Zhang Lijun, vice minister of China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, stated at a recent working conference that implementing environment taxes and carrying out ecological compensation on a trial basis will be one of the most important tasks for MEP in 2009.

According to the Tianjin Commission for Commerce, a number of Tianjin's large and medium-sized department stores have made six promises about providing a good shopping environment, quality products, and convenient service to consumers.

Shanghai is claiming to be the first municipality in China to set up an early warning system to help prevent bacterial food poisoning.

Unlike previous years when incandescent light bulbs was used, this year's Sun Island Snow Carving Festival in Harbin is using LED energy saving lighting.

After hearing that Sanlu Group plans to declare bankruptcy, more than 400 Sanlu distributors have come to the company's headquarters in Shijiazhuang, asking for the estimated CNY1 billion they've prepaid to consumers who returned contaminated Sanlu milk powder.

The Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Industry and Commerce has conducted an audit of the toothpaste products sold in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, and found that about a third of the toothpaste sold in the city was substandard.

China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine has reported that its Zhejiang branch has identified three pesticides in a batch of soybeans imported to China from the United States.