February 4, 2008
A soldier with a flame thrower melts ice off frozen power-lines in Yunnan on the cover of today’s Qilu Evening News.
Transportation and electricity continue to be problems following severe winter storms in many parts of the country. Today’s major announcement from the authorities was a determination by the Politburo to work at restoring power and eliminating obstacles to normal transportation “through all possible means”. Most papers led with that Xinhua report; Qilu Evening News gave it prominent placement next to the banner. See China Daily’s report for more information.
Another storm-related headline on the left-hand side says that 12.46 million migrant workers will remain in Guangdong for the Spring Festival.
The paper’s top headline today is more comforting to local readers: weather in Shandong will not be overly cold for the Spring Festival, and snowfall will be light.
In other news, a rural woman in Shaanxi is getting simultaneous heart, liver, and kidney transplants. And the big headline at the bottom of the page reports that a migrant worker who bought a lottery ticket when he couldn’t obtain a train ticket home ended up winning 3.41 million yuan.