From The Telegraph:
When the clock reaches midnight on February 17 and the Chinese New Year begins, so will a baby boom that threatens to overwhelm the country’s overstretched healthcare system.
The following 12 months will be known as the Year of the Pig, during which anyone born is supposed to be easy-going and lucky. But, for the first time in six decades, it will also coincide with the year in which the element of gold passes through the Chinese zodiac ” and babies born in the Year of the Golden Pig are twice blessed.
The promising celestial combination has led hundreds of thousands of couples to 2007 as the year to have the sole baby they are permitted under China’s rigid one-child policy, in the hope that their offspring will have double the normal entitlement to riches and a long life. In Beijing alone, 150,000 babies are expected this year, up from the 129,000 born in 2006.[Full Text]
