WANG WENJIN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE More than 80 people with the surname Zhang traveled from Taiwan to Xiamen, Fujian, in August to discover their roots. People are studying their family trees and age-old stories in the hope of reconnecting with long-lost relatives. Zhang Yi reports from Xiamen, Fujian. On June 9, Huang Ching-hsiung woke at about 3 am in his hotel bed in Xiamen, Fujian province. He was too excited to sleep. At daybreak, he was one of a group of 11 members of his family that set out to visit Pujin, a village two hours from downtown Xiamen by road. The settlement has the same name as Huang's home village in Lugang town, Changhua, Taiwan, and most of the residents are named Huang. The Huangs on Taiwan are direct descendents of settlers who arrived on the island centuries ago. Several batches of Fujian residents moved to Taiwan during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in the hope of making their fortunes, and those who were members of the same family banded together as they fought to make new lives. They named the places they settled after their hometowns and retained the customs they had brought from the mainland. Roughly 80 percent of Taiwan residents share blood ties with people from Fujian. About 110 settlements on either side of the Taiwan Straits that share the same village and family names have established official exchange programs, according to the Fujian-Taiwan Compatriots' Association. In the 1980s, the descendants of those early settlers started visiting the mainland to discover their roots, inspired by family histories passed down through generations. Place your feet on the land our ancestors came from, Huang's father told him, shortly before he died 12 years ago. customise fidget spinnercoloured wristbandsmotivational bracelets for athletessilicone rubber bands24 wristbands24 hour braceletscustom printed wristbands
HARBIN - A China-Russia oil pipeline has transported 100 million tonnes of crude oil in the five years since it began operations, local customs said Saturday. The pipeline delivers oil from Russia's far-eastern region to China through its northeastern provinces. The 1,000-km line originates in the Russian town of Skovorodino in the Amur region, enters China at Xingan and terminates at Daqing City in Heilongjiang Province. It went to use on January 1, 2011. The pipeline has reduced costs and raised the efficiency of China's oil imports from Russia, which had previously relied on rail. According to the agreement between the two countries, the pipeline will transport 15 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia to China each year until 2030. China consumed about 560 million tonnes of crude oil in 2016, 65 percent of which were imported, and both oil consumption and the proportion imported will continue to rise, according to China National Petroleum Corporation, China's largest oil producer and supplier.
