GUANGZHOU -- Wu Jianchong, 25, hoped to find a job in Shenzhen, 200 km from his hometown, and he could not wait for Spring Festival to end and his job hunt to begin.I want a stable, nine-to-five job, he said.From Jieshi Township, notorious for illegal trade in old clothes smuggled from overseas, from his high school days, Wu helped his parents collect, clean and sell such clothes.In July, the government banned imports of 24 categories of waste, including textiles. Jieshi bore the brunt of the crackdowns on smuggling that followed.Now, like Wu, many villagers who were involved in the trade have switched or plan to switch to other jobs.?CAST-OFF HEAVENWith a population of 260,000, Jieshi had over 5,000 clothing shops, with up to 50,000 people involved.The business began shortly after reform and opening up, as Jieshi locals working in Hong Kong and Macao brought cast-off garments back to their hometown.For more than 30 years, used clothes were smuggled to Jieshi, welcomed by locals, since the business required little capital or technology.Wu Zhijian made more than 200 yuan (31.5 U.S. dollars) a day, with each garment priced at two or three yuan, but the days of villages brimming with second-hand clothing wholesalers are a thing of the past.In 2017, 3,279 shops and 3,017 sorting site were closed, and more than 9,000 tonnes of textiles seized, according to Chen Qinghe, an official in Lufeng City, which administers Jieshi.Customs officers claimed that, from unknown sources and without proper disinfection or quarantine, the old clothes are pollutants and a health hazard health.Villagers handling the waste clothing are vulnerable to respiratory diseases, said Lin Kunlian, head of Jieshi government. We must end the business.NEW JOBS FOR OLDAs the old moneymaker crumbled, the local government offered help, organizing three job fairs for villagers. Participating companies, including the leading new energy vehicle maker BYD, have recruited more than 600 people and shown interest in more than 1,900 others.The government plans to building a food mall and a hardware industrial park, according to Xu Weiming, mayor of Lufeng.In addition, a local middle school will be transformed into a vocational school to prepare job seekers.Now, Wu Zhijian works as a carpenter. He and his wife, a supermarket employee, can earn more than 4,000 yuan a month.Sure, there is dust when I work with wood, but it is not as choking as the dust I breathed when unfolding the waste clothes, he said. custom wristbandsevent wristbands
A model of China's satellite communications network is on display at an expo in Beijing, Sept 22, 2015. [Photo/VCG] Satellites to provide broadband internet access in remote areas China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the nation's largest missile-maker, will launch a test satellite this year as part of an effort to build a vast space-based communications network capable of covering the entire globe with broadband internet service. Lyu Dongming, chairman of CASIC Space Engineering Development Co, said on Thursday in Wuhan, Hubei province, that a satellite will be launched into low-Earth orbit before the end of this year to demonstrate the low-orbit broadband communication technology to be used in the Hongyun satellite family. Lyu's company was established in December as a subsidiary of the CASIC Second Academy. It is tasked with the research, design and production of small, low-orbiting satellites and new-generation cargo spacecraft. It is also responsible for marketing its satellites' broadband communications services. The satellite to be launched this year was built at the company's research and production complex in Beijing and is undergoing extensive tests there, Lyu said. A vice-president of CASIC Space Engineering Development, who asked to be identified as Bei, said the satellite has a liftoff weight of 260 kilograms and is designed to last a year. It will carry Ka-band transponders and transmission antennas and will be powered by solar arrays. Lifted into orbit by a Kuaizhou 11 solid-fuel rocket, also made by CASIC, the satellite will be used to verify the company's technology to transmit large quantities of data between low-orbiting communications satellites and users on the ground. The company has begun work on four Hongyun satellites, which are designed for mass production and are expected to be in orbit before the end of 2020. Together, they will form a small network for Hongyun's trial run, Lyu said. The Hongyun project, initiated by CASIC in September 2016, aims to build a space-based communications network of 156 small satellites in orbits about 1,000 kilometers above the ground that will become operational around 2025. After the constellation of satellites takes shape, users who pay will be able to make calls and connect to the internet anywhere in the world via a portable device, Bei said, noting that access to telecommunication and the internet are generally unavailable in deserts, on small islands and in polar regions. He said the system will feature lower production and operational costs and lower occurrence of data transmission delays compared with existing communications satellite networks. Zhang Zhongyang, president of the CASIC Second Academy, said Hongyun will enable users to enjoy broadband internet service whether they are in the desert, on the ocean or aboard an airliner.
