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ZHUMADIAN, China, April 14 Kyodo

Over the past four years, Zhumadian, a city of 800,000 in China's southeastern province Henan, has hit the headlines for the least attractive of reasons -- AIDS, serial killers, SARS and bird flu

But 73-year-old bicycle repairman Ma, who doesn't offer his full name and spends most days in the shade of a Finance School gate post listening to the radio, says flatly, ''There's nothing special here at all. There's not a thing worth reporting.''

And his views echo those of most locals, from college students to everyday workers to business owners.

Despite some urban development and five tourist-friendly natural scenic spots in the western mountains, few people know much of anything about Zhumadian -- except what they hear in the news.

But recently, people have heard a lot.

In 2000, news reports said blood sales in Zhumadian's Shangcai County had caused village-wide AIDS outbreaks. According to official statistics, 11,844 people had AIDS in February 2004, and Shangcai residents say AIDS continues in their villages.

Around the same time, serial killer Yang Xinhai, 38, from the neighboring city of Luohe was on his way to an eventual tally of 67 murders and 23 rapes before a February 2004 conviction and execution.

Zhumadian's own serial killer, 25-year-old Huang Yong of Pingyu County, was executed in December 2003 for strangling 17 high school boys after luring them to his village home with promises of jobs or computer games.

In April last year, four Zhumadian residents got severe acute respiratory syndrome and after returning from jobs in the heavily SARS-hit capital Beijing, raised fears that migrant workers fleeing infected areas would spread the disease to China's inner provinces.

The World Health Organization even made a trip to Henan.

And on Feb. 7 this year, Pingyu County confirmed a bird flu case, prompting slaughter of 19,000 birds.

The news, therefore, has pushed a city barely on the map closer to the edge, hurting it in the nationwide competition to attract foreign investment for industry and urbanization, people say.

''If you go down the railroad tracks -- Zhengzhou, Luohe -- Zhumadian is the worst one,'' said Wang Fan, 20, a woman studying English at the Zhumadian Teachers' College, a 32-year-old campus.

She cited pollution, including noxious odors and poor chances of finding a job in the city after graduation as reasons for her assessment of her hometown.

Locals say that although Zhumadian has nothing that cannot be found elsewhere, the reputation as a bad news center is unfair.

The ''newsworthy'' problems have been solved, and all of them have occurred elsewhere in China or the world, residents point out.

''The reports on Zhumadian have all been bad,'' said Liu Hua, who has managed an Internet cafe for three years. ''But everyone has these problems.''

SARS never spread in Henan, and in March the government declared bird flu all but over.

And a WHO spokesman complimented Zhumadian's honest reporting of the two health problems, which other areas did not do.

And the police spread cautioned people about the serial killer, said a shopkeeper who recalled the murder scare.

And a visit by Health Minister Wu Yi to Zhumadian was a turning point for AIDS relief, some people believe.

Medicine is available, for free in some cases, and most people know needle sharing can cause HIV, local people say. Students from the college volunteered to teach or care for AIDS orphans during the recent winter vacation.

''A couple of years ago, we had never heard of this problem,'' said second-year Teachers' College student Tu Ping.

The official Xinhua News Agency reports 2,026 AIDS orphans in the province, but the government is prepared to spend 80 million yuan, nearly $10 million, on schools and clinics for the children.

Zhumadian has developed in other ways over the past decade too, locals add.

In the 1990s, so few people had seen out-of-town travelers that they would stare, making tourists uneasy, said local tour guide Li Xia. Different from five years ago, Zhumadian now has bars, teahouses and 80 Internet cafes. Its first four-star hotel opened in 1999.

Inhabitants say these developments stem from government investment and the stability of anchor companies, including factories that make beer, spices and pharmaceuticals. Three reservoirs in the suburbs help in water shortages, while an inter-provincial expressway and two inter-provincial highways bring economically beneficial pass-through traffic.

''The development speed has been really fast in recent years, but not as fast as possible, since it's an inland city,'' said Zhumadian insurance underwriter Li Xinfeng, 25.

But despite nationwide government efforts to stimulate urbanization, Zhumadian still must depend largely on farming, Ma, the ''No-News-Here'' bike repairman concluded.