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In the wake of recent natural disasters, such as the Qinghai earthquake, our minds are all a little geared towards charity work and philanthropic tidings. Well Chinese billionaire, Yu Pengnian, really blew these altruistic vibes out of the water yesterday when he announced that he was handing over his entire fortune to charity.

The Shenzhen real estate and hotel tycoon will donate 470 million dollars in cash and property assets to the charity with his namesake: the Yu Pengnian Foundation. This most recent donation will bring Yu’s total to a whopping 1.2 billion dollars in personal contributions—the entire worth of his fortune--and elevate him to the first mainland philanthropist to break the billion-US-dollar barrier in donations.

Yu tells China Daily: “This will be my last donation. I have nothing more to give away.”

As Yu is 88 years-old, his selfless gift is perhaps not too surprising as giving-back can often be the lasting ticket to immortality. But what about Yu’s remaining family? Yu tells reporters he doesn't care:

“…I have a point of view that is very different from others, I will not leave my fortune to my children. […] If my children are more capable than me, it's not necessary to leave a lot of money to them. If they are incompetent, a lot of money will only be harmful to them."

Reports confirm that Yu’s children agree with his decision, and one must commend this humble attitude towards personal wealth. But, sheesh, the 88-yeard old pops sure takes a hard-lined approach to child-rearing.

Yu’s last donation sealed his ranking as China’s #1 philanthropist, according to the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, which tracks China's wealthy. But more importantly, Yu's charity work underscores the trend of China’s biggest wealth producers taking the reins of philothranpic work.

Founder of the Hurun report, Rupert Hoogewerf tells AFP: "It is now no longer possible to ignore Chinese philanthropy, which has landed on the world map."

This sentiment was echoed by Bill Gates on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos last January, as the world’s richest full-time philanthropist said he planned to launch a specific campaign to target China’s wealthiest magnates to partake in charitable work. Gates told reporters:

"I think it's great news that the Chinese have people who have been very successful, and it remains to be seen whether China will end up like the United States where a lot of people who are very wealthy devote their money and their time to the causes of the neediest."

Indeed, as today’s China has proven to be a place where sky-high fortunes can be made, it also needs to prove its place amongst the world's fortunate who altruistically give back. But as Yu and the country's 66 top philanthropist (who are also China's wealthiest citizens) continue to donate personal funds to education, poverty and health-care, China as charity worker becomes a more realistic goal.

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Rarely would one associate the words 'paradise' with 'dictatorship'. However, North Korea, at least if its pavilion at the upcoming Expo is anything to go by, would care to differ. Thanks to Shanghai Scrap's Adam Minter, we've been treated to a few inside shots of a building whose walls bear the title 'Paradise for People.' Readers, judge for yourselves whether the interior matches up to your ideas of Pyongyang.

Plus, for those visitors who were particularly moved by the 'Axis of Evil' rhetoric of George W. Bush, there is now the chance to see the Axis itself in one space. As we documented earlier this month, sitting right next door to the North Korean pavilion is none other than the Iranian pavilion. We can only agree with Minter that the Expo's master planner must have one hell of a sense of humour.

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Shanghai World Expo Park is going on trial operation from Tuesday to Sunday, with five comprehensive drills to be performed during the period, the Yangtse Evening Post reported Tuesday.

The first comprehensive drill started on Tuesday, with an estimated 200,000 people participating. The Expo Park is to open at 9:00 am and close at 8:00 pm during the trial operation.

The city's subways saw their first comprehensive drill Tuesday for the World Expo with passengers on board. The drill is expected to enhance the subway system's capability of handling huge passenger flows and sudden failures.

A total of 118 Expo volunteers from Shanghai-based Fudan University have also started their work Tuesday. They are the first batch of volunteers to serve the Shanghai World Expo, according to the newspaper.

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China could regret setting its first carbon target. Even if the impact on the economy proves manageable, the country's negotiators have now condemned the world's most populous nation to jargon-filled number crunching and climate geekery for decades to come.

During the past six years in China, I can count the number of times I have heard locals talk about carbon offsetting on one finger. They didn't need to: under the Kyoto protocol, China and other developing nations were not obliged to do anything to reduce emissions. That will all change with yesterday's announcement, which paves the way for China to establish carbon trading, carbon taxing and, perhaps one day, carbon offsetting.

What it will not mean is an overall reduction of greenhouse gases from the world's biggest emitter. The new target is a 40-45% reduction in carbon intensity (emissions per yuan of economic activity) between 2005 and 2020. That means slowing the rate of increase rather than cutting back.

China's emissions will increase by between 90% and 108% between 2005 and 2020 if the economy grows at 8% per year, according to Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics Research & Advisory.

But it could be a lot worse. According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature, China's new target will prevent more than 4 gigatons of carbon entering the earth's atmosphere between 2010 to 2015, in addition to the 1.5 gigatons already saved by the energy efficiency drive during the current five-year plan.

There appears to have been considerable coordination between China and the US in announcing roughly equivalent targets within a day of each other. The World Resources Institute calculates that President Obama's goal of a 17% emissions reduction is worth slightly more than a 40% improvement in carbon intensity. A like-for-like deal seems to have been reached, even though China remains publicly adamant that its actions are voluntary while those of the developed nations are mandatory.

Xie Zhenhua, the vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, stressed yesterday that the goal only applies at home. It is not, he said, "internationally binding or subject to international verification". This may upset some foreign observers, but China has a better record of meeting ambitious domestic targets over the past five years than many countries have managed with internationally binding commitments.

A bigger question mark over China's announcement is the lack of ambition relative to what it has already been doing. The target is less than the country is aiming for in the current five years and less than it achieved in the previous 15 years. Xie acknowledged that China achieved energy conservation gains of 47% between 1990 and 2005. But he insisted the lower headline figure of the new target masked the fact that it is harder to achieve because all the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.

There is some truth in this – over the past five years, China has replaced thousands of small, inefficient power plants, steel factories and cement makers with more modern facilities. It has also invested heavily in renewable energy. Doing so again will be more difficult and costly.

But other countries are also pushing themselves hard despite increased costs and challenges – most notably Japan, which is already one of the world's most efficient nations but still raised its carbon reduction target 10% this year.

China's vice minister for foreign affairs, He Yafei, has said it is unreasonable to compare developed and developing nations because of the rich world's historical responsibility for carbon emissions. This is contentious. Data from the World Resources Institute puts China's cumulative emissions since 1900 at third behind the US and Russia.

However, given its 1.3 billion population, the carbon footprint of the average person in China is around a third and a quarter lower than in Europe and the US respectively. In addition, almost a fifth of the emissions that are calculated as Chinese are used to manufacture products for export to countries like the UK.

But look forward instead of back and the picture is very different. If current trends continue, China will soon be the number one climate villain in a whole new set of categories. People living in rich cities like Shanghai already have a higher average carbon footprint than people in the Japan, the UK or France. Without stronger action, this will be true of an ever increasing number of people in China.

A carbon intensity target does not mean a cut in emissions, it means a slowing of the growth in greenhouse gases relative to the expansion of the economy. This could still means very significant carbon savings. The bad news is that China's emissions are still likely to increase substantially between now and 2020.

But the jargon is clearly coming along. China is very serious about contributing in every way to the global warming debate.

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Now is the time to plan your visit to this year's World Expo and the best way to enjoy it is by selecting the right ticket combination. There are many options that allow you to avoid crowds and heat and give discounts. Yang Jian weighs them up.

Buying the right tickets to World Expo 2010 Shanghai can help make your visit to the massive fair more efficient and also save money.

The Expo organizer has designed six main kinds of tickets with different prices to meet the needs of most people.

Sales have started of the ordinary tickets (160 yuan, US$23.46) and peak-day tickets (200 yuan).

Since last Friday, people are able to buy three- (400 yuan) and seven-day (900 yuan) tickets that will allow repeated visits to Expo.

Discounted tickets cheaper by nearly 40 percent are also available.

After the Expo starts in May, people can buy cheaper night tickets (90 yuan) at the entrance.

Which ticket will be the most suitable for you? Who can enjoy the discounts? Why are the peak-day tickets more expensive?

The multi-day tickets are an innovation at Shanghai World Expo. They will be good for any three- or seven-day period during the event, which runs from May 1 to October 31, apart from holidays and other peak periods.

The tickets - with an average price of about 130 yuan per day - will be suitable for travelers who have several days in Shanghai to attend Expo.

They can divide the Expo site into different regions according to countries to facilitate a visit to one region each day.

The main areas of the Expo site cover 3.22 square kilometers in Pudong and 0.75 square kilometers in Puxi, so three-day ticket holders can spend two days in Pudong and another in Puxi.

However, people in Shanghai can buy tickets and choose days in different months to watch the different events.

The organizer is planting different trees and flowers to make the site distinctive in different months. Foreign pavilions will also change their exhibitions from time to time.

For example, a three-day-ticket holder can go to the Expo site one day in May to see the grand opening of various pavilions, another day at the beginning of October to watch the climax of the event and the last day at the end of Expo to buy discounted products from foreign pavilions.

Since a single multi-day ticket will enable different people to visit the Expo site on different days, people can also buy tickets with friends and family members and attend Expo in turns.

The night tickets, which will only be available during Expo, will be suitable for those who mainly want to see the exotic pavilion designs and who prefer a cooler environment.

Night-ticket holders will be able to enter the Expo site from 5pm to 12am. All the pavilions will open until 10:30pm but the lights will stay on until later.

The pavilions will be more beautiful under lights at night. Many pavilions will even have special events - the Norway Pavilion will have a polar light show on the rooftop of its pavilion, and the Korean Corporate Pavilion will launch snow shows every night.

Those who dislike crowds and sunshine can buy night tickets for June or September, expected to have the least number of visitors, to enjoy both less-crowded spaces and a cooler climate.

However, night tickets will allow only brief visits to the inside of pavilions and limits might be set on quantity when the Expo site is over-crowded, says Chen Xianjin, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

The peak-day tickets have been hot items. The 200-yuan ticket for 17 days that are expected to be especially crowded, including May Day and National Day holidays and the last week of Expo (October 25 to 31), have been extremely popular since sales began on March 27 last year.

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Following the spectacular box office revenues of Hollywood's "Avatar" (1.3 billion RMB) and "Alice in Wonderland" (168.6 million RMB in 12 days), it seems that Chinese movie makers are gearing up to take a slice of the lucrative 3D pie.

Xinhua and the Global Times report that China's leading film-makers are lining up 3D movie projects. The China Film Group Corporation has two animated 3D films in the works according to spokesman Weng Li, and consider China's film makers well on the way to producing 3D films able to compete on an international scale. An unnamed senior manager at CFGC has predicted that "The huge potential for 3D movies is luring more investment and it will take only one or two years for Chinese studios to mature in 3D production."

This 3D craze isn't the only change China's movie landscape is going through. It will be importing its first R-rated film, Spain's "El orfanato", set to premiere in mid-April. CFGC, who will be distributing the film, has said they will ask cinemas to require a parent or adult guardian to accompany under 17's to see it.

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