The end of the year is a special time in which editors and writers around the world recycle content from the previous twelve months and repackage it as new content. We at GoKunming are not above this practice, so here's our look at the people and events that shaped 2008 in Kunming and Yunnan.

January
The year began with the Yunnan government shelving its plans to dam Tiger Leaping Gorge, while not necessarily sparing the Jinsha River – the headwaters of the Yangtze – from several new hydropower projects. Kunming banned the use of car horns and the city seemed to be getting a little less horn-heavy for about two weeks. A few days later the city – which is adding an average of 560 automobiles per day to its streets – issued its 900,000th license plate.

Pretty much all of southern China except for Kunming was at the mercy of a winter storm that paralyzed domestic travel and left thousands of travelers stranded in Kunming. Shangri-la (Zhongdian) was hit by heavy snowfalls that destroyed much of the area's livestock and crops plus telecommunications and power networks.

February
Yunnan was hit by a rash of sulfuric acid spills in late January and mid-February with more than 70 tons of the toxic chemical spilling near rivers and most likely entering local water supplies.

Kunming Municipal Party Secretary Qiu He was making waves a few months into his new post, ordering local newspapers to publish the names, titles, responsibilities and phone numbers of local officials in early February and firing a Chenggong investment official who fell asleep during a meeting.

Hong Kong director Stanley Tong signed an agreement with Dianchi National Tourist Resort to build a 3 billion yuan (US$418 million) television and film base that would become 'China's Hollywood'.

Yunnan's first international highway opened, connecting it with Vietnam's Lao Cai province.

March
Construction of the 'turtleback' flyover at Xiao Ximen commenced, throwing Kunming traffic into chaos. Work on the flyover – which is mockingly referred to as 'the newly added slope' (新加坡), or 'Singapore' in Chinese - was finished four months later.

Tens of thousands of bottles of counterfeit beer were found in Kunming's Majie area. The beers are expected to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the amount of fake booze being sold around the city.

China played Australia's Socceroos in a World Cup qualifying match in Kunming that ended in a 0:0 draw. The match looked like a sure victory for China when it was awarded a late penalty kick, only for kicker Shao Jiayi to kick a slow roller into Oz goalie Mark Schwarzer's waiting hands. Team China went on to fail to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

April
The old standby F visa option disappeared for foreigners living in China as visa restrictions tightened in the runup to the Beijing Olympics, while protestors vented nationalist anger at Kunming's Carrefour outlets.

May
The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences World Congress, originally scheduled to be held in Kunming in July, was canceled - apparently due to Olympic-related security concerns.

On May 12, an earthquake measuring 8.0 in magnitude centered in Wenchuan devastated much of Sichuan province and killed at least 69,000 people. Yunnan did what it could to help its neighbor to the north by treating victims from the disaster zone, taking children into its schools and raising money for the relief effort.

The Yunnan white-handed gibbon was declared extinct.

June
Free plastic bags at retail outlets were banned in China.

The Olympic torch passed through Kunming. The torch was originally scheduled to pass through areas including Beijing Lu, Wenlin Jie and Yuantong Jie, but its route was altered at the last minute, keeping it out of the view of most Kunming residents. The torch continued through Yunnan to the cities of Lijiang and Shangri-la before heading to earthquake-battered Sichuan.

The third hydropower station on the Lancang River – as the upper reaches of the Mekong River in Yunnan are known – went online.

July
Yunnan announced a total ban on the production, sale and use of plastic bags across the province, beginning on January 1, 2009.

Jackie Chan announced that he would open a 'Jackie Chan Peace Garden' outside Kunming in the city of Anning. Meanwhile, Kunming was in the middle of planting 800,000 trees throughout the city.

Two people were killed and 14 injured in double bus bombings that took place on public buses on Renmin Xi Lu. A militant Islamic group took credit for the bombings, a claim which was refuted by local police. The bombings were not declared solved until the suspected bomber blew himself up while trying to plant a bomb in Salvador's Coffee House almost half a year later.

August
After an unprecedented buildup, China hosted the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and several other cities, winning 51 gold medals, more than second-place US (36) and third-place Russian Federation (23).

Kunming unveiled its 12-year development plan, detailing how the city intends to handle a major influx in residents and an increasingly important role in regional trade and transport.

September
It was announced that Yangzonghai Lake, one of the largest lakes in Yunnan, was suffering from heavy arsenic pollution, with the bulk of the blame placed upon Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Industrial and Trade Company, which allegedly found it easier to pay the relatively low fines for not treating wastewater than to purchase and install the equipment necessary for cleaning wastewater. Shortly afterward, Yunnan established a special court for handling crimes against the environment.

October
A government study of HIV/AIDS infections in Yunnan revealed that that women and gay men had emerged as the fastest-growing demographics for new infections, replacing intravenous drug users. It was also noted that new infections were moving away from ethnic minorities in rural areas to Han Chinese in urban centers throughout the province.

A group of fossilized crustaceans from 525 million years ago found near Chengjiang were said to display the first example of collective behavior among animals.

Citing difficulties with the local business environment, Hong Kong-listed property giant Shui On Land pulled out of its Yunnan development projects.

November
Starbucks announced that it would market Yunnan coffee via its hundreds of mainland outlets.

Kunming Airlines announced that it would launch operations in January 2009, the first step in its quest to become a dominant regional airline.

A delegation of Yunnan officials and businesspeople visiting India asked the Indian government to establish a consulate in Kunming to facilitate the visa application process for Yunnan residents wishing to take advantage of the direct flights between Kunming and the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

The famed Shaolin Temple announced that it would take over management of four Kunming temples for 20 years, during which time it would receive all of the temples' revenue. Shaolin Temple's abbot was accused of being a 'CEO monk'.

December
A man stabbed three women and took a nurse hostage at the Carrefour on Longquan Lu, before being lured to a door where some rice noodles had been placed for him and getting shot in the head by a police sniper, ending the five-hour standoff.

Ground was broken on the 'South Asian Gate', a 72-story, 316-meter tall building that will be completed in four to five years and will be the tallest man-made structure in Yunnan province. It is expected to serve as a hub for business between China, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

A bomb exploded in popular foreign-owned cafe and restaurant Salvador's Coffee House, killing the man who was wearing a backpack with an ammonium nitrate bomb in it near the rear bathroom. Nobody else was hurt. Police concluded that the man, 30-year-old Li Yan of Xuanwei, had also been behind the unsolved bombing of two buses in Kunming in July.

Direct flights opened between Kunming and Taipei.

The GoKunming team thanks everyone who visited the site in 2008 and wishes all of its readers a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.

A recent study focusing on the spread of HIV in Yunnan has revealed significant shifts in which demographics are at higher risk for becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS, according to a Tsinghua University study cited in a Bloomberg report.

According to the study, which was authored by Zhang Linqi, executive director and professor at Tsinghua's Comprehensive AIDS Research Center in Beijing, HIV infections spread via heterosexual contact accounted for 38 percent of all cases in 2006 in Yunnan.

Intravenous drug use, which had accounted for all of Yunnan's infections in 1989, dropped to 40 percent in 2006. Intravenous drug use was how HIV first entered and spread throughout Yunnan, which is located just north of the Golden Triangle. As of 2006, Yunnan had 48,951 HIV cases and 3,935 AIDS patients.

In general, intravenous drug users are being surpassed by women and homosexual men as the fastest-growing gender demographics, while in ethnic and socioeconomic terms urbanized Han Chinese are overtaking rural minorities

"HIV/AIDS is spreading beyond the high-risk populations," Zhang told Bloomberg, "It is the responsibility of every citizen to help control the further spread. More needs to be done in a much bigger and more effective manner."

The study focused on 3.2 million blood samples taken in Yunnan between 1989 and 2006. It found that between 1996 and 2006, the proportion of Yunnan HIV cases that were women rose from 7.1 percent to 35 percent. In 1996 the gender ratio for HIV infections was one woman to every 13 men, by 2006 that ratio had changed to 1:1.9.

In addition to gender pattern shifts, ethnic trends have also changed. Between 1989 and 1995, the Dai and Jingpo ethnic minorities in rural southern Yunnan were most at-risk for HIV infection – today the Han ethnic majority accounts for 60 percent of Yunnan's HIV cases.

"The high percentage of infected are now due to sexual contact," Bloomberg cited Zhang as saying. "It has begun to move from farmer, minority groups in rural areas into worker, Han-majority urban settings."

The study's researchers concluded that although less than one percent of China's population is HIV-positive, resolute action must be taken to address China's HIV/AIDS situation before it makes further headway into the general population. The study called for expansion of social programs targeting HIV as well as free medical treatment for the infected.

Related articles:

Interview: Curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Yunnan

China praised for HIV/AIDS efforts

Despite marked progress in recent years, the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases remains a major challenge for China - especially in Yunnan, which is just north of the Golden Triangle and where China's first AIDS case was discovered. In an effort to combat the disease and other problems such as malaria, the Chinese government cooperates with several international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) who work towards reducing the prevalence and spread of these illnesses.

One such Population Services International (PSI), has its Chinese headquarters in Kunming. Funded by US AID and The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, PSI uses targeted behavior change intervention, social marketing and evidence-based research in their work toward improving the health of the most vulnerable people in China.

GoKunming spoke with Clare Ye Sheng, a Shanghai-born American who works as PSI's China Communication Officer, to find out more about what PSI is doing in Yunnan and elsewhere in China:

GoKunming: What projects is PSI currently managing?

Clare Ye Sheng: PSI primarily works to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Yunnan and Guangxi. We work on HIV prevention through the promotion of healthy behavior and social marketing of condoms and lubricants geared towards high risk groups. We also provide health services and outreach within the community through our drop-in-centers for injection drug users in Kunming and for female sex workers in Mengzi, Honghe. For malaria prevention, we engage in social marketing of long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets as well as malaria prevention education in villages throughout Yunnan.

GK: Have PSI programs met with any resistance from its target population on a cultural basis?

CYS: Although PSI is an international NGO based in the US, we strongly believe in local engagement as one of our primary working principles. PSI/China's role is to support the government of China in combating HIV/AIDS and malaria. In addition, most of our staff are locally hired Chinese, so there are very few communication or cultural conflicts to deal with.

Obstacles that we do face derive mainly from a lack of awareness and correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention and social norms regarding relationships amongst the vulnerable population that our programs aim to help. For example, many female sex workers believe that they can prevent the transmission of disease through hygiene alone, and many villagers view mosquito nets as a source of warmth in winter rather than a method of preventing mosquito-borne diseases. We work to correct these misconceptions through targeted intervention based on extensive research to understand the barriers for them to adopt healthy behavior.

GK: Does PSI hope to expand? If so, what are some future projects that the organization would like to engage in?

CSY: We would like to continue our work in Yunnan and Guangxi and expand our HIV prevention services to other at-risk populations such as migrant youth and are also working to promote our social marketing approach with local partners and organizations.

GK: What do you personally consider the most gratifying aspect of your work with PSI?

CSY: During my tenure with PSI I've had the opportunity to travel to villages in remote locations in Yunnan. Being able to talk to villagers about pertinent health issues, understand their lives, and make these personal connections has been immensely gratifying.

The end of the year is a special time in which editors and writers around the world recycle content from the previous twelve months and repackage it as new content. We at GoKunming are not above this practice, so here's our look at the people and events that shaped 2007 in Kunming and Yunnan.

January
Internet access in Kunming and around Asia was severely limited after a late-December earthquake in Taiwan severed some rather important undersea cables to North America. Normal or near-normal access was quickly restored to China's coast and elsewhere around Asia, but more remote places such as Yunnan province were forced to wait until February for normal internet access to be restored.

Kunming native Jin Feibao hiked to the South Pole, only to discover that it was already an American city.

Yunnan First People's Provincial Hospital and the Xishan Public Security Bureau opened China's first drunk tank for foreigners, citing increased numbers of 'drunken incidents' involving foreigners.

February
The popular American pseudo-Chinese restaurant chain PF Chang's Chinese Bistro launched a special 'Flavors of Yunnan' menu that ran from Chinese New Year to September at more than 130 locations across the US. Although it was difficult to not be critical of the menu's lack of authenticity, it seemed to be a promising indicator that the unique dishes and cooking styles found in Yunnan were beginning to be noticed by the outside world.

A down-on-his-luck businessman in Fumin County near Kunming got his 15 minutes of fame for painting a mountain green in order to improve the mountain's fengshui with the hope of improving his personal fortunes as well. The mountain which had been quarried for 20 years was covered with nearly half a billion yuan's worth of bright green paint over 45 days.

Yunnan province was singled out for praise by UK medical journal The Lancet for its efforts in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. In terms of HIV/AIDS infections, Yunnan has been one of the more harder-hit regions of China and is where China's first case of HIV/AIDS was reported in 1985. The Lancet said that Yunnan "has shown strong support for implementation and advocacy of harm-reduction strategies that reduce HIV transmission in its many drug users".

March
A great place for hiking, biking and navel gazing, the sleepy town of Dali inched a little bit closer to Kunming with the completion of the new Kunming-Dali highway. The new road reduced travel time between Kunming and Dali to around four hours – not much longer than the total time required for someone living in downtown Kunming to fly to Dali.

Following in the footsteps of the town of Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan – which was officially renamed 'Shangri-la', the city of Simao was renamed Pu'er with the hope of cashing in on the boom in interest in pu'er tea. Unfortunately, Pu'er was hit by a major earthquake a few months later.

April
The Mekong River, which flows out of China via Yunnan, was drying up in its lower reaches in Southeast Asia. Water levels as low as one meter on the border of Laos and Thailand made river travel or transport all but impossible for much of April. The low levels were attributed to a combination of an intense dry season and the completion of two dams – Manwan and Dachaoshan – on the Lancang River, as the Mekong is known in Yunnan.

Yunfest 2007, perhaps the best documentary festival in China, was cancelled under a shroud of rumor and confusion. GoKunming hopes to see the festival back in Kunming in 2009.

Kunming's re-emergence as the center of Asia made progress as India began rebuilding its section of the Stilwell Road and overland transport agreements between China and Vietnam streamlined the movement of goods and people between Yunnan and Vietnam. Border wars with India in 1962 and Vietnam in 1979 led to long periods of icy relations between the two countries and China. With the return of relative political and economic stability to most of East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, Yunnan appears poised to become a hub for commerce, politics and transport between the three dynamic regions.

May
Kunming hosted China's 7th National Disabled Games, a major test for the city, which is keen to host more international events. In general the games were well-managed and inspiring to disabled and non-disabled attendees alike. One of the more popular events was blind soccer (football) - check out this video clip to see how they do it.

June
June was both a good and bad month for Kunming's image as the Kunming Fair totaled US$150 million in completed deals and Kunming was named China's 'Solar City' as well as one of China's 'rising urban stars'. Slightly less positive, nearby Dianchi Lake made an appearance in domestic and international media as its waters turned bright green from an algae outbreak.

July
Kunming became one of the first Chinese cities with a 'drive-thru' McDonald's. The old town of Lijiang began charging an 80 yuan entry fee as UNESCO warned China that some of its World heritage sites in Yunnan were designated for 'examination' due to concerns regarding development and tourism (Lijiang) and damming (Three Parallel Rivers Protected Areas).

Yunnan's rainy season inflicted heavy damage provincewide as dozens of people died and thousands were displaced by heavy rains and flooding.

August
Former Kunming Deputy Mayor Hu Xing was sentenced to life in prison for bribery after being extradited from Singapore to Kunming. Hu, who allegedly took more than 40 million yuan in bribes while in office, was in charge of Kunming's roads and highways for several years, which may partially explain the dismal state of Kunming traffic.

Food prices in Yunnan were rising quickly, causing concern for workers and business owners around the province, and pu'er tea was leading all luxury goods in China in terms of price growth.

September
Kunming held its first no-car day in which only buses and taxes were allowed to operate within the city center. The city later became China's first city with regular no-car days - although the no-car day on December 29 was apparently forgotten.

Starbucks announced that it would begin sourcing coffee beans from Yunnan amid rumors that Starbucks outlets would come to challenge Kunming's homegrown café scene in 2008.

October
China's rock godfather Cui Jian headlined the Lijiang Snow Mountain Music Festival just weeks before the first Kunming Outdoor Music Festival was held in Anning.

Yunnan announced major changes to its resident registration system, during 2008 it will be seen what impact the changes will have upon rural migrants moving to cities around the province.

November
While much of northwestern Yunnan was snowed under, Kunming hosted its first-ever international film festival as well as China's largest travel expo, and it was announced that Kunming would be the site of the first war games between the Chinese and Indian armies.

December
Kunming was hit by a major gasoline shortage which disrupted life for many city residents and companies. GoKunming readers selected their favorite places to eat, drink and play in Kunming in the Best of Kunming 2007 awards.

And as a nice year-end gesture, the Chinese government officially scrapped its plans to dam Tiger Leaping Gorge… more about that next year.

The GoKunming team thanks everyone who visited the site in 2007 and wishes all of its readers a happy, healthy and bountiful 2008.

Construction work in greater Kunming on China's first provincial-level HIV/AIDS treatment center has finished, according to Chinese media reports citing Yunnan health officials. The US$17.5 million center is located 28 km from downtown Kunming and is scheduled to begin operations before year-end.

The center is expected to have six main departments: clinical treatment, technical consulting, research and development, international exchange and cooperation, clinical treatment training and psychological therapy.

Yunnan, with a population of more than 45 million, leads China in HIV/AIDS infections - primarily spread through intravenous drug use and unsafe sex, often involving the sex industry. According to official statistics, by the end of last year Yunnan was home to more than 48,000 HIV-infected patients, 3,900 patients with AIDS and a death toll of 1,768.

The center will likely cooperate with many of the NGOs in Kunming that are focused on HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. These organizations are working with provincial and local officials to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among high-risk groups and prevent crossover into lower-risk groups.

This month in Kunming has been a good one for going out and catching live music of all kinds. This week Italian band Jennifer Gentle are playing two shows in Kunming, bringing the city one of its first looks at an international rock act. The touring band, consisting of Marco Fasolo, Liviano Mos, Francesco Candura, Andrea Garbo and Paolo Mongardi, gets its name and a good deal of inspiration from Syd Barrett and early Pink Floyd, but their blend of psych-rock is clearly heading in its own direction.

After releasing their breakthrough album Valende on Sub Pop Records in 2005, the band is preparing to support their upcoming album, The Midnight Room, which is scheduled for release in June. In the meantime, they are in Kunming to play a few shows sponsored by NGO Population Services International (PSI) and website Cinaoggi in support of HIV/AIDS awareness. The Kunming dates follow two shows in Chengdu, part of a two-city western China mini-tour that emerged from the band's involvement in a PSI commercial promoting condom use among young adults.

GoKunming sat down with Jennifer Gentle founder/singer/songwriter Marco Fasolo to find out more about this unlikely band on an unlikely tour.

GoKunming: How did the PSI commercial and the west China mini-tour come about?

Marco Fasolo: Well, [CinaOggi founder] Matteo Damiani set up the commercial to promote the use of condoms against AIDS and HIV and they put our song on the video. And then they found some gigs around China.

GK: Did you have any interest in AIDS prevention or contraception beforehand or was this more of an opportunity to seize once it came up?

Marco: Yeah, I'm not so into social issues, but it's a very noble cause. Anyway, it's an opportunity to play around the world and see what happens.

GK: What's your impression of China? How did the Chengdu shows go?

Marco: It's been very good. I mean, people seem very interested in the music and they're having fun. You can feel that it's kind of a virgin place to play, you know what I mean? People aren't overloaded by music and bands and technology. It's pretty exciting. The venue was crowded. We had a lot of fun and the people wanted to talk to us and meet us. They're excited about what we're doing.

GK: How about any other impressions of China in general?

Marco: I didn't think China was so Westernized. The Chinese seem obsessed with the West. It's a bit sad, because they're missing out on a lot of Chinese things… maybe. The historical culture of China seems a bit lost, a bit faded. But, I was impressed with the people on the street: eating and shopping. So many people, it's incredible.

GK: After this mini-tour you're heading back to Italy - do you have any other touring plans?

Marco: We'll do a bunch of gigs in Italy, but the new album will be released by the end of June, so until then we don't have a proper tour. The first week of May, we're going to the UK for a week and then we're going to play in the States obviously. As Sub Pop will put out the record, we'll start in the States in June, I think. Usually, there're a lot of shows when the record comes out.

GK: The new record, The Midnight Room, is the first one without [drummer] Alessio [Gastaledllo]. It was all written and performed and produced by yourself. How was the process of making this album by yourself rather than collaboration?

Marco: I built a brand new studio in the countryside - very isolated. Up in the hills, very far from the cities. Yeah, I worked on the production for an entire year, writing the lyrics and recording sketches. The album as it exists also exists as a demo version. Then, I recorded the proper version in the studio. I've also written by myself. But yeah, obviously it's different than before. It's hard to explain. I love to focus on my music very deeply. It was very hard and intense, but I'm really happy about the result.

GK: With this album, was there a different sound or goal you were after or was it more of a natural progression from Valende?

Marco: Both. It's a natural progression from Valendeand previous albums. This time I focused more on it being cohesive, more fluid. I worked a lot on making it a proper album. There are ten songs and I tried to make them work as an album. Valende is more of a collection: there's an acoustic song, then an instrumental, a jam, a pop song. This record is more of a record. There's a beginning and an end and through it, you can have a more cohesive experience.

GK: I was reading a description of The Midnight Room and some of the words used to describe it were "nocturnal", "personal" and "darker" than before. Are these accurate descriptions?

Marco: Yeah, yeah. It's like being in a very old house at night and you don't know what's going on behind the door, something like that. Very dark, in a way.

GK: What music are you listening to these days?

Marco: Not much music. But mostly I like 50s rock n' roll, some psychedelic rock bands, obviously Pink Floyd, 13th Floor Elevators, Captain Beefheart. I like everything that is very, you know…blood-driven. Anything that is genuine. When I listen to a rock n' roll classic like The [Johnny] Burnett Trio or Carl Perkins or Elvis, I feel so excited every time. I like this kind of vibration. And then I listen to a lot of classical music. I like so many different records. I like everything.

GK: How about any new bands?

Marco: Really, I listen to the same records I did as a child. I'm not so into today's music.

GK: And, finally, do you have any plans to take home any Chinese instruments?

Marco: Yeah, our drummer Paolo bought a gorgeous cymbal. I'd like to find some really cheap effects or something. There are some really amazing instruments from Chinese culture, but I haven't had enough time to take a look around.

Jennifer Gentle will perform tomorrow, 8pm in the Yunnan Art Institute's Performance Hall. Entrance is free of charge.

Italian rock band Jennifer Gentle will be playing Kunming on the 28th of this month, courtesy of our friends at Cinaoggi, who have organized the band's first visit to China. Jennifer Gentle has been on the influential American record label Sub Pop (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Pizzicato Five) since 2004 and is preparing to release a new album in June. More from Cinaoggi:

"Jennifer Gentle, an up-and-coming Italian band on the legendary Sub Pop record label, will give their first ever performance in Kunming on March 28. The concert is sponsored by Population Services International's YouthAIDS program and will help highlight the importance of HIV/AIDS prevention among youth. The event is also being co-sponsored by the Yunnan Art Institute, Cinaoggi and the Italian Embassy.

"Jennifer Gentle's music has already been featured in a popular PSI commercial on Kunming TV with the slogan "I love you, I protect you", encouraging safe sexual behavior among young couples as a sign of love and caring. The commercial and concert are part of a larger PSI youth program in which young peer educators use games to help improve HIV/AIDS related knowledge and attitudes among youth ages 16-24 in Kunming's entertainment areas. As part of their contribution to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Yunnan, Jennifer Gentle has agreed to perform at no cost, making the concert accessible to all interested youth.

" 'Attitudes of Chinese youth are critical to stemming the future spread of HIV/AIDS in China,' said PSI program manager Jennifer Christian, 'the opportunity to host such an exciting event is a unique and innovative way to raise youth awareness of this issue.' PSI peer educators will be present at the event to help distribute informational materials and talk to attendees about how they can help protect themselves and others from the consequences of unsafe sex.

"The event will be held at 8pm on March 28 in the Yunnan Art Institute's Performance Hall. Entrance is free of charge."

For more information contact:

Matteo Damiani, Founder, Cinaoggi: 131116269021

Jennifer Christian, Program Manager, Population Services International/China: (0871) 3164075, Jennifer(at)psichina.org

British medical journal The Lancet has credited China with a major about-face in its attitudes and policies toward its HIV/AIDS epidemic. The journal's summary of China's current approach toward the disease is one of the most significant positive assessments of the country's HIV/AIDS strategy to date.

In the paper 'Evolution of China's response to HIV/AIDS' by Professors Wu Zunyou MD, Sheena G Sullivan MPH, Wang Yu MD, Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus PhD and Roger Detels MD, the authors describe the evolution of China's attitude toward HIV/AIDS:

"After a slow start and reluctance to recognise the existence of risk activities in its population and of the HIV epidemic, China has responded to international influences, media coverage, and scientific evidence to take bold steps to control the epidemic, using scientifically validated strategies. The country now faces the challenge of scaling up these programmes and of convincing all levels of government to implement these innovative strategies and policies. This vigorous response, incorporating research findings into policy formulation, can be informative to other countries that face similar challenges in responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

China's first AIDS case was a dying tourist in 1985, its first indigenous cases of AIDS were recorded in 1989, a result of an outbreak among 146 heroin users in Yunnan province. Since then, the disease has spread to all of China's administrative regions, not only through intravenous drug use, but also through plasma donation in the 1990s and through heterosexual and homosexual intercourse. By 2005, an estimated 650,000 Chinese were HIV-positive.

Like most countries, there was an initial reluctance in China to admit the seriousness of HIV/AIDS within its own borders. The Lancet cited several initiatives taken by the Chinese government to curb the disease's spread including needle exchange programs, methadone treatment programs, prevention programs targeting commercial sex workers and other programs as having a significant impact on slowing the disease's spread. Domestic and international media coverage was also credited with raising awareness of and destigmatizing HIV/AIDS among the general public.

Interestingly, China's severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 is also credited with raising awareness among Chinese officials of the socially and economically destabilizing potential of infectious diseases. In the wake of SARS, China's relationships with international organizations including the World Health Organization have improved as has the country's ability to collect real-time data pertaining to infections.

The Lancet report said one of China's biggest challenges for scaling up and enhancing its HIV/AIDS prevention strategy was getting provincial and other local governments onboard. The report singled out Yunnan for praise, saying that the province "has shown strong support for implementation and advocacy of harm-reduction strategies that reduce HIV transmission in its many drug users".

Related stories:

Kunming native at forefront of HIV/AIDS research

Marrying couples to be screened for HIV in 2007