China :: Shanghai

THE city government yesterday freed 40,000 hairy crabs into the mouth of Yangtze River near the Qingcaosha Reservoir, the first step in a five-year campaign to repair the ecosystem to improve the water quality in the reservoir that provides tap water for millions of residents. The hairy crabs will help establish a complete food chain in the river to help more fish and other aquatic animals survive in the river, Zhuang Ping, deputy director of the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. The released crabs, about half female and half male, will eat plankton while some of their offspring will become food for meat-eating fish higher in the food chain, said Zhuang, who is leading the water-improvement program. "The better ecosystem the water has, the better its water quality will be," he said. With a capacity of 438 million cubic meters, the reservoir is providing tap water to about 10 million ...

SHANGHAI, the world's busiest container port, will consolidate its title this year and leverage its record throughput to become a multi-faceted provider of port services. The city, which overtook Singapore as the world's biggest container handler last year, saw its annual container traffic volume surpass 30 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) yesterday. The figure hits an unprecedented level in the world's port history and marks a new leg in Shanghai's voyage to become a global shipping center by 2020. China's remarkable trade boom is reflected in the Shanghai port numbers, which went from 7,951 TEUs in 1978 to 29.05 million TEUs in 2010. The city's customs oversaw a total of US$790 billion worth of imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year - a 19.3 percent year-on-year increase. And its port handled 23.9 million TEUs over the first 10 months, ahead of that of 23.56 million TEUs at Singapore Port. Shanghai International Port (Group) Co,...

A middle school math teacher has stirred controversy after forcing 20 of his students to slap their own faces for three minutes because they made noise in class and scored poorly on exams. Angry local residents are demanding that the teacher resign and asking the school to announce a punishment. But some of the teacher's students, including some who were forced to slap themselves, are calling for leniency. The incident occurred in a class at Donglu Middle School in Pudong on Tuesday when the math teacher surnamed Yang ordered 20 students in his class to slap their faces after he was irritated by them making noise in class. The students said Yang was known as a very strict teacher, so almost all the students obeyed his order and started slapping themselves in the face for about three minutes. Those who slapped too lightly were told by the teacher to slap harder, students told the Oriental Morning Post. Yang's behavior has sparked anger among local residents, especially so...

Local taxi driver Qin Bo speaks to media about how a woman delivered a baby in his cab yesterday. Yesterday morning, Qin was taking a pregnant woman and her husband to Changhai Hospital. En route to the hospital, the woman couldn't wait and gave birth to the baby in the vehicle. Qin rushed the couple to the hospital and left the hospital without charging the taxi fare. The mom and the baby were finally safe and sound after treatment.

A Chinese sportswear company was ordered to pay 480,000 yuan (US$76,200) in damages to the US-based footwear manufacturer New Balance for unfair competition. The Huangpu District People's Court also ordered Niubanlun Sportswear Company in Quanzhou, Fujian Province to stop producing sports shoes with a logo similar to New Balance's "N" design. New Balance filed the lawsuit last November against Niubanlun for using a logo similar to its unique "N" design and had a Chinese brand name that sounds similar to "New Balance." The US firm said it registered its trademark in China in 1983 and accused Niubanlun of making and selling counterfeit shoes since 2007. Niubanlun argued that this was not an infringement case because its "N" trademark was legally registered. But New Balance said Niubanlun's trademark should not be used on sports shoes. The court ruled the Chinese company to pay for unfair competition, saying New Balance is a famous ...

A six-year-old boy was killed yesterday in a fire that broke out in an apartment in Shanghai's Baoshan District, xinmin.com reported. Police said the fire began at about 11am yesterday in an apartment building on Xinchuansha Road. Flames leaped through windows and plumes of black smoke rose into the sky. Firefighters carried a boy out of the fire but medical workers confirmed he was already dead. The boy's parents are from Chongqing Municipality and they went out in the morning, leaving their son alone at home, police said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The "biggest illegal building" on Xingjiaqiao Road N. in Hongkou District is demolished yesterday. Originally a two-story house, the building was illegally extended to become a seven-story "high-rise" (upper right) about two years ago. The demolition took five days to minimize the impact on neighbors.

A Jiao Tong University student said he nearly drowned after being thrown into an icy creek from a bridge near the school's Minhang campus during a robbery this morning but police suspect the student was telling a lie to avoid an exam. "My roommate was almost killed after he was robbed around 6am this morning," a student wrote on his microblog. The victim allegedly said he was blanketed by someone and pushed over the bridge as he was walking toward his dorm this morning. He told his roommates that he struggled for nearly 30 minutes before he was able to get out the freezing waters. He was later accompanied by a roommate to report the robbery to the police. However, police told the Shanghai Daily that they decided to drop further investigation because they suspected the student was lying. Police said the student might have reported the incident in order to avoid taking an exam today but they did not explain why they had come to that conclusion.

SCROOGE-LIKE cinema and restaurant bosses made Christmas Eve treats too expensive for many Shanghai residents. Cinemagoers planning to see the season's most popular movies - Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," directed by Hark Tsui - were asked to pay as much as 150 yuan (US$24) at some big cinemas. Usually, a ticket to a standard movie costs between 60 and 80 yuan, while admission to a 3D production is around 80 to 100 yuan. Among those dissuaded by the festive price hike was 22-year-old Typh Pei. "Me and my girlfriend reached the cinema, saw the prices, hesitated for a while and thought better of it," said 22-year-old Pei. Wu Hehu, vice manager of Shanghai United Cinema Circuit, said movie ticket prices went up before the Christmas period. "The Flowers of War" is more than two hours long and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate" is a 3D movie, so ticket prices are higher than for other movies. ...

A two-storey residential house in Shanghai's Qingpu District collapsed and killed three people early this morning. There are eight families living in the house on Shengli Street, Zhujiajiao Town and most of them are migrant workers. Neighbors said they heard a couple quarreling in the building around mid-night yesterday and at about 4am this morning, they heard a big bang as the building collapsed. The couple and another man on the second floor died on the way to the hospital. Police are investigating for details of the accident.

SHANGHAI is temporarily free from the threat of H5N1 virus, local agricultural authorities said this afternoon after Hong Kong issued a bird flu alert yesterday. The Shanghai Agriculture Commission said they have set up check points on all the highways leading to the city and they also conduct bird flu checks regularly. No H5N1 case has been reported so far this year. The Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau said the city's two airports use remote temperature monitors check inbound travelers. No bird-flu patients have been detected this year. Hong Kong is expected to destroy 17,000 live chickens infected by H5N1 virus today, said the local newspaper, Wen Wei Po, today. The infected chickens were found in a wholesale market yesterday morning by officials from the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. A dead chicken was tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. All the 17,000 live chickens in the whole market need to be destroy...

HUNDREDS of migrant workers blockaded four office buildings in Shanghai's Hongqiao area this morning in a bid to demand unpaid wages from the buildings' developers. The workers began gathering in front of the buildings on Jinzhong Road in the Shanghai Hongqiao Linkong Business Park in Changning District at around 8am. The blockage prevented officials and office workers from entering their workplaces, leaving them shivering in the cold wind, said a staffer at CBI China, a company based in one of the buildings. The protesters dispersed at around 8:30am when police arrived, she said. An official with the business park's management committee, surnamed Jiang, said the developer of the buildings owed money to the contractors who organized the migrant workers to exert pressure on the developer to pay up. The buildings were completed last year. The committee will continue coordinating between the two parties to avoid similar incidents from happening again, Jiang said.

METRO operator Shanghai Shentong yesterday launched a free cellphone app, allowing travelers to access Metro information, including maps, stations, transit routes and the location of toilets on the city's 11 Metro lines. The app is also intended to provide real-time advice on which lines are crowded and suggest alternative routes. Neighborhoods near the Metro stations will also be shown. Initially, the app is available only for Apple devices but will be extended to other mobile phones next year. An English version is also in the pipeline. Passengers can e-mail the operator at jwang@juntech.net to give their views on the software.

OFFICE buildings in the Lujiazui commercial area in Pudong will be all covered by wireless Internet network by end of next year, the city has pledged. It is also aimed that by 2013, the average Pudong household will have access to above-20 Mbps broadband Internet connections.

A WOMAN died after falling onto the tracks of Shanghai's Metro Line 6 during morning rush hour today, causing a short delay. The woman in her 30s fell onto the tracks just before a train pulled into Hangjin Road Station at 6:50am, the metro operator said. It's unknown whether she accidentally fell or jumped onto the tracks to commit suicide. The incident caused a delay of about 10 minutes and operation has returned to normal. An investigation is still underway. Another glitch hit the city's Metro Line 9 this morning. The trains were running at a limited speed between Songjiang New Town Station and Middle Yanggao Road Station after the signaling system malfunctioned at 7:46am, the operator said. Train intervals were extended to 8 minutes and passenger flows were temporarily restricted at several stations. The glitch was fixed at 8:04am, the metro operator said.

A model presents a creation with adornments partially made of chocolate during a chocolate fashion show in Shanghai yesterday.

A Yangtze River bridge linking Shanghai's Chongming Island with Qidong, a boom city in Jiangsu Province has passed final examinations and will be opened to traffic soon, project officials said today. The 53-kilometer bridge will cut the trip from downtown Shanghai to Qidong City by two hours to about 90 minutes. It takes only 35 minutes to drive from Pudong to Qidong. The new bridge is a vital link between the Yangtze Tunnel-Bridge Project on Chongming Island and the Nantong-Qidong Highway in Jiangsu, officials said. It will make the Pudong International Airport and Yangshan Deep-Water Port more accessible to cities in the northern part of Jiangsu. The drive from Qidong to the Pudong International Airport takes only about 45 minutes. The new route also means that Jiangsu's seafood and agricultural products can be transported faster to Shanghai.

Shanghai is facing a gender imbalance due to migrant people's preference for baby boys, according to a report issued by the Shanghai Statistics Bureau yesterday. The imbalance among babies under three has increased over the past decade. However, the imbalance in the working-age population has decreased. The national census, conducted in November 2010, revealed that the overall gender ratio between Shanghai's male and female residents was 106.19:100, up from the 105.68:100 in the previous census 10 years ago. Residents include those with local registered residency and migrant people living in the city for more than six months. The gender ratio among all children under the age of three was higher, at 113.71 boys for every 100 girls among local residents. Ten years ago, it was 110.48 boys to 100 girls. The census found that the boy-to-girl ratio among migrant people's children under three was 126.13:100, much higher than the desired norm of 103 to 107 boys per 100 girls. The b...

A memorial service for the deceased Zhang Jingdi, a retired French-language teacher in Shanghai and a charity enthusiast, will be held this Friday at 10am. Through his close ties with the local expatriate community, Zhang raised more than 5 million yuan (US$760,000) from foreign friends to help needy people in the city in the past 20 years. He died of kidney cancer at age 86 in the Zhongshan Hospital on August 9. His family is now inviting both Chinese and foreign friends to attend the memorial service to be held in the Binhai Guyuan Cemetery in the coastal Fengxian District. Buses are prepared to take attendants to the cemetery. Pickup points are Lujiabang Road Station Exit 1 for Metro Line 8 and 9 and Century Avenue Station Exit 7 for Metro Line 2, 4, 6 and 9. Last bus leaves before 8am. Zhang was named a "Charity Star" by the municipal government for his contribution to philanthropy. He battled with kidney cancer for nearly six months and even he was very ill, he still tri...

THREE-FOURTHS of construction workers are sweating in big Chinese cities, including Shanghai, without labor contracts, which means it is easier for their employers to stand them up in salary disputes, according to a survey by Peking University. The survey was based on an investigation of recent construction labor markets in Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and Shenzhen. It found that 75.6 percent of the construction workers, mostly migrants hailing from China's vast, less-developed rural regions, said they had not signed any recruitment contact. The absence of a formal contract puts workers at a disadvantage in getting timely payment for their jobs. Only about 6 percent of construction workers in Shanghai said their salaries were settled at the end of each month, about the same as the level in Beijing, the survey showed. The percentage is about 23 percent in Shenzhen. Shanghai Daily interviewed some major construction group managers in Shanghai and their statements echoed the finding. ...