'No worry' on imported meat
LOCAL people can enjoy their meat as usual following a reassurance from local authorities they have taken strict measures to bar Listeria bacilli, reportedly tainted food and killed seven people in France, from entering Shanghai.
Infrastructure plans for 2000 released
THE city plans to invest 280 billion yuan ($33.8 billion) this year in con-struction to improve its infrastructure.
Festival travellers return
THE number of passengers travelling on trains in areas around Shanghai surged again as the Spring Festival holidays ended after the Lantern Festival last Saturday.
New taxi service: minibuses for the disabled
WITH the 5th National Games for the Disabled in mind, Shanghai Bashi Taxi Company has invested about 6 million yuan ($725,000) in purchasing 30 Pheonix model mini-buses from Zhangjiagang in East China's Jiangsu Province.
Coastal border control tightened
BORDER policemen will have stronger powers to safeguard coastal areas of the city under a new set of coastal border control regulations.
Police raid nabs men in sex blackmail scam
MEN who were caught in the act of buying sex from prostitutes when police raided a hotel in Zhangjiang Procuratorate in Pudong New Area last October, were also the victims of an elaborate plot to extort money, police said.
Bright lights, big city
CHEN Xianpeng, 24, didn't go home for Spring Festival this year, though this was the second consecutive year he has spent the festival away from his hometown.
Spring period wine vessel from Shenshan
DURING the Eastern Zhou (770-256 BC), Qin (221-206 BC), and Han (206 BC-AD 220) dynasties, bronze casting flourished among the minority peoples inhabiting the border areas of China.
Sexism at work
MEN only need apply.
Blue book predicts robust shipping
By Chen Qide
CHINA'S first shipping blue book issued yesterday predicts that the nation's shipping business will be better than last year's as it enters the WTO. Major ports in China are expected to handle 1.35 billion tons of cargo this year, up about 5 per cent over last year. Of the figure, 450 million tons will be foreign trade. The book compiled by the Ministry of Communications and the Shanghai Shipping Exchange is China's first attempt to report on its water transport business to the overseas and domestic markets. The ministry conducted a nationwide survey of 23 provinces and municipalities last year to collect information on coal, ores, petroleum, containers, grain, chemical fertilizer and wood from 210 enterprises and government departments. The book said China is expected to ship 20 million 20-foot containers through its major ports this year, an increase of 30 per cent over last year. They will make up 95 per cent of the nation's total exported and imported containers, said Yao Weifu, deputy manager of the exchange's Information Department. A breakdown reveals that 56 per cent of the containers will be shipped for the Asian market, 20 per cent will be transported to and from North America and 19 per cent will be for Europe. Many projects to be launched in Northwest China will also be a stimulus to the shipping business, he added. For example, a 70-billion yuan ($8.5 billion) investment programme that includes 30 projects is being mounted in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Of the investment, 30 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) will be used to build highways and railways and 10 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) will be spent laying a natural gas pipeline from Xinjiang to Shanghai. Yao said as a major industrial city, Shanghai will demand more coal for its power stations but it will decrease consumption of coal for other uses. Shanghai port will import 34.7 million tons of coal this year from the Northern China and the Yangtze River reaches, up 2.6 per cent over last year.
Copyright 2000 by Shanghai Star. All rights reserved.