 million registered automobiles. By the end of 2010, the government forecast 5 million. In 2010, new car registrations in Beijing averaged 15,500 per week.
Towards the end of 2010, the city government announced a series of drastic measures to tackle traffic jams, including limiting the number of new license plates issued to passenger cars to 20,000 a month and barring cars with non-Beijing plates from entering areas within the Fifth Ring Road during rush hour.
Beijing's primary airport is the Beijing Capital International Airport (IATA: PEK; near Shunyi), which is about northeast of the city centre. It is currently the second busiest airport in the world (after Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) and the busiest in Asia. After renovations for the 2008 Olympics, the airport now boasts three terminals, with Terminal 3 being one of the largest in the world. Most domestic and nearly all international flights arrive at and depart from Capital Airport. it is the main hub for Air China and a hub for China Southern and Hainan Airlines. The airport links Beijing with almost every other Chinese city with regular air passenger service.
The Airport Expressway links the airport to central Beijing; it is a roughly 40-minute drive from the city centre during good traffic conditions. Prior to the 2008 Olympics, the 2nd Airport Expressway was built to the airport, as well as a light rail system, which now connects to the Beijing Subway.
Other airports in the city include Liangxiang, Nanyuan, Xijiao, Shahe and Badaling. These airports are primarily for military use and less well-known to the public. Nanyuan serves as the hub for only one passenger airline. A second international airport is currently being built in Daxing District, and is expected to be open by 2017.
The Beijing Subway opened in 1971, and had only two lines until Line 13 began operating in 2002. Since then, the subway has expanded to fourteen lines. Line 1 and the Batong Line, its eastern extension, cross almost all of urban Beijing from east to west. Lines 4 and 5 serve as two north-south lines. The fare is a flat 2 yuan, with unlimited transfers except for the Airport Express line, which costs 25 yuan per trip. There are nearly 700 bus and trolleybus routes, including three bus rapid transit routes. All public transport can be accessed with the Yikatong card, which uses radio frequencies scanned at subway stations and on public transit buses.
In May 2010, Beijing's municipal government announced plans to add 21 subway lines by 2020. The plan calls for 30 subway lines and 450 stations in Beijing, reaching in length. When implemented, residents within the region encompassed by the Fourth Ring Road will be able walk to a station in 10 to 15 minutes. The suburbs will be connected by new radial lines.
Registered taxis can be found throughout Beijing, as well as a large number of unregistered ones. As of 30 June 2008, all fares on legal taxis start at 10 Renminbi for the first and 2.00 Renminbi per additional kilometer (0.6 mile), not counting idling fees. Most taxis are Hyundai Elantras, Hyundai Sonatas, Peugeots, Citro?ns and Volkswagen Jettas. After , the base fare increases by 50% (but is only applied to the portion over that distance). Between 11?pm and 5?am, there is also a 20% fee increase, starting at 11 RMB and increasing at a rate of 2.4 RMB per?km. Rides over 15?km and between 11?pm and 6?am incur both charges, for a total increase of 80%.
Beijing is home to a great number of colleges and universities, including several well-regarded universities of international stature, including Peking University and Tsinghua University (two of the National Key Universities). Owing to Beijing's status as the political and cultural capital of China, a larger proportion of tertiary-level institutions are concentrated here than in any other city in China (at least 70). Many international students from Japan, Korea, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere come to Beijing to study every year, some through third party study abroad providers such as IES Abroad and others as part of an exchange program with their home universities. The schools are administered by China's Ministry of Education.
| * Tokyo, Japan (1979) | * Belgrade, Serbia (1980) | * New York, United States (1980) | * Lima, Peru (1983) | * Washington D.C., United States (1984) | * Madrid, Spain (1985) | * Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1986) | ?le-de-France (region)>?le-de-France, France (1987) | * K?ln, Germany (1987) | * Algiers, Algeria (1989) | * Amman, Jordan (1990) | * Ankara, Turkey (1990) | * Cairo, Egypt (1990) | * Jakarta, Indonesia (1992) | * Riga, Latvia | * S?o Paulo, Brazil | Islamabad, Pakistan (1993) | * Bangkok, Thailand (1993) | * Buenos Aires, Argentina (1993) | * Kiev, Ukraine (1993) | * Seoul, South Korea (1993) | * Amsterdam, Netherlands (1994) | * Berlin, Germany (1994) | * Brussels, Belgium (1994) | * Hanoi, Vietnam (1994) | * Moscow, Russia (1995) | * Gauteng (Johannesburg and Pretoria), South Africa (1998) | * Ottawa, Canada (1999) | * Canberra, Australia (2000) | * Athens, Greece (2005) | * Bucharest, Romania (2005) | * Budapest, Hungary (2005) | * Havana, Cuba (2005) | * Manila, Philippines (2005) | * Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2006) | * Astana, Kazakhstan (2006) | * Helsinki, Finland (2006) | * London, United Kingdom (2006) | * Tel Aviv, Israel (2006) | * Wellington, New Zealand (2006) | * Lisbon, Portugal (2007) | * Tirana, Albania (2007) | * Doha, Qatar (2008) | Santiago de Chile>Santiago, Chile (2008) | * San Jos?, Costa Rica (2009) | * Caracas, Venezuela (2010) | * Dublin, Ireland (2011) |
| * Paris, France (1997) | * Rome, Italy (1998) |
{{s-ttl|title=Capital of China (as Dadu) |years=1264?1368|row=1}} {{s-ttl|title=Capital of China |years=1420?1928|row=2}} {{s-ttl|title=Capital of the People's Republic of China |years=1949?present|row=3}}
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Category:Capitals in Asia Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:Independent cities Category:Metropolitan areas of China Category:Municipalities of the People's Republic of China Category:North China Plain Category:Articles including recorded pronunciations Category:IOC Session Host Cities
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