China's business press carried the following stories on Monday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Tencent splashes out on ad campaign –21st Century Business Herald

Tencent, the company who runs popular QQ instant messaging service, will spend between US$16 million and 17 million on the largest advertising campaign in the company's history. The ads, which will appear on CCTV and local TV stations, are considered as a change in direction for Tencent's brand.

With a large user base consisting mainly of young people, Tencent is China's largest and world's third largest internet service company. The last time Tencent launched a marketing campaign was in 2007.

State-owned companies heating up housing market —China Business News

Although the government has showed determination to rein in rapidly rising house prices, cash-flush state-owned real estate developers' enthusiasm for land market remains undiminished.

Poly Real Estate, a large state-owned real estate developer, bought an area of land in Beijing Chaoyang District for a surprising fee of 3.04 billion yuan (US$0.44 billion) on December 17.

Natural gas project gets official nod–21st Century Business Herald

The National Development and Reform Commission approved a 1.6-billion-cubic-meter natural gas project run by Huineng Group. The Huineng group is a private coal producer based in Inner Mongolia's Ordos which is awash with natural resources.

The news came as a surprise amid a cooling down of the coal chemical industry on concerns of overcapacity, signaling a decline in strict governmental approval procedures.

"Not all projects are burdened with overcapacity. The Huineng Project is a pilot project. We will decide whether to roll out such projects based on its performance," said Wang Xiaofeng, a vice director of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.

The project will cost 8.87 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion), and will produce 1.6 billion cubic meters natural gas annually.

This is the first private-operated natural gas project which has been accepted by the top economic planning agency.

Harder mortgage for second-time buyers—Beijing Business Today

Following the reintroduced real estate real tax and a series of measures to rein in real estate market, the government will announce new measures to control the booming housing market.

Yesterday sources revealed that the financial regulator has asked commercial banks to tighten up on interest rate and demand a down-payment of at least 50 percent on mortgage for second-time buyers.