Today's Shanghai | News(2001)

October

Two trains have been added in each direction on the Beijing-Shanghai route. The T13/T14 trains are equipped with television telephones, hi-fi, couches and a bar. Tickets may be booked 30 days in advance.

More than 1 million people now work in foreign-funded joint ventures in foreign-funded joint ventures in Shanghai. By the end of September, investors from 92 countries and areas had established 24,000 firms. Among the 1,000,154 employees, over 200,000 work in Pudong and 100,000 in Minhang.

In Shanghai raising pets has become fashionable among local people, young and old, male and female, local and expatriate.. Besides dogs and cats, various kinds of pet are finding favour with local people, such as birds, fish, turtles, rabbits, chickens, mice and squirrels. Pets have become an important part of city life.

The APEC Finance and Development Project was inaugurated by President Jiang Zemin at the Shanghai International Media Centre on Sunday.

Foreign trade passing through Shanghai Customs in the first nine months of this year reached $91 billion, an increase of 14.5 per cent over the same period last year. Of the figure, exports accounted for $51.3 billion and imports $39.7 billion.

The Shanghai Automobile Industry Group and German Pierburg AG have agreed to jointly finance a car parts company in Shanghai. With a total investment of $51.1 million, the new company will be one of the largest car parts companies in the country.

The Fourth International Conference on Application Specific Integrated-Circuit (ASICON2001), which opened in Shanghai on Tuesday with more than 600 scientists and researchers attending, discussed IC design, software and hardware co-design, deeper sub-micron IC fabrication, semiconductor devices and micro-electronic materials. An IC design, test, fabrication and application exhibition was on stage.

The third international forum on the reform of the infrastructure sector opened in Shanghai on Monday. More than 160 experts at home and abroad attended the forum.

Local police enacted a series of travel restrictions for APEC meetings between 7:00am and 10:00pm from Wednesday to Sunday.

Shanghai's two airports handled 15.43 million passengers between January and September, up 18.77 per cent over the same period last year.

Pudong's Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone is becoming the city's major logistics base with 16 container wharves located at nearby ports. The Waigaoqiao Port is expected to have an annual capacity of 10 million containers after its third and fourth phases of refurbishment are completed. The zone now has 572 logistics enterprises that store a combined 658,000 tons of goods worth $4.8 billion.

Shanghai reached 357.19 billion Yuan (about $43.04 billion) in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first three quarters of the year, up 10.3 per cent from the same period last year. The city's total industrial output was 551.21 billion Yuan (about $66.41 billion) for January to September, up 18.5 per cent from the same period last year and 4.1 per cent more than the growth rate for January-September last year.

Shanghai has gone to great lengths to protect major undersea fiber optic cables to secure telecommunications links for the 9th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on Saturday and Sunday. Altogether there is seven such cables station from Shanghai that link China and the rest of the world.

Qipao, or cheongsam, is a female dress with distinctively Chinese characteristics. Its neck is high, its collar closed, and its sleeves may be either short, medium or full length, depending on season and taste. The dress is buttoned on the right side, with a loose chest, a fitting waist, and slits up from the sides, all of which combine to set off the beauty of the female shape.

Calligraphy and painting are the essence of Chinese traditional culture. Whenever speaking of the Chinese culture, the four treasures of the study come to people's minds. The four treasures are writing brushes, ink-sticks, paper and ink stone-necessary tools for calligraphy.

Many of the historic structures at the Bund, Nanjing Lu, Sinan Lu and Xinhua Lu were designated in the 1990s as Shanghai historical and cultural sites by the Municipal Cultural Preservation Architecture. They continue to exude a special charm that attracts many tourists, thanks to the renovations that have been completed over the past few years.

The buildings at the Bund represent a variety of Western architectural styles including classicism, eclecticism and modernism. "They were a symbol of wealth in Shanghai in the past," Come buildings had world-class construction materials at that time, like the wood used for the Peace Hotel, marble at the HSBC building and copper at the AIA building.

In 1990, a handful of experts in Shanghai appealed for the preservation of Nanjing Lu because of its importance as a business center with famous historic stores. But the area was also targeted by businesspeople with a strong desire to make money.

The Seventh Intertextile Shanghai Autumn will be held from October 16 to 18 at Intex Shanghai and Shanghai Mart.

One fifth of Shanghai citizens plan to buy houses within the next two years, with people aged 26 to 45 as the main prospective buyers.

Shanghai now has 421 people who are over 100 years old, 362 of them women. From the end of last year to September 30 this year, 115 elderly people reached 100.

Shanghai has made great efforts to prepare for the APEC series meetings in the past year and is proud of its hardware and software services for the meetings.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra will present a recital at the Shanghai Grand Theatre on October 25.

China's first "Family of Blood Donors" has opened at the Shanghai Blood Centre.

Statistics from the Bank of China, Shanghai Branch showed that Shanghai has begun to enter an era of online banking services which are accessible by telephone, mobile phone and Internet.

Shanghai has instituted the national teacher qualification system, and all teachers and people working in education organizations will have to acquire teacher's credentials in near future.

Shanghai Post Office will provide post service at three main conference halls and 25 hotels during the upcoming APEC meetings.

Statistics show that more than 6,000 foreign students have pursued long-term (at least one semester) higher education in Shanghai. The increase is related to China's foreign policy as well as the world economy.

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