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- December, 1999
- November, 1999
- October, 1999
- September, 1999
- August, 1999
- July, 1999
- June, 1999
- May, 1999
- April, 1999
- March, 1999
- February, 1999
- January, 1999
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April
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CIH, the most deadly computer
virus known in China, paralyzed hundreds of computers
nationwide on April 26. The virus is known for its
destructive force wrecked on hard disks.
Germany's trade and commercial
center Nordrhein-Westfalen was recently on a promotional
tour in Shanghai to boost economic ties with Shanghai.
Three murderers were executed
last Friday immediately following an open trial
at No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. Open trials
have been practiced more and more throughout the
country.
A celebration of tourism
featuring wedding ceremonies will be held in seven
cities in East China in October. These cities are
Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Ningbo
and Shaoxing.
Mayor Xu Kuangdi of Shanghai
has expressed to the Lord Mayor of the City of London,
Peter Levene, great interest in furthering exchanges
in finance and managerial expertise between the
two cities.
The 11th Shanghai Sports
Meeting was opened in the Shanghai Stadium over
the last weekend. As many as 13,334 athletes from
46 local sports groups will participate in the month-long
event.
Rising divorce rate is causing
concern. Last year, 82,000 couples received marriage
certificates while 13,000 divorced by agreement,
up 21% over 1997.
The two black boxes aboard
the crashed Korean Airline MD-11 cargo plane have
been found. They will be delivered to US National
Transportation Safety Board for study.
The British Center for Building
and Construction will open its doors to businesses
on April 30 during a Building Materials Trade Mission
to China sponsored by the Sino-Britain Business
Council.
A service center affiliated
with the United Nations was set up in Shanghai on
April 22 to provide information for local State-owned
and foreign-funded enterprises.
Australian Tourist Commission
officially opened its Shanghai Office on April 22.
Australia is the first Western country to have been
approved by the Chinese Government to be the destination
of Chinese holiday-makers.
China Telecom, the telecomms
giant in China, has started a new IDD service by
issuing Yitong telephone cards that use IP (Internet
Phone) technology allowing for long distance calls
at half the previous charge.
This century's last tea
gala in the city, the '99 Shanghai International
Tea Culture Festival, will start on April 26 and
will last for one week. Zhabei Park, the first national
park dedicated to tea, has several tea cultural
scenic spots.
All unlicensed barbershops,
some of which are disguised brothels, will be banned
by the end of this month, according to a recent
conference of the municipal Administration for Trade
and Commerce.
Shanghai is making final
preparations of its garden entry into the '99 Kunming
International Horticulture Exposition to be held
in Yunnan Province on May 1.
Welfare facilities in Shanghai
have progressed in the past 50 years, especially
since the reform and opening-up of China. Today
there are some 2.36 million people above the age
of 60 in Shanghai, accounting for 19% of the total
population.
On-line shopping in Shanghai
has so far failed to spark enthusiasm from local
residents, although experts predict that the nascent
business has great potential. The major deterrent
is said to be credit payment.
At least seven people were
killed and 35 injured as a Korean Airlines cargo
plane crashed on the afternoon on April 15, only
minutes after it took off from Hongqiao International
Airport.
Sun Microsystems had its
first televised dialog with audiences in Shanghai
on April 14 to discuss electronic commerce (or e-commerce)
infrastructure.
Caohejing Hi-Tech Park exported
goods worth US$100 million during the first quarter
this year, up 40% over the same period last year.
Britain plans to introduce
a new examination system into China to help people
improve their English proficiency. The examination,
called First Certificate English, will be held two
to three times a year in Shanghai, Guangzhou and
Beijing.
The Convention Center, located
at the foot of the Oriental Pearl Tower, will be
the venue for the Fortune Global Forum to be held
on September 27 to 30.
The city has reported negative
population growth for the seventh consecutive year,
the municipal government announced last week.
Farmers living in the outskirts
of Shanghai continued to lead their counterparts
in other parts of the country last year in earnings.
The per capita annual incomes of Shanghai farmers
were US$653 in 1998, up 2.5% from 1997.
Shanghai is to break new
ground in the country, this time by broadcasting
a series of sex education programs on its local
TV station, the first time ever in China.
Shaghai is now digging the
country's first trans-river pedestrian tunnel under
the Huangpu River which flows through Shanghai and
divides the city into two parts. Once completed,
the tunnel can transport some 5,000 people every
hour.
Two-thirds of the 285 vocational
schools in Shanghai are expected to close by 2006
due to insufficient numbers of students. It seems
that parets are less and less willing to have their
kids educated in such schools.
The city's economy proceeded
smoothly in the first quarter this year, but didn't
develop as fast as expected. Its GDP grew by 8.1%
to reach US$10 billion.
As the popularity of cordless
phones balloons in Shanghai, the quality of phones
has also become an increasingly pertinent issue.
Consumers' complaints have also surged.
During the first three months
this year, Shanghai's industrial sector achieved
a total output worth US$16.09 billion, an 11.3%
increase over the same period last year.
Shanghai General Motors
said on April 8 that the retail prices of its three
models range from US$38,400 to 44,600 with various
option packages available.
Shanghai will hold an international
festival between May 12 and 23 to show off fashions
from home and abroad. Japan, the Republic of Korea
and China's Hong Kong will organize delegations
to attend the festival.
Shanghai is willing to forge
closer economic ties with Egypt, said Mayor Xu Kuangdi
in a meeting with visiting Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak.
Shanghai Party Secretary
Huang Ju spelt out the need for firm population
management to match the city's economic development.
China's golden card network
took another big step forward on April 7 to put
1,500 MasterCard ATMs (automatic teller machines)
into operation in Shanghai.
Held every two years, "Shanghai
Spring" is one of the country's earliest grand art
festivals and has been playing an important role
in enriching Shanghai's cultural life. This year's
festival, the 18th since 1960, will also be the
first among a string of celebrations to commemorate
the city's 50th anniversary of liberation and the
50th National Day.
Uninet, the first Internet
Service Provider (IPS) approved by Shanghai Postal
and Telecommunication, is now notably popular with
people of many nationalities in Shanghai.
The new Asia Journal of
Andrology, the scientific study of human males,
will start publication in June at the Shanghai Institute
of Material-Medical under the Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
The State will launch the
second phase of its project this year to treat the
pollution in the Taihu Lake reaches. More than US$36
million will be invested in the projects.
Residents in Pudong New
Area can use natural gas for cooking late this month
thanks to a project in the East China Sea that began
sending gas to Shanghai on April 8.
The dominant role of men
in China's economic life has been confirmed again
by a recent survey that showed 71.3% of the investors
in China's two stock exchanges last year were male.
Fortune Kindergarten, a
Sino-French co-operative kindergarten established
inside Fortune Mansion at Dongfang Road last April,
was approved by the educational authorities to enroll
both Chinese and foreign children.
Experts support the inclusion
of safety education in pre-college education. A
program to facilitate such learning was launched
last week in the Oriental Pearl Tower, sponsored
by Shanghai Otis Co., Ltd.
A horticultural training
center, set up in Donghai State Farm, now offers
education in Dutch flower and vegetable cultivation.
Shanghai has led the nation
in setting up two expert commissions in a bid to
provide fair judicial assessment system.
The number of Shanghai residents
visiting neighboring areas to pay respects to decreased
ancestors or relatives during the Qingming Festival
period reached a record high.
Local shipbuilders are still
having difficulties in receiving customers' orders
due to the lingering Asian financial crisis.
More and more local citizens
are moving into new houses through house-swapping
with the help of Shanghai House-exchange Company.
During the first quarter this year, the company
signed contracts for more than 4186 suites.
As TV talk shows become
a staple in China, the anchormen and anchorwomen
of traditional news broadcasting are facing a new
challenge. The suit-and-tie style is gradually being
replaced by leisurely chat.
The Shanghai branch of The
China Development Bank (CDB) is official opened
and will act as a member of CDB's network consisting
of 20 branches from China Investment Bank, which
now operate under CDB's name.
Several multinational companies
in Pudong New Area signed an agreement with Pudong
Technical Supervision Bureau to initiate a campaign
in fighting against fake products in the area.
Canada opened a new visitor
visa office in Shanghai on April 1. The office is
responsible for processing visitor visa applications
for people living in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui and
Zhejiang provinces.
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