The Beijing News
April 13, 2009

Many of China's newspapers today covered the crash of a helicopter on Sunday near the Shanghai Port, with the Beijing News using a big headline and annotated illustration explaining how the accident happened.

The crashed aircraft is the onboard helicopter of research vessel Xue Long a.k.a. Snow Dragon, a Ukrainian-manufactured icebreaker that has undertaken multiple polar research missions since 1993 and just returned from its latest voyage to Antarctic.

The weather was reported to have been good; the cause of the accident is undetermined. A mechanic was reported missing while the rest of the crew survived.

In other news, state-sponsored medical services have been getting a lot of media space as a new round of health-care reform is supposedly underway to extend universal medical care to all citizens.

The headline underneath the big photo reads "85% of migrant workers still choose illegal clinics as their first choice". Despite the news that a man recently died after an intravenous infusion administered by a unlicensed doctor in Beijing, most workers would still choose "black clinics" when they need medical attention.

Another widely-reported news item is the death of Yan Huaili, an actor who played the role of the Sand Monk or Sand Friar (沙悟净) in the 1982 TV adaption of the classic Journey to the West.

One of the first blockbusters of China's emerging TV industry in the 1980s, the much-loved classic tales 1983 TV version was a sensational hit back then and is still aired by many TV stations nowadays.