Down goes a power plant

Heilongjiang Daily
December 24, 2007

Today's Heilongjiang Daily features a front page photo of the demolition of a oil-fueled power plant.

Six giant towers fell to directional blasting yesterday at Daqing Oil Field's Longfeng Power Station. The facility will be replaced with a new eco-friendly plant in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The paper's top headline announces that the personal income tax threshold will be increased to 2,000 yuan per month. The NPC Standing Committee, which met yesterday, drafted a regulation to raise the threshold, which currently stands at 1,600 yuan a month.

Other headlines:

• The annual Central Rural Work Conference concluded yesterday. Rural infrastructure, agricultural development, and farmers' income were on the agenda at the meeting.
• Harbin's ice sculpture exhibition opened to the public yesterday.

Heilongjiang Daily is the voice of the Heilongjiang provincial party committee. Party and government organizations have to fill annual subscription quotas for party newspapers, and renewal drives start up at the end of every year (see last year's PLA Daily notice).

In the lower-left corner of today's front page is a chart that shows how Heilongjiang's administrative districts are doing on their subscription goals (as of 21 December). The Guangming Daily is apparently far more popular than the People's Daily (or else it has a better subscription office), but Heilongjiang Daily itself doesn't seem to be doing so well. Fendou (奋斗) is Heilongjiang's party magazine.

Congratulations to Suihua, a small, relatively poor city, for achieving all of its goals early!

Here's a larger scan of the Chinese original.