Shenzhen News 1-18 October 2007
- The number of people over 80 living in Shenzhen has increased from 12,000 to 15,000 this year
- Shenzhen house prices increased 17.6% in August
- Mortgage minimum downpayment for 2nd homes raised from 30 to 40%; Definition of “Second Home” unclear to all.
- Lead containing lipsticks from l’Oreal and Dior still on sale in Shenzhen.
- 12 new anti smuggling boats for Shenzhen border police.
- Over the past ten years over 50,000 fake degrees and other qualification certificates have been confiscated after being sent for verification at Shenzhen government departments.
- ATM eats man’s bank card, pays out cash to someone else, compensation claim dismissed.
- Flyover connecting highway 107 with Shenzhen airport has 6 lanes: but only temporary and due to be demolished in November to make way for an 8 lane version.
- Shenzhen’s China High Tech Fair gets 580,000 visitors
- “Shenzhen Bay Inner Lake” hosting F1 powerboat world championship, and set to be a permanent venue. The big sea inlet near Shenzhen Bay Customs referred to on F1 powerboat website as “lake Shenzhen”
- People start queueing 3am, police deployed to control crowds, for free concert tickets
- New opera house planned for Shenzhen, next to current opera house
- SZ mobile phone users plagued by scam “missed calls” with high rates + ads when you call back; China Mobile simply advises not picking up…
- SZ border with HK phases out entry cards and exit cards, and replaces them with a single card… er… except the new single card is in two sections, one for entry and one for exit. And you don’t have to fill in the exit part when you enter. Obviously the HK style carbon triplicate entry+exit form is way too high tech.
- Shenzhen to begin monitoring air pollution… next year
China
- Chinese private cash bank savings around USD 2,000,000,000,000
- About 10% of the Chinese population have stock trading accounts
- Hong Kong man steals, drinks blood while in hospital for stubbed toe after drinking session.
- per capita GDP set to quadruple by 2020
- China govt to tax IPOs at 10% to fund state pensions (worth somewhere around US$9bn in 2008)
- China’s trade surplus US$24bn in September 2007
- Japanese company in Shenyang trading in human organs
