The archaeological site in Jinan, Shandong province, where the skeleton of an unusually tall man was found. JIANG LI/CHINA DAILY JINAN -- Archeologists have found some people in East China 5,000 years ago to be unusually tall and strong. Measurements of bones from graves in Shandong province show the height of at least one man to have reached 1.9 meters with quite a few at 1.8 meters or taller. This is just based on the bone structure. If he was a living person, his height would certainly exceed 1.9 meters, said Fang Hui, head of Shandong University's school of history and culture. From 2016, archeologists have been excavating the ruins of 104 houses, 205 graves and 20 sacrificial pits at Jiaojia village in Zhangqiu district, Jinan city, capital of Shandong. The relics are from the Longshan Culture, a late Neolithic civilization in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, named after Mount Longshan in Zhangqiu. Already agricultural at that time, people had diverse and rich food resources and thus their physique changed, said Fang. Millet was the major crop and people raised pigs, according to Fang. Pig bones and teeth were found in some graves. According to the findings, taller men were found in larger tombs, possibly because such people had a high status and were able to acquire better food. Shandong locals believe height to be one of their defining characteristics. Confucius (551-479 BC), a native of the region, was said to be about 1.9 meters tall. Official statistics back up the claim. In 2015, the average height of men aged 18 in Shandong was 1.753 meters, compared with a national average of 1.72 meters. Ruins of rows of houses in the area indicate that people lived quite comfortable lives, with separate bedrooms and kitchens, according to the excavations. Colorful pottery and jade articles have also been found, said Wang Fen, head of the Jiaojia excavation team. The area was believed to the political, economic and cultural center of northern Shandong 5,000 years ago. Ruins of ditches and clay embankments were also found. The Jiaojia ruins fill a cultural blank 4,500 to 5,000 years ago in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, said Wang Yongbo of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Archeology. Archaeologists found obvious damage to the head and leg bones of some of the bodies and to pottery and jade articles in six large tombs. The damage may have been done not long after the burials and may be due to power struggles among high-ranking people. Li Boqian, an archaeologist with Peking University, said the excavations showed Jiaojia in a transition phase, but proved the existence of ancient states 5,000 years ago in the basin of lower Yellow River. The range of the Jiaojia site has been enlarged from an initial 240,000 square meters to 1 sq km. Currently, only 2,000 square meters has been excavated. Further study and excavation of the site is of great value to our understanding of the origin of culture in east China, said Zhou Xiaobo, deputy head of Shandong provincial bureau of cultural heritage. design your own wristbandcustomize silicone braceletscheap rubber wristbandswide rubber bandsblack rubber wristbandsyouth wristbands
BEIJING - Taxation will play a larger role in China's drive to conserve more water as a water resource tax program is expanded. Starting Friday, nine provincial regions, including Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia will begin using a new water resource tax, following trials in north China's Hebei Province. Water conservation is important in a nation where per capita water resources are only 28 percent of the global average. The tax is levied on the use of surface and ground water, with higher rates on enterprises that consume a lot of water. Water use exceeding quotas or in overexploited areas will be met with tax rates up to four times more, while use for agricultural purposes will see a reduction or exemption. The use of water that has come from sewage treatment facilities will also have favorable rates. The taxation will prevent unreasonable use by consumers like ski resorts and car washes, said Wang Jianfan, an official with the Ministry of Finance (MOF). In Hebei, where water shortages are a perennial issue, total water consumption dropped by 460 million tonnes in 2016, after the first tax trial was launched 18 months ago. To cut production costs and save water, high water-consuming enterprises like steel, cement and chemical companies have installed water-saving devices and replaced groundwater with desalinated sea water and recycled wastewater. "The main purpose of the tax is not to increase fiscal revenue," said Cai Zili of the State Administration of Taxation. In the nine regions, a total of 13.3 billion yuan (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) of water resource fees were collected last year, only a small fraction of a local fiscal revenue that was calculated in trillions. The tax has a great ecological significance and will help water management, said Cai. Improvements have been made under new water management measures introduced in 2012 to address water shortages and pollution. In 2016, China's water consumption dropped from 610 billion cubic meters to 604 billion cubic meters, and consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP was down by 7.2 percent. The expansion of the tax trials is a step forward in overall reform of the resource tax system, which is more the 30 years old. Nearly 800 billion yuan of resource taxes were collected from 1994 to 2016, an annual average growth of 14.8 percent, with 95 billion yuan collected last year, according to MOF data. A draft law on resource tax was released earlier this month for public comment and covers resources like crude oil, natural gas and coal. The reform has brought huge tax reductions to resource-saving and environment-friendly businesses, with taxes reduced by 4.2 billion yuan in the year ending June 2017.
