This is Beijing-Beijing English blog

As the it is the summer season again, Beijing once again become a beautiful green city.

You can always feel that the internet are also connected with the draditonal culture. 

On the traditional Dragon Boat Festival, we can feel it on the most influential search engine Google.cn and Daidu.com in China.

[#3: Edit Options>MightyAdsense>Adsense Code]

China’s Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday a new A/H1N1 influenza case in central Hunan Province, bringing the total confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland to 12.

The patient is a 19-year-old male from Changsha, capital of Hunan. The provincial health department said he had been studying at an unidentified U.S. university.

The patient boarded Air China flight CA982 from New York at 4 a.m.(Beijing time) Thursday and arrived in Beijing at 6 p.m. (Beijing time).

On Friday, he took a taxi with his mother to the airport. They then boarded Air China flight CA1349 and arrived in Changsha at 1:40 p.m.

He developed a sore throat and cough Friday and was put under observation at the Changsha Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP) the following day. On Monday, his cough worsened and he was sent to the Public Health Treatment Center in Changsha, where he remained under quarantine.

CCDCP has located 56 Hunan residents who were on the CA1349 flight and urged health authorities of 23 regions to find the remaining 101 passengers.

The patient had close contact with 21 Hunan residents, including flight passengers and those he met after arrival in Hunan. Eighteen have been quarantined and three others are being sought.

The ministry noted that he was on the same plane with a 65-year-old man who had the fourth case of A/H1N1 reported in Beijing.

Beijing’s transit authority plans to improve ventilation in public buses and subway trains, in the wake of the report that the city’s fifth confirmed A/H1N1 flu patient, and the ninth on the mainland, had traveled by subway twice before he was quarantined.

The city began to disinfect all bus stations and public vehicles early this month.

Shanghai, which reported one confirmed case, has conducted onboard quarantine inspection on all incoming international flights.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2009)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Beijing’s first diagnosed A/H1N1 flu patient in hospital on Sunday.

Wen had a voice and video meeting with the 18-year-old female, surnamed Liu, who returned from the United States and was confirmed to have the flu Saturday, at the Beijing Ditan Hospital.

The patient is in a stable condition with a normal body temperature and a growing appetite, said doctors. Wen said overseas students in epidemic areas should learn more to protect themselves from the flu and understand the preventive and control measures China has taken.

“The motherland is the home of the Chinese overseas students and we are concerned about your health,” he said. Wen said medical personnel should always be ready to treat flu patients and to accumulate experience.

He urged medical staff to enhance self-protection and prevent hospital infection and the spread of the disease.

At the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wen said that judging from the current situation, China’s A/H1N1 flu prevention and control measures are effective and well organized.

“With the spreading of the flu in some countries, we should not lower our guard against it,” he said. Wen called for establishing epidemic monitoring and reporting systems and strengthening inspection and quarantine at ports of exit and entry.

During the weekend, i moved my blog from bluehost to hostmonster. At the same time, i also changed the domain of  this blog from wodebj.com to thisbeijing.info. Because i think it is more easier for the foreigners to rember this new domain.

The movement of the blog is very simple. First, download the data and all the files to the computer, and then set the domain to the new server; Second, move all the data and files to the new server; Third, set the config according to the new setting. And that is OK. I didn’t meet other problem as some of others.
I changed the domain name after successful movement.

Blogger.com was blocked by China’s Net Nanny at the day before yesterday. I checked it just now, the result is that it is still not available now.

I also have blog on the blogger.com. We decide to move my blog from blogger.com to some China blog BSP, as we never know what will do by the the China’s Net Nanny.

One confirmed case of A/H1N1 flu was reported in Beijing, the Ministry of Health said on Saturday evening.

It is the third confirmed case of A/H1N1 flu on the Chinese mainland, according to the ministry.

The case involved a 18-year-old female who studies in a university in the New York State of the United States, which was the one reported previously as suspected case by the Emergency Management Office of Beijing Municipal Government Saturday evening.

She was currently in a stable condition, with a normal body temperature, the ministry said.

The female, a Beijing native, arrived in Beijing on May 11 on board the U.S. Continental Airline C089 and reached home accompanied by her mother, said the ministry.

She did not go out or meet friends after arriving home, according to the ministry’s investigation.

She felt unwell and physically weak in the noon on May 12 and took her temperature herself.

She went to the fever outpatient section of the Peking University First Hospital in the evening on May 14 and said she developed symptoms of cough, a few sputum, headache, sore throat, chest distress and sore muscle, with a body temperature of 37.7 degrees Celsius.

She was initially diagnosed as fever, needing further check and “suspected of A/H1N1 flu,” the ministry said.

The patient was transferred to the Beijing Ditan Hospital early in the morning on May 15.

The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested a specimen taken via a swab from her throat, which showed she was “suspected positive” for A/H1N1 and positive for PIV-H3.

The China CDC and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences tested the specimen again the next day and confirmed she had contracted the A/H1N1 virus.

The ministry said experts made the decision based on the patient’s symptoms, epidemiological investigation results and laboratory tests.

All the people who had close contact with her had been tracked down and put under medical observation, with no one feeling unwell, it said.

According to Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, the girl had only contacted with two persons, one is her mother and the other is the taxi driver who carried her to Peking University First Hospital.

Neither of the two had shown flu symptons, said Deng Ying, director of Beijing CDC.

Expressing his appreciation of the 18-year-old Liu for keeping a clear diary about her journey in Beijing, Fang Laiying, director of Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, said, “she even kept the receipt from the taxi driver, otherwise it would be difficult for us to find out the driver,”

“The quarantine hospital had arranged three doctors and three nurses for Liu and took strict medical observation on her,” said Mao Yu, president of Beijing Ditan Hospital.

“Liu is in stable condition as her temperature is getting normal and her appetite getting better,” Mao said.

The health ministry has reported the case to the World Health Organization, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and relevant countries.

The first two cases in mainland China are Chinese nationals, Bao and Lu, who had been students in the United States and Canada, and were traveling back to their homes in the past days of the month, contracted the flu strain and developed symptoms shortly after they set foot in China.

Chinese health departments said Thursday more people were put under quarantine while the two citizens who were confirmed to have contracted A/H1N1 this week were recovering swiftly.

Health authorities in east China’s Shandong Province put 30 people under home or hospital quarantine as of 2 p.m. Thursday to check for symptoms of A/H1N1 influenza, said the provincial health department at a news briefing held Thursday.

The 30 people, consisting of 27 passengers and three train service workers, were in close contact in a Beijing-Jinan train with a male resident of Shandong who health officials said Wednesday had tested positive for A/H1N1 flu. They didn’t show any symptoms of the disease.

The provincial health authorities are seeking the remainder 13 other passengers who were in the same car of train D41, from Beijing to the provincial capital of Jinan, Monday night.

After the man who was only identified by his family name as Lu was diagnosed, Shandong Province declared China’s first A/H1N1 flu health emergency at about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Wang Suilian, vice governor of the eastern province, said Shandong declared the second-level health emergency, which will involve many departments coordinating to contain the disease and keep the public informed.

A health official surnamed Zhang said that the second-degree emergency declaration was the highest-level response available to provincial governments. A first-degree emergency declaration would be up to the central government.

Shandong’s flu case, the second known case on the Chinese mainland, involved a 19-year-old student surnamed Lu who arrived in Beijing from Canada May 8 in a flight labeled AC029 and traveled to Jinan three days later.

Lu was hospitalized Monday. Apart from a sore throat, Lu was recovering with a normal body temperature, and showed no other symptoms of discomfort such as headache, coughing or a runny nose Thursday, said Li Zhongjun, spokesman for Shandong Provincial Health Department.

Lu is in an isolation ward in the Jinan Hospital of Infectious Diseases.

According to Li, Lu is receiving antiviral medication — Tamiflu and traditional Chinese medicine — in accordance with suggestions given by medical experts from the Chinese Ministry of Health.

Apart from Lu, Shandong has not reported other new A/H1N1 flu suspected or confirmed cases.

Shandong health authorities said they had reached four of the 45 passengers who were in the same flight AC029 as Lu as of 2 p.m. Thursday. The four passengers were all quarantined and reported normal temperatures.

Search for other passengers in the flight is ongoing.

Zong Lin, chief of the disease control and prevention section of the Shandong Provincial Health Bureau, said health officials were sending text messages and running notices on TV to find the remaining passengers.

Health authorities in Hebei Province, a neighbor of Shandong, are also busy with seeking 22 passengers who reportedly were in the same train carriage as Lu but got off at stops inside Hebei or on the juncture of the two provinces before the train reached its final destination in Jinan. No progress has been reported in this front thus far.

Bao, the Chinese mainland’s first A/H1N1 flu case, who has been kept at Chengdu Infectious Diseases Hospital for isolation and medical treatment for five days in Sichuan Province, southwest China, is also recovering fast.

All 147 passengers who had been exposed to Bao on Northwest Airlines flight NW029 from Tokyo to Beijing, had been contacted by the Beijing Health Department, said the department Wednesday.

Tian Ming, vice president of Chengdu Infectious Diseases Hospital, said Thursday that the time for Bao to be discharged from the hospital was not decided yet.

“Though he shows normal temperature, eats normally, and is in good mood,” said Tian, “A/H1N1 flu is a new virus strain, the medical experts panel need to carry out a comprehensive review over Bao’s recovery before a specific date could be given for him to be discharged from the hospital.”

Tian disclosed that as of midday Thursday, 126 people who had contact with Bao had been put under quarantine at a local camp in Chengdu, while two other people who were said to be in the same flight with the confirmed A/H1N1 flu case in Shandong had also been quarantined. There are no reports of flu symptoms with them.

In the meantime, health authorities in China’s Shanxi and Henan provinces said Thursday they quarantined 16 people who had exposed to Bao or Lu.

Beijing Health Department said Thursday evening as of 5 p.m. Thursday the department had quarantined 426 people and 131 had been released while the other 286 are still under medical observation in four hotels.

Beijing launched three search campaigns to look for the people who contacted with the three cases in Hong Kong, Sichuan and Shandong.

The department said it had appointed 38 medical institutions, which have the capability to set up flu examinations centers in 96 hospitals to examine any suspect flu patients.

Thirteen people from Mexico and Canada were removed from quarantine from Beijing You’an Hospital on Thursday, said Li Ning, head of the hospital.

“We released them after the tests. The foreigners said the medical examinations were understandable,” Li said.

The panic caused by confirmation of the two A/H1N1 flu patients in China has helped boost sales of face masks and some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with antiviral function, such as Banlangen, a kind of crystal powder made of a medicinal herb bearing the same name and commonly prescribed for treating the common cold in China.

Qiu Xiaolin, an administrative personnel with Tongrentang Pharmacy on Zongfu Road in Chengdu City, capital of Sichuan Province, said there had been long queues of local residents to buy antiviral TCM at his store each day since Monday.

“We now sell 2,000 boxes of Banlangen and 400 face masks each day, comparing 100 boxes of Banlangen and 20 face masks daily before Monday,” said Qiu, “No worry, we have reserved a good stock of those materials.”

The Chinese mainland has reported its first confirmed infection of A/H1N1 Influenza. The case was found in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province. Emergency measures are already in place.

Officials in Sichuan say the patient is a 30-year-old man. His condition is stable. Basic vital signs are normal.

The man is a native of Sichuan studying at a university in the US state of Missouri. On Thursday, flew from St. Louis to Tokyo. On Friday, he took flight NW029 from Tokyo and arrived at the Beijing International Airport early on Saturday. The same day, on flight 3U8882 to Chendgu, he developed a fever and other symptoms. He was met by his father and girlfriend, and the three took a taxi to hospital.

Authorities in Sichuan are stepping up efforts to locate everyone who’s had close contact with the man.

More than 130 of 150 passengers on the flight to Chengdu 3U8882 are under quarantine. Nearly 30 of 144 passengers on the flight from Tokyo are now under observation.

The Chinese Ministry of Health has dispatched a team of experts to Chengdu to guide prevention and control.

It’s also asked local health authorities to immediately send a virus specimen to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for a second check

China would impose stringent checks on people entering the country by air, land and sea in an attempt to prevent influenza A(H1N1) from spreading to the country, the top quality supervisor said Saturday.

Anyone entering from places where the flu was reported should have their temperatures checked twice, said the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ).

According to the World Health Organization, 11 nations have reported influenza A(H1N1) cases: Mexico, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Spain, Germany, Israel, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

People entering China from these areas must go through a separate channel upon arrival. The first check should be done at or before that point, while the second should be done at regular inspection channels.

People with temperature at or above 38 degrees Celsius must undergo further examination, and all arriving passengers and transportation staff must provide health information, the GAQSIQ said.

The administration ordered quarantine offices to conduct thorough sanitation of flights, ships and other vehicles, including waste.

Cargo and baggage on vehicles arriving from affected areas should also be examined