A women's shelter called "Yangguang Yizhan" (Sunlight House) has opened in Shenyang City, the capital of Liaoning Province in northeast China.
The shelter, the first of its kind in the city, is sponsored by the local women's federation and locates in the Women's Conference Hall of Shenyang.
Its purpose is to protect local women suffering from family violence and those from remote villages. The residents will be given legal counseling.
The city has launched a series of programs to help female victims of family violence, including the Zero Family Violence Zone Program and the 110 Family Violence Police Call Center.
The number of reports of family violence has risen in recent years, and the women's federation received over about 200 such reports in 2001.
(People's Daily November 26, 2002)
