The sharing business is so common in Shanghai that soon you may not be able to get into a basketball court in Shanghai if you forget your phone. Two outdoor basketball courts in the city's downtown Jing'an district have adopted a sharing business model to ensure booking efficiency and better management. Through an app, any player can enter the court by scanning the QR code at the entrance. Payment will be automatically deducted when the code is scanned upon leaving. The sharing format also allows interested players to check the courts' availability beforehand. The courts are the first public sports venues in Jing'an to have adopted the sharing model. We'll expand the sharing model to the rest of our 21 public venues if it works well with these two basketball courts, said Zhang Qi, an official of the Jing'an sports bureau, which is responsible for the management of the district's public sports venues. According to Zhang, compared with traditional management that requires at least a janitor to monitor a venue, the charge-per-visit format saves labor and simplifies the payment process. It also helps keep people who might not be interested in playing basketball from entering the court, Zhang added. More than 1,000 people have entered the two basketball courts using the app since its introduction in July, according to Jiuhui Sports, the company that provides administrative and tech support for the sports venues. It has proved popular among regular players. Most of the outdoor basketball courts are full of people during peak hours, but since scanning the QR code is the only way to get into the courts now, there are not as many people as before, said Fan Di, who lives in Jing'an and is a regular basketball player. According to Fan, the courts used to attract not only players but also onlookers. The latter not only occupy much of the courts' space but also pose a threat to the player's belongings, Fan said. Even though there is no administrative staff inside the court, monitors have been set up to supervise the courts and staff members are available to deal with emergencies or accidents, according to Zhang. If the feedback is positive, the concept will be expanded to other sports courts in Jing'an, and hopefully extended it to the rest of the city, Zhang said. According to the Shanghai Sports Bureau, by the end of 2016 the city had 446 public sports courts. Jiuhui Sports said its goal is to cover over 300 courts and serve more sports lovers, eastday.com reported. [email protected] (China Daily 10/24/2017 page7) wrist band coupon codecool wristbandscustom rubber band braceletsbatman wristbandwristband keychain
A woman shows a box of ejiao at a pharmacy in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province in 2011. [Photo/IC] Xinjiang port handles 8,000 animals in first quarter of year The number of live donkeys being imported to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from Central Asia has soared in the past year to meet demand for ejiao, a traditional Chinese medicine made from boiled donkey hide. Imports in the first quarter through the Irkeshtam Port - the only port in Xinjiang that handles live animals - more than doubled year-on-year to 8,000, according to data from customs authorities in Urumqi. The donkeys are mainly sold in Shandong province, which produces about 90 percent of all ejiao products in China. The live donkey trade was worth 10.03 million yuan ($1.57 million) last year. The gelatinous medicine is mainly used as a treatment for anemia and menopause-related ailments. However, an online post in February by a health service center under the former national health authority advised the public not to purchase ejiao, saying the traditional medicine is not as nutritious as chicken eggs for the human body. It later apologized for creating misunderstanding. Irkeshtam Port began importing live donkeys from Kyrgyzstan in August 2016 and has handled more than 27,000 to date. Since then, the number of companies importing live donkeys has increased from one to six, with more expected to join the trade this year. Companies involved in the live donkey trade need to have a Chinese quarantine permit. The live donkeys arrive at the port in Xinjiang after a two-day journey through Kyrgyzstan. They are then kept in quarantine for 14 days on the Chinese side of the border. The donkeys' blood is tested when they pass through to port to make sure the animals are healthy. Annual production of ejiao, a lucrative product, has totaled 5,000 metric tons in recent years, using 4 million donkey hides. The high demand, coupled with a decline in China's donkey population, has resulted in a marked rise in the number of skins being imported each year. The number of donkeys in China fell from 9.4 million in 1996 to 4.6 million in 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The decline is partly the result of urbanization: Many farmers, who once used donkeys as work animals, migrated to cities. Also, traditional cultivation techniques are gradually being replaced by machines. There are now only enough donkeys to meet half of China's annual demand for ejiao. In response, producers have turned to overseas markets to secure the needed donkey hides. Qin Yufeng, CEO of Dong'e Ejiao, the largest ejiao manufacturer in China, said about 40 percent of the donkey skins it uses are imported. The General Administration of Customs announced in December that it would lower the tariff on imported donkey hides beginning on Jan 1, with the import tariff on entire hides of a certain weight cut from 5 percent to 2 percent. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates there are about 44 million donkeys worldwide, mainly in Asia, North Africa and South America.
