This is News Plus Special English. I’m Marc Cavigli in Beijing. Here is the news.
The essay that President Xi Jin-ping wrote in memory of a deceased writer and a friend of his offers a unique glimpse into the top Chinese leader's inner world and his philosophy of governance.
The Guang Ming Daily newspaper whose target audience is Chinese intellectuals, dedicated a whole page last week to three essays, including the president's.
The essay, written in 1998, was in memory of Jia Da-shan, a local official and writer in Zheng-ding County in north China's Hebei Province.
In his essay, President Xi recalls that Jia was the first local farmer he met after he took the position as the top party official of the county government in 1982.
President Xi says that Jia often shared "unique, insightful analyses and reasonable advice on social issues that people had strong reactions to".
Jia was then a civil servant and amateur writer. He was soon appointed head of the county's cultural bureau and turned out to be a good leader, overseeing the construction of many cultural facilities and the renovation of numerous ancient cultural heritage sites.
Jia was not a Party member, and in the 1980s, it was uncommon for a non-Party member to become a director of a government department.
Literary analysts say this showed the courage of President Xi in using talents for governance despite their different political beliefs.
The two maintained their friendly relation for many years until Jia died of illness in 1997.
Chinese cultural experts are calling for heightened fire control over historic locations across the country after a huge fire that engulfed an ancient Tibetan town in Shangri-la in southwest China.
The fire started early in the morning on January 11th, and lasted about 12 hours, destroying more than 240 homes in the old Tibetan town of Du-ke-zong in Shangri-la, capital city of the Di-qing Tibet autonomous prefecture in Yunnan.
The blaze has destroyed about a quarter of the buildings mostly about 1,300-years old.
Firefighters rushed to the scene within five minutes of the blaze starting. But their efforts were hampered by the need to transfer water from an elevated location, combined with the cold weather and high altitude.
This fire is the latest in a series that took place in historic and religious sites in the area in the past three months.
Lyu Zhou, a professor of ancient architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing, says the ancient buildings in the town were mostly made of wood and became dry and flammable. In addition, the buildings were close together. When one catches fire, it will easily spread.
The professor urged local governments to put fire proof a top priority, and that fire drills should be carried out regularly in historic towns.
