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A luxury apartment in Shanghai or Beijing could cost more than 130 times the annual income of an ordinary wage earner in China, according to 21cbh.com, citing a report released by a US online property research company. It's an indication that home prices in China have reached a "dangerous...

FASHION designer Vera Wang has sparked controversy with a plan to charge brides-to-be 3,000 yuan (US$482) to try on dresses at her new store in Shanghai. Wang's first flagship bridal shop in China will be the only one of her stores across the world to ask for a non-refundable deposit when it...

SHANGHAI car plate prices struck a bullish note at the first auction this year yesterday, surpassing the 70,000 yuan (US$11,263) benchmark for the first time. In the seventh consecutive month of hitting a record high, the lowest winning bid for a Shanghai car plate shot up to 75,000 yuan at...

China's economy expanded 7.8 percent in 2012, the slowest pace in 13 years, but it gained 7.9 percent in the October-December period, the first pickup in eight quarters. The overall yearly rate was higher than the government target of 7.5 percent, with output hitting 51.93 trillion yuan...

HOUSE prices continued to rise in a growing number of Chinese cities in December, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Excluding government-funded affordable housing, prices rose in 54 of the 70 cities tracked by the bureau, compared with 53 in November and 35 in October. Prices...

LUXURY liquor and expensive watches lost their allure as gifts among China's super rich following government crackdowns on corruption and the lavish lifestyles of some officials, according to a Hurun survey. The country's premium liquor brand, Moutai, dropped out of the top 10 preferred...

A 22-year-old man who tried to save his mother, also a pimp, from police arrest was sentenced to four months in detention for injuring an officer, the Hongkou District People's Court ruled today. Li Jianxin, a Hubei Province native, didn't hire a lawyer for his trial today because "it is...

AN elderly rubbish collector found the bodies of twin infant boys in the ruins of a house in Baoshan District nearly a week ago, today's Oriental Morning Post reported. The 80-year-old woman was picking recyclable wastes in the ruins when she saw a plastic bag with a black knit sweater...

DIVORCE in Shanghai surged by 13 percent last year, the largest increase in recent years, which experts said likely was caused by increasing instability among young people's marriages. A total of 44,364 couples with at least one Shanghainese partner divorced in 2012, up more than 5,100 from...

BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese yuan will not see any sharp rises in 2013 due to the country's dwindling trade surplus but small gains with more two-way fluctuations will further stabilize the economy, analysts predicted. The yuan's exchange rate experienced roller-coaster-style...

Temperatures in China have plunged to their lowest in almost three decades, cold enough to freeze coastal waters and trap 1,000 ships in ice, official media said at the weekend. Since late November the country has shivered at an average of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees colder than...

THE city's consumer rights protection watchdog is reminding people to disinfect drinking water dispensers more regularly after it found over 80 percent of 30 machines tested were contaminated with excessive bacteria. A total of 25 water dispensers were found to contain excessive level of CFU...

Most young women in China would prefer to date men 10 years older than themselves, a nationwide survey has found. They told researchers they preferred older men because they were more attractive, wealthier and better able to take care of them. According to the survey of 98,000 men and...

CHICKEN from the Shandong Liuhe Group, supplier of the "instant chicken" highlighted in a CCTV investigation, is still being sold in some supermarkets in Shanghai. The city's food and drug authorities said there had been no order, so far, to pull it from the shelves. An investigation is under...

A WOMAN who saved a seven-year-old boy from falling to the ground from five floors up last Sunday in Zhejiang Province said she never considered letting him go despite having to urinate urgently, a media report said. The woman surnamed He, 57, held the boy's arms for 40 minutes after the boy...

THE driver who ran over and crushed a two-year-old girl last year was given a reduced sentence of two years and six months in prison at a court in Foshan, Guangdong Province, yesterday as he agreed to compensation and was forgiven by the girl's family. The driver, surnamed Hu, was initially...

A FIVEFOLD increase in subsidies for sea burials will take effect in 2013 to encourage people to forgo the traditional but space-consuming interment in the ground, local civil affairs authorities said yesterday. The subsidy has been increased from 400 yuan (US$64) to 2,000 yuan. The relatives...

A LARGE, 33.5-ton aquarium burst late yesterday in a busy shopping center on the pedestrian mall on Nanjing Road E., injuring 15 people, including customers and shop staff. One male customer, in his 30s, was hit by falling glass and had broken bones in his leg. Others had cuts and bruises...

SHANGHAI traffic authorities said yesterday they have seized 474 cloned taxis so far this year. Cloned taxis are those that look exactly the same in model and color as the licensed ones and they cheat customers without leaving any trace for punishment, the officials said. The Shanghai...

A kindergarten in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province was probed after an online post revealed that parents were charged 80 yuan (US$12.82) a month for teachers to hug their child, today's Yangtze Evening Post reported. A blogger known as "Langmanhongchen" said his friend's daughter was attending the...