Today's Shanghai | News(1997)

1997---July

Shanghai Customs has nominated 308 "trustworthy firms" for their quality products and management and will offer them special treatment in handling imports and exports.

The government's attempts to improve housing for local citizens have increased demand for more overseas investment in non-luxury apartments.

More than 80 experts or professors were invited to attend a forum on the solutions for problems encountered in management of modern cities.

More than 20 university students went to the Three Gorges area to help local residents. Their wide background in education has solved many problems for the rural residents.

The city's trade with Taiwan increased by 8.9 percent in the first six months this year.

Shanghai Community Service Network, started in Luwan District, will spread throughout the city this year. The network provides information on "home service", "medicine and health" and so on.

Shanghai Volunteers Association was recently founded in the spirit of "serving others and dedicate one's self to society."

Yuanyuan, the mascot for the 8th National Games, greets people at the Bund and elsewhere on Shanghai streets, creating a festive atmosphere for the October event.

On July 24, more than 5,000 volunteers, led by city leaders, participated in the cleaning of the stadiums for the Eighth National Games which was scheduled in October. At the same time, efforts in recruiting more volunteers are being stepped up.

Shanghai Historical Museum is displaying a wide array of pictures of great historic significance. The exhibition is called "China's Revolutionary Route - Nanchang Uprising and Jingangshan Revolutionary Base".

Water melon has been the commonest fruit in summer for local residents. As a result, stands selling water melons can be found in every neighborhood, which is the major cause for dirtiness in the streets. District governments are taking steps to well regulate such stand-keepers.

A recent news release from the organizing committee of '97 Shanghai International Fashion Cultural Festival showed that the major events during the festival have been scheduled. They include International Garments Fair, Fashion Trend for the Spring & Summer of 1998, Model Contest, Garments Design Contest, and so on.

Shanghai International Movie Festival, scheduled in this fall, is expected to have more than 200 movies enter for competition. Its preparatory work has been started.

The city hopes to develop electrically powered mopeds so as to replace nearly 400,000 gas-driven ones off the streets by the year 2000.

Shanghai now has 70,000 jobless women and 100,000 laid-off women workers waiting for recareering, a labor official said.

Manufacturing and real estate remain the biggest recipients of foreign capital pouring into the city, according to the Shanghai Foreign Investment Commission.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, the giant automaker in Shanghai, is determined to become one of the Fortune 500 companies.

Modern facilities have brought a revolutionary change in the kitchens here. Microwave ovens, food processors, exhaust fans and electric heaters have made cooking much easier.

Each year Shanghai produces 5 percent to 7 percent more garbage, and spends US$120 million to handle this growing mountain of rubbish, according to Wenhui Daily.

Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in Pudong New Area has reported a sharp increase in foreign trade in the first half of this year, up 114 percent to US$ 1 billion.

Many bestsellers in foreign countries, once imported and translated, do not fly off the shelves as they did in their native countries. Books such as EQ seem to have few readers in Shanghai.

Retail sales during the first six months rose 16.5 percent to US$7.8 billion, according to the Shanghai Commerce Commission.

China Eastern Airlines opened a new route to San Francisco on July 16 to supplement its service to Los Angeles and Seattle.

Shanghai's plan to help the poor in Southwest China's Yunnan province has made great progress since its implementation last September, with a "helping-the-poor" network formed.

Nearly one-third of all enterprises in the city - or 130,000 - have reorganized themselves since the Company Law was enacted three years ago.

As the population of Shanghai has been in negative growth in recent years, the numbers of each age group has changed greatly, according to a recently published report from the Shanghai Statistics Bureau.

Waigaoqiao Xin Development Co., one of the three State-run land developers in Pudong's Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, attracted more businesses than expected for the first half of this year.

The raining season in Shanghai has ended. Hot weather has just begun. The average temperature has reached 36 degrees Centigrade.

There are about 220 schools for laid-off female workers in Shanghai. Up till now about 110,000 workers have attended such schools and graduated with various kinds of certificates.

Shanghai will focus on supporting 54 group enterprises in the coming years with the aim to having more Shanghai enterprises among the 100 Top Enterprises and possibly a few among Fortune 500.

With the help of high technology, Hongkou District has been developing at a pace that is unparalleled by others. Its economy is now growing at a rate of 31%.

1997 is The Year of Travel in China. To tap its potential in tourism, Shanghai is now holding a series of activities at Zabei District.

Shanghai Museum is drawing more and more visitors, both domestic or foreign. Its collections of the imitations of ancient cultural relics have become the choice items for tourists.

The suburban counties in Shanghai are still forging ahead in enterprise reform and now their GDP grows at a rate of 18.72%.

During the first six months the city has created about 154 acres of green space. The 73 pieces of newly-grown greenland are scattered throughout the city, providing ideal places for residents to spend their leisure time.

The heat makes bus ride an unbearable experience. As more and more people flood into the subway, crowdedness becomes common in this season.

July 7th marks the 60th anniversary of "July 7 Event" which signaled the beginning of Japanese invasion. Activities commemorating the occasion were held throughout the country.

July 7th was the first day high school graduates throughout the country attended the three-day-long college entrance examination. In Shanghai there are about 54,000 participants.

On July 7th, the municipality held its plenary meeting, outlining the targets and major tasks for latter half of the year. During the past 6 months, there was an 13.7 percent increase in GDP.

Since the beginning of this month, more and more air-conditioned buses were on the road, drawing large number of passengers. The number of such buses has reached 600.

A history professor at Shanghai Normal University has recently told reporters that during Japanese occupation of Shanghai 60 years ago, the Japanese government established 73 so-called "comfort stations".

Pudong International Airport has recently received RMB3b loan from the national development bank.

The Eighth National Games, China's biggest sporting event, is scheduled to open in Shanghai on October 12 and the city is now scrambling to finish preparations.

Foreign investing in Shanghai blossomed during the first half of 1997 thanks to a number of large projects. During the first six months, Shanghai approved 888 projects, involving $2.27 billion, according to the Shanghai foreign Investment Commission.

Shanghai is strengthening its ties with other cities. It will have 50 industrial co-operation projects with other parts of China this year.

The city's average life expectancy increased to 76 years last year - compared to 42 years in the 1950s.

A commission to elect congress deputies at the district and county levels has been established.

Statistics show that the city spent 37.9 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) in 1996 on the infrastructure construction, mainly power, communications and telecommunications, transport, public utilities, environmental protection and the planting of trees.

Shanghai Online, one of the largest information provider, has received more than 1 million visitor since last September when it went online.

Hong Kong returns, the nation celebrates. On the night of June 30, the whole nation watched with increased interest the hand-over ceremony of Hong Kong live on TV.

More than ten thousand chorus members gathered at the banks of Huangpu River singing patriotic songs to celebrate the return of the "Pearl of the Orient".

People will never forget the night of June 30. They will remember the moment the national flag flying high for the first time in Hong Kong alongside the regional flag of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

On the night of July 1, people in Shanghai were still immersed in festival atmosphere. Alongside the Bund, colorful fireworks illuminated the whole city. Thousands of residents flooded the Bund, each saying "Hong Kong is back!".

In the afternoon of July 1, people from all walks of life gathered at the Friendship Hall at Shanghai Exhibition Center to celebrate the reunification of Hong Kong with its motherland.

The city began to implement its program to legalize the management of residential properties on July 1.

The section of the elevated highway on Yan'an Road E, running from Jiangxi Road to the Bund, opened to traffic recently.

Shanghai and Hong Kong have worked together to open nine hospitals that will bring benefits to many expatriates.

The real estate industry in Pudong New Area has become an important part of the city and efforts should be made to help it grow fast and healthy, according to a local official.

Phone users in Pudong New Area grow seventeen-fold. In the last seven years, the number of phone users in the area has increased from 24,000 to more than 428,000, according to the local Liberation Daily.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Building in central Pudong for securities trading, has sold all its office space.

The Shanghai branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will transfer its credit business in foreign exchange to subsidiaries.

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