China has completed a high-tech earthquake monitoring network set to improve earthquake predictions in areas around Beijing.
The regional online network covers Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, and eight cities in Beijing's neighboring Hebei Province, say sources from the Hebei Provincial Seismological Bureau.
The project, initiated by the China Seismological Bureau, is jointly financed by the state, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei at a cost of 256 million yuan (about US$30.84 million).
With the new network operating, the efficiency and accuracy of earthquake prediction could be greatly improved and damage reduced to a minimum, said an expert with the bureau.
The regions covered by the new monitoring system are earthquake-prone. Nine earthquakes have occurred there since the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, including a major jolt in Tangshan City in Hebei Province that killed 240,000 people.
(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2002)
