Beijing Times
October 26, 2007

The top headline of today's Beijing Times announces than the train departure interval on the Batong subway line has been reduced by 30 seconds to 3 minutes, 30 seconds now. This is the shortest possible interval at present, say subway officials. Following the move to low-cost, 2 yuan fares on October 7, passenger volume on the Batong line is 47% more than at this time last year.

The front page photo shows people crowding round to see a new "statue" on the pedestrian street at Wangfujing. The statue, of Lao She's famous rickshaw puller Xiangzi, is actually a real person wearing special bronzed clothing. He's there as part of a cultural festival that runs for nine days at Wangfujing.

Other headlines:

• The Chang'e I satellite successfully completed its first orbit maneuver yesterday. According to the article, the satellite needs to conduct ten orbital maneuvers during its flight. It is expected to enter the earth-moon transfer orbit on Oct.31, and to be in orbit around the moon on November 5;
• A journalist found that one small shop in Dongba, Chaoyang District, has been selling expired food from Wal-Mart for the last two years. According to the article, the shop's supplies come from Wal-Mart's Zhichun Road branch. A Wal-Mart PR official stated that they contract another company to destroy their expired food, and hence they know nothing about this.