Despite Nasty Spill, A Chinese City Says Ice Show Will Go On
Fouled Waters, Angry Russians
Don't Spoil Festival Plans;
Search for 30,000 Tons
HARBIN, China -- Just south of Siberia here, a strange Russian tableau has sprung up. There's a statue of Lenin, a replica of the summer palace in St. Petersburg, and a mock Red Square, all made out of ice.
Frigid Harbin is carrying on with its popular ice festivities, despite conditions that could make a tourism director flee to warmer climes. The northern Chinese city is just getting over a horrific chemical spill, and people in Russia -- whose culture is being celebrated at this year's events -- are angry at Harbin for sending fouled waters their way.
"You can't hide this pollution problem. We admitted it was there. But it will not impact our work," says Zhu Xiaodong, organizer of the annual Ice Lantern Festival, which officially begins this week and lasts about a month.
That festival and a number of other ice events in Harbin have become an unlikely tourist hit in recent years. They draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, even though temperatures can dip to 40 degrees below zero.
In November, an explosion at a chemical plant spilled benzene into the Songhua River, which runs past Harbin. The city was forced to shut off its water supplies for five days, and the benzene flowed into the Amur River and past the Russian city of Khabarovsk in Siberia. China's top leaders had to apologize to Russia.
The episode turned Harbin into a symbol of China's environmental woes. Nonetheless, the city has gone ahead with its festivities and their long-planned theme: Sino-Russian friendship.
Mr. Zhu's biggest immediate need in the wake of the spill was 30,000 tons of safe frozen water. "I could barely sleep -- my mind was racing. But I didn't consider canceling," he recalls. Fortunately, his team uses ice from a tributary of the Songhua, not from the river itself, and after several days of tests the water was declared safe to use.
Harbin's chemical spill threatens China's $27 billion tourist industry just as the Bali terror bombings hurt Indonesia and the tsunami a year ago damaged Thailand, says Yin Min, president of the Academy of Tourism Development at Beijing International Studies University. Outside Harbin, other Chinese attractions face trouble from environmental woes. Xian, home of the famous terra-cotta warriors, often smells from the coal-burning cooking fires and power plants that keep its skies gray. A giant dam project is undoing one of China's best-known natural attractions, the Three Gorges.
Last month, a second spill at a zinc smelter threatened water supplies in the huge metropolis of Guangzhou, which receives many business travelers.
For Harbin, the ice festival is big business, providing 5% of the city's annual income, according to the provincial government. Since 1963, the city has played host to international ice and snow-carving competitions in the city center and along the banks of the Songhua. Only during the decade-long chaos of the Cultural Revolution did the festivities get shut down.
Visitors are urged to buy thickly padded long johns and the toasty warm boots the locals wear. Drivers compare the roads to ice-skating rinks.
Before the spill, city officials had hoped to attract a million visitors, about 20% more than last year. Now that looks difficult. Tourist agencies say the number of Russians coming to the festival has fallen compared with last year, when extra rail cars had to be added to handle the crush coming south.
"The foreigners don't believe the government. The foreigners will come back once they hear the experts' opinion," says Jia Jihai, who owns a bar called USABucks. "Usually, this place is packed. But look, it's empty now." His bar is lined with thousands of American license plates, beer coasters and pages from Life magazine. Mr. Jia continues to use only bottled mineral water at home for cooking and drinking.
Mr. Zhu, the Ice Lantern Festival organizer, has spent much of his time trying to reassure tourist agencies and the public that now is a good time to visit Harbin.
At his festival, three thousand workers have put together an elaborate show with ice sculptures of Russian churches and monkey kings from China's classic novels. There are also delicate carvings of swans, dragons, lions and laughing Buddhas.
Across the river at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, another one of Harbin's ice events, visitors recently inched across a vast ice Red Square lit from below in red, yellow and blue. Ahead was the Kremlin and to the right a 660-foot-long ice slide for the daring. Loudspeakers blasted Chinese-language versions of Russian classics. A handful of fur-clad Russians tottered about.
Tio Waluyo Setiono, a tour guide from Jakarta leading 19 Indonesians across China, said his group was concerned about the pollution, but decided to come anyway. "I went to Jordan after the bombings there. I went to Jerusalem," he said. "I could be killed crossing the street. I'm not afraid."
冰雪盛会依旧 污染顾虑尤存
2006年01月05日16:05
在西伯利亚正南方的哈尔滨，出现了一处奇怪的俄罗斯风情景观，这里有列宁雕像、有圣彼得堡的沙皇夏宫、还有红场，而所有这一切都是用冰块制成的。
虽然哈尔滨的寒冷天气可能促使人们选择到更加温暖的其它地方旅游，但这里一年一度的冰雪节依然如期拉开了帷幕。这座中国北方城市刚刚经历了一次可怕的化学品泄漏事件，污染物还随江水流向了俄罗斯，让俄罗斯人十分不满，不过，俄罗斯风情恰恰正是今年冰雪节的一个主题。
今年冰灯节的组织者朱晓东表示，污染问题是无法回避的，我们也承认出现了这样的事件，但它不会影响我们的工作。冰雪节本周正式开幕，将持续一个月的时间。
近年来，哈尔滨的冰雪节以及其他与冰雪有关的活动出人意料地成为了旅游的热点，每年，数十万游客不顾零下40度的寒冷天气到来这里观赏冰雪美景。
去年11月份，一家化工厂发生爆炸，大量的苯被泄漏到流经哈尔滨市的松花江里，导致哈尔滨被迫停水5天，受污染的江水还汇入了阿穆尔河，流向俄罗斯位于西伯利亚的城市哈巴罗夫斯克。中国政府领导人已就此事向俄罗斯道歉。
这一事件使哈尔滨变成了中国环境污染事故的焦点。不管怎样，今年的哈尔滨冰雪节依然如期举行了，很久以前就确定的中俄友谊的主题也没有改变。
由于苯泄漏事件的发生，朱晓东最感头痛的就是如何获得3万吨未被污染的冰块。“我晚上几乎都睡不著觉，脑子里在不停地想事情，不过我从未考虑过放弃。”他回忆道。幸运的是，他的团队从离松花江干流不远处的一个支流取到了冰块，经过几天的检测，确定了这些冰块是安全的。
北京第二外国语学院(Beijing International Studies University)旅游发展研究院院长殷敏表示，哈尔滨化学品泄漏事件威胁到了中国总规模为270亿美元的旅游市场，就如巴厘岛爆炸事件损害了印尼的旅游业、一年前的海啸摧毁了泰国的旅游市场一样。在中国其他城市，环境污染问题也给旅游业带来了负面影响。在以兵马俑扬名天下的西安市，空气里经常弥漫著煤炭燃烧后的气味，天空总是灰蒙蒙地一片。三峡大坝水利项目正在让中国最著名自然景观之一──三峡美景逐渐消失。
上月，中国一个锌冶炼厂再次发生泄漏事件，威胁到了广州市的正常供水。作为中国重要的经济中心之一，广州每天要接待大量的商务旅行者。
冰雪节是哈尔滨一项重要的活动，据省政府的数据，哈尔滨市的年收入中有5%来自冰雪节。自1963年以来，哈尔滨几乎每年都在市中心和松花江沿岸举办国际冰雕比赛，只在文化大革命期间中断过数年。
游客们被鼓动著购买加厚的棉衣裤和暖和的棉鞋，就象当地人一样。司机把哈尔滨的街道路面比喻成了溜冰场。
在水污染事故发生前，哈尔滨市政府的官员曾希望今年的冰雪节能吸引100万游客，较上年增加20%以上。但现在看来这一目标将很难达到。旅行社表示，来冰灯节参观的俄罗斯游客数量较上年有所下降，当时大量俄罗斯游客蜂拥而至，铁路客运列车不得不加挂车厢来增加运力。
贾济海（音）是一家名为USABucks的酒吧的老板，他说，“俄罗斯人并不相信中国政府，只有专家的意见才能让他们重新回来。通常这里都挤满了人，而现在，看看，到处都是空荡荡的。”他的酒吧里挂满了数千个美国汽车牌照、啤酒杯垫以及从《生活杂志》(Life)上弄下来的图片。无论是做饭和饮用，贾济海现在依然只用瓶装矿泉水。
冰雪节的组织者朱晓东用了大量的时间试图说服旅行社和公众，让他们相信现在是来哈尔滨旅游的大好时机。
在冰灯节三千名工作人员的努力下，一个个做工精制的冰雕作品呈现在人们眼前，有俄罗斯教堂、中国古典小说中的孙悟空，还有天鹅、龙、狮子和弥勒佛等。
河对面是另一个与冰雪有关的活动──哈尔滨冰雪节。在这里，游客们小心翼翼地穿过宽阔的冰雕红场，冰下面点缀著红、黄、蓝三色彩灯。前面是克里姆林宫，右边是为勇敢者准备的660英尺长的冰雪滑道。扩音器里播放的是中文版的俄罗斯经典歌曲。几个穿著皮大衣的俄罗斯人正在踉踉跄跄地走著。
来自雅加达的Tio Waluyo Setiono是一位导游，他带领著由19名印尼人组成的旅游团来到中国旅游。他说，他的团员对于水污染事件非常担心，但最后还是决定来了。“我在约旦爆炸事件发生后就去了那里，并且还去了耶路撒冷，我在那里的街头有可能被打死，但我并不害怕。”
(back)Rising confidence, falling rates drive South Koreans to stocks
SEOUL -- Last summer, Cho Mi Sun took the plunge. For the first time in her life, the 26-year-old marketing executive poured money into something she once considered too dangerous and unpredictable: the South Korean stock market.
Ms. Cho is putting about $800 each month into mutual-fund accounts run by banks. "I used to have installment savings, but the interest rates were so low," Ms. Cho says. "I saw the stock market going up...so I decided to take the risk because the returns could be higher."
South Koreans, long reluctant to put their money into equities, are discovering stocks in droves. This mobilization of domestic capital by individuals and institutional investors is having a significant effect on Seoul's once-lackluster stock markets.
The flood of new money helped push the Korea Stock Exchange's benchmark index up 54% last year, making it the top-performing equity market in Asia despite continued weakness in the national economy and in the absence of a drastic shift in the fortunes of listed companies.
Yesterday, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index hit its fourth-straight record, closing up 7.24 points, or 0.5%, at 1,402.11.
"People's appetite for risk has increased, so there is more willingness to put assets into equities," says Rhee Nam Uh, an analyst at Merrill Lynch in Seoul, citing increased consumer-confidence levels.
The investment trend is a good omen for the stock market, and it indicates that Koreans are recovering from their credit-card spending spree earlier this decade. Instead of continuing their buying binge, consumers are investing their household cash, another indication that consumer confidence in the economy is picking up.
The amount of money invested by South Korean funds in local equities more than tripled to 26.2 trillion won, or about $26 billion, last year, from 8.6 trillion won in 2004, according the Asset Management Association of Korea, an industry group.
"This is definitely positive for the Korean market," says Park Woong, a managing director at Woori Investment & Securities Co., a unit of Woori Finance Holdings. "The local money inflow will make a difference" in a market whose direction often has been set by foreign buying and selling.
Many analysts say they expect the trend to keep going, with more South Koreans investing more in the equity markets directly and through mutual funds. This year, there is likely to be an added boost from a change in retirement-fund rules, which may encourage equity investment.
"There's a more mature financial system in Korea now," says Garry Pieters, executive vice president in the asset-management department of ING Life Korea. Mr. Pieters expects the market to keep rising, with long-term players replacing speculators. He says the KOSPI could hit 1600 by the end of 2006.
Of course, there are risks. A sharp rise in interest rates or a severe drop in consumption in the U.S. -- a big market for South Korean exporters such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor -- could dent investor confidence. So could a big corporate accounting scandal.
Still, Woori's Mr. Park believes South Koreans' interest in equities is here to stay. "This is a structural change," he says. Market fluctuations could damp enthusiasm in the short run, he says. "But in the long term, this kind of participation will continue."
Mr. Park says that in 2004, 6% of Koreans owned stock. He says that number is estimated to have hit about 8% in 2005, and that it could reach 20% to 30% over the next several years.
Firms such as Mr. Park's are certainly doing their best to encourage the trend. Asset-management companies and commercial banks have put on a full-court marketing press, trying to sell customers on various kinds of mutual funds.
In 1999, the South Korean government began allowing banks to sell mutual funds. But it wasn't until recently that bankers -- pressured by low interest rates and a dearth of credit-worthy borrowers -- started focusing on their securities-selling businesses.
They have found a receptive market among members of South Korea's growing middle class, now hitting their 30s and 40s, who have become more willing to consider equity investments. One reason is record-low interest rates -- now 3.5%, with the Bank of Korea next meeting Jan. 12 -- which have damped the returns on standard savings accounts and bonds.
A second is that government measures aimed at curbing real-estate speculation have made property, long a mainstay of middle-class portfolios, less attractive as an investment option. South Koreans also are able now to open retirement-savings accounts tied to equity investing.
South Korea's largest commercial bank, Kookmin Bank, in 2003 started selling something known as an installment equity fund. Customers contract to deposit a certain amount of money monthly into an account, a portion of which is invested in equity funds.
Kookmin says the amount it handles in these accounts has reached 3.1 trillion won, up from 1.1 trillion won in 2004. A poster hanging in bank branches touting the accounts uses the slogan: "Security and profits."
利率下降，股市获益
Cho Mi Sun的冒险始于去年夏天。这位26岁的销售主管有生以来第一次投资韩国股市──她曾经认为风险过高而且前景难料的领域。
Cho Mi Sun每月向由银行管理的共同基金帐户投入约800美元。她说，“我从前的投资方式是零存整取储蓄，但利率实在太低了。我注意到股市在上扬……于是决定冒险，因为它的回报更丰厚。”
迟迟不愿投资股市的韩国人如今纷纷入市。韩国国内散户和机构投资者的资金涌入极大地改变了曾一度萧条的韩国股票市场。
新的资金涌入使韩国证券交易所(Korea Stock. Exchange)的基准指数在去年上涨了54%，韩国股市于是成为亚洲表现最好的市场──虽然韩国经济持续疲软而且上市公司的状况也没有发生重大转变。
周三，韩国综合股价指数(Korea Composite Stock Price Index)实现了连续四天的上涨，涨7.24点至1,402.11点，涨幅0.5%。
美林公司(Merrill Lynch)驻首尔的分析师Rhee Nam Uh谈到消费者信心指数上升的情况时表示，“人们比从前敢于冒险了，所以投资股市的意愿也更强烈了。”
这个投资潮流对股市而言无疑是个好兆头，这也意味著韩国人正在从十年前那场信用卡支出狂潮中走出来。消费者不再热衷于过度的信用卡消费，他们开始用家庭收入投资，这说明消费者对韩国经济的信心正在增强。
据行业团体Asset Management Association of Korea统计，2005年韩国基金对韩国股票的投资额比2004年的8.6万亿圆增长了两倍多，达26.2万亿圆（约合260亿美元）。
Woori Finance Holdings旗下Woori Investment & Securities Co.的董事总经理Park Woong说，“这对韩国市场来讲无疑是个好消息，”对于一直被外国投资者左右的韩国市场而言，“本地资金的涌入将使其发生重大转变。”
许多分析师认为这种趋势还将继续，因为会有更多韩国人直接或通过共同基金投资股市。今年退休基金政策的变化也有望推动股市投资。
ING Life Korea资产管理副总裁加里?彼得斯(Garry Pieters)说，“韩国金融系统现在更加成熟了。”彼得斯认为随著长期投资者逐渐取代投机者成为市场主力，股市还将继续上扬。他说，韩国综合股价指数2006年年底可能会达到1600点。
当然风险依然存在。美国利率的大幅上调或者消费的猛烈下滑都会打击投资者的信心，因为美国是三星电子(Samsung Electronic)和现代汽车公司(Hyundai Motor Co.)等韩国出口商的主要市场。另外，大公司的会计丑闻也会影响投资者的信心。
不过Park Woong认为韩国投资者对股市的兴趣不会消退。他说，“这是个结构性的变化，”市场波动在短期内可能打击投资者的热情，“但是长期来看，投资者还将继续入市。”
Park Woong说，2004年的时候只有6%的韩国人拥有股票，而在2005年这个数字估计已经提高到了8%，而几年以后则有可能达到20%至30%。
Park Woong所在的这类公司当然会不遗余力地为这股潮流推波助澜。资产管理公司和商业银行正竭尽全力地展开营销，向客户兜售各种共同基金。
1999年，韩国政府开始允许银行出售共同基金。但是直到最近银行家们──迫于利率降低以及缺乏高信用度的贷款人──才开始致力于证券销售。
银行家们在韩国日益壮大的中产阶级中找到了知音，这些三、四十岁的中产阶级比以往更愿意投资股市。一个原因是利率达到了历史低点──现在的利率是3.5%，韩国央行(Bank of Korea)的下次会议定于1月12日举行──这减少了传统储蓄帐户和债券的收益。
另一个原因就是政府控制房地产投机的措施使地产投资──长期以来中产阶级投资组合的主要组成部分──吸引力下降。韩国人现在还可以利用退休储蓄帐户投资股市。
韩国最大的商业银行韩国国民银行(Kookmin Bank)从2003年开始销售一种名为“分期缴付股票基金”(installment equity fund)的投资组合。客户约定每月存入一笔款项，其中的一部分用作股市投资。
韩国国民银行表示这类帐户的存款额已经达到了3.1万亿圆，而2004年的存款额只有1.1万亿圆。一家银行的营业所悬挂起这样的推广标语：“安全获利。”
