Photo taken on August 30, 2010 shows the exterior of the People's Bank of China in Beijing, capital of China. The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee agreed in a meeting on Dec. 3 that China will switch its monetary policy stance from relatively loose to prudent next year to tackle rising inflation and keep economic growth at sustainable pace. And the meeting also agreed that China would continue the proactive fiscal policy next year. [Xinhua]

Photo taken on July 29, 2010 shows researchers examining Tianhe-1A at the National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) in Tianjin, north China. Chinese supercomputer Tianhe-1A was ranked the world's fastest computer by the World Top 500 Supercomputers list, which was issued on Nov. 16 in the United States. The Tianhe-1A system at the National Supercomputer Center in northern China city of Tianjin, is capable of sustaining computation at 2.57 petaflop/s, which equates to a mind-numbing 2.57 quadrillions of calculations per second. [Xinhua]

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2010)