–>

Diagnostics

Following a macro philosophy of disease, traditional Chinese diagnostics are based on overall observation of human symptoms rather than “micro” level laboratory tests. There are four types of TCM diagnostic methods: observe (望 wàng), hear and smell (闻/聞 wén), ask about background (问/問 wèn) and touching (切 qiè). The pulse-reading component of the touching examination is so important that Chinese patients may refer to going to the doctor as “Going to have my pulse felt.

Traditional Chinese medicine is considered to require considerable diagnostic skill. A training period of years or decades is said to be necessary for TCM practitioners to understand the full complexity of symptoms and dynamic balances. According to one Chinese saying, A good (TCM) doctor is also qualified to be a good prime minister in a country. Modern practitioners in China often use a traditional system in combination with Western methods.

Techniques

• Palpation of the patient’s radial artery pulse (pulse diagnosis) in six positions
• Observations of patient’s tongue, voice, hair, face, posture, gait, eyes, ears, vein on index finger of small children
• Palpation of the patient’s body (especially the abdomen, chest, back, and lumbar areas) for tenderness or comparison of relative warmth or coolness of different parts of the body
• Observation of the patient’s various odors
• Asking the patient about the effects of their problem.
• Anything else that can be observed without instruments and without harming the patient
• Asking detailed questions about their family, living environment, personal habits, food diet, emotions, menstrual cycle for women, child bearing history, sleep, exercise, and anything that may give insight into the balance or imbalance of an individual.

Methods of treatment

The following methods are considered to be part of Chinese medicine:

1. Acupuncture(针 灸/針灸) (from the Latin word acus, “needle”, and pungere, meaning “prick”) is a technique in which the practitioner inserts fine needles into specific points on the patient’s body. Usually about a dozen acupoints are needled in one session, although the number of needles used may range anywhere from just one or two to 20 or more. The intended effect is to increase circulation and balance energy (Qi) within the body.
2. Auriculotherapy (耳灼疗法/耳燭療法), which comes under the heading of Acupuncture and Moxibustion.
3. Chinese food therapy (食疗/食療): Dietary recommendations are usually made according to the patient’s individual condition in relation to TCM theory. The “five flavors” (an important aspect of Chinese herbalism as well) indicate what function various types of food play in the body. A balanced diet, which leads to health, is when the five functional flavors are in balance. When one is diseased (and therefore unbalanced), certain foods and herbs are prescribed to restore balance to the body.
4. Chinese herbal medicine (中草药/中药/中藥): In China, herbal medicine is considered as the primary therapeutic modality of internal medicine. Of the approximately 500 Chinese herbs that are in use today, 250 or so are very commonly used.Rather than being prescribed individually, single herbs are combined into formulas that are designed to adapt to the specific needs of individual patients. A herbal formula can contain anywhere from 3 to 25 herbs. As with diet therapy, each herb has one or more of the five flavors/functions and one of five “temperatures” (”Qi”) (hot, warm, neutral, cool, cold). After the herbalist determines the energetic temperature and functional state of the patient’s body, he or she prescribes a mixture of herbs tailored to balance disharmony.
5. Cupping (拔罐): A type of Chinese massage, cupping consists of placing several glass “cups” (open spheres) on the body. A match is lit and placed inside the cup and then removed before placing the cup against the skin. As the air in the cup is heated, it expands, and after placing in the skin, cools down, creating a lower pressure inside the cup that allows the cup to stick to the skin via suction. When combined with massage oil, the cups can be slid around the back, offering what some practitioners think of as a reverse-pressure massage.
6. Die-da or Tieh Ta (跌打) is usually practiced by martial artists who know aspects of Chinese medicine that apply to the treatment of trauma and injuries such as bone fractures, sprains, and bruises. Some of these specialists may also use or recommend other disciplines of Chinese medical therapies (or Western medicine in modern times) if serious injury is involved. Such practice of bone-setting (整骨) is not common in the West.
7. Gua Sha (刮痧)
8. Moxibustion: “Moxa,” often used in conjunction with acupuncture, consists in burning of dried Chinese mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) on acupoints. “Direct Moxa” involves the pinching of clumps of the herb into cones that are placed on acupoints and lit until warm. Typically the burning cone is removed before burning the skin and is thought, after repeated use, to warm the body and increase circulation. Moxa can also be rolled into a cigar-shaped tube, lit, and held over an acupuncture point, or rolled into a ball and stuck onto the back end of an inserted needle for warming effect.
9. Physical Qigong exercises such as Tai chi chuan (Taijiquan 太极拳/太極拳), Standing Meditation (站樁功), Yoga, Brocade BaDuanJin exercises (八段锦/八段錦) and other Chinese martial arts.
10. Qigong (气功/氣功) and related breathing and meditation exercise.
11. Tui na (推拿) massage: a form of massage akin to acupressure (from which shiatsu evolved). Oriental massage is typically administered with the patient fully clothed, without the application of grease or oils. Choreography often involves thumb presses, rubbing, percussion, and stretches.
12. Some TCM doctors may also utilize esoteric methods that incorporate or reflect personal beliefs or specializations such as Fengshui (风水/風水) or Bazi (八字).

The foundation principles of Chinese medicine are not necessarily uniform, and are based on several schools of thought. Received TCM can be shown to be influenced by Taoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism.

Since 1200 BC, Chinese academics of various schools have focused on the observable natural laws of the universe and their implications for the practical characterization of humanity’s place in the universe. In the I Ching and other Chinese literary and philosophical classics, Chinese writers described general principles and their applications to health and healing.

Porkert, a Western medical doctor, placed Chinese medical theory in context as:

Chinese medicine, like many other Chinese sciences, defines data on the basis of the inductive and synthetic mode of cognition. Inductivity corresponds to a logical link between two effective positions existing at the same time in different places in space. (Conversely, causality is the logical link between two effective positions given at different times at the same place in space.) In other words, effects based on positions that are separate in space yet simultaneous in time are mutually inductive and thus are called inductive effects. In Western science prior to the development of electrodynamics and nuclear physics (which are founded essentially on inductivity), the inductive nexus was limited to subordinate uses in protosciences such as astrology. Now Western man, as a consequence of two thousand years of intellectual tradition, persists in the habit of making causal connections first and inductive links, if at all, only as an afterthought. This habit must still be considered the biggest obstacle to an adequate appreciation of Chinese science in general and Chinese medicine in particular. Given such different cognitive bases, many of the apparent similarities between traditional Chinese and European science which attract the attention of positivists turn out to be spurious.

Basic theory and model of the body

Traditional Chinese medicine is largely based on the philosophical concept that the human body is a small universe with a set of complete and sophisticated interconnected systems, and that those systems usually work in balance to maintain the healthy function of the human body. The balance of yin and yang is considered with respect to qi (”breath”, “life force”, or “spiritual energy”), blood, jing (”kidney essence”, including “semen”), other bodily fluids, the Wu Xing, emotions, and the soul or spirit (shen). TCM has a unique model of the body, notably concerned with the meridian system. Unlike the Western anatomical model which divides the physical body into parts, the Chinese model is more concerned with function. Thus, the TCM spleen is not a specific piece of flesh, but an aspect of function related to transformation and transportation within the body, and of the mental functions of thinking and studying.

There are significant regional and philosophical differences between practitioners and schools which in turn can lead to differences in practice and theory.

Theories invoked to describe the human body in TCM include:

• Channels, also known as “meridians”
• Wu Xing
• Qi
• Three jiaos also known as the Triple Burner, the Triple Warmer or the Triple Energiser
• Yin and Yang
• Zang and Fu

The Yin/Yang and five element theories may be applied to a variety of systems other than the human body, whereas Zang Fu theory, meridian theory and three-jiao (Triple warmer) theories are more specific.

There are also separate models that apply to specific pathological influences, such as the four stages theory of the progression of warm diseases, the six levels theory of the penetration of cold diseases, and the eight principles system of disease classification.

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TCM theory originated thousands of years ago through meticulous observation of nature, the cosmos, and the human body. Major theories include those of Yin-yang, the Five Phases, the human body Channel system, Zang Fu organ theory, six confirmations, four layers, etc.

Ancient (classical) TCM history

Much of the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine derives from the same philosophy that informs Taoist and Buddhist thought, and reflects the classical Chinese belief that the life and activity of individual human beings have an intimate relationship with the environment on all levels.

In legend, as a result of a dialogue with his minister Qibo (岐伯), the Yellow Emperor (2698 - 2596 BCE) is supposed by Chinese tradition to have composed his Neijing Suwen (《内经·素问》) or Inner Canon: Basic Questions, also known as the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon). The book’s title is often mistranslated as Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. Modern scholarly opinion holds that the extant text of this title was compiled by an anonymous scholar no earlier than the Han dynasty just over two-thousand years ago.

During the Han Dynasty (202 BC –220 AD), Zhang Zhongjing (张仲景/張仲景), the Hippocrates of China, who was mayor of Chang-sha toward the end of the 2nd century AD, wrote a Treatise on Cold Damage, which contains the earliest known reference to Neijing Suwen. Another prominent Eastern Han physician was Hua Tuo (c. 140 – c. 208 AD), who anesthetized patients during surgery with a formula of wine and powdered hemp. Hua’s physical, surgical, and herbal treatments were also used to cure headaches, dizziness, internal worms, fevers, coughing, blocked throat, and even a diagnosis for one lady that she had a dead fetus within her that needed to be taken out. The Jin dynasty practitioner and advocate of acupuncture and moxibustion, Huang-fu Mi (215 - 282 AD), also quoted the Yellow Emperor in his Jia Yi Jing (甲乙经/甲乙經), ca. 265 AD. During the Tang dynasty, Wang Bing claimed to have located a copy of the originals of the Neijing Suwen, which he expanded and edited substantially. This work was revisited by an imperial commission during the 11th century AD.

There were noted advances in Chinese medicine during the middle Ages. Emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) commissioned the scholarly compilation of a material medica in 657 that documented 833 medicinal substances taken from stones, minerals, metals, plants, herbs, animals, vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops. In his Bencao Tujing (’Illustrated Pharmacopoeia’), the scholar-official Su Song (1020–1101) not only systematically categorized herbs and minerals according to their pharmaceutical uses, but he also took an interest in zoology. For example, Su made systematic descriptions of animal species and the environmental regions they could be found, such as the freshwater crab Eriocher sinensis found in the Huai River running through Anhui, in waterways near the capital city, as well as reservoirs and marshes of Hebei.

Contact with Western culture and medicine has not displaced TCM. While there may be traditional factors involved in the persistent practice, two reasons are most obvious in the westward spread of TCM in recent decades. Firstly, TCM practices are believed by many to be very effective, sometimes offering palliative efficacy where the practices of Western medicine fail or unable to provide treatment, especially for routine ailments such as flu and allergies, or when Western medicine fails to relieve patients suffering from chronic ailments. TCM has been shown to be effective in the treatment of chronic, functional disorders, such as migraines and osteoarthritis, and is traditionally used for a wide range of functional disorders. Secondly, TCM provides an alternative to otherwise costly procedures that many can not afford, or which is not covered by insurance. There are also many who turn to TCM to avoid the toxic side effects of pharmaceuticals.

TCM of the last few centuries is seen by at least some sinologists as part of the evolution of a culture, from shamans blaming illnesses on evil spirits to “proto-scientific” systems of correspondence; any reference to supernatural forces is usually the result of romantic translations or poor understanding and will not be found in the Taoist-inspired classics of acupuncture such as the Huang Di Nei Jing. The system’s development has, over its history, been analyzed both skeptically and extensively, and the practice and development of it has waxed and waned over the centuries and cultures through which it has traveled ^] - yet the system has still survived thus far. It is true that the focus from the beginning has been on pragmatism, not necessarily understanding of the mechanisms of the actions - and that this has hindered its modern acceptance in the West. This, despite that there were times such as the early 18th century when “acupuncture and moxa were a matter of course in polite European society”

The term “TCM” describes the modern practice of Chinese medicine as a result of sweeping reforms that took place after 1950 in the People’s Republic of China. The term “Classical Chinese medicine” (CCM) often refers to medical practices that rely on theories and methods dating from before the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1911). Advocates of CCM portray it as less influenced by Western and political agendas than TCM.

xLzh>en Googlec

The history of (TCM) Traditonal Chinese Medicine

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I was scanning the news and came across an article about the Chinese thinking of buying bargain basement houses in the United States. I love it when the Chinese see the word bargain and they come running.

They don’t know that the laws are different in the United States than China. They just see the work bargain and big. In the United States we have this called property tax and maintain the apt every month.

When the Chinese hear you have to pay a few thousand dollars in taxes a year they think they are being robbed. They say they don’t have to pay that in China. Welcome to America! Ha Ha Ha!!

Chinese Investors Looking To Buy U.S. Homes

Cash-rich tourists from mainland China are coming to the United States to cruise neighborhoods with a lot of foreclosures or unsold developments. They are looking for bargain-basement buys. These recent home-buying tours to the U.S. have become one of the most popular tour group packages in China.

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The party is over in Shanghai and everyone is leaving. This is only the beginning; the worst is yet to come. The Japanese are on the way out. The Japan news is bleak!!

Japan logs record trade deficit as exports collapse

TOKYO — Japan’s recession woes deepened as exports plunged at the fastest pace ever last month, leaving Asia’s biggest economy with a record trade deficit, official figures showed Wednesday.

Japan’s heavy reliance on foreign demand to drive its recovery from a decade-long slump has left it vulnerable to the current global economic slowdown, which has sent sales of cars, televisions and other goods tumbling.

Japan’s trade deficit ballooned to 952.6 billion yen (9.9 billion dollars) in January as exports plunged 45.7 percent from a year earlier, the finance ministry reported.

It was the worst month since records began in 1979, marking a dramatic shift in fortunes for Japan’s economy, which used to enjoy large surpluses thanks to brisk demand for its high-tech products.

Once seen as relatively immune to the global downturn, Japan’s economy has become one of the worst affected, exposing the fragility of its export-led rebound after the 1990s recession.

Analysts expect Japan to report Friday a record 10 percent drop in factory output in January from the previous month. Unemployment is also forecast to rise as corporate icons such as Sony and Toyota slash thousands of jobs.

“Because of the shrinking global economy, Japan’s business model of being dependent on exports is not working at all,” said Barclays Capital chief Japan economist Kyohei Morita.

But with the population declining and the government reluctant to admit foreign workers, Japan has no choice but to rely on overseas markets, said Morita, who sees exports falling until the third quarter of this year.

Demand for Japanese exports has been crushed by a slump in worldwide consumer spending, pushing the world’s second largest economy into its worst recession in decades.

A surging yen has added to exporters’ troubles, making it harder for them to remain competitive.

Japanese exports to the United States and the European Union area roughly halved in January. Car exports plunged more than two-thirds as automakers idled plants in response to slumping sales.

Few analysts are optimistic about the chances of a significant rebound in Japanese shipments any time soon.

“In my view the global economy is heading into a depression. So the prospect of a recovery in demand for Japan’s goods in the near- to mid-term are very low,” said Kirby Daley, senior strategist at Newedge Group in Hong Kong.

The government said last week that Japan’s economy was in the deepest crisis since World War II, after contracting at an annualised pace of 12.7 percent in the last quarter of 2008, the worst performance in almost 35 years.

The worsening recession comes at a time when Japan’s ruling party is facing the risk of losing its half-century grip on power, with Prime Minister Taro Aso’s popularity plunging along with the economy.

Japan’s unemployment rate rose to a near three-year high of 4.4 percent in December and looks likely to top the post-World War II peak of 5.5 percent later this year, analysts said.

“With the export sector extremely weak and the domestic economy weakening, there is a growing risk that you could get a significant rise in Japanese unemployment,” said Christopher Wood, an equity strategist at the CLSA bank.

Japan’s jobless rate may even head towards 10 percent, he warned.

Downturn drives expat exodus from Shanghai

By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai and Kathrin Hille in Beijing

Published: February 24 2009 17:36 | Last updated: February 24 2009 17:36

Until recently, half the 100,000 Koreans who had made Shanghai their home lived clustered together on the outskirts of the city in “Little Korea”, a neighbourhood where the street signs are in Korean and the shops are full of LG products and kimchi food.

But with the economic crisis hitting the South Korean economy and currency hard, Little Korea is being rapidly vacated.

Korean companies are shipping workers home, cutting off school fees and repatriating wives and children without their menfolk to cut costs. They are the first large wave of expatriates to have begun leaving China’s financial capital as a result of the global economic crisis but their departure raises the prospect of a broader exodus of foreigners who may take investment, skills and job creation opportunities with them.

The press officer of the Korean consulate in Shanghai could not answer questions about the exodus of her countrymen – because her post had just been abolished and she was being sent back to Korea.

Kim Heewon, president of Seoul Plaza, Little Korea’s central shopping complex, estimates that 20 per cent of the Korean population has returned home, many of them in the past few weeks.

“Almost no one comes in any more,” says a clerk in Seoul Plaza’s golf boutique. Throughout Ms Kim’s 4,000-squ-m department store, Korean-speaking staff loiter next to Korean-branded toys, clothing and furniture, with no customers in sight.

Japanese relocation companies, meanwhile, say there has been a marked rise in Japanese families returning home from Shanghai compared with last year and they expect the pace to pick up further during the traditional peak relocation months of March and April.

Each of the Japanese housewives minding toddlers at the vast Mandarin City housing complex, where an estimated 70 per cent of residents are Korean or Japanese, say they know at least one family that has been sent home while the breadwinner remains in China.

The Japanese consulate estimates there were 48,000 nationals in Shanghai 18 months ago, but says it has no figures for the number that might have left since.

The pain has not been limited to Shanghai. A parent with children enrolled in an expensive Beijing international school says most of her daughters’ Korean classmates have left the school almost overnight.

A labour activist in the northern province of Shandong, where Korean investment has totalled $23.4bn (€18.4bn, £16.2bn) since 1988 and has accounted for 40 per cent of total foreign inflows, says the owner of a Korean-invested furniture factory left before the Chinese lunar new year in January and it has yet to reopen.

Local authorities that previously published regular data on absconding factory owners halted such reporting after thousands were left jobless when the entire Korean management of Yantai Shigang Fibre vanished last year.

“I would guess that even more have been closing since then given the worsening macroeconomic environment,” says Yuan Xiaoli, a professor at Qingdao University of Science and Technology.

Back in Little Korea, Ms Kim says the flow of Koreans is not one way. “Workers are going home, but entrepreneurs are coming here from Korea,” she says. “Our Korean people think [since] China is bigger than Korea, there must be more opportunities here than in Korea. There is no dream in Korea, but our Korean people think there is still a dream in China.”

Ms Kim is putting her money where her mouth is. She is planning to open a large golf goods store in Seoul Plaza early next month

Inflation in Shanghai

It’s March 19,2008.  I’m walking home and have to stop to buy a 2 liter of coke.  He price for coke has been 6.10 RMB for months, or for at least as long as I remember, given I do the same thing almost everyday.

Today I walked into the store to find the price has gone up.  I wouldn’t mind if the price went up a little but when you go and it’s gone to 7 RMB from 6.10 RMB over night that’s a big jump.  The lady at the store said that 40% of the things in the store has gone up but the salaries have not.  If the prices continue to rise I don’t know what’s going to happen to Shanghai.  I think China is big trouble. 

The news from Beijing is that’s it’s going to hard and almost impossible to keep the inflation down.  When the prices are almost like the states for a coke then something is wrong.  The salaries do not match the prices. 

China has been so cheap for so long, it’s going to be hard to keep up.  The RMB is getting stronger by the day!.

The Beijing games are supposed to showcase China’s stature on the world stage. But they’re producing protests at home and may shut down big hunks of the nation’s economy.

I was in Beijing this weekend March 14-17 2008 and all the whisper was about how the government is spending so much money on the Olympic stadium when they could spend the money on the people.  They hire all the foreigners for all the projects and design when they could design it themselves but they want it to showcase the best works in the world.  I saw this article written By Jim Jubak

On March 10, Haile Gebrselassie, the world record holder in the marathon, pulled out of August’s Beijing Olympics. The city’s notoriously bad air pollution posed a threat to his health over the 26.2-mile course, the Ethiopian runner said.

It says a lot about the disaster that’s unfolding for the Beijing games that the withdrawal of an Olympic favorite caused hardly a ripple. And why should it when bigger stories are brewing? It’s possible that:

• A forced shutdown of Beijing’s factories and power plants during the games will throw China into an economic downturn.

• Diversion of safe food to the Olympic Village will cause food riots elsewhere in China.

• The transfer of 80 billion gallons of water — equal to the annual water consumption of Tucson, Ariz., a city of 535,000 — from Shaanxi and other provinces in northwestern China will shut down factories and agriculture in the region.

Yes, the Beijing Olympics, which were supposed to showcase China to the world, are still likely to provide exactly the kind of prestige-building extravaganza that the country’s leaders had hoped for. But domestically, the games are quickly turning into an economic and political disaster. Once upon a time — maybe six months ago — investors (including yours truly) looked on the Olympics as a guarantee that China’s stock market and economy would keep chugging along through the summer. “Safe until August” was the mantra.

Now, it increasingly looks like the games themselves could be the catalyst for a significant downturn in China’s stock market and economy.

Steps haven’t been enough

Observers already knew that China was serious about cutting air pollution in Beijing and that, if necessary; the government would shut down factories and power plants. Pollution had been one of the reasons China lost its 1993 bid to host the 2000 Olympics, and this time around, the country promised the International Olympic Committee that it would clean up Beijing’s act before the games.

Officials converted coal-fired furnaces to natural gas. Factories have been relocated to the suburbs. Millions of trees have been planted to break the winds that blow dust in from the plains north and west of the city. Older taxis have been replaced with 80,000 newer models that produce less pollution. Heavy trucks are permitted to enter the city only at night. The city expanded its subway system and built a rail line to connect the airport to downtown.

And it still hasn’t been enough. Thanks to China’s rapid economic growth and Beijing’s own stunning growth — the local economy is up 144% since 2000 — car ownership has soared. The city has 3 million vehicles and is adding 400,000 cars and trucks a year. Power plants burn cleaner, low-sulfur coal, but they burn a lot more of it: 30 million tons in 2007. A building boom has added 1.7 billion square feet of construction since 2002, contributing to the city’s problem with dust. Daily concentrations of particulates in Beijing equal those in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Atlanta combined.

Desperate for solutions

The only way for the government to deliver anything close to the air-pollution targets it has promised is to enforce a Draconian short-term fix: Shut down the sources of pollution for the duration of the games. Some coal-fired power plants, cement factories, steel-making plants and chemical plants in Beijing, Tianjin and four neighboring provinces will be shut for 30 days before the Olympics begin Aug. 8. Ten major polluters have already been shut, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Some factories that remain open will not operate at full capacity. For example, Shougang, this year China’s second-largest producer of construction-grade steel, will cut production in half, to 4 million metric tons.

The only good thing I can report is that it was a sunny day and you could see the blue skies in Beijing.  That was really really nice!

Another first for China.  They are just trying to be number one in every feild possible.  now they are in the bullet train business.

China’s first domestically developed high-speed bullet train, capable of reaching 300 kilometres (190 miles) per hour, rolled off the production line on Saturday, state media reported.

“China has joined an elite world club after Japan, France and Germany, to become the fourth country capable of turning out such high speed trains,” Wang Yongping, Ministry of Railways spokesman, told Xinhua news agency.

The streamlined train body, made of aluminium alloy, is the lightest of its kind in the world, Wang said.

The eight-carriage train can seat about 600 passengers and will start running the 115-kilometre-long Beijing-Tianjin route before the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, the report said.

It will cut travel time between the two cities to about 30 minutes from the current 80 minutes, Xinhua said.

The manufacturer, Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. Ltd., said the first batch of 10 such trains, with a speed equivalent to the Japanese bullet train, will be delivered in the first half of 2008.

Currently, the world’s fastest train is France’s TGV, which travels at a speed of 320 kilometres per hour.

China looking at the United states and the problems they have, have come to realize it might be a bubble in China especially in Shanghai and Beijing.

The once red-hot housing market of Shanghai is losing its luster, as government credit controls begin to bite.

Average daily property sales since mid-November have dropped 50 percent from the first half of this year to below 600 apartments, according to the China Real Estate Index System. Only 376 apartments changed hands last Sunday, the first weekend after the central bank clarified the definition of “second” properties that are subject to higher mortgage deposits.

 More than 55 percent of homebuyers have delayed purchase plans, according to a recent survey by property information firm Soufun.com.

Meanwhile, real estate developers are facing increasing financing pressure as commercial banks tighten credit. That cash flow problem is being exacerbated by the slump in housing sales because of government measures to clamp down on excessive speculation.

China’s largest real estate developer Vanke Co Ltd was the first to boost sales by cutting its property prices by 15 to 30 percent in major cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

In mid-November, Vanke offered a 2.7 percent discount on a property for buyers able to pay a 50 percent down payment and sign a sales contract within 10 days.

Wang Shi, chairman of Vanke Co Ltd, said at a conference last week that the property market had reached a turning point.

Vanke’s monthly sales income fell 18.02 percent from October to 4.23 billion yuan ($573.17 million) in November, prompting the company to reduce prices in some cities, analysts said. The company also announced a 25.4 percent drop in sales in October from the previous month.

“Housing sales turnover and prices have reached their peak and we’ll see a drastic slowdown of corporate earnings for real estate developers,” said Wang Shujuan, an analyst at Orient Securities.

Wang said most investment properties were likely to be sold or rented out in the next year, which would increase supply and put pressure on developers.

Property developers are also showing less interest in buying land. A recent sale of 32 parcels of land in Shanghai received just four tender applications. A month ago there were 10 developers competing for one parcel of land.

“Many small and medium-sized companies are now faced with financing pressure, which will prompt them to cut prices or introduce overseas investment to survive,” said Luo Xiaohua, general manager of Shanghai Jing Rui Properties (Group) Co Ltd.

Some market watchers predict the housing market correction could last up to 15 months before it picks up again.

Shanghai will invest over 2 billion yuan in a public housing fund to buy 8,000 low-rent apartments by the end of the year. The city plans to have budget housing for 100,000 families by 2010, up from 30,000 now.

The nation has poured billions of yuan into low-cost housing, urging local governments to reserve at least 70 percent of residential land for low-rent units or smaller, cheaper commercial homes.

Chinese share prices rose for a second consecutive session on Thursday, lifted by restored confidence among investors.     The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, jumped 101.75 points, or 2.06 percent, to finish at 5,043.54. It traded between 4,923.30 and 5,050.79, after closing up 2.18 percent at 4,941.78 on Wednesday.

    The Shanghai index has room to rise in the short term but is expected to meet resistance at 5,100, said Shanghai Shiji Investment Consulting. The investment firm added that gains on Friday could be limited ahead of the weekend.

    The Shenzhen Component Index on the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange climbed 238.40 points, or 1.45 percent, to 16,625.41.

    The Hushen 300 Index, which accounts for 60 percent of the nation’s stock market value, added 90.91 points, or 1.84 percent, to 5,037.20.

    Qin Hong, an analyst with Bohai Investment, said the strong rebound on Wednesday had helped to boost buying sentiment.

    Winners led losers by 625 to 142 in Shanghai and 484 to 97 in Shenzhen. The combined turnover of the two bourses rose slightly to 128.65 billion yuan (about 17.6 billion U.S. dollars) from 125.71 billion yuan in the previous session.

    The strong rebound also came despite a small decline in Hong Kong. The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed down 0.05 percent at 27,017.09 following the 0.19 percent fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average overnight.

    Qin said the worst appeared to be over for banking and property stocks, which previously suffered heavy losses due to lending and mortgage curbs, and these shares had begun to gain ground steadily.

    COFCO Property jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent to 22.50yuan. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank rose 4.50 percent to 49.50 yuan and heavyweight Industrial and Commercial Bank of China edged up 0.13 percent to 7.89 yuan.

    Oil producers and other blue chips were also among the biggest gainers.

    Sinopec, China’s largest oil refiner, added 6.82 percent to 23.04 yuan. PetroChina, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the total weight of the benchmark index, rose 3.08 percent to 30.50 yuan.

    China Railway, Asia’s largest integrated construction group, jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent to 9.97 yuan.