Alibaba Testing Robopocalyptic Drone Delivery Service in Beijing, Shanghai & Guangzhou

In a move possibly meant to catch up with foreign counterparts such as Amazon, Alibaba Group’s Taobao — the largest online-shopping website in China — has tested using drones to deliver goods.

The company is offering the trial service, which is free of charge, from Wednesday to Friday to 450 Taobao buyers of ginger black tea, costing 49 yuan ($7.80) per box, according to Alibaba’s corporate news site Alizila.

The trial took place in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the three largest cities in mainland China, while the drones were provided by Shanghai YTO Express Logistics Co., Alibaba’s Alizila said.

The first box of ginger tea was delivered by a drone in Beijing on Wednesday, with the course navigation pre-set on the drone’s GPS. It took off from a branch of the express company in a Beijing suburb and buzzed the city before arriving at its destination, a video on the Alizila site showed.

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China, Russia Considering Moscow-Beijing High Speed Rail Link

China and Russia are considering building a high-speed rail line thousands of kilometres from Moscow to Beijing that would cut the journey time from six days on the celebrated Trans-Siberian to two, Chinese media reported Friday.

The project would cost more than $230 billion and be over 7,000 kilometres (4,350 miles) long, the Beijing Times reported -- more than three times the world's current longest high-speed line, from the Chinese capital to the southern city of Guangzhou.

The railway would be a powerful physical symbol of the ties that bind Moscow and Beijing, whose political relationship has roots dating from the Soviet era and who often vote together on the UN Security Council.

They have strengthened their relationship as Western criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin mounts over Ukraine and other issues.

The two signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this week during Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Moscow in which Beijing expressed interest in building a fast rail link between the Russian capital and Kazan in the oil-rich Tatarstan region, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.

The 803-kilometre line would be the first stage of the route to Beijing, CCTV said.

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China to ban Coal Burning by 2020 in Beijing

China's smog-plagued capital has announced plans to ban the use of coal by the end of 2020 as the country fights deadly levels of pollution, especially in major cities.

Beijing's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posted the plan on its website Monday, saying the city would instead prioritize electricity and natural gas for heating.

The official Xinhua News Agency said coal accounted for a quarter of Beijing's energy consumption in 2012 and 22 percent of the fine particles floating in the city's air. Motor vehicles, industrial production and general dust also contributed to pollution in the 21 million-person city.

Even with the Beijing ban, coal use is expected to soar in China. Coal-fired power and heating is a major generator of greenhouse gases and has helped turn China into the world's largest emitter of carbon and other heat-trapping gases.

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Beijing to Cut Number of Cars Sold in 2014

China's capital, Beijing, infamous for its thick smog and heavy traffic, will slash the city's new car sales quotas by almost 40 percent next year, as it looks to curb vehicle emissions and hazardous levels of pollution, the city government website said.

The change in policy gives greater support for new, cleaner cars and could strengthen foreign carmakers' determination to accelerate growth in China's less crowded lower-tier cities.

In the last month alone, high levels of pollution have forced China to all but shut down the northeastern city of Harbin, a major urban center with a population of 11 million.

Over the next four years, Beijing will issue 150,000 new license plates annually, down from 240,000 each year now, according to the city government's website. Car buyers must put on plates before they are allowed to drive on Chinese roads.

That means Beijing's new passenger vehicles sales during the 2014-2017 period will be capped at 600,000 units, few than the city's vehicle sales in 2010 alone.

In addition, the government will allot a higher proportion of license plates every year to buyers of new-energy vehicles that need lower amounts of gasoline or use alternative energy. This could benefit electric automakers such as BYD Co Ltd.

The number of plates for such vehicles will triple from 20,000 in 2014, to 60,000 in 2017, accounting for 40 percent of that year's total plate quota.

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I wonder what the economic knock effects of cutting back the sales....