• The Taiwan-based EVA Air, entrusted by the island's authority to ship two giant pandas from the mainland, announced that its panda charter plane will leave on Dec. 22 and come back next day.
• A BEIJING based travel agency promoting two "space tours" has failed to receive any applicants thus far and perhaps the out of this world prices are to blame.
• The winner of a Hangzhou radio station competition will not only get a car to drive for ten years for free, but can also choose a popular hostess as their driving partner for four days.

• German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz's car sales grew by 52 percent in China in the first 11 months of this year to 35,200 vehicles, beating its yearly sales target one month in advance.
• China decided to build its largest nuclear power plant in Yangjiang, Guangdong province on November 12th.
• To prevent the country's ailing economy from slipping further into recession, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate on Tuesday to 0.25 and approved a 75-basis-point US dollar decrease.

• Chinese filmmaker Feng Xiaogang has laid aside his planned comedy "The nobles" and is planning a film about the deadly Tangshan earthquake in 1976.
• THE biggest box-office hit in Taiwan this year will soon be shown on the mainland despite previous media reports the film may be blocked due to its Japan-flavored storyline.
• "Twilight" fans have a short wait for the next installment of the vampire saga.
• Chinese A-list actress Fan Bingbing was recently spotted having dinner with U.S. award-winning director Oliver Stone in Beijing, sparking rumours she might get her first Hollywood movie deal.

Raise on tobacco tax 

What effect would an extra 1 yuan consumer tax on a pack of cigarettes have? Experts say this tax increase would reduce China's smokers by more than 13 million. As a result, more than 3 million lives will be saved from cigarette-inflicted diseases. In addition, government revenue from the tax will rise by nearly 65 million yuan. The proposal ignited heated discussion.