The proposed 24 hectare park will include a monument to the victims. It will also house new city kindergartens and some 5,000 new apartments for residents whose homes were damaged in the blast.

High traces of cyanide were discovered at the blast site last month, which officials maintain pose no health risk to Tianjin residents.

Twelve suspects have been detained in connection with the explosions, including 11 officials and port executives accused of dereliction of duty and abuse of power. No criminal charges have been laid.

Last month, the Communist Party fired the head of China’s work safety regulator for suspected corruption. Coincidentally, the regulator was the former deputy mayor of Tianjin. Despite firing the official, the Party has not accused him of any direct responsibility for the explosion.

A growing death toll from the Tianjin blasts currently puts the number of fatalities at 160.

The post Tianjin Explosion Site To Be Turned Into Commemorative Park appeared first on The Nanfang.

Compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (“EIU”), the list ranks global cities on a “livability index” of 30 factors, including safety, healthcare, education, infrastructure and environment. Melbourne, Australia scored the top spot as the world’s most lovable city, followed by Adelaide (Australia), Sydney (Australia), Perth (Australia), Vancouver (Canada), Toronto (Canada), Calgary (Canada), Vienna (Austria), Helsinki (Finland), and Auckland (New Zealand).

Chinese don’t take issue with the selection of the top ten, or even that Beijing snagged the 69th spot. Rather, Chinese have a problem with the fact that Beijing rose five spots from last year to be named the “best” city to live in mainland China.

Netizens largely cited the capital’s notorious pollution record as the primary reason for rejecting the idea of Beijing as “livable”. Beijing started 2015 with a better air pollution record than the year before; but, by July, it was once again included on China’s top ten list for most polluted cities.

“Beijing is our most livable city? They must be joking. Maybe for someone functioning without lungs,” remarked Guangdong Weibo user, Liew Jia Kit. Another Weibo user said, “Pollution everyday? This must be dark humor.”

Others on Weibo didn’t think the EIU understood China whatsoever. Weibo user Xiang Xueyee said, “Let me tell you all a joke: Chinese cities are among the most livable in the world,” while another said, “Don’t take this list seriously. The men who made it probably never lived in China.”

Equally surprising to netizens was the list’s inclusion of Tianjin as the second-most livable city in mainland China. With the August 12 explosions still weighing on people’s minds, Chinese were understandably skeptical. One user wrote, “How did Tianjin even make the list? Where were the surveyors last week? Mars?” while another said, “Devastation aside, transportation in Tianjin is terrible! What a strange choice.”

According to the annual report, the reason behind the good showing of Beijing, and other Chinese cities, on the list was “largely due to a lower threat from civil unrest”. Suzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian, Guangzhou and Qingdao also made the list.

A similar list compiled by the China Institute of City Competitiveness came up with rather different results. Based on seven major indexes including environmental health, urban safety, economy strength, civilization and reputation, the list named Shenzhen as its most livable city, followed by fellow Pearl River Delta entry Zhuhai.

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The dead fish appeared yesterday about six kilometers away from the blast sight.

The director of the Tianjin Environmental Monitoring Centre, Deng Xiaowen, said his department will immediately look into it. Other agencies such as the fisheries department are also said to be investigating.

Deng said there isn’t enough evidence yet to blame the chemical explosion for the dead fish, adding it could be from any number of reasons (which is in itself alarming). Some reports say the waters around Tianjin are so polluted anyway fish often die at this time of year.

At the present time, wWater in Tianjin harbor is locked behind a sluice, preventing it from escaping into the neighboring Bohai Sea. Tests on the water indicate it does not meet environmental standards.

Meanwhile, the chief engineer at the Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau and head of the environmental protection team at the scene of the explosion Bao Jingling said the blast area is under military control as they test for chemicals and other pollutants. This past Monday, Bao reassured the people of Tianjin that there was no threat to their health in the wake of the explosions. “People do not need to worry about the air and water quality around the blast zone,” said Bao.

Bao pointed out that no harmful pollutants, including sodium cyanide, were found in samples collected from rivers, waste water and the sea. Meanwhile, the State Oceanic Administration said no harmful pollutants were found in the Bohai Sea around Tianjin in tests as of Sunday.

So far 114 people have died from the explosions and 69 remain unaccounted for.

The post This Isn’t Good: Tens of Thousands of Dead Fish Surface After Tianjin Explosion appeared first on The Nanfang.

A 26 year-old man named Chen from Guangdong was caught red-handed by a police patrol on Sunday morning carrying stolen property. Since August 13, the day after the explosions, Chen has been entering homes in the Vanke Harbor City residential complex. He has able to pilfer around RMB 12,000 ($877) worth of cash and goods in the form of jewelry and electronics over three days.

A police patrol found Chen to be acting suspiciously at around 8am on August 16. An investigation determined Chen had stashed the stolen goods in a wooded area of the complex, and was getting ready to leave just when he was arrested.

Meanwhile, a Sohu report says that six thieves have been arrested by Tianjin police for looting homes in the disaster area.

At least 114 people have died and 70 remain missing due to the August 12 Tianjin explosions.

The post Guy Caught Looting Tianjin Homes While Residents Were Evacuated appeared first on The Nanfang.

Fears of further chemical contamination after last week’s warehouse explosion in Tianjin have risen further after white foam bubbles were seen throughout the city after the first rainfall since the disaster.

Netizens and news agencies posted pictures of the bubbles online, some of them appearing on Huanghai Road near the Meihua Hotel, where the press conferences regarding the Tianjin explosions have been held.

However, despite the concerns of an anxious public that has been frazzled by reports of cyanide being found throughout the city, the Tianjin government is assuring everyone that the “white foam” does not pose a threat to public safety.

Deng Xiaowen, director of the Tianjin environmental protection monitoring center, said the the 17 environmental monitoring stations set up around the city in the wake of the blasts have not noticed any significant changes since the rainfall began yesterday morning in Tianjin.

With the white foam appearing five kilometers away from the blast zone, Deng said it was unlikely that the explosive material had made it that far away. Deng said crews have not found a substantial amount of cyanide either before or after the rain, calling the white foam a “normal phenomenon” that occurs during rainfall.

Officials say some 700 tons of sodium cyanide were on site at the August 12 explosions that killed 114 people and has left another 70 still missing. The sodium cyanide is described as remaining mostly intact after the blast.

Here are more photos of the foam:

Related:

• China Strengthens Censorship After Tianjin, Shutting Websites and Restricting Information
• Newspaper Cartoon on Tianjin Sums Everything Up
• Tianjin Residents Near Blast Site: “No One Told Us There Were Chemicals Here”
• CCTV Cuts Short Tianjin Press Conference After Uncomfortable Questions

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As the number of fatalities from last week’s explosion in Tianjin continues to rise – with the count now at 112 dead and 95 missing – so too does the demand for compensation as property owners petition the government to buy back their homes that were damaged in the blast.

Local residents say they were not aware of the dangerous chemicals that were stored so close to their homes.

Having bought an apartment in Tianjin’s Binhai port area in 2013, 27 year-old Liu Xuerui is one of many local residents who don’t want to live there anymore. “We thought there were just piles of containers and parking lots for imported cars. Nobody told us that there were chemicals, or I would never have chosen to live here.”Nobody told us that there were chemicals, or I would never have chosen to live here,” said Liu.

Zhang Lu, another property owner caught in the blast, also wants answers. “We deserve an explanation over why the warehouse was built near my home without my knowledge,” said Zhang.

But it isn’t just answers that local resident want from the government in the wake of last week’s explosion. For the second day in a row, property owners held a demonstration to petition the government to purchase their damaged homes.

Protestors demonstrated outside the Tianjin hotel where government officials have been holding press conferences, carrying banners and holding up pictures of property damage and personal injuries. Holding signs saying things like, “Binhai property owners love the Chinese Communist Party and trust the government”, the protestors say they are afraid for their personal safety and are concerned of poisonous gases entering their homes.

The second day of protests from the property owners also saw an increased police presence. While yesterday’s protest was met by four to five police officers, today’s protest saw the presence of SWAT police and armed police officers.

Although residents say they weren’t informed of the presence of volatile chemicals, a public notice on the Binhai New Area’s website on September 10 last year indicated that the company had changed the purpose of its warehouses to allow for the temporary storage of dangerous chemicals during export and import procedures.

Southern Metropolis Daily reported that Ruihai International Logistics, the company operating the warehouse where the blast occurred, had stored 700 tons of sodium cyanide on its premises when the explosion happened. The report said Ruihai is only permitted to store ten tons of sodium cyanide on its premises.

The Tianjin head of propaganda said he is confident the government can satisfy the concerns of residents, but Liu and Zhang say they are not moving back to their damaged homes. “Whether the warehouses are relocated or not, or however the government offers to help fix the damage, I am not going back. I only want to put the nightmare behind me,” Zhang said.

Meanwhile, insurance claims stemming from the Tianjin explosion are expected to range between five to ten million yuan ($780 million to 1.56 billion). A Saturday estimate said some 17,000 households, 1,700 enterprises and 675 shops in Tianjin had been affected by the explosions. Here are more pictures of the demonstrations:

The post Tianjin Residents Near Blast Site: “No One Told Us There Were Chemicals Here” appeared first on The Nanfang.

However, another report says workers are now trying to remove 700 tons of sodium cyanide that did not get destroyed in the massive explosion. People’s Daily says sodium cyanide was only found on the premises, but would not confirm it was one of the chemicals that caught fire on Wednesday night.

According to the Beijing News, sodium cyanide has now been detected in the sewage runoff, while Tianjin firefighters have said potassium nitrate and sodium cyanide were contained in the warehouse that was destroyed by the explosion.

There are fears that dangerous gases are spreading to Beijing, but a south-westerly wind has pushed many contaminates in the opposite direction to the Bohai Sea. But while air might be safe, water from two drainage sites have been shown to contain hazardous materials. Levels of the chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and cyanide were found in Tianjin water to be three and eight times higher than the allowable safety standard, respectively, by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The Tianjin blast is responsible for killing 50 people and hospitalizing another 701.

The post Sodium Cyanide and Potassium Nitrate Could Have Contributed to Explosion in Tianjin appeared first on The Nanfang.

The massive explosion in Tianjin that has killed 50 people so far has brought up a lot of questions, and reporters finally got to ask them during a press conference with a Tianjin municipal official that was broadcast live on CCTV. However, they may not have gotten the answers they wanted.

A government spokesperson told reporters the hazardous air was moving south-west and away from the city, hoping to dispel fears that the air is too toxic to breathe. In the video, reporters are asking him questions and he repeatedly tries to get up to leave. This continues until 1:27 of the video, when a reporter asks why so many residential homes were so close to a storage facility with toxic chemicals.

This is a translated transcript:

Reporter: According to regulations, how far should hazardous materials be located from residents? (pause) That is, according to enviromental regulations, how far should contaminated materials be located from residential areas?

Man in blue shirt: There is a predetermined standard…

There is a moment of confusion as no one says anything, and the men giving the press conference look at each other. Then, the broadcast of the press conference is suddenly stopped short, and the viewer sees the CCTV anchor, who is also confused and not prepared. After mentioning that the viewer has been watching a press conference given by the Tianjin municipal authority, the broadcast goes to commercial.

Here’s the video of the press conference:

The post CCTV Cuts Short Tianjin Press Conference After Uncomfortable Questions appeared first on The Nanfang.

Samples taken in Tianjin showed an elevated concentration of Toluene in the atmosphere, a chemical solvent typically used as an industrial feedstock. The Chinese national standard for safe exposure to Toluene is only 2.4 milligrams per cubic meter of air, but it was 3.7 milligrams yesterday.

The air in Tianjin also contained higher than normal levels of volatile organic compounds and major air pollutants. While normal Tianjin municipal standards for such pollutants is 2.0 milligrams per cubic meter, yesterday, the air was measured at 5.7 milligrams per cubic meter.

The explosions had some Tianjin residents worried about the lingering effects of the chemicals that were blown up, with some going online to voice their suspicions that the air may have become toxic. According to China Daily, data from a municipal air quality monitoring website showed that PM 2.5 levels rose from 76 micrograms per cubic meter to 117 within 24-hours of the blast, while PM10 levels rose from 129 micrograms to 206.

Meanwhile, officials in Beijing have denied speculation that hazardous gases from the Tianjin blast have blown into the capital. According to the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, Beijing is currently experiencing winds from the west and southwest. With Tianjin 150 kilometers to the southeast of Beijing, experts are predicting that the winds will blow pollutants from the blast into the nearby Bohai Sea.

As a precautionary measure, the city’s drainage outlet to the sea has been closed, and an investigation into water quality is currently being conducted by the environmental authority.

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