Beijing's tourism revenue during the weeklong Chinese New Year holiday from January 28 to February 4 totaled US$231 million, more than US$32 million a day.

China's foreign exchange reserves reached US$853.7 billion at the end of February, compared to Japan's US$850.1 billion.

China ran a trade surplus of US$11.2 billion in March 2006, more than double the amount for March 2005 and the largest surplus since October.

Over February and March 2006 the renminbi rose at an annual rate of 4 percent.

Mainland China drew US$18.48 billion in foreign direct investment in the first four months of 2006, up 5.76 percent from the same period of 2005.

Real rural per capita disposable incomes in China rose to US$137 in the first quarter of 2006, up 11.5 percent year-on-year.

The World Bank predicted China's economy to grow by 9.5 percent this year, revising its earlier projection of 9.2 percent.

Baidu Baike, an editable online Chinese encyclopedia launched April 20, receives a new search term every 2 seconds and 5,000 approved entries each day.

China posted a record US$13 billion one-month trade surplus in May, up from US$10.5 billion in April.

Exports grew to US$73.11 billion in May, a 25.1 percent year-on-year increase.

May imports totaled US$60.11 billion , a year-on-year rise of 21.7 percent.

Consumer inflation rose 1.4 percent year-on-year in May, after an increase of 1.2 percent in April.

Retail sales increased 14.2 percent year-on-year to US$78 billion in May, the biggest increase in almost 18 months.

China's tax revenue for the first half of the year rose 22.3 percent to US$241 billion.

Spending on television, newspaper, and magazine advertising in the mainland rose 25 percent in the first quarter of 2006 from the same period in 2005, to US$10.3 billion.

Mainland retail sales in April rose to US$72.3 billion, an increase of 13.6 percent from a year earlier.

China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, rose above US$900 billion in July.

China had a monthly trade surplus of US$13 billion in May, a record.

China's foreign trade volume reached US$941.9 billion in the first seven months of 2006, up 23.1 percent over the same period in 2005.

China's outbound direct investment reached US$12.3 billion in August, up 123 percent year-on-year.

"The Lion King" took in RMB72 million (US$9 million) from sales of about 160,000 tickets over the three-month run, taking the musical box-office record from "The Phantom of the Opera," which took in RMB65 million during its 100-show run in Shanghai last year.

China received US$5.4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in September, a year-on-year increase of 2.7 percent.

In the first nine months of 2006, FDI fell 1.5 percent year-on-year to US$42.6 billion.

The combined wealth of the 2006 Forbes list of China's 400 richest people rose to US$110 billion, up 51 percent from last year's list.

The artist Andy Warhol's portrait of Mao Zedong was auctioned in Hong Kong for US$17.4 million, a record for his works.

China's trade with the European Union reached US$218.9 billion in the first 10 months of 2006, up 24.2 percent over the same period in 2005.

China's trade with the United States reached US$214.5 billion in the first 10 months of 2006, up 24.6 percent over the same period last year.