China :: Shanghai

EVEN if the one-child policy was relaxed, almost half of Shanghai couples would be reluctant to have a second child, according to research. Some 45 percent of families are put off by the high cost of raising children, a study released yesterday by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences found. The report said local families spent 31,760 yuan (US$4,934) on their offspring on average last year. That accounts for more than 50 percent of disposable income for 10 percent of the 1,200 families with children under the age of 12 polled. Child-related expenses - including education, food and clothes - have put parents under great economic pressure. Some 35 percent of those surveyed felt it's a heavy burden to raise children. The report also found that white-collar workers busy with work have little time and experience to look after their children. About 30 percent of respondents said that they suffer great stress taking care of their children. The researchers also discovered that locals wit...

The Shanghai Culture Square is waiting for its opening performance today when The Music in the Summer Air music festival kicks off proceedings at the newly built theater. Audiences will be able to enjoy orchestra concerts and choir performances in a theater 20 meters below ground.

AN error on a signaling system under test on Shanghai's Metro Line 10 caused a train to take a wrong turn, carrying passengers on the wrong branch after the line split at Longxi Road, operators said yesterday. The train, which should have been heading for Hangzhong Road after Longxi Road, instead took the other line on the Y-shaped intersection and ended up at Hongqiao Railway Station at around 7:20pm on Thursday. Passengers were told by Metro staff to take trains back to Longxi Road. An announcement over the train's loudspeakers said a signal problem had caused it to take a wrong turn. Some passengers said the train had even begun to run backward for a short distance after it stopped at Shanghai Zoo, the first station on the wrong route. "I was reading a newspaper on the train when it stopped for one minute with none of its doors opening," said a 25-year-old passenger surnamed Gu. "Then all of a sudden it started to run backward for a few seconds, which scared s...

FOUR Shanghai companies have been banned from food production following the "recycled buns" scandal in April, local authorities said yesterday. The city has revoked 360 business licenses in a crackdown triggered by the discovery in April that a company recycled its expired buns and added dyes to make new ones, said Shen Weimin, deputy director of Shanghai Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision. Shen also said China is revising the safety standards for escalators. The revised standards are expected to take effect later this year. The current standards were set in 1997 and are already outdated. The revision came after an escalator in a Beijing subway station went out of control killing one passenger and injuring 20 others. City authorities have ordered an examination and repair of all the Otis escalators of the same type as the faulty one in Beijing before the end of this month.

THE city plans to set aside certain times for yachts to ply the Huangpu River, a move to boost the luxury private boat business as Shanghai aspires to become a center of the industry. Development of yacht harbors is also part of the plan, city maritime authorities said yesterday. Maritime officials worry that the busy water traffic on the river may threaten the yachts' operations. "Crashes are very likely to happen when the ships are squashing the limited waterways," said Chen Xiao-guang, deputy director of the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration. More than 1,000 vessels - from tour boats to freighters to ferries - use the Huangpu River daily in the section near the Lujiazui area of Pudong, the most popular tour route. To reduce the danger of collisions, some large cargo vessels are expected to be turned away or transferred to other water channels during the yacht time, said Chen. The city has only about 30 yachts, much fewer than cities like Shenzhen which has more t...

A local scholar is looking for a car driver who threw litter at him and ignored his advice. Wang Pinxian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Tongji University professor, was leaving campus for home last Sunday when a man tossed some trash out of his car window in front of Wang. Wang picked up the waste and asked the driver to take it back, but the driver turned a deaf ear to him. "He took a look at me and turned his head away," Wang said. "I tried to argue with him, but he didn't open the window." Wang then moved to the front of his car to get his attention, but the driver backed his car and drove away. Wang posted a letter on the campus website seeking clues to the driver. He said he would visit the driver and discuss with him about his behavior whether he is a Tongji member or not. The university issued a "wanted notice" on the campus website to help Wang find the driver. The website editor said the letter is a good reminder to s...

On Monday at 12pm, all Nordic countries held a minute's silence for the victims of the bombing and shooting in Norway. On this blog, I'm taking a silent week.