Into pieces

A 4-metre-long stone that formed part of a bridge in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was broken into three pieces by construction workers in a neighbourhood of Shanghai because it was too heavy to move away, the Shanghai Youth Daily reported.

Experts from the Municipal Cultural Heritage Department said it was "a great pity" to destroy such a stone, on which was carved the year the bridge was built. However, since it was not a listed cultural relic, the construction workers can not be sued.

Residents said there was once a river where the neighbourhood now stands, and the stone was part of a bridge spanning the divide. The stone was beside a road and local people used it as a rest, but few knew of its history.

DNA test

ACCORDING to the Contemporary Gold newspaper of East China's Zhejiang Province, a private DNA test centre operating without the approval of the government has been found in Hangzhou, capital city of the province.

The centre claimed to provide accurate tests at a price half that of an authorized institute. The centre's employees told newspapers that the company was headquartered in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, and their laboratory was in the United States. However, they refused to show their operation licenses.

Lawyer Wei Yongqiang said DNA testing was not currently accepted as evidence in China's courts.

Both officials and sociologists believe the increase in DNA testing reveals a trust crisis between husbands and wives in China.

The right husbands

MORE than 40 per cent of women in a survey conducted by Peking University said that life would be much easier if they could marry a rich man rather than finding a good job themselves, the Beijing News reported.

Peking University published the survey recently at an Asian women's forum in Beijing. The forum aimed to discuss aspects influencing the social status and personal development of women.

Researchers said such a result should be known by society as a whole as this concept could restrain women's development.

A total of 2,493 people from 30 provinces in China and a small number of foreigners took part in the survey.

Kneeling service

THE practice of kneeling down while serving customers in a shoe store in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has triggered a nationwide debate, reported the Xinhua News Agency.

The store required employees to kneel when they assisted customers trying on shoes that cost over 1,000 yuan (US$120).

Some people said it was an insult to make the staff kneel, and customers would be satisfied as long as store employees were kind and helpful.

In fact, such kneeling service has appeared in some entertainment centres, beauty and massage salons and airlines throughout the country.

A beauty salon in Ningbo in Zhejiang Province punished its staff with 100 push-ups if they did not kneel when serving customers. The owner believed the practice was typical in Chinese culture.

(Star News)