那一米阳光作文

高三化学复习课探究式教学的尝试1

RUGAO - Zhou Fenying is a living witness to the dark history that still poisons China's relations with Japan more than 60 years after World War Two. When Zhou was 22, Japanese soldiers came to her village in eastern China, grabbed her and her sister-in-law and carted them off to a military brothel, she says. Now 91, Zhou has broken decades of silence to speak of her traumatic experience as a "comfort woman" -- the euphemism the invading Japanese used to describe women forced into sex slavery. "I hid with my husband's sister under a millstone. Later, the Japanese soldiers discovered us and pulled us out by our legs. They tied us both to their vehicle. Later they used more ropes to tie and secure us and drove us away," she told Reuters in her home village in Jiangsu province. "They then took us to the 'comfort woman lodge'. There was nothing good there," she said, speaking through a local government official who struggled to translate her thick dialect into Mandarin. "For four to five hours a day, it was torture. They gave us food afterwards, but every day we cried and we just did not want to eat it," Zhou added, sitting in her sparsely decorated home. The Chinese government says Japan has yet to atone properly for its war crimes, which it says included massacres and forcing people to work as virtual slaves in factories or as prostitutes. In 2005, a push by Japan for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat sparked sometimes violent anti-Japanese street protests in cities across China, with demonstrators denouncing Tokyo and demanding compensation and an apology for the war. "OF COURSE I HATE THEM" Zhou -- neatly dressed in a dark blue traditional Chinese shirt, her greying hair combed back into a bun -- avoided saying what had happened to her in the brothel, except that she was there with at least 20 other Chinese women. But her son, Jiang Weixun, 62, said she had told him they were repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers on a daily basis. This harrowing experience has left a deep scar on Zhou's life. She cannot forget, and nor can she forgive. "If it were you, wouldn't you hate them? Of course I hate them. But after the war, all the Japanese went home. I'm already so old. I think they are all dead by now," Zhou said. Zhou said she had served as a "comfort woman" for two months before a local town official rescued her by paying off the Japanese. She went back to her husband of 10 years, Ni Jincheng, who later died fighting the Japanese. Zhou remarried and lives with her son, Jiang, from her second marriage. Jiang said his mother had been moved to tell her story after learning of the death of Lei Guiying, a well-known former Chinese comfort woman. Lei died of a brain haemorrhage in April. She had gone public with her experiences last year after hiding the ordeal from her family for 60 years. Jiang said he was not ashamed of his mother, one of only an estimated 50 former Chinese sex slaves still alive today. He said her experiences should highlight to the world the extent of the wartime crimes committed by the Japanese. "When my mother told me about this, as her son, I do not hate her for that. The Japanese are the ones I should be hating. The Japanese are those who committed the crimes. The Japanese are responsible for this, they raped all of the women," he said. Tokyo has not paid direct compensation to any of the estimated 200,000 mostly Asian women forced to work in brothels for the Japanese military before and during World War Two, saying all claims were settled by peace treaties that ended the war. Instead, in 1995, Tokyo set up the Asian Women's Fund, a private group with heavy government support, to make cash payments to surviving wartime sex slaves.

BEIJING, March 10 -- Tianjin's mayor assured investors Sunday that the city's pilot program, allowing mainlanders to invest in Hong Kong-listed shares, is on track.     "There's a lot of preparation involved. Risk assessment and research is under way to open the door for mainlanders to invest in the Hong Kong stock market," Huang Xingguo, mayor of Tianjin, said Sunday.     "The project's going smoothly, but timing depends on central government approval. I can assure you that Tianjin's status as a pilot city (for financial reform) will not change," he said.     The scheme is in line with the nation's economic development and investor demand and will be an effective way to bring in conversion of the renminbi via capital accounts, Guo Qingping, chief of Bank of China's (BOC) Tianjin branch, said on the sidelines of yesterday's NPC session.     But authorities are cautious about rushing the program through, due to its complexity and risk.     "One risk is hot money flowing into and out of the mainland," Guo said.     BOC was originally expected to be the only financial institution providing the program, but Guo said the details are still being ironed out.     The trial scheme was announced in August last year as a way to diversify mainland investor channels. But it's been put on hold amid the unfolding US subprime crisis and global stock market uncertainty.     Preparation for the program includes payment systems, renminbi conversion, regulation changes as well as extensive risk assessment, Huang said.     Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, told China Daily earlier that no timetable has been set for the pilot scheme, which will allow mainlanders to invest directly in Hong Kong-listed shares. The regulator stressed that more research into the system is needed.     Meanwhile, a timetable is not yet available for Tianjin's new offshore financial center, which is also subject to further research, according to Guo from BOC.

China has been in the media spotlight for food safety recently, but it has gone all out to ensure that its food products are safe and to restore consumer confidence home and abroad.Its efforts seem to have accelerated with the publication of the first White Paper on food safety on August 17 and the naming of Vice-Premier Wu Yi as head of a high-profile panel on product quality and safety issues. That was followed by a series of efforts by government organs to tighten food safety measures.On August 31, the country's quality watchdog officially introduced the landmark recall system for unsafe food products and toys, making producers responsible for preventing and eliminating unsafe items.Food safety became a big concern in China after a series of food contamination cases were reported from across the country. Last November, the country's food safety watchdog found seven companies supplying red-yolk eggs that contained the dangerous Sudan Red dye, which is used in the leather and fabric industries but is banned from use in food products.The same month, three people were arrested in Shanghai for adding 3-4 grams of banned steroids to each ton of pig feed to increase the proportion of lean meat. The steroids, which prevent pigs from accumulating fat, can be harmful to humans. More than 300 people fell ill after eating meat from pigs that had been fed the steroids.Also last year, carcinogenic residues were found in turbots sold in Beijing and Shanghai markets. Even international fast food giant KFC was accused of adding the carcinogenic Sudan 1 dye to its roast chicken wings.Ministry of Health figures show that in the first half of this year, China reported 134 food poisoning cases, in which 4,457 people fell ill and 96 died.Food is China's biggest industry with last year's output estimated to be 2.4 trillion yuan (5.8 billion), according to the China National Food Industry Association.Bitter stories made the rounds after people fell victim to food poisoning. In June 2006, more than 130 people contracted parasitic diseases after eating undercooked snails in a restaurant. One of them was Yang Fangfang. His family, including his parents, wife and 18-month daughter, fell ill.The Beijing Health Bureau said the infection was caused because the food was not cooked properly and because the restaurant had failed to remove eel-worms in the snails.Although Yang survived, he still complains of pain, sometimes severe, in his lower body and stomach. A gourmet before the incident, Yang now regards food as a potential threat to his life.In overseas markets, substandard exports from China since March - from pet food, drugs, toothpastes and toys to aquatic products and tires - has sparked concern over "made-in-China" products. Diethylene glycol contaminated medicine exported from China was been blamed for dozens of deaths in Panama. Deaths of some dogs and cats in North America were attributed to tainted Chinese wheat gluten.Jing Luyan, 24, who works for a Beijing-based travel agency, says she trusts the government and the media for information on food safety issues."If they say I shouldn't eat something, then I stop immediately, it's as simple as that," Jing says. Many of her colleagues and friends do the same.Pressure from home and abroad prompted the Chinese government to acknowledge that the country's food and drug safety situation was not satisfactory and that enhanced supervision was needed. At a press conference in July, China's food and drug watchdog spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said: "As a developing country, China's food and drug supervision work began late and its foundations are weak. Therefore, the food and drug safety situation is not something we can be optimistic about".The press conference was held jointly by five major ministries in charge of food safety: the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the State Food and Drug Administration.It was a rare attempt by the government to seriously address the issue, and it enumerated a series of measures to be taken. But it failed to offer a convincing mechanism for coordinating work among the five ministries, leaving the murky regulation of food safety unresolved.There have been worries over China's food safety supervision because at least five ministries are in charge of food safety and coordination among them is no easy job.Vice-Minister of Health Wang Longde went on the record as saying that new laws were needed to strengthen food safety supervision and the duties of relevant government agencies had to be coordinated. The government has stepped up efforts since then to address the issue to restore confidence in Chinese food products sold at home and abroad.China's first-ever White Paper on food safety published recently sets forth a series of achievements along with planned measures to improve food quality - from setting up a national food recall system to increasing exchanges with quality officials from other countries.Wu Yi's panel, meant to address the country's problems in food safety and product quality, partly dispelled people's concerns over lax supervision of food safety owing to too many regulators. Analysts say the newly set up panel, headed by Wu Yi, will improve supervision.The government, on its part, has started a four-month nationwide campaign to improve food safety and product quality. Wu describes the campaign as a "special battle" to ensure public health and uphold the reputation of Chinese products. The campaign will target farm produce, processed food, the catering sector, drugs, pork, imported and exported goods and products closely linked to human safety and health.Luo Yunbo, dean of the food science and nutritional engineering school of China Agricultural University, says the White Paper offers authoritative information on food safety, and the latest moves reflect the government's determination to improve product quality.The paper says the percentage of food products that passed quality inspections had risen steadily in recent years, up from 77.9 last year to 85.1 percent this year. As for small food processors, believed to be a major food safety threat in China, the paper says the country will prompt small-scale producers to form larger entities to ensure better food safety.Almost 80 percent of China's food producers operate in small workshops employing fewer than 10 workers. By the end of June, the government had weeded out 5,631 unqualified small producers, forced 8,814 to stop production and asked 5,385 to improve their standard.The number of small food producers will be halved by 2010, the quality supervision administration said after the country published its first-ever five-year plan on food safety in May. Also, the government wants to weed out all uncertified producers by 2012.The government is seriously addressing overseas concerns over Chinese food products. It has shut down the factory that supplied the tainted medicine to Panama, and two firms that exported contaminated wheat and corn protein, which ended up in pet food in the United States, killing a number of dogs and cats in North America.The country's top quality watchdog has announced that all major food exports produced from September 1 have to carry labels showing they have passed inspection to help stop illegal exports and bolster consumer confidence in the quality and safety of Chinese food products.The White Paper says the acceptance rate of Chinese foodstuffs exported to the European Union (EU) was 99.8 percent in the first half of this year, followed exports to the US (99.1 percent).Japanese quarantine authorities found Chinese food exports had the highest acceptance rate, 99.42 percent, followed by the EU (99.38 percent) and then the US (98.69 percent).But food safety cannot be improved greatly overnight, and people seem to differ on what they can do as individuals to bring about lasting change.Take Jing Luyan, for instance, who is fond of tasting different types of food, especially traditional Beijing snacks. But traditional snacks are usually cooked in shabby restaurants in small alleys."I believe that the most delicious food can hardly ever be found in swanky establishments with irreproachable hygienic conditions," says Jing.She has never fallen ill after eating at street corner stalls, she says.

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BEIJING -- As the world marked International Human Rights Day on Monday, a Chinese expert in the field has documented his country's work in the area through a new article chronicling achievements that have been made over the past five years.Dong Yunhu, vice president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, the largest nongovernmental organization in the human rights field in China, listed in his article some major facts outlining the fruits that have been reaped.In the newly-amended constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) adopted at October's 17th Party Congress, one of the landmark changes was that in the paragraph of "promoting socialist democracy", it said the Party "respects and safeguards human rights".It was the first time the CPC considered the development of human rights as an important aspect of national development.In November 1991, the Information Office under the State Council published its first-ever white paper entitled "Human Rights in China", stressing that full access of human rights was socialist China's "sublime goal".In March 2004, parliament adopted an amendment to the constitution that inserted the clause declaring "the state respects and safeguards human rights", putting human rights protection under the legal umbrella of the state.In March 2006, China for the first time wrote "human rights protection" in the country's national economic and social development plan as a part of the modernization drive.In his article Dong wrote: "Over the past five years, the most prominent progress in China's human rights protection is the 'mainstreamlization' and entry of human rights into the country's political life."The public's right to know, right to supervise has been constantly expanded. How state organs operate, how legislators work becomes increasingly transparent, Dong said.He pointed out that as a developing country with 1.3 billion population, China was still confined by historic, economic and social conditions. It had met many obstacles in the development of human rights."The economic, social and legal systems in China are far from mature and unbalanced development occurs between the rural and urban areas and among different regions," Dong said. He noted that "thorny issues in such aspects as employment, social security, income distribution, education, medicine, housing and safe production, had all effected public interests.However, he was confident that "human rights conditions in China would gradually improve along with the modernization process" as long as the country "unswervingly implements human rights protection principles and actively promotes democratic and legal construction".

At the end of a dusty narrow path cutting through a stretch of cornfields on the outskirts of Qingyang, an obscure town in Henan Province, looms a 3-hectare ground dotted with green tents, armored cars and bulldozers. Over the past three months, 315 Chinese engineering troops have gone through the rigors of tough day-night training here. And in a month from now, they will travel more than 8,000 km to Darfur in Sudan to be part of a special UN peacekeeping mission.Commander of UN Mission in Sudan Lieutenant General Jasbir Singh Lidder (L) hands over Unit Citations to Chinese peacekeepers for their excellent performance at the base of the Chinese peacekeeping troops on September 12, 2007. [Xinhua]The first international group of peacekeepers to be deployed in Darfur will build barracks, roads and bridges, and dig wells, which form the key to the accession of more UN peacekeepers to the region. The drills the engineering troops, with the UN's blue berets, perform in front a group of reporters from home and abroad show what they are capable of. In about 10 minutes, bulldozers and road-rollers smoothen a potholed path and soldiers use bare hands to move a 40-meter stretch of steel bridge into place over a ditch. In less than that time, another squad builds a cabin with prefabricated aluminum walls and a "UN" symbol on its side. On show, too, are impressive wrestling and battlefield aid performances."The engineering unit is manned by sturdy, versatile soldiers, mainly from the Jinan Military Area," says Lieutenant Colonel Dai Shaoan, deputy director of the Ministry of National Defense's peacekeeping affairs office. "They have wide experience in building roads and bridges and are fully competent for the mission."The Chinese troops are part of the "Annan Plan", a three-phased approach proposed by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to end the Darfur crisis. The plan calls for deploying a joint UN-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in the 500,000-square-km arid Darfur region, plagued by conflicts over limited resources. Their deployment has been made possible after a hard-won diplomatic tug-of-war.Dai says the UN invited China in April to dispatch a multi-functional engineering unit to Dafur. Four months later, the world body requested that the unit be dispatched in early October."We are doing the preparatory jobs in line with the prescribed timetable to guarantee smooth implementation of the peacekeeping operation," says engineering unit head Shangguan Linhong.The force comprises three engineering platoons, a platoon each of well-diggers and 40 guards, a small hospital unit, 145 vehicles including excavators, bulldozers, road-rollers, power generators and armored personnel carriers, Shangguan says. All the vehicles are "brand new" from domestic companies and have undergone strict tests in line with UN standards.Since its formation in mid-June, the engineering unit has attended intensive courses, from emergency aid to simulating heat in Darfur and from studying UN regulations to getting to know Sudanese culture. "Everyone in our unit can communicate in English to a certain extent," Shangguan says.The UN raised the alarm on Darfur in 2003, and began looking for a lasting resolution to the ethnic conflict. The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed in May 2006, thanks to intensive diplomatic and political efforts of the UN, AU and other partners. It took more than one year after that to persuade the Sudanese authorities to accept the UN-AU "hybrid" peacekeeping force.President Hu Jintao met with his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir in Beijing last November and in Khartoum in February, and asked him to be flexible in his stance over Darfur and ensure that humanitarian aid was distributed properly among the refugees. In March, when Sudan and the UN differed over the implementation of the Annan Plan, China sent a special envoy several times to Khartoum to persuade the government to accept the UN resolution."I think the Sudanese government heeded China's advice," China's special representative for Darfur Liu Guijin said at a press conference in early July. Sudan agreed in June to have the "hybrid" force in Darfur after intense diplomatic efforts of the UN and the international community. Besides, China offered million in humanitarian aid to Sudan, with the last installment leaving Tianjin last month.The latest situation in Darfur is a mixture of good and bad. The UN says the mortality rate in the region is now below the emergency level because of the massive humanitarian efforts of the last four years. Also, malnutrition has been halved from mid-2004, when the crisis reached its peak.But in June, the UN Environment Programme reported an "unprecedented" long-term climate change in northern Darfur, saying its impacts are closely linked to the conflict.This is a real challenge for the Chinese engineering troops, but they are not unnecessarily perturbed. In fact, they are ready to overcome all obstacles on the road to peace."The challenges ahead of our peacekeeping troops are obvious," says Dai. Poor living conditions, lack of proper infrastructure and complex security situations are the obvious challenges. "But our army has a glorious tradition of being hard-working, particularly combat-worthy and of playing a contributory role."Major Ma, an officer with the engineering troops, says Chinese soldiers see the UN peacekeeping operation as a glorious opportunity. "Implementing a mission so far from the country and being part of the efforts to maintain peace in the world is a unique experience."All the soldiers in the battalion which Ma used to serve in the Jinan Military Area had applied to be part of the engineering unit for Darfur, and they included 18-year-old recruits, he says, and they had the full support of their families.But is Ma worried about the dangers in Darfur? The major says: "What we think of most is how to do a nice job. Danger and difficulties are normal for servicemen."China's peacekeepers till nowSince dispatching five military observers to the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in 1990, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has sent 8,095 military personnel to 17 UN peacekeeping missions. Altogether, 1,648 Chinese officers and soldiers are serving in 10 UN missions and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations today.Lieutenant Colonel Dai Shaoan, deputy director of the Ministry of National Defense's peacekeeping affairs office, says China will participate only in those peacekeeping missions that are in line with the UN Charter, which means those operations overseen by the UN Security Council.China has contributed peacekeepers in the shape of engineers and medical and transport units. It has not sent any combat troops for peacekeeping operations.But Dai says China has a "positive" attitude towards sending combat troops for future UN peacekeeping operations.

Premier Wen Jiabao held talks Sunday with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in the capital Ashgabat, as both sides exchanged views in various fields including security, trade and economy, and cultural exchanges.Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (R) welcomes Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at a grand ceremony in the preseidential palace compound in Ashgabat on Sunday. [Xinhua]China-Turkmenistan relations have a long history and the ancient Silk Road is a strong bond linking the two countries, Wen said in his meeting with Berdymukhamedov. "China thanks Turkmenistan for its strong support in areas such as the Taiwan question, Tibet and 'East Turkistan' issues," Wen said, adding China will continue to support Turkmenistan's independence, sovereignty and economic development.Berdymukhamedov emphasized that strengthening Sino-Turkmen relations is in the interests of peoples in both countries and contributes to peace, stability and development in the region.He said Turkmenistan will work with China to expand collaboration in areas such as construction of oil and gas pipelines, transportation, telecommunication and textiles.The two leaders also witnessed the signing of two documents on the construction of fertilizer and glass plants.Turkmenistan is the second leg of Wen's four-nation trip, which has already taken him to Uzbekistan and will take him to Belarus and Russia.Wen arrived in Turkmenistan on Saturday after a two-day official visit to Uzbekistan where he attended the Sixth Meeting of Prime Ministers of Member States of Shanghai Cooperation Organization.The Chinese government regards Uzbekistan as a very important partner in Central Asia and will continue to promote the partnership on the basis of equality, mutual trust and benefit, and common development, Wen said in his meeting with his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyaev on Saturday.During his visit, China and Uzbekistan issued a joint communique pledging further efforts to strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields.Uzbekistan reaffirms its adherence to the one-China policy, and recognizes that the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing the whole of China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, the communiqu said."China reiterates its support to Uzbekistan and its leaders in their efforts to safeguard national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and uphold national dignity, and to maintain domestic stability and develop its national economy. China opposes any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Uzbekistan under the guise of 'human rights'," the communique said.Wen said he hopes Uzbekistan will work to improve the investment environment so that more Chinese companies could invest in the country and contribute to its economic development.The two prime ministers also attended the signing ceremony of 10 documents on closer cooperation in various fields including environmental protection, public health, water supply and finance.

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Fifty-two workers were trapped early Sunday when a torrent of mud and water engulfed a rail tunnel under construction in central China. Rescue teams managed to free 35 of the workers building the tunnel in Hubei province and the remaining 17 trapped about 200 metres (660 feet) below ground would soon be freed, the Xinhua New Agency added. Earlier reports said 38 workers were trapped in the accident Heavy rains have triggered severe flooding and mudslides across many areas of central China in recent weeks. According to Xinhua news agency, 78 people died and 18 are still missing after three days of downpours set off flash floods in Henan province in the past week. More than 700 people have been killed by floods, landslides and lightning this year in China, according to latest official figures that have yet to tally the past week's casualties.

BEIJING - China welcomed Sudan's acceptance of a joint African Union- United Nations peacekeeping force for the country's troubled Darfur region. A Sudanese diplomat in Ethiopia confirmed on Wednesday that Sudan has accepted the mission after receiving assurances that a "hybrid" AU-UN force of 17,000 to 19,000 troops will not be open-ended and Sudan will remain in control of its borders. "China welcomes the deployment of a hybrid AU-UN force in Darfur and the joint statement," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site late Wednesday. "The facts have shown that dialogue and equal negotiation is an effective approach to political solution of the Darfur issue, and the consultation between AU, UN and Sudan is an effective mechanism," Qin said. China recently appointed a special representative for Africa to focus on Darfur, and has publicly urged Khartoum to give the UN a greater role in trying to resolve the conflict. The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudanese leaders are accused of unleashing the pro-government Arab militia, the janjaweed, to fight them - a charge they deny.

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Many parts of China experienced extreme weather conditions including heatwaves, storms and floods last month, the China Metrological Administration (CMA) said on Friday.Vehicles drive along a flooded street in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province August 14, 2007. Downpours caused flooding in the city and paralyzed local transport. [Xinhua]Data indicated that last month's average temperature reached 21.6 C, 1.1 degrees warmer than usual. This is also the second-highest average temperature since 1951 and only 0.3 degrees lower than last August's average of 21.9 C, said Zhu Qiwen, deputy chief of the disaster forecasting and relief department of the CMA.Northwest China's Qinghai Province was hit by its worst heatwave since 1951, with high temperatures also roasting Beijing, Gansu, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.CMA head Zheng Guoguang said the country has been more frequently hit by extreme weather conditions this year.The conditions match predictions in a weather forecast report jointly published by the CMA, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.It says that China's average temperature rose by 0.5 to 0.8 degrees in the 20th century. And the extreme weather's frequency and intensity are all under dramatic change.The CMA's list of extreme weather events includes heavy rains and floods in East China's Shandong Province and Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region where rainfall increased 50 per cent. The severe flooding also triggered landslides, which resulted in 89 deaths in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.Further north and west, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Province and Chongqing Municipality suffered from ongoing droughts.Other events include lightning strikes that killed 109 and wounded another 43 last month. More than 588,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in Central China's Hunan Province in the wake of Typhoon Sepat, which has left two people dead and seven missing in the province. 

New statistics showing a continuous rise in house prices fly in the face of numerous media reports that domestic property prices have already started to decline in some cities.Policymakers should step up efforts to curb surging house prices now to avoid a later rush for homes in fear of further price hikes.Housing prices in 70 large- and medium-sized cities rose 10.5 percent year-on-year in November. The rise, 1 percentage point higher than that of October, hit a new high, undermining the government's efforts to stabilize house prices.As part of its macroeconomic controls to cool economic growth that is bordering on overheating, the government has introduced a host of tightening measures to rein in soaring house prices.For instance, the banking authorities recently made a strict definition of "second home" according to the property owned by the families of mortgage applicants rather than just the applicant.The rule will deal a heavy blow to speculative homebuyers as they will have to make a higher down payment and cannot enjoy preferential interest rates. In some cities, it was such speculative house purchases that considerably fuelled runaway property price hikes.Besides, the government also decided to adopt a tight monetary policy to check credit growth. In the absence of easy access to bank loans, it is believed that some developers may cut prices to promote sales due to liquidity concerns instead of hoarding houses for fatter profits.Under such circumstances, media reports from across show the country that house sales are shrinking and prices are plunging in cities that once boasted jaw-dropping amounts.It is surely not difficult for these reports to find an audience. Rocketing house prices in recent years have made home ownership a heavier than ever burden for most potential buyers.However, the latest house price data has proved it is only too premature to conclude that the property market has reached a turning point. The November figure indicates that the momentum of property price hikes in major cities remains strong.Only when the government substantially increases the supply of affordable homes for low-income groups and provides more land lots for development can the imbalance of demand and supply in the property market be addressed.