国内英语新闻:Population census starts in world's most populous country

BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- China began its sixth nationwide population census at midnight Monday to document the demographic changes in the world's most populous country and form basis for policy making.

More than 6 million census workers are to knock on the doors of about 400 million households across the country in the following 10 days. Results of the 8-billion-yuan census will be released by the end of next April.

WHEN MIDNIGHT CAME

When it came to midnight on Monday and the census was officially begun, 28-year-old Wang Yi in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong, began knocking on a door in an apartment building.

A young man with a drowsy look opened the door.

Wang, after showing his certificate as a census worker, explained why he had to disturb him at midnight. In the preliminary poll conducted to prepare for the census, Wang and his colleagues could not find him. Neither did the young man respond to the notice that census takers left at his door.

The man, who had missed the poll due to business elsewhere, appeared to be very cooperative and quickly fill out the questionnaire which had questions about name, age, job and housing condition.

In Zhejiang, a east China province with active private economy, census takers are visiting migrant workers at night.

In dim light on a square of Huzhou City, Zhejiang, 16 martial arts performers from Henan living in their vans were interviewed.

After the interviews, each of the 16 migrants received a card proving that they had been surveyed so that they would not be counted twice.

DIFFERENCE THIS TIME

Different from previous census, the floating population this year was registered at where they actually live, rather than where their permanent residence is as written on their ID cards.

Also, for the first time people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as foreigners in the Chinese mainland, are included in the census. But those on short-term business or sight-seeing trips will not be covered.

The census will collect data on foreigner's name, age, gender, nationality, educational attainment, purpose and duration of stay. Questionnaires for foreigners are simpler than those for Chinese.

Ma Li, director of the Research Center for Chinese Population and Development, said the changes were necessary.

"To register according to where the floating population are could help us avoid mistakes like registering a person twice," she said.

Driven by the fast-paced social and economical development, China's floating population is growing at a rate of 1.24 percent per year and China is now home to some 230 million migrant workers. To register them in the census is very difficult, Ma added.

Jiang Xiangqun, a professor with the School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University, noted that some new questions were added to the census form this year, such as health condition, housing condition and social insurance.

"The population of seniors is growing," he said. "Such question will help the government make policies to provide for the aged."

HARD BUT HELPFUL

As Chinese people's awareness of privacy grows, census takers are facing difficulty in getting the information they need.

Wang Xin was a census taker in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

"In front of our compound there was a lady in her 40s selling pickles," she recalled. "During the preliminary poll, she refused to tell us her phone number."

Wang and her colleagues took turns buying pickles from the lady, who finally told them her phone number.

Wang's fellow worker, 58-year-old Zhu Rongquan, noted that in some compounds the real estate companies were not very cooperative. "In one compound the real estate company even warned us not to disturb the residents."

Zhu had to wait outside in the cold wind, approaching the residents before they entered the building gate.

"Some residents were sympathetic, asking us to go in and gave us a cup of hot water," he said gratefully.

During the door-to-door visit, census takers could encounter various problems.

Wang Bin, a 38-year-old worker from Shijiazhuang City of Hebei, could not find a man registered as being born in 1919. After asking many people she learned that the man had died.

"I have had more than 40 such cases: someone was registered as alive but actually was dead," she said.

China conducted its first nationwide population census in 1953. Since 1990 it has conducted the census every ten years. In the last census, China's population stood at 1.295 billion.

(Xinhua reporter Wang Ying from Liaoning, Xiao Sisi from Guangdong, Yin Lijuan from Beijing, Ren Liying from Hebei and Liu Baosen from Shandong contributed to the report)