Rain to get heavier, cold snap expected from Wednesday(2/17)
More rain is on the cards for the coming three days, while the mercury is set to drop on Wednesday, meteorologists said yesterday.
Today will see only light showers and temperatures of between 7 and 9 degrees Celsius, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said. But the situation will worsen overnight leading to moderate to heavy rain tomorrow due to warm and humid air from the southwest hitting a cold front.
Cloudy skies are forecast for Wednesday, while a cold front from the north will push temperatures down to 3 degrees on the day, from 5 degrees tomorrow.
The clouds will remain through Thursday and Friday, with temperatures expected to fluctuate between 2 and 9 degrees.
Today's air quality is forecast to be good in the morning and excellent in the afternoon, the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center said.
The National Meteorological Center said yesterday that rain and snow will sweep across large parts of the country in the coming three days. This could disrupt the travel plans of the large numbers of migrant workers and students expected to return from their Spring Festival holidays, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwest China and regions to its east are set for more snow, while blizzards are forecast for tonight and tomorrow in Anhui Province, the center said.
Panel to be set up for reforms(2/15)
Shanghai will establish a panel for "overall reform," the Communist Party of China's Shanghai Committee said yesterday.
Led by Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng, the panel will be responsible for arranging, coordinating and promoting reform as well as supervising the implementation of reform plans, in accordance with major principles, guidelines, policies and decisions made by the Party Central Committee, according to eastday.com.
The panel will draft major policies and schemes for reforms in economy, legal system, culture, social governance, social security, environmental protection and discipline inspection, said eastday.com.
Kiss and hug and win a discount(2/14)
Some local scenic spots are wooing lovers for Valentine's Day today with discounted tickets if they hug and kiss at the ticket window.
The Shanghai World Financial Center said its discount will be available till March 14.
The Jinjiang Amusement Park will host a ¡°For Lover, For Ever¡± event at night and couples will get ¡°one ticket for two¡± discount. The Happy Valley is offering similar discounts at night.
Short trips to neighboring cities like Nanjing, Wuxi and Suzhou are popular among local lovebirds because of weekend. Tour packages for high-end hotels, hot spring, Spa and candlelight dinner have been sold out.
As of yesterday, some 1,689 couples had made reservations at marriage centers across the city to tie the knot today, creating the first marriage boom this year, according to the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.
This year, the Valentine's Day clashes with the Lantern Festival, creating a dilemma for lovers who will have to choose between a romantic candlelit dinner with their partner, or a meal at a traditional family get-together.
Shanghai to improve tax policies for FTZ(2/13)
Shanghai's fiscal and tax authorities are to study tax policies for overseas investment and offshore businesses to bring a boost to the city's free trade zone, officials said yesterday.
Song Yijia, head of the Shanghai Finance Bureau, said the bureau's prime task this year is to promote the FTZ by improving tax policies and opening up auditing services for foreign investment.
"We will learn from international practices and actively cooperate with state departments to further study and improve tax policies related to Shanghai's pilot free trade zone, such as foreign equity investment and offshore businesses," Song said at the city's annual fiscal and tax conference.
Gu Ju, head of Shanghai's tax authorities, said the bureau will seek central government support in terms of tax policies to encourage such businesses to open in the zone.
This initiative is part of the tax bureau's mission to improve tax collection and incentive policies in the zone in order to facilitate cross-border trade and investment.
The conference heard that Shanghai's public spending has been set at 472 billion yuan (US$78 billion) for this year.
This figure, approved by the city's lawmakers, is up 4.2 percent from last year.
Public revenue is set to be 441.8 billion yuan, 7.5 percent higher than for 2013.
Fudan scientists find way to make pliable screens(2/12)
Fudan University researchers made a breakthrough that makes it possible for display screens to bend and curl. That means one day the windshield glass can double as a TV screen. Their discovery was published in the recent issue of Nature Communications.
The two researchers, Liu Ran and Qiu Zhijun, noticed that water molecules when in contact with an organic membrane will have an electrochemical reaction and show the effect of hysteresis. This can be employed to invent membrane transistors.
Based on this discovery, they and their team embedded carbon nanotubes in organic membrane transistors and after five years of experiment and improvement they managed to multiply the density of membrane transistors four times to reach the quality of Polysilicon, the material used in screen production.
Schools reopen today(2/11)
Schools reopen today after the winter break ¡ª on a Tuesday rather than on Monday.
Educational authorities said that primary, middle and high schools students should get a fixed 25 days off for the winter vacation.
The spring semester in Shanghai kicks off about a week earlier than other cities such as Nanjing and Hangzhou where schools reopen next Monday.
Pudong airport sees busy holiday traffic(2/8)
The number of passengers and flights handled at Pudong International Airport during the Spring Festival holiday climbed 40 percent and 6 percent respectively from the same period of last year, the airport said.
The airport recorded 516,000 passenger trips and more than 32,000 flights during the weeklong period from January 31 to February 6.
Japan was the most popular tourist destination for Chinese mainland travelers instead of previous favorite Thailand. The country attracted 88.6 percent more Chinese than last year.
Though the number of Chinese tourists dropped 12 percent from last year's Spring Festival, Thailand ranked second on the list. Next came Hong Kong, America and South Korea.
Lighting up the Spring Festival(2/4)
Throngs of tourists visit the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai yesterday to admire colorful displays of lanterns. In the Chinese lunar calendar today is Chu Wu, the fifth day of the first month of the Chinese new year. Firecrackers are set off after midnight yesterday to drive the five bad things ¡ª evil, monsters, disaster, sickness and poverty ¡ª from the home. Today is also the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth. Businesses normally re-open on this day. Lanterns are traditionally lit to celebrate the Lantern Festival, the 15th of the first Chinese lunar month every year. The Lantern Festival officially ends the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Cold front from north brings city pollution and chilly, wet weather(2/3)
Chilly, wet weather is forecast for this week as the city feels the influence of a cold front that arrived early yesterday, bringing pollution from the north.
The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau yesterday afternoon issued a blue alert for the cold sweep, which will see temperatures drop by 8 degrees Celsius from yesterday's levels to a low of 5 degrees and a high of 9 today.
Today will be cloudy with light rain in the morning, said forecasters.
Temperatures will then fall further, with the low early Tuesday and Wednesday set to be around 3 to 4 degrees.
Shanghai residents awoke to thick fog yesterday morning, partly influenced by the arrival of the cold front.
In most parts of the city, visibility fell below 500 meters and less than 200 meters in some areas.
Forecasters said the previous warm days with little wind and a large temperature difference between day and night led to thick fog with the arrival of cold front.
On Saturday, temperatures reached 23.4 degrees Celsius ¡ª Shanghai's warmest day during the Spring Festival in the past six years.
But the combined effects of fog and smog caused the city's air quality to worsen quickly overnight.
The density of PM2.5 ¡ª fine particles that are especially hazardous ¡ª rose from 70 micrograms per cubic meter at 5pm on Saturday to about 260 micrograms per cubic meter at 11am yesterday.
The national PM2.5 limit is 75 micrograms per cubic meter.
PM2.5 density started to drop in the afternoon, falling to 120.6 micrograms per cubic meter in the evening.
The Air Quality Index indicated that the city's air quality yesterday was highly polluted, the second worst under a six-level system.
According to the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center, air quality is expected to be good today.
The National Meteorological Center said strong cold fronts will bring about a drop in temperatures of more than 10 degrees in northeastern China today.
Stronger winds are predicted for some eastern areas, dispersing fog and pollution, according to the center.
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