China's has made no secret of its plans to take on Boeing and Airbus in the market for large aircraft through a new government-backed aircraft maker. The Oriental Morning Post talks to some of the key players from the Chinese side about the challenges ahead.

More than ten percent of China’s arable land, totaling 12.3 million hectares, is contaminated by pollution caused by dirty water, excessive fertilizer, heavy metals, and solid wastes, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources. 

As the population that can consume high-end products grows, Shanghai is increasingly becoming the national center for such high-end products, China Business News reported.

For the first half of 1006, China’s total railway investment mounts to 62.19 billion yuan, which is a 190% year-on-year jump. The Ministry of Railways said that the investment was mainly allocated for large- and middle-scaled construction projects.

While the news that China's major telecoms were preparing to block SkypeOut and other PC-to-phone services raised an outcry from private users of VoIP, other casualties of this implementation of already-existing regulations are underground VoIP service providers. These "net-talk cafes," which offer VoIP-based long-distance service for a cost of 0.3 yuan (US$0.037) per minute, exist in a regulatory grey area - it is uncertain whether they should be treated as telecom providers, which would make them illegal, or if they are merely offering value-added services.