China

Prime Minister John Key yesterday launched a formal strategy to improve ties with China, including more investment from Chinese SOEs, and attracting more Chinese students and tourists.

A 21-minute film showcasing Queenstown's skifields, back-country skiing and skydiving has won Best Picture in the Outdoor Film Festival in China - with the exposure the beginning of a "10-year project" to increase visitors to Queenstown during winter.

Chinese police have arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178 children in busts of two separate child trafficking networks, authorities say.

A sudden explosion of rock in a coal mine in central China following a small earthquake killed four miners and trapped 57 others, a state news agency has reported today.

China is New Zealand's only growing top-five tourism market and by 2014 will have eclipsed traditional heavyweights the United States and Britain to take the No2 spot, according to government forecasts.

A group of 11 travel agents from Beijing had a "whistlestop" familiarisation tour in Dunedin at the weekend, and were pleased with what they saw.

The opening of a joint New Zealand immigration and tourism office in Shanghai is a welcome move and will help simplify the process for Chinese tourists wanting to visit the Wakatipu, Destination Queenstown says.

A bullet train crashed into another high-speed train that had stalled after being struck by lightning in eastern China, causing four carriages to fall off a viaduct and killing at least 35 people and injuring 191 others, state media and an official said on Sunday.

A 2-year-old Chinese girl left unattended fell 10 storeys from her family's apartment window and survived after being caught by a woman passing by, state media reported.

Renowned artist Ai Weiwei, the most high-profile target of a sweeping crackdown on activists in China, has returned home after nearly three months in detention.