China Telecom, the country’s state-owned telecommunications operator, announced its intention to open 10,000 3G mobile application instruction counters, which will provide lifetime support for customers of its its 3G products. According toMarbridge Consulting, China Telecom made the announcement during the CDMA2000 Handset Design & Development Industry Alliance meeting held last week. “3G Shouji Fudao Zhan Jihua,” or 3G Handset Instruction Center Plan, is the telecom operator’s latest push to dominate 3G in China, which isexpectedto exceed the world in terms of sheer user base, by offering dedicated customer support to its users for the full lifetime of the product....

China plans to put a network of 500,000 surveillance cameras in place around Chongqing to keep an eye on its citizens, with the help of Western tech and networking companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. The government claims the network will be used to prevent crime and monitor traffic, but the public sees it as another step towards a complete Big Brother culture in the country, theWall Street Journalreports. The system, dubbed “Peaceful Chongquing,” is among the largest and most sophisticated video surveillance projects of its kind, which aims to cover half a million intersections, neighborhoods and parks over nearly 400 square miles....

In a country that’s already overrun with mobile phones, the fact that there are even phone booths still hanging around on Chinese streets is a bit surprising. However, those booths will soon take on another purpose as the Chinese government rehabilitates them into something more useful — WiFi hotspots. As one Chinese operator is quoted attech.qq.com, “today [it] seems useless [and] tasteless, tomorrow [it] can be of much help.” As Yahoo reports, 3G service is “spotty” in China and access to more public WiFi could certainly help in the data transmission at ground level....

For the first few months of 2021, the Martian atmosphere was buzzing withnew visitors from Earth. First, it was the UAE Space Agency’s Hope probe, followed by theChinese Tianwen-1 entering orbit. More recently, Nasa landed the biggest-ever rover on Mars, as well as its companion,an ingenious helicopter.Both have been setting new milestones since. The next visitor to the planet will be Tianwen-1 mission’s lander, which will attempt to reach the surface of Mars in mid-May....

Demand for train tickets is always high in China, especially during holidays. To solve this, China’s Ministry of Railways is preparing an online train ticket booking system. It’s said the system will be put into operation nationwide this year. China still faces bottlenecks in railway development such as strained carrying capacities and difficulties in providing tickets for citizens. The online booking system would relieve the burden on railway stations, said ministry spokesman Wang Yongping during an interview with Chinese online publicationXinhua News....