October

9

The Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping announces that the latest measured height of Mount Qomolangma is 8844.43 meters. The precision for the measurement of Mount Qomolangma's summit is within a margin of 0.21 meters, and the thickness of the ice and snow layer at the summit is put at 3.5 meters.

11

The 16th CPC Central Committee concludes its Fifth Plenary Session in Beijing. It deliberated and approved proposals for formulating the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.

15

The world's highest railway, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which stretches 1,956 km from Xining to Lhasa cities in west China, is completed. About 550 km of the tracks run on frozen earth, the longest in any of the world's plateau rail systems. The test run is to begin in July 2006.

16

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 countries end their annual meeting in Xianghe, north China's Hebei Province, with the release of a communique. The meeting also adopted the G20 Statement on Global Development Issues, the G20 Statement on Reforming the Bretton Woods Institutions and the Agreed Actions to Implement the G20 Accord for Sustained Growth.

17

The reentry capsule of the Shenzhou 6 spacecraft, carrying taikonauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, lands on earth safely after orbiting the earth for 115 hours and 32 minutes. Fei and Nie blasted off on October 12 for China's second manned space mission. In the country's maiden space flight in 2003, lone astronaut Yang Liwei was put into space.

19

The Information Office of the State Council issues a white paper entitled Building of Political Democracy in China. The document is the first of its kind in China.

27

The 18th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, decides to amend the Personal Income Tax Law of China, raising the taxable threshold for monthly personal income tax from 800 yuan to 1,600 yuan, effective from January 1, 2006.