Today's Shanghai | News(2000)

January

On Jan.30, the Shanghai Charity Foundation organized a Contribution Campaign which attracted 10,000 people. The money collected from the campaign is to be used to support families in need during the Spring Festival.

Shanghai's air quality took a turn for the better in the end of January. The average Air Pollution Index (API) for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and total suspended particles (TSP) declined 21,11,and 27 per cent, respectively. The overall air quality stood in class 2, meaning the air quality was good.

The city's first quadruplets, born on Jan.26 at Xinhua Hospital, are still receiving special care because of their delicate health. The quadruplets are all girls, weighing from 1,495 to 2.013 grams. The mother and the babies are in a stable condition.

Acknowledging that the Internet will be a prime information carrier in the new century, China plans to pump more money into cyberspace. China's drive onto the Internet age will run on a gradual and smooth track, the State Council, China's cabinet, said.

Chinese medical scientists discovered recently that a Chinese medicinal injection called "Kanglate" can kill cancer by preventing the growth of cancerous blood vessels and mailgnant tumour genes.

Shanghai's financial industry grew steadily in 1999, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC) Shanghai Branch. The branch has reported a total deposit balance of 709.719 billion yuan ($85.7 billion)in 1999,up 6.87 billion yuan ($830 million)on a year-on-year basis.

Chia signed key agreements last week with Norway and Iceland to help it enter the World Trade Organization (WTO). It has finished WTO talks with Brazil, Sri Lanka, Peru and Uruguay as well as Norway and Iceland. It has made progress in talks with several other WTO members, including the European Union.

Express freight service in Shanghai is to expand with the linking of Federal Express Corporation (FedEx), the world's largest express transportation company, and a leading Chinese forwarding firm here. The express giant has appionted the Shanghai branch company of Tianjin-based Da Tian W. Air Service Corporation as its sole operator in Shanghai to provide services for local customers who need to be connected with the world. The co-operation agreement will come into effect soon.

China's export container market is still slack as it enters the new millennium, but insiders say the market is promising as the world economy moves into a recovery.

Shanghai Huili Corporation has become the country's first company licensed by Eastman Chemical Limited to produce Spectar copolyester sheet.

An overhead crane owned by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Stevedoring Co cranes stevedored over 200,000 TEU (20-foot equvilent unit) in 1999, probably the largest amount ever achieved by a single over-head crane in one year in China, the company revealed last week from the port.

The Municipal Archives Office made public for the first time a document detailing the mass killings committed by Japanese soldiers in Nanjing in 1938.

The boom in traffic for the Spring Festival period has begun in the city. From last Friday to Wednesday, Shanghai Railway Station sold 574,494 tickets, according to sources with the railway station.

France, expected to assume the European Union presidency in July, will become an important factor in help bring China into the World Trade Organization, according to a leading French businessman now visiting Shanghai.

In a bid to improve the health of students, Shanghai plans to have 1 million babies and primary and secondary school students, or half of the city's total, drink high quality milk in the next three years.

A 65-meter-long lantern in the shape of a dragon has been erected on the zigzag bridge of Yuyuan Garden. It is the largest lantern to have been exhibited in the garden and has 2,000 golden scales and 2,000 small bulbs in honor of the Chinese traditional Spring Festival.

Old archives about old Shanghai's foreign concessions, the most complete of their kind in the country, may be lost to future generations as they are suffering from the effects of acidity and rapidly aging and deteriorating.

A new flower market, the Metropolis Flower Market, opened for business recently at the crossing of Xizang Road Middle and Fengyang Road. It is expected to become a major flower distribution center in Southeast Asia.

Construction workers are laying normal track along the first phase of the city's first elevated rail, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

Local government officials are stepping up efforts to push forward a general survey of local water resources, that targets rivers, lakes and reservoirs.

Workers digging to lay cables at the joint of Chengdu and Dagu roads struck gold one meter under the ground when they unearthed a Qing Dynasty jar containing 10 big silver ingots and 461 Spanish silver coins.

The eighth "International School Basketball Competition" in the Asian Pacific Region is being played out on an indoor court at Shanghai American School.

The newly-launched online shopping site (http://www.Shanghai-window.com) will allow shoppers in Shanghai to choose from more than 1,000 commodities from over 30 shops in the city as well as get the latest shopping information.

A businessman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, has been identified as the main culprit in what the police are calling the biggest bust of its kind since 1949. The case involves US$24 million in lost tax revenues.

China is expected to see a 15-17 percent growth in the volume of narrow money and an increase of 14-15 percent in the volume of broad money this year.

China has honored the US-China bilateral agreement on the protection of intellectual property rights signed in 1995, according to Joseph Papovich, assistant US trade representative for services, investment and intellectual property.

Construction of a new Singaporean consulate-general will begin in Hongqiao Development Area this November. The signing ceremony was staged on January 20.

Long queues of keen buyers were again at the front door of local Laofengxiang Gold Store on the early morning of January 20, waiting for the second public gold bar sale in the last 50 years since the founding of New China.

The number of people who checked through Shanghai Customs reached 5.57 million last year or 15,300 people daily on average. This was a 24.1 percent rise over 1998.

Tough measures will be taken to close over 90 illegal intermediary agencies earning money by introducing students to places for study abroad.

Alcatel announced the setting up of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai on January 17, reflecting its confidence in the economic growth of the Asia Pacific region.

Court hearings started on January 17 into a major case of embezzlement in which company board chairman Gui Aizhen, is suspected of channeling US$1.4 million of public funds into private companies, according to the municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.

An unemployed migrant from Anhui Province was arrested last week for robbing, raping, and murdering a young woman, according to sources from Zhabei Procuratorate.

Three young women have been sentenced to criminal detention in Pudong for drug trafficking after they became addicted to drug abuse.

The city set a target growth rate of 9% for its industrial sector with 65% from the high-tech industry and pillar industries, according to a recently-held working conference.

A US congressional delegation visiting Shanghai expressed support of China's entry into the World Trade Organization on January 13.

Two of the Royal London Circus' three elephants have died from the sudden cold, which hit Shanghai, during its performing tour to Shanghai.

Following a dry December, Shanghai is experiencing an unusually wet January, and the tendency may continue for the next couple of days, according to sources from Shanghai Meteorological Center.

More than 20 were injured, three seriously, when a No. 116 bus hit the pillar of the Inner-Ring Road on the afternoon of January 13.

A fire broke out on the morning of January 13 in the city's largest light industry and textile products market, burning several stalls to the ground and shrouding the market in thick smoke, but there were no casualties.

A new record of 6.54 million people, 1.5% more than last year, will be travelling in and out of Shanghai by public transport during the Spring Festival period (from January 21 to February 29) this year.

Municipal procuratorates at all levels were urged to be tougher in dealing with cases of bribery and dereliction of duty in the new year at a two-day conference.

Shanghai is offering attractive benefits to talented individuals from out of town to facilitate its economic growth. As a result, it has set up representative offices for Shanghai Talent Market in big cities such as Beijing and Xi'an.

Local universities are going outside city limits in the search of the teaching talent needed to fuel Shanghai's economic takeoff in the new century.

Speaking on "Prospects for the 21st Century", 24 students from East China universities of science and technology expressed their hopes for the future last Saturday during the first "21st Century Cup" English Speaking Competition in Shanghai.

A total of eight jaywalkers who used violence against traffic police have been detained recently. These people are among the first to be arrested on such grounds though a lot of traffic police have been victim to verbal or physical abuse since a campaign targeting jaywalkers was launched last September.

According to a recent survey, Shanghai now has a migrant population of 2,370,000.

A major breakthrough has been made in therapeutic cloning, one of the basic research projects of Shanghai Municipal Government, at the Shanghai Transgenic Center.

Imported food must be properly examined before being permitted entry to the Chinese market, said an official with the Institute of Public Health Supervision affiliated with Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau.

Some new laws and regulations, designed to create a favorable business environment for investors, have taken effect since January 1. They include the Individual-funded Enterprise Law, the Law on Bidding and Inviting Bids and the Meteorological Law.

An employee with the municipal Foreign Affairs Office was recently prosecuted for his part in helping eight people get visas for France through illegal means in 1998.

The crime rate among the city's migrant population is decreasing in inner-city areas, but increasing in the suburbs.

An initial verdict was recently handed down regarding a husband accused of raping his wife, according to sources from Qingpu County People's Court. It is the first reported case of domestic violence in Shanghai.

During holidays for New Year, more than 100,000 Shanghainese went sightseeing outside the city by air, rail or highway.

Competitors from Fudan University snatched the three most sought-after prizes in the '99 Etang Cup Shanghai MBA Business Plan Competition.

The China Committee of the Year 2000 has started a nationwide search for "Millennium Babies", "Babies of the Dragon" and the "Babies of Sun of China"-- the first babies born when China saw its first sunrise of the new millennium.

A new public transportation card goes on sale on a trial basis with the advent of the new millennium, getting Shanghai well on the way to becoming the country's first city to offer one card for all forms of public transport.

The Spokespeople of the municipal government declared "Everything is OK!" as Shanghai passed into the new millennium virtually Y2K-free.

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