Elevated rail still in track-laying stage
CONSTRUCTION workers are laying normal track along the first phase of the city's first elevated rail, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
Drugs in mail
MIND your mail, Shanghai Customs warned recently.
Carmival mood in Yangtze ballroom
FUNNY costumes and weird make-up, hugging, drinking and dancing. The specially decorated Crystal Ballroom of the Yangtze New World Hotel became a sea of some 400 revelling expatriates and local people on Saturday night.
Merger brings first exhibition JV
THE first local Sino-foreign exhibition joint venture was formed in Shanghai last week after the merger of two established exhibition services firms.
Water transport services safe for Spring Festival
SPRING Festival, which means a peak in the numbers travelling by sea, begins on Thursday and will last forty days.
Legal services market to heat up
WHILE China's imminent entry to the WTO spells a great opportunity for the development of China's legal profession, it must restructure to meet the challenges, according to a seminar sponsored recently by Shanghai-based AllBright Law Offices.
Survey:drinkable water at low ebb
LOCAL government officials are stepping up efforts to push forward a general survey of local water resources, that targets rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
4 years for date-raping 17-year-old
AN employee of Shanghai's City of Books was recently sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Pudong New Area People's Court for raping a girl last year.
A ride on the wrong side of the law
IT had to happen. As a frequent user of the city's taxi cabs I have often been able to curl a scornful lip at the poor souls who are sitting in a cab which has been pulled over by a traffic policeman. There they sit in lonely splendour while the driver - depending on the demeanour of the officer of the law and the real or alleged seriousness of the offence - either engages in much armwaving and fingerpointing, or cowers, as he, or she, fishes for licence and permit.
Trash-picker who steals bag quickly arrested
A MIGRANT woman who allegedly stole a handbag while collecting trash was recently arrested by Putuo Police on a charge of theft.
Ambitious young man dies in Germany
I REALLY don't know how I have come through these past four months. Every day when the sun rises, I long for the darkness, so that I may be shrouded in sleep. But when the night does come, I long for the day, for I cannot sleep."
Blast-hit road reopens No deaths, no injuries from gas explosion
By Shi Hua
AFTER 23 hours' hard work, repairs to the broken gas pipes which exploded on Saturday morning at the intersection of Gonghexin and Luochuandong roads was completed on Sunday morning. No one was killed and there were no injuries in the blast or the ensuing repair work. On Friday night, residents near the intersection informed the local gas company that they could smell gas. On Saturday morning around 2:00 am, the gas company, after a check, switched off the gas supply in the area. The site was not closed off to the public and was left open to vehicles. Workers from the gas board continued working to locate the precise leak. Around 7:40 Saturday morning, a bus broke down on what turned out to be the site of the gas leak and, when it managed to restart its engine, ignited a big fire. "The fire was 10 metres high," said Zhang Hansheng, a 72 resident on Luochuandong Road. "We were scared, fearing the fire would spread to our house." The police, the gas company and municipal authority representatives quickly arrived on the scene. Traffic was diverted away from Gonghexin Road from the south end to the north. Braving both the choking gas and a steady drizzle, 300 workers and policemen repaired the gas pipes. Before noon on Saturday the fire had been extinguished and the gas people worked on to replace the faulty gas pipe valve. Finally on Sunday around 3 o'clock, all work was completed. Gas pipes were re-connected and gas flowed. The road was re-opened. Sources from Zhabei Police Station said the old gas pipes were not buried deep enough and were also not strong enough. The pressure of heavy traffic on the road over the gas pipes was also blamed for the blast.
Copyright 2000 by Shanghai Star. All rights reserved.