Welcome to "Guangdong Today". I'm David Keyton.

GZ Citizens Hope For Discounted Tickets to Asian Games Events
Guangzhou Vice Mayor Xu Ruisheng briefed the media on Monday (2nd), explaining that all 46 sporting venues have been completed and are now being tested. When asked whether Guangzhou citizens will get discounted tickets to the events, he assured everyone that preferential policies will be issued in the near future. What's more, this Wednesday (Aug 4th) marked the 100-day countdown to the Asian Games, and a large celebration was held in the evening during which was unveiled the official 2010 Asian games theme song.


RMB Settlement practice in Cross-border Trade in Guangdong Active
The latest statistics released by the Guangdong Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation show that as of the end of June, $7.5 billion was made through the RMB settlement practice in cross-border trade. The statistics also shows that Guangdong's foreign trade for the first half of this year was financed by major banks at over $26 billion, up by nearly 35% year-on-year. The move by banks relaxed pressure on financing for export-orientated enterprises after being hit hard by the global financial crisis.


Chinese Danxia Listed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO
Chinese Danxia landforms have been officially listed by UNESCO as a natural world heritage. The landforms selected include 6 areas in Guangdong, Fujian, Hu'nan and so on. China now has 40 world heritage sites.


Bilingual Electric Map Services Available for Taxi Drivers in GZ
A new system is currently being installed in Guangzhou's 4000 taxis to help non-Chinese speakers. A touch-screen is installed at the back of the taxi, allowing foreign passengers to search for their destinations on a digital map. When you press on a destination, the name is read out loud in Mandarin so that the driver knows where to go. More from our reporter Li Hui:
Mr. Wang is a taxi driver and he said the map is really convenient for communicating with foreigners.
"For example, the passenger can touch the screen, press on the button showing Tianhe Stadium and then the destination will be read in mandarin. The sound quality is pretty good. The touch-screen map service will indeed facilitate communication with foreign tourists. "

photo from sina.com

GD experiencing hotter summer
Guangdong is now - and once again - under the grip of a heat wave. In July, Guangdong's average temperature reached a record high of 29.1 degrees, 0.7 degrees higher than previous years. 9.6 days saw high temperatures, 4 days more than the normal level. The meteorological bureau estimates that this August will also be hotter than normal years, by 0.4 degrees. Three periods of heavy rain are expected in the earlier, middle and latter part of this month.