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Cultural undertakings made steady progress. At the end of 2003, there were 2,587 art-performance groups, 2,892 culture centers, 2,708 public libraries and 1,519 museums in China. There were 282 radio stations, 744 medium and short wave radio transmitting and relaying stations, 320 general television stations and 62 education television stations throughout China. Subscribers to cable television programmes reached 105.08 million. China produced 140 feature movies, 61 scientific, educational, documentary or cartoon films and one special movie. National and provincial newspapers issued 24.36 billion copies; magazines, 2.99 billion copies; and books, 6.75 billion copies (see Table 13). There were 3,978 archives in China where 55.83 million documents were made accessible to the public.
Table 13: Radio and TV Broadcasting and Publications, 2003
|
Item |
Unit |
Figure |
|
Coverage of radio broadcasting |
% |
93.6 |
|
Coverage of TV broadcasting |
% |
94.8 |
|
Publication of magazines |
100m copies |
29.9 |
|
Publication of books |
100m copies |
67.5 |
Accelerated development was made in public health undertakings. SARS outbreaks took place in 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities during the first six months of 2003, with an accumulative total of 5,327 clinically confirmed cases and 349 deaths. After the SARS outbreak, central and local governments increased their input into public health, and mechanisms to cope with public health emergencies were gradually established, which strengthened medical institutions that provide medical treatment and disease control services.
By the end of 2003, there were 305,000 health care institutions in China, including 64,000 hospitals and health care stations, 3,058 maternal and child health-care institutions and 1,811 specialized health institutions or stations. Hospitals and health care institutions in China had a total capacity of 2.9 million beds.
There were 4.24 million health workers in China, including 1.83 million practicing doctors and assistant doctors and 1.24 million registered nurses. China had 3,600 epidemic/disease prevention centres and stations employing 159,000 health workers, and 755 health monitoring institutions with 15,000 health workers. There were 45,000 health-care institutions at township level in rural areas, with 668,000 beds and 907,000 health workers.
New progress was scored in the sports field. Chinese athletes won 87 world championships in 2003. Nine athletes and one team broke 16 world records on 19 occasions. The national Keep-Fit Programme witnessed a vigorous development.
(China.org.cn March 1, 2004)
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