Around the nation: China builds 57-storey skyscraper in just 19 days
Also, Red Army-theme park 'goes to trash' after lack of funds, and fancy spiral escalators wow Shanghai shoppers
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 17 March, 2015, 9:30pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 17 March, 2015, 9:30pm
Construction of the 57-storey Mini Sky City in Changsha, Hunan, was completed in less than three weeks. Photo: Opsteel.cn
ANHUI
Phone trumps son
A mother was so caught up in playing with her mobile phone while boarding a train at Shuijiahu station on Sunday that she left her six-year-old son behind on the platform, Anhuinews.com reports. An officer on patrol at the station found the boy running after the moving train, crying. Police later tracked down the woman by calling the boy's teacher, whose contact number was written in a textbook in the child's bag, and returned the boy to his mother.
Lucrative trade for cabbies
Experienced cabbies in Hefei are quitting their jobs to jump on the share-riding bandwagon, with some seeing their incomes triple after the move, Xinan Evening News reports. A man surnamed Qin, who has worked as a taxi driver for about eight years, said his earnings rose to more than 10,000 yuan (HK$12,600) a month from just 3,000 yuan after he started working for a mobile app-based transport network.
BEIJING
Caught in 20 minutes
A man who yesterday robbed a store in a Wangfujing shopping mall of 11 luxury watches worth a total of 3 million yuan, was arrested just 20 minutes after he fled the scene, The Beijing News reports. The masked man had threatened shop staff with a toy gun before walking out with the watches, brandishing a knife and hijacking a taxi to make his getaway. When police apprehended him at a nearby intersection, he said he was broke and needed the money.
Theme park 'trashed'
A Red Army-themed park in Chaoyang district, after being abandoned for at least six years, has been converted into a garbage station and parking lot for trucks, The Beijing News reports. A local government official said the theme-park project was suspended because of insufficient funding, and that the government that taken back the land from the developer and now intended to use the space to plant trees instead.
FUJIAN
Floating 'body' found
Alarmed residents in Sha county alerted police last week after they spotted a "woman's body" floating in a nearby river, according to the Ministry of Public Security's Weibo account. Police and forensic workers immediately retrieved the "body" from the water, only to find out that it was just an inflatable doll. The ministry advised people to take good care of their personal belongings.
Determined borrower
Police detained a woman in Fuzhou on Monday for reportedly harassing a friend for a loan. The pregnant 27-year-old woman, surnamed Li, spent hours kneeling on the floor outside her friend's apartment, hoping to change the friend's mind after she declined to lend her the money. Li said she wanted to borrow the money to start a nail salon, but her friend said the last time she heard from Li was 16 years ago.
GUANGDONG
Long-lost son now found
A 30-year-old man who was kidnapped in Sichuan 26 years ago was finally reunited with his mother in Guangdong on Sunday, The Southern Metropolis News reports. His mother, Lan Mingxiu, said she had never given up looking for her son all these years. Police confirmed the pair's relationship through a DNA test this month.
'Screwed-up' dinner
A diner was shocked to find a metal screw in her crab dish at a seafood restaurant in Shenzhen's Luohu district this week, The Southern Metropolis News reports. The restaurant owner said staff members could not explain how the nail ended up in the dish, and agreed to compensate the woman 600 yuan, which is 10 times the price of the dish she ordered.
HEBEI
Charity schooling
A villager in Tangshan city's Luannan county has been teaching and caring for disabled children for free for almost a decade now, Ecns.cn reports. Gao Shuzhen, 57, whose son is disabled, set up a "home school" for him so he would not grow up illiterate, she said. She gradually began inviting other disabled children in neighbouring villages to attend her home school, and has since 1998 educated many of them free of charge. Gao gets by by cultivating land and going door to door selling small items such as socks and bars of soap.
Crazed crocs sent to zoo
A crocodile breeder in Shijiazhuang has had to give up his pets to the zoo after they attacked people, the Shijiazhuang Daily reports. The man, surnamed Ding, bought the reptiles at a fair four years ago when they were just 30cm long. But they ate a lot and quickly grew to a metre long, and began exhibiting aggressive behaviour, he said.
HUNAN
Fired over red carpet
A local official has been sacked after she used a red carpet at a tree-planting event, Xinhua reports. Tang Mei'e, district boss of Yongzhou city's All-China Women's Federation, was removed from her post this week after photos went viral of people walking on a red carpet on a mountain slope at the event. Internet users said using the carpet was too ostentatious, but the event organisers said it was laid to make walking on slippery mountain slope safer and easier.
Tower built in 19 days
A 57-storey skyscraper in Changsha was built in less than 20 days, People's Daily Online reports. Construction workers worked in day and night shifts to erect the Mini Sky City - which comprises 800 homes and working space for 4,000 people - in just 19 days, and a time-lapse video of the building process has gone viral online. Some people said such speed was the "new normal" while others said Chinese construction works lacked quality although they were completed in record time.
SHANGHAI
Sino-US symphony
High school pupils from China and the United States have come together to stage a concert at the Shanghai Symphony Hall, China Network Television reports. The performance by about 400 pupils marked the first cultural exchange of its kind between young people from the two countries and drew more than 1,000 viewers. The focal piece of the night combined a local ballad from Qingpu district with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Spiralling wonders
A series of striking spiral escalators in the newly built Shanghai New World Daimaru Department Store has wowed the city's shopping crowd, Ecns.cn reports. The 12 escalators, which serve six floors of the newly opened shopping centre, are designed to give people the impression of gliding through the mall.
SICHUAN
Ancient tree dying
Botanists have convened in Xichang to discuss treatment for a dying 2,000-year-old cypress tree, the Chengdu Economic Daily reports. The 12-metre-tall tree, located in a temple near the scenic Qiong sea, has had three emergency treatments since 2010 but showed little improvement.
Desperate man's death bid
A 61-year-old man in Dazhou city's Dachuan district tried to take his own life by jumping into a river last week after he discovered that his mobile phone and 2,000 yuan cash had been stolen in a train ride to Chongqing , the Western China City Daily reports. He was rescued by two passers-by who hauled him ashore. Police said the man was now in a stable condition.
