Campus controversy

THE new regulation of the Ministry of Education prohibiting college students from living off campus may be attracting heated debate around the country but many students in South China's Guangdong Province have returned to their dorms on campus for the new semester.

Some universities have given a final warning to students still renting apartments off campus.

This move was said to be in the interests of student safety and those disobeying the regulation can be expelled from colleges, according to "The Bund" newspaper.

Some students, especially those in senior years, said they had more freedom by living off campus and it would help them later in finding jobs.

Colleges are improving facilities in their dorms to win students back.

Martyrs moved

THE poverty-stricken city of Beipiao in North China's Liaoning Province has outlayed 8 million yuan to move its Cemetery of Revolutionary Martyrs and build a square to attract new investment to the city.

According to Shenyang Today, the city is among the 10 poorest in the province.

Local residents have complained the move is disrespectful to the 100 soldiers who sacrificed their lives to liberate the city half a century ago.

Labour shortage

THE Pearl River Delta in South China and Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in East China have reported a shortage of labourers, according to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

Due to low wages and poor working conditions, workers were hard to find for the shoe, toy, electronic, plastics and clothing manufacturing industries, especially women workers between 18 and 25.

Experts said the main problem was that the rights of migrant workers were not sufficiently protected.

China's Youth Daily has reported that nearly 40 per cent of the enterprises surveyed in Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province delayed paying wages due to more than 100,000 labourers last year. The total of the arrears was more than 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million).

The rapid growth of the affected industries was also a factor in the worsening labour-shortage problem.

Baby-bottle fad

STUDENTS from some high schools in Lanzhou in Northwest China's Gansu Province have taken to drinking from baby-feeding bottles.

According to the Gansu Daily, an increasing number of students considers drinking from baby bottles to be trendy and many have bought bottles as birthday presents for classmates.

A store owner said girl students were the main customers. but teachers said only a naive minority of the student body had taken up the fad.

Experts said the immature conduct reflected fears students had of reality and that they had been spoiled and over-protected.

(Star News)