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  November



  • Charity foundation to hold awards gala
    The Shanghai Charity Foundation will organize a charity gala for the Avion Awards 2005 Shanghai.
    About 350 celebrities from all over the world will attend the dinner party on December 10 to raise money for poor people with eye problems in the city. ORBIS, an international non-profit organization that treats blindness worldwide, will provide equipment for the surgeries. At least 500 patients are expected to have their sight restored through the program. --(11/30)

  • Rail link to deep-water port will open soon
    After eight months of construction, Pudong's first railway is ready to commence services to the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, just in time for the port's opening next month.
    The railway passed preliminary tests yesterday.
    Making the finishing touches, workers are busy testing the signals, telecommunications and power systems along the line.
    The railway, which is the first-stage of the Pudong railway project, stretches for 42.87 kilometers and connects the East China railway network at Caojing station with Luchao Port, which in turn is linked to the deep-water port on Yangshan island by the Donghai Bridge.
    The bridge is the country's first cross-sea bridge and will also open to traffic next month.
    The Pudong railway is designed to pass through several districts across the city, including Jinshan, Fengxian and Nanhui, and transport containers to and from Yangshan port on the East China Sea and the mainland.
    It also connects to the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park.
    The government has invested about 7.6 billion yuan (US$916 million) to start the railway project and the whole project is due for completion by 2006. --(11/29)
  • Donghai Bridge all set
    It all started with a dream of building the leading port in Northeast Asia, which called for the construction of a giant bridge.
    Early next month, the country's first sea-crossing bridge is expected to open to traffic, which is considered an important step in the development of the Yangshan Deep-water Port.
    The Donghai Bridge stretches 32.5 kilometers from coastal Nanhui District to Yangshan Island in the East China Sea, where the deep-water port will be located. --(11/28)

  • Travelers must fill out health forms
    Passengers entering or leaving China through Shanghai Pudong International Airport will have to fill out health declaration forms starting today as part of efforts to prevent the spread of bird flu.
    Travelers must report whether they've come in contact with birds, bird flu patients or suspected patients.
    They are also required to report whether they're experiencing fever, coughing or breathing difficulties.
    Twelve stands will be available to handle the forms near the airport's customs declaration counters.
    Officials advise travelers to arrive at the airport a bit earlier to complete the added procedure. --(11/28)

  • Bus stops to install TV screens
    Waiting for the bus will no longer be quite so boring as bulletin boards with TV screens will be installed at bus stops.
    The screens will broadcast everything from entertainment programs and traffic news to weather forecasts and how long it will take before the next bus arrives, the Shanghai Urban Transport Bureau announced yesterday.
    The screens will be installed at more than 3,000 stops and the project will be completed by 2007.
    As traffic conditions fluctuate, passengers can not expect time estimates to be as precise as in metro stations, said Liu Min, bureau information office chief. --(11/25)

  • Bird flu worries hit chicken sales
    Bird flu fears have had a drastic effect on the sales of chicken and other poultry at supermarkets and restaurants around the city in the last month.
    Sales of frozen chicken have dropped 42.6 percent since the start of this month at supermarkets, while egg sales had fallen by 24.2 percent, according to a survey conducted by the Shanghai Commercial Information Center. --(11/24)

  • City welcomes IPC President
    The President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Philip Craven, visited Shanghai yesterday afternoon.
    In the city, President Craven visited the Shanghai Sports Training Center for Disabled Persons. Watching the activities, Craven applauded the participants for their wonderful performances. "You need to trust yourself and we can all gain more life experience from sports," the President encouraged.
    Craven also listened to an introduction to local development of sports for the disabled and stressed that disabled athletes should not only be outstanding in sports, but should also try to contribute more to the needs of disabled people as a whole.
    Craven, who is British, has been disabled since a climbing accident when he was 16 years old, and he has attended the Paralympic Games on five occasions. He was elected as President of the IPC last year. --(11/23)

  • Nearly 90 bridges in need of renovations
    Eighty-eight of the 1,357 bridges in Shanghai have quality problems and need immediate repairs, according to a recent government-backed survey.
    Most of the damaged bridges are located in the city's rural districts including Fengxian and Nanhui, and haven't undergone regular maintenance for many years.
    Government officials refused to name any of the dilapidated bridges, however. --(11/22)

  • Free wheelchairs
    More than 200 disabled people received free wheelchairs from the Wheelchair Foundation and Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co on Saturday, and they were accompanied by the company's volunteers to tour around the city.
    Manulife-Sinochem donated more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,345) to the foundation through the sales of environmentally friendly shopping bags, to help the disabled who don't have enough money to buy wheelchairs. --(11/21)

  • Xuelong icebreaker departs
    Scientists participating in China's 22nd Antarctic expedition depart from Minsheng Port in Pudong at 10:25am the day before yesterday. It will take 30 days for the country's only icebreaker Xuelong to get there. About 20 people will spend 16 months at Zhongshan Station and the others will do research for two months at the Grove Mountains. --(11/20)

  • Rain, clouds on weekend
    It will be a rainy and cloudy weekend, with temperatures like those during the week.
    The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau yesterday forecast that it will also be a little windy, with winds up to 38 kilometers per hour in downtown areas. --(11/18)

  • Subway line to connect Pudong to Chongming
    Shanghai will extend the planned No. 9 Metro line to Chongming Island as part of an already started bridge and tunnel project linking the island to Pudong, a senior official announced yesterday.
    The Metro line will run from Songjiang District in western Shanghai, through Xujiahui, and Waigaoqiao in Pudong. It will then be linked to Changxing Island by tunnel. From Changxing, it will run across a bridge to Chongming Island.
    The city has announced that it plans to turn Chongming Island, the third largest island in China, into an ecological zone that will be ideal for tourism and international forums.
    While many details of the Metro project haven't been worked out yet, the line is expected to be complete by 2010, according to Mao Jialiang, director of the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau. --(11/17)

  • Map includes locations of shops, post offices
    A new map that includes the location of important commercial facilities, and services, such as wet markets, public toilets, shopping malls and drug stores, went on sale in major local bookstores yesterday.
    Currently, the map is only available in Chinese, but designers say they are considering producing a bilingual version in the city. --(11/16)

  • Nightclubs responsible for drug use, sales
    Karaoke bars and nightclubs will be held responsible if police find people using or selling drugs in them, the Shanghai Political and Legislative Committee announced yesterday.
    Bars will be shut down for six months and fined 100,000 yuan (US$12,346) if drugs are found there, even if bar owners or managers are unaware of the problem. Bars that have repeated serious drug problems could lose their business licenses. If bar managers report drug problems to police ahead of detection, they won't face any punishment, the committee said.
    In the past, bar owners didn't face any punishment if they ignored drug use, as long as they weren't involved in supplying the drugs, said Zhang Xiaoqun from the committee.
    Officials wouldn't say how many of the more than 8,000 such venues in the city are havens for drug users, but did say discos seem to be the biggest problem. The drugs most commonly used at nightclubs are ecstasy, katimine and methamphetamine (or "ice"), authorities said.
    The committee has sent a notice out to police, cultural market watchdogs and the Shanghai Commercial and Industrial Administrative Bureau, explaining the new rules. The notice also said cash rewards will be given to anyone reporting drug use in nightclubs. It didn't say how large the rewards would be, however.
    Those with information can call 2402-3396 or 2565-2409. --(11/15)

  • Condom firm notebooks provide advice on AIDS
    Supermarkets on several university campuses in the city are giving away free notebooks containing sex education lessons to students.
    About 50,000 such books have been available in some 100 university supermarkets since mid October. Most have been distributed.
    This is the first time that sex education material has been given to students at the start of a new semester.
    The books were printed up by the local sales agency for Durex condoms. --(11/14)

  • Federer keeps low in expectation for Masters Cup
    World number one Roger Federer called it a dream to successfully defend his title at the upcoming Masters Cup in Shanghai, though his ankle injury seemed to have no bad effect on him during practice.
    "My dream would be to defend the title," said the Swiss, who sustained the injury last month, at a news conference Saturday after a brief opening ceremony of the year-ending ATP event which goes underway on Sunday.
    "The expectations are...any way, low," he said. "I just hope I can play a good match really. In practice it (the injured ankle) did work, but for match, it's quite different."
    "I've given everything I could to do right in this tournament.
    I did practice, I got in Shanghai early and I have a great record indoors. Obviously, my dream would be to defend the title."
    Federer sustained the injury while practising four weeks ago and was forced to skip the Madrid and Paris Masters as well as the Basel tournament last week.
    And he yet worried a lot about it though his recovery has been fairly quick.
    "I'm a very positive person, but there's occasions that I could be a little bit passivated, feeling that I could not improve any more," he said.
    "Sometimes I thought I was two steps forward and one step back. You would never like the back thing. I don't want to take that, and I knew that something goes wrong.
    "So what I have to do is to make sure that I'm very very careful about my ankle. When I take a shower...I don't wanna mistake anything.
    "I'm happy to have make this (taking part in the tournament) possible, because I've been here after injury. It never happened to me before, so I don't know how long injury like this would take. "
    Injuries have forced the withdrawal of some of the biggest names in Shanghai, including the world number three Andy Roddick due to back pain, Russia's Marat Safin with a nagging knee injury.
    Federer has been drawn in the Red Group alongside with Argentina 's Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian, as well as Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic.
    The top two finishers in each group qualify for the semi-finals of the US$4.45 million tournament, featuring the top eight players for the season. --(11/13)

  • Shanghai to be a 'healthy city'
    Shanghai is expected to become the nation's first "healthy city,' after fulfilling more than 90 percent of tasks in a three-year working plan, said officials from the Shanghai Patriotic Health Campaign Committee.
    An international forum on developing a healthy city will be held between November 20 and 22 in Shanghai. About 100 experts from home and abroad will give suggestions to further improve the city.
    According to the World Health Organization, a healthy city is defined as a place where living conditions promote good health and quality of life.
    A healthy city continually creates and improves physical and social environments and expands community resources, which enable people to mutually support each other and develop to their maximum potential, officials said.
    Shanghai issued the healthy city plan in 2003. --(11/11)

  • Shanghai to become third global financial center
    Shanghai is expected to become the world's third largest financial center after London and New York, according to the latest study issued by the City of London Corporation yesterday.
    According to the evaluation standard worked out by 400 industry analysts, and as compared with the rankings in 2003, London and New York have increased the advantage they hold over Frankfurt and Paris.
    London and New York will not lose their status as global financial centers in the coming ten years, and Shanghai, with growing economic strength, is likely to join them in the coming several years.
    Tokyo, troubled by bureaucracy and inadequate supervision, faces obstacles to regaining its previous importance. --(11/10)

  • Tickets by SMS
    Local movie fans now can buy film tickets through their cell phones, according to Paradise Warner Cinema City. The Shanghai Mobile users whose bank accounts are bound with cell phones can directly check the screenings and pay for the tickets at www.okticket.cn. The feedback information includes the screening time, price and seat number. --(11/9)

  • Foreign food labels
    All overseas packaged foods entering the city must have obvious Chinese labels or it could be rejected entry, the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau warned yesterday. There must be Chinese characters to indicate the food's name, production time and location, as well as its ingredients, according to new package food standards that took effect last month, which has not been strictly followed to date. The bureau will launch a check on the overseas food labels soon. --(11/8)

  • City builds first brain hospital in Pudong
    Construction began on the city's first brain hospital in Pudong over the weekend.
    With total investment of 300 million yuan (US$37.04 million), Shanghai Blue Cross Brain Hospital will also be the city's largest private medical facility when it is completed in two years time.
    The hospital will provide patients with high-end diagnosis and treatment for cerebral diseases, brain injuries, tumors and spine ailments, according to Chen Gongbai, chairman of Blue Cross Hospital Management and Investment Co. --(11/7)

  • Fudan buys Harvard texts
    Fudan University has invested US$200,000 over the past two years to buy copies of every textbook used at Harvard University, university officials said on Friday.
    The 5,000 to 6,000 English language textbooks are currently available at the university library for teachers and students to reference.
    Some of the textbooks have been adopted for classroom teaching directly. --(11/6)

  • 1st potty association set up
    The First Toilet Association was founded yesterday in the city. Currently it has 39 member companies, including Shanghai Construction and Transportation Commission and the Shanghai Public Sanitation Bureau. Meanwhile, the Website of the association, www.toiletweb.cn was open to the public yesterday. The association aims to provide the public with better toilet service. --(11/4)

  • City opens urban planning information to public
    Local citizens will have access to information about approved urban planning projects, according to Liu Haisheng, director with the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau, speaking at a regular government press conference yesterday.
    Citizens can find the information on the Internet, including both the overall city planning and regional planning projects, Liu explained, adding that residents can judge whether real estate developers' promises are true or false via the Internet. --(11/3)

  • City opens largest flower market
    The flower market, which opened yesterday, is a one-stop shop for everything you could possibly ask for when it comes to floral arrangements, whether it be vases, potted plants, cut or live orchids or even artificial flowers.
    The market, which has replaced the Jingwen Flower Market in Maoming Road, smells nothing but sweet and makes for one of the most enjoyable experiences one will find in the city.
    At weekends, the market is likely to be filled with visitors, eager to find the freshest and brightest flowers. But if you get up early and arrive before about 10 in the morning, it should be easy to navigate with arms full of bundles of flowers. --(11/2)

  • Eyes wide open at costly watches
    An employee showcases a Patek Philippe watch at the Shanghai Bund Center yesterday. The watch, made in 1939 and valued at more than US$1 million, will be auctioned by Antiquorum S.A. in Geneva, Switzerland on November 13. --(11/1)

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