You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China has imposed punishment in 25,000 environmental violation cases in the first six months of this year, with more than 9,000 companies having their doors sealed.
Violators were fined more than 230 million yuan, roughly 37 million U.S. dollars, and 740 cases of suspected environmental crime have been transferred to the police for criminal investigation.
Since the Environmental Protection Law took effect this year, environmental authorities have closed down companies, limited or suspended production, and detained wrong-doers.
The ministry has given administrative punishment to ten cities, and people in charge of polluting companies in four of the ten were warned or sacked.
The ministry said it will cooperate with other ministries to tighten environmental inspection with increased awareness from local governments, enterprises and the public.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Public hospital reforms which include banning hospitals from charging a markup on drugs have been initiated in 1,500 Chinese counties, three quarters of the total.
The reforms are currently under way in 4,000 county-level and city-level hospitals.
Drug price markups have been abolished in 3,500 public hospitals in counties and cities so far.
It has long been thought that the 15-percent markup on drug sales encouraged hospitals to prescribe more medicine than is necessary in order to generate revenue, driving up medical bills.
To address the issue, the central authority began cracking down on price markups in public hospitals in 2012.
The medical reforms will be expanded to all county-level public hospitals by the end of this month.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
A Swiss-led trimaran yacht on a research expedition studying the impact of plastic pollution on the world's oceans has arrived in Shanghai.
Shanghai is the "Race for Water Odyssey" expedition's only stop in China.
Marco Simeoni, the man behind the project, said millions of tonnes of plastic waste end up in the sea every year and people must take action to preserve the planet's most important ecosystem.
The yacht, 21 meters long and 17 meters wide, set sail on March 15 from France. It will focus on five rubbish "vortexes" where waste accumulates in large quantities.
The research team, who are collecting samples and analyzing data while at sea, will conduct seminars in Shanghai to raise awareness of ocean protection.
The yacht's next stop is South Africa.
