Cold snap ends as mercury rises(1/24)
The mercury climbed back to double figures yesterday, ensuring warmer climate while bidding goodbye to the brief cold snap.
The highs will bump up to 15 degrees Celsius today and 17 degrees tomorrow, with lows of 6 and 8 degrees respectively.
But temperature is expected to drop again on Sunday with a high of 10 degrees and a low of 4 degrees Celsius due to a weak cold air from the north.
Not much change in temperatures is expected on Monday with mercury ranging between 3 to 11 degrees with Tuesday even warmer.
Dry condition with a mix of clouds and sun are likely to last through next Monday as high pressure persists.
Good air quality is forecast for today with the air quality index between 60 and 80. It will be the fourth day with the AQI recorded below 90.
People can access the weather information of the cities in China and on expressways at bus stations.
12 more FTZs may open: report(1/23)
China may see the emergence of more free trade zones as the central government reportedly has approved 12 places to start preparations following Shanghai¡¯s footsteps.
Local governments in most of these places have started to do research and evaluation after their preliminary ideas for an FTZ received the go-ahead from the State Council, China¡¯s Cabinet, the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper run by the Xinhua news agency, reported yesterday, citing unnamed authorities.
Although the report didn¡¯t name them, it said places including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Tianjin, Suzhou, Wuxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Henan, Fujian, Sichuan, Hefei, Guangxi and Yunnan have prioritized setting up an FTZ in their work this year.
The research and evaluation process usually takes more than a year before a final detailed proposal comes out.
A report by the National Business Daily earlier said Guangdong Province will soon be approved to establish China¡¯s second FTZ to deepen economic ties with Hong Kong and Macau. Xiamen in Fujian Province also said it¡¯s preparing for an FTZ to forge closer cross-strait trade.
Shanghai¡¯s pilot FTZ has unveiled several measures to facilitate trade, attract investment and open the service sector further.
Bureau imposes price limits on parks, museums(1/22)
The Shanghai Price Bureau has set price ceilings for admission to public parks, museums and other tourist spots ahead of the Spring Festival holiday. Some venues such as the China Art Museum will open for free, except for special exhibitions.
The adjusted price ceilings are as follows:
Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, 30 yuan
Shanghai Aerospace Science Museum, 8 yuan
Sun Yat-Sen's Residence and Memorial, 20 yuan
Soong Ching-ling's Residence and Memorial, 20 yuan
Lu Xun's Residence and Memorial, 8 yuan
Yu Garden, 30 yuan (40 yuan during peak season)
Shanghai Oriental Land, 50 yuan
Shanghai Wild Animal Park, 130 yuan
Chenshan Botanic Garden, 70 yuan
Shanghai World Expo Museum, 30 yuan
Fosun hopes to build 7-star Atlantis hotel near Shanghai's Disneyland(1/21)
FOSUN International Ltd hopes to build an Atlantis brand hotel in Shanghai near the coming Disneyland, which would make it the first seven-star Atlantis luxury hotel in the city.
"We are in serious talks with Atlantis headquarters on the project," said Liang Xinjun, vice chairman and chief executive of Fosun, a Shanghai-based real estate and investment conglomerate.
Atlantis executives "are really interested in building it near Disneyland," Liang added.
Liang revealed the proposed project during a discussion on establishing Shanghai as a top tourism destination globally at the 12th Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which will close on Wednesday.
Shanghai will need more construction and investment along with Disney to boost its tourism industry, Liang said.
Fosun announced in October it would build a US$1.6 billion Atlantis resort on China's Hainan Island, co-developed with South Africa's Sun City casino tycoon Sol Kerzner.
The Hainan resort would become the China's first Atlantis brand hotel and the world's third one, following hotels in Dubai and the Bahamas.
Freezing weather and warmer spell forecast for week ahead(1/20)
Seesawing temperatures are forecast this week, with both sunny and overcast days predicted.
With the arrival of a cold front from the north and strong winds, the mercury is set to start dropping around noon today, and fall further tomorrow, said the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau yesterday.
Today should be cloudy with a high of 9 degrees Celsius, while the mercury should hover between 1 and 6 degrees tomorrow.
Wednesday should be chillier as the cold front is set to bring the mercury down to freezing in downtown areas in the morning and even lower in suburban areas, said Zhang Ruiyi, a chief service officer of the bureau. A mixture of cloud and sun is forecast.
From Thursday through the weekend, it should turn warmer. The high may reach 14 degrees on Friday, when cloud is predicted, and higher still at the weekend, Zhang said.
Following a heavily to moderately polluted weekend, the air quality is not predicted to be much better today.
The Air Quality Index will range between 220 and 240 ¡ª heavily polluted ¡ª in the morning, due to pollutants brought by the cold air, the local environmental monitoring center said.
In the afternoon, it should improve a little, with an AQI of 135 to 155 ¡ª slightly to moderately polluted.
Blimp returns to center(1/18)
The air quality monitoring blimp ended its monitoring of the city's suburban areas and returned to the environmental observation center in Fengxian District after being raised on December 20.
The blimp stayed afloat for 70 hours and did over 40 observations in 20 days.
Local developer, nation's largest airline ink real estate deal(1/17)
Shanghai Greenland Group Co inked an agreement today for a strategic partnership with China Southern Airlines primarily to develop mixed-use real estate projects in or around airports.
The pact with the country's largest carrier is the latest move by the local developer to further enhance core competitiveness and facilitate business growth.
Initially, the two companies will tap into the northeastern cities of Shenyang, Harbin, Changchun and Dalian.
"As planned, Greenland will proceed with its strategy to further expand its operation of industry-themed real estate development, which will primarily focus on the airport, finance, cultural and creative industries as well as high-tech industry this year," said Zhang Yuliang, president of Shanghai Greenland. "Such a partnership will allow both companies to leverage and optimize each other's resources and further sharpen their competitive edges to sustain future business growth."
Greenland, which signed a similar agreement with China Eastern Airlines in August 2103, said earlier this week that it expects to raise its operational income to 400 billion yuan (US$65.6 billion) in 2014 from last year's 330 billion yuan.
eedskating World Cup from December 12 to 14. The Shanghai International Marathon will be held on December 7.
City's 4th case of H7N9 this year reported(1/16)
A new case of H7N9 bird flu was reported in the city yesterday, the fourth this month in Shanghai.
A 35-year-old man, a native of Ningbo in neighboring Zhejiang Province, was confirmed with the infection on January 4.
The man, surnamed Wu, is receiving treatment at a local hospital, said the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission.
It didn't say whether Wu had been in contact with live poultry.
Shanghai's first case this winter, reported on January 4, was an 86-year-old man, surnamed Zhou, who had bought live poultry.
In two cases reported last week, a 58-year-old woman, surnamed Zhang, was confirmed on Friday and a 56-year-old man, surnamed Shi, diagnosed on Saturday.
The commission did not say whether they had been in contact with live poultry.
Experts say exposure to live poultry at markets is a major risk factor and Shanghai's live poultry markets will shut from the end of this month until April 30.
This shutdown could occur for the next five years, authorities said.
The H7N9 virus emerged last year in China and has infected around 150 people on the mainland and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing at least 45.
400 firework stalls closed(1/15)
More than 400 firework stalls have been closed across the city and firework-free areas have expanded downtown in an effort to curb air pollution during the Spring Festival, officials said yesterday.
All legal firework selling points at residential communities have been removed to ensure safety while many other stalls have been closed, said Liu Wei, a Shanghai Fire Control Bureau official.
The city has more than 1,000 authorized firework selling points, mainly at grocery stores and supermarkets. They can only sell fireworks under license.
Areas near old residential communities, construction sites, schools, hospitals, protected buildings and crowded commercial areas will be added to the list of areas where fireworks are banned this year.
Previously, fireworks were forbidden at major downtown areas within the Inner Ring Road.
Though seen as an integral part of the Spring Festival, fireworks create smog and release harmful substances.
Mobile payments in China rise in 2013(1/14)
Shanghai residents spent an average of 31,018 yuan (US$5,085) last year through Alipay, a third-party payment service, according to data yesterday.
Their expenditure accounted for 9.3 percent of the total spending in the country last year, according to Alipay, which was founded by China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba.
Guangdong Province ranked first in total online spending, with expenditure by residents there contributing 15.99 percent. Next came Zhejiang, Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu, according to Alipay.
Mobile payments also jumped last year as the number of Alipay users increased more than five times from a year ago.
During the one-day online shopping carnival on November 11, the so-called Single's Day, Alipay recorded 188 million transactions and 24 percent of the purchases were paid via mobile devices.
Qinghai Yushu Autonomous Prefecture notched the highest ratio among other counties or cities for purchases via mobile devices, with up to 38.3 percent of Alipay users having done so. Alipay pointed out that lower-tier cities usually have higher adoption of mobile payment service due to lower coverage of broad-band connection.
China's mobile payment size nearly tripled to 334.3 billion yuan in the third quarter from the quarter before, and Alipay's market share was 64.4 percent, research firm Analysys International said in a report.
Good weather forecast for week ahead(1/13)
A spell of good weather should last through the week, forecasters said yesterday.
Following a damp weekend, sunny days with some cloud should be the pattern from today to Friday, said the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.
Today is set to be cloudy, with the temperature ranging from a low of 3 degrees Celsius and a high of 7 degrees.
Tomorrow should be sunny, with similar temperatures, due to the influence of a high pressure front.
From Wednesday, the high should climb slightly to 8 degrees, but the low will drop to 1 degree in downtown, and lower in suburban areas.
Then on Thursday, the temperature is set to rise to 9 degrees, with a low of 2 degrees.
The bureau advised residents to remember that there is a sizeable gap between daytime and night temperatures.
The local environmental monitoring center forecast that today's air quality will be good -- ranging from 55 to 100 on the air quality index.
Line 16 to link with 2 lines, maglev station(1/10)
Metro Line 16 will be linked to Line 2, Line 7 and the maglev train station at Longyang Road by the end of the year.
Construction of the main structure of Line 16's Longyang Road Station was completed this week. Along with Huaxia Road M. Station, Line 16, which connects with Line 11 at Luoshan Road Station, will be extended to the junction of Line 2, Line 7 and the maglev.
Currently, Line 16 passengers take shuttle buses from Luoshan Road to Longyang Road for transfer.
Line 16 will also shorten its interval during weekends from Saturday.
The Metro operators decided to adjust the train timings according to passenger load information they collected after two weeks since the line was put into use on December 29 last year.
Train intervals will be shortened from 20 minutes to 10 minutes from 8am to 8pm on weekends. During other weekend operation hours, the interval will be 15 to 17 minutes. Line 16 receives more load on weekends because it runs past several scenic spots.
Software park expands(1/9)
Shanghai Pudong Software Park will expand by opening a sub-park in Chuansha near the city's new Disneyland to lure advanced technological companies to help in transforming Shanghai into a software and information service leader.
The park aims to attract companies specializing in innovation and culture, industrial applications, e-commerce, mobile Internet and outsourcing, the park operator said yesterday.
More than 70 companies will set up facilities in the Chuansha park, sited 3 kilometers from Pudong International Airport, the park operator said.
The park, which may spread over 1 million square meters including buildings and related business and sports centers, will be completed in three to five years.
Shanghai will develop several "strategic" industries, including software, by 2015 to help it develop into an innovation-driven city, local officials said yesterday.
Hongqiao airport night bus service(1/8)
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport will start a night bus service from Friday that will drop passengers of late flights to People's Square.
The bus will leave from the airport's Terminal 2 Arrival Gate 1 for the trip to downtown. It will operate every 45 minute, starting from 10:30pm till the last flight. The bus tickets cost 16 yuan (US$ 2.64).
Get public transport cards on phones(1/7)
Public transport cards designed for cellphones are now up for sale. The Shanghai Transportation Card Co started issuing cellphone cases yesterday with chips inserted into them. The cases that are available now are for phone models iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and 5S, as well as Samsung Note 2 and 3, S3 and S4.
The cases, priced at 99 yuan (US$16.35), can be purchased at the company's three service spots -- 398 Meiyuan Road, 218 Taixing Road and 920 Nanjing Road W.
Only 8 days of good air in city last month(1/6)
Shanghai recorded only eight days last month when air quality was judged to be good or perfect, the city monitoring center said yesterday.
In each of the previous four Decembers, air quality reached these levels on around 20 days, reported the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center.
Meanwhile, a city academic has said that smog in southern regions of China is more hazardous than the haze found in the north of the country.
Zhuang Guozhun, a professor from Fudan University, said smog in Beijing mostly consists of natural dust particles.
In around 30 percent the main component is aluminosilicate -- crystals that are poor at absorbing water.
But smog in areas in the Yangtze River Delta region is mainly composed of man-made pollutants -- including ammonium salt, sulfate and nitrate -- which can easily absorb water and expand rapidly.
For example, pollutant ammonium bisulfate can grow eight times in size, said Zhuang.
He concluded that with the same polluted conditions, it is easier for smog to form in southern regions than in northern ones.
And compared with natural dust particles, man-made pollutants are more dangerous as a large part of their components are heavy metal elements and toxic organics, said Zhaung
He highlighted vehicle emissions as a major source of pollution and urged authorities to limit the number of vehicles on the roads.
Cold front expected on weekend(1/3)
A cold front over the weekend will drive away the warmth, forecasters said yesterday.
The benchmark Xujiahui Observatory recorded a temperature of 16.3 degrees Celsius yesterday, a rarity in January.
It was more than 8 degrees higher compared with the average highest temperature recorded by the observatory on the same day in the latest 10 years, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said.
Temperatures in Jiading and Pudong were the highest in the city at 18.5 degrees and 18.1 degrees respectively.
The high temperatures is closely related with circulation, said Kong Chunyan, a chief service officer of the bureau.
Tomorrow's low will be 7 degrees Celsius and high 16. It will dip to 9 degrees over the weekend.
On Sunday, the temperature will drop to 2 degrees, the bureau said.
The weather should remain sunny to cloudy until Tuesday under the influence of a cold front and a low pressure trough.
City's 2014 sports calendar looks full(1/1)
Shanghai will host an international equestrian competition for the first time and more than 100 sporting events are already lined up on the 2014 sporting calendar.
The Global Champions Tour, a show jumping competition, will be held in front of China Art Museum in the Pudong New Area from June 6 to 8.
The event will feature top riders from around the world. It will be the first time a Chinese mainland city has hosted an international equestrian event.
"We are excited to introduce the event as equestrian goes in line with Shanghai's city image," said Chen Yiping, a Shanghai Sports Bureau spokesman. "It also adds more diversity to local sports events."
The city will also host the FINA Diving World Cup for the first time. It will be held from July 15 to 20 at Oriental Sports Center.
The event is one of 28 confirmed international sports events in Shanghai in 2014.
The Formula One Chinese Grand Prix, April 18 to 20, at Shanghai International Circuit races into town once again while the IAAF Shanghai Diamond League track and field competition is scheduled for May 18.
Some of the world's top snooker players will be in the city for the Shanghai Masters from September 8 to 14 and the ATP 1000 tennis Shanghai Masters will likely attract the best male players for the October 4 to 12 tournament.
Golf fans can get a glimpse of some of the planet's best male golfers at either the BMW Masters from October 29 to November 2 or the HSBC Champions from November 6 to 9 at Shanghai Sheshan Golf Club.
The city is also scheduled to host the ISU World Short Track Speedskating World Cup from December 12 to 14. The Shanghai International Marathon will be held on December 7.
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