Kids compete in cross-Straits drawing
SIX-year-old Wu Ye, who has a pencil behind her right ear, is attentively drawing the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Pudong's riverside park along the east bank of Huangpu River.
Diamond plan
DIAMONDS, which have graced the necklaces of the late Princess Diana, US First Lady Hillary Clinton and Kate Winslet in blockbuster film "Titanic," are proving increasingly popular with China's consumers as earnings rise, especially in Shanghai.
Chess master makes first move on-line
JOINTLY sponsored by Shanghai Chess Association and Shanghai Lotof Network Information Technology Co Ltd, a long-running chess match at www.lotof.com on the web was kicked off on Saturday.
Tourism development at top of agenda
SHANGHAI plans to transform itself into an international tourist metropolis by 2015, according to Zhou Muyao, vice-mayor of Shanghai. Zhou was speaking at the city's first tourism working conference which closed on Sunday.
Campaign to prevent polio comeback
AN incidence of polio (also known as infantile paralysis) in October in Northwest China's Qinghai Province has prompted a warning from experts that children from abroad must be vaccinated against the disease either before or soon after they come to Shanghai.
Women seek access to legal consultation
A 50-YEAR-OLD woman says tearfully she has sued for divorce four times over the past nine years, but she has been denied each time over property disputes.
Controversy over keeping city wall
SHANGHAI city wall was built in a matter of months in 1553 to repel Japanese pirates, but it took more than 10 years to demolish it.
Students broaden horizons overseas
PHOTOGRAPHS of Chinese high-fliers who studied in Britain adorned the entrance to the British Education Exhibition 2000, held two weeks ago in Shanghai.
Rush to wed breeds crime
THE proverb "marry in haste repent at leisure" took on a whole new meaning for two Shanghai residents recently.
Robbers ring up call-girls
A BOOK described as a "goldmine" by a debtor, because it listed the telephone numbers of call-girls, brought two men suspected of robbing four prostitutes before the Yangpu District Procuratorate recently.
Court fines nose biter $348
HONGKOU District Court has ordered a 38-year-old man named Liu who bit a bus driver's nose with such force that it required seven stitches to close the wound to pay 2,884 yuan ($348) in medical expenses and damages.
Shipping soup in Shanghai
LAST week was a tough week to get through any year. You must, like Caesar, beware the Ides of March (15) and either proclaim your ethnic origins or become honourary Irish for a day on St Patrick's Day (17). In Shanghai, you also have to cope with the fickle March weather. Traditionally, March is the rainy season here. But sometimes it tempts you with brilliant sunny days to shed your warm winter protection. Yet these days are cold and you are apt to come down with the changing season flu, cold, sniffles and sneezes. Forget your patent medicine cures, there is only one cure, the universal, the egalitarian, the ultimate chicken soup. Soup, la soupe, die suppe, tang - the broth of the brave - can combat business conspirators, like those that would do in Caesar, can cure the hangover of over-indulgence from guzzling Gaelicgreen beer and the bog-inspired black, frothy stuff, and it cures the March colds. It even cures the blues. Chicken soup has even been cooked up into a series of motivational, feel-good books. The making of chicken soup is not just the preserve of the five star chefs. No cordon bleu needed here. Flat-out with a fever once in southern China a retired septuagenerian senior Chinese official emerged with steaming chicken soup to rid the ague. An anonymous cook in Singapore, after the ague again came in Malaysia, was a saviour. Downed in Delhi and inflamed, a gentle-eyed Burmese made the magic potion. So with the Shanghai shivers, where to turn? Help came from an unexpected source. Chicken soup has a way of doing that. It brings out the creator, the producer from often the most unexpected origins. An international business person, with movie star looks and clothes, with the cool of chrome-steel office furniture, was suddenly ordering me to go to the supermarket buy a black skinned chicken, ginger, various herbs and a few seasonal vegetables. "Check the chicken to make sure it has the freshest date....." It went on from there. And, I'm sure, it will join the many chicken soup cure stories of the world. If not told by me then by its maker. Brian Cummins is an Australian now working in Shanghai.
Copyright 2000 by Shanghai Star. All rights reserved.