Today's Shanghai | News(1999)

September

Today is the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. This annual holiday is the occasion on which family members are supposed to get reunited and eat mooncakes while watching the full moon.

Bullet trains that run at a speed of 180 kilometers per hour are expected to be shuttling between cities such as Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangzhou after the National Day.

Shanghai will join the nationwide wave of relief efforts to help Taiwan people hit by the worst earthquake in three decades. Shanghai Red Cross is expected to start the drive by a donation of US$80,000.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shanghai Municipal Archives House opened its exhibition of treasured historic archives to the public on September 23.

Shanghai Daily, a local English-language broadsheet, will be launched officially on October 1. Sponsored by the local Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group, the eight-page newspaper aims to reflect Shanghai's position as China's premier business center.

Shanghai Public Information Network, popularly called Shanghai Online, celebrated its third birthday on September 22. According to statistics, its homepage has received 30 million visits and receives 150,000 hits per day.

Pudong's Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone handled foreign trade worth US$3.27 billion between January and August, up 90% over the same period last year.

The local government recently issued 38 new supportive policies to encourage the development of the city's small enterprises which are expected to evolve into a power engine behind the city's economic growth.

China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved the A-share listing of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank on the local bourse, a bank official disclosed recently.

The Portman Ritz-Carlton, one of the headquarters hotels for the upcoming Fortune Global Forum, recently celebrated the completion of a US$30 renovation.

The country's first secure and comprehensive e-commerce system, the "Internet Reservation System", was officially launched in the city last week at the Garden Hotel. Credit-card holders can book airline tickets with digital certificates obtained beforehand.

Shanghai Mobile Communication Corp. announced last week that the number of its mobile network subscribers had topped 1.5 million. The number is expected to amount to 1.7 million.

This week saw the completion of the city's major infrastructure facilities which include the new airport in Pudong New Area, the middle section of the elevated highway on Yan'an Road and Metro Line II.

Small- and medium-size American companies are seeking business opportunities through the New Products USA '99 Exhibition which is being held at Marble Hall on the fourth floor of Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Shanghai Children's Medical Center successfully conducted an operation which involved switching the great arteries in a six-day-old baby, the youngest patient in China to have undergone such surgery.

Statistics from Shanghai Customs indicate this August's local imports and exports hit a monthly record of US$6.39 billion, including US$2.21 billion for imports and US$4.18 billion for exports.

Celebrations such as performances, exhibitions and lotteries will once again make the long-awaited pedestrian section of Nanjing Road a bustling street when it reopens on Monday after one year of reconstruction.

During a recent meeting, the municipal government attached great importance to the rapid development of an international information port in Shanghai and its information industry.

The establishment of a new R&D center for polymeric materials in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park is part of the country's drive to update technologies using polymeric materials and reduce the waste which results from the overuse of imported materials.

Another eight-lane motorway connecting Pudong International Airport and Puxi (the west part of Shanghai) was opened to traffic in Pudong a few days ago.

The number of processing and trading enterprises in Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone reached 127 by the end of July 1999, according to statistics from the zone's administration committee.

A brand-new commercial quarter is taking shape on the middle section of Huaihai Road, which has been at the heart of the retail business in Shanghai for many years.

Preliminary planning for China's first high-speed railway running from Beijing to Shanghai is well underway, a local senior railway official said.

An American trade delegation consisting of 18 delegates paid a three- day visit to Shanghai with the aim of pushing forward Sino-US trade.

The new campus of Shanghai University, the largest university in the city, is now open and ready for the new academic term. The completed section and supporting projects total some 223,580 square meters.

Shanghai Museum of Public Security, the first of its kind in China, is located at No. 518 on South Ruijing Road and was officially opened to visitors recently.

Local citizens do not seem to be withdrawing their savings in the wake of the government's announcement that it would be levying tax on savings interest.

Shanghai government authorities are drafting new proposals to increase the salaries and pensions of middle- and low-income urban residents, government officials confirmed recently.

A resident who initiated sexual harassment of a woman by publishing her name, phone number and a description of her as though she were soliciting prostitution on the BBS to avenge a past grievance, recently gave himself up to the police.

A serious tornado swept over eight towns in Pudong, Nanshi and some rural areas in the city in the early hours on the morning of September 6, injuring at least 41 people.

The State Drug Administration had compiled the very first national pharmaceutical ingredient list stipulating which drugs are considered safe enough to be used in OTC medicines and which are not.

Bank of China Shanghai Branch officially unveiled its education assistance loan project, which is aimed to provide low-interest loans to cash-strapped students.

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