Flags are to be kept at half-mast and all public amusements will be suspended for three days from Monday as China begins an official mourning period for victims of the May 12 earthquake.

The State Council, the Cabinet, on Sunday ordered a nationwide display of respect for the dead. The Olympic torch relay will also be suspended from Monday to Wednesday till May 22, the Olympic organizing committee said.

BRDO, Slovenia, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) foreign ministers rejected on Saturday the call for a boycott of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games over the Tibet issue.

"We are separating the issue of human rights dialogue, intercultural dialogue and so on from events like Olympic Games and participation in those," Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU presidency, told reporters after a two-day meeting here with his EU colleagues.

www.chinaview.cn

BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Beijing consumers spent about 1.91billion yuan in shopping malls, supermarkets and the catering sector from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9, the first four days of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

The consumers spent 367 million yuan on Saturday, up 10 percent from the previous day, according to the Beijing Commercial information Consulting Center, a well-known consultant for local consumption.

BEIJING (AFP) — Beijing is about to extend a ban on smoking in public places ahead of the Olympic Games despite the Chinese capital's image as a paradise for smokers who have faced few restrictions on where they can light up.

According to a draft bill published on a municipal legal affairs website, the majority of public places, such as restaurants, schools, hospitals, stations, libraries and museums will have to be non-smoking.

Hotels will also have to reserve at least 70 percent of their rooms for non-smokers.

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Beijing Olympics organizers plan to set up 26 cultural squares across the city where local citizens and visitors can enjoy the greatest sporting event on Earth.

Big screens are to be erected at each of the squares to relay live broadcasts of the Olympic Games, and various performances and exhibitions, Olympic-themed souvenir exchanges will also be held at the squares.

 BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The expansion project of the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) passed a final inspection by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Tuesday, marking the successful end of the work that started three years and nine months ago.

Jonathan King says that Beijing is often seen as the cultural city with Shanghai touted as more of a commercial entity.

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 By David Eimer on Hainan Island

It has taken five years of strutting and posing, and an annual fee believed to be worth £2 million, but China has achieved another of its global ambitions when a 23-year-old from Beijing was crowned Miss World.

Zi Lin Zhang, from Beijing, beat the other 105 contestants to become the first Chinese winner and the 57th Miss World, waving elegantly to her fans as the result was announced in Sanya, China.

Hiroyuki Sugiyama Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

BEIJING--The Chinese government has denied recent reports in European newspapers saying that athletes participating in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing would be prohibited from taking the Bible and other religious material into the athletes' village.

At a regular news conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said: "It's a groundless rumor. I believe there are people who don't want the Olympics held in China to be successful."

Cultural dos and don'ts, plus a handy phrase book that introduces you to the language and local argot.

Dos and Don'ts:

"Saving face," or avoiding unappealing public displays, is important in China, but perhaps more lax in Beijing because of the extreme expressiveness and no-holds-barred animation of the regional character, and the influx of a rough-and-tumble rural migrant population. Still, avoid intentional provocation, and keep complaints, criticisms, or disagreements polite and discreet.