Today's Shanghai | News(1998)

December

The supply-and-demand ratio for university graduates next year is expected to reach 1:1.5. There will be 45,348 university students graduating next summer.

A gene bank has been established in Shanghai in a bid to save the South China Tiger, one of the world's most-endangered species.

Shanghai is experiencing one of the century's warmest winters, said Yao Zuqing, a chief forecaster with the Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory.

Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation aspires to become China's largest steel supplier for the automotive, aviation, petroleum and ship-building industries.

The Shanghai Branch of the Bank of China will begin offering euro-related services starting from January 1.

The cost of living in Shanghai is on the rise. According to official forecasts, the consumer price index is expected to rise by 4.5% to 6% in 1999. The retail price index is forecasted to increase by 2.5% to 3.5%.

As the New Year's Day approaches, local post offices are again busy delivering mountains of greeting cards. So are ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Their servers are busy sending e-cards to and fro.

Shanghai Technology Supervision Bureau is carrying out an inspection of goods sold on 108 business areas in Shanghai until the end of January.

Collection of settlements has topped the agenda of local courts. According to the Shanghai Higher People's Court, the city had 18,623 cases whose settlements had not been collected.

Air quality in Shanghai has improved this year with the reduction of pollutants discharged, said Lu Shuping, director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.

More Shanghainese bachelors are tying the knot with women from other parts of the country. These women are wailaimei, literally meaning "outside sister" and now widely referring to those young migrant women who come to the city for work.

Nearly 10,000 students from nine Shanghai-based college and universities recently dramatized their appeal for wildlife preservation by putting their names on several streamers.

December 18 marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the third plenary meeting of the 11th session of China's Communist Party. The epoch- making meeting is celebrated nationwide for its introduction of China's reform and opening-up policy.

A new car named "New Century" was born on December 17 in Shanghai. It is produced under a joint project co-invested by Shanghai Automobile Industry General Company and the U.S. carmaker General Motors.

Shanghai's Party Secretary Huang Ju met Mr. Smith, the president of General Motors--one of the largest automakers in the U.S. Both stressed the importance of cooperation in the automobile industry.

Japan manufacturers still dominate the city's digital videodisk (DVD) player market though they are facing more challenged from European and domestic producers. Panasonic leads its Japanese counterparts by controlling 48% of the local market.

The city began choosing the top 10 world news events in 1998 over the weekend with the aim to arousing local residents' interests in world affairs.

The municipal government is beefing up its preparations for the fifth municipal census which will provide vital information for reviewing the city's past achievements and planning its long-term development in the new millennium.

For the first time the East China Import and Export Commodities Fair will reserve part of its exhibition space for the display of foreign commodities, according to the Municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Commission.

An elderly Taiwanese businessman was recently fined US$3,614 for illegally arranging matches for a Japanese man with a group of Shanghai women.

The Air Pollution Index (API) for soluble pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide and total suspended particles (TSP), rebounded last week because of relatively little rain compared with the previous week.

Sixty high-grade shuttle buses started running on the expressway linking Shanghai with Hangzhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province over the weekend.

The Century Boulevard, one of the city's key infrastructure projects, will be completed by the end of next year. It starts from Pearl TV Tower and ends at Pudong's Central Park.

According to the latest statistics, Shanghai's housing area per capita has reached 9.6 square meters, which is expected to increase to 10 square meters on the cusp of the millennium.

Xujiahui, a new shopping center, is challenging the dominance of the city's other two major business areas on Huaihai and Nanjing roads.

Pudong's Jinqiao Export Processing Zone recently expanded its commodity market, which features locally-made products, to include enterprises from other parts of the country.

Shanghai pledged to further the reform in State-owned enterprises (SOEs) next year, Shanghai's Party Secretary Huang Ju said at the municipal conference on December 10.

The 2nd Auto Parts & Equipment Shanghai '98 centered on the automobile environmental protection, opened on December 9 at Shanghai International Exhibition Center.

Working at home may seem to be attractive but unrealistic for many Chinese. As a matter of fact, many Shanghainese have chosen this work-style thanks to advanced technology. SOHO (small office, home office) is growing in Shanghai.

Some US$3.18 billion worth of exports were delivered during the month through Shanghai Customs, an increase of 2% over the same period last year. Imports grew 9.4% during the month.

Shanghai's economic committee has finalized 148 technical projects worth US$349 million for the next two years.

The city's used car exchange, set up in November last year, has sold about 20,000 vehicles worth US$59 million, accounting for 44% of the city's total.

Health authorities in Shanghai are learning from British expertise to promote an orderly and healthy development of a health information system in the city.

Shanghai has finalized plans for building 350 hectares of public green area by the end of next year, said Hu Yunhua, director of Shanghai Gardening Administrative Bureau.

The local property market is recovering from a slump as housing prices become reasonable. A total of 23 million square meters of housing were sold during the first nine months this year.

Renminbi bills have been seriously damaged due to lack of monetary protection sense, sources with local banks disclosed. Therefore banks are calling for the people to respect Renminbi bills.

Four hundred 18-year-old students gathered at People's Square on December 3 to celebrate reaching adulthood.

Between January and November, the city set up 263 hectares of green land including 10 parcels with each covering more than 3,000 square meters.

Shanghai has set up the largest frozen fish market in East China on Jiangpu Road, which contains 18,000-ton cold storage unit.

Shanghai Port handled 15.25 million tons of cargo last month, up 9.5% compared with the same period last year.

December 1 is this year's International AIDS Day. According to the Municipal Health Department, there are 183 HIV-carriers and AIDS patients in the city. Among them, 47 cases are found this year.

The city is scheduled to open an AIDS exhibition at the Workers' Cultural Palace on December 1 to educate people on how to prevent the disease. It is part of the city's AIDS-awareness program.

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