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China News by Numbers: 18.99M over 80 years old

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-14 11:26

15% up

The vegetable price in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, rose by 15 percent, compared with the previous week, due to the continuous rainfall and flooding, the Wuhan Morning News reported on Wednesday, July 14, 2010.

37 dead

Rain-triggered landslides have left 37 people dead and 37 missing in China's Yunnan, Sichuan and Hunan provinces by Tuesday, local authorities said.

12 yuan per kilogram

Fishermen received compensation from the government after pollution from the Zijinshan Copper Mine contaminated the Tingjiang River, a major waterway in East China's Fujian province. The local government bought the fish at 12 yuan a kilogram and the fish fry at 24 yuan a kilogram. However, fish keepers said they were still losing money.

155,000 yuan ($22,800)

Five companies in Shanxing, East China's Zhejiang province, raised 155,000 yuan to buy a speedboat and presented it as a gift to the local government for environmental supervision. One contributor explained that "most companies abide by the law, but there are black sheep that stealthily released polluted water, and we don't want to become a scapegoat.”

19,000 yuan

Tan Yuanheng, a professor in the Guangzhou-based South China University of Technology, was fined 19,000 yuan for plagiarism. The plaintiff Shan Dongxun, a researcher with Institute of History of the Guangdong Province Academy of Social Sciences, accused Tan of using 750,000 Chinese characters from his book about the use of germ warfare by the invading Japanese during World War II, without giving any credit. The local court also asked Tan to make a public apology to Shan.

92%

A survey of 3,106 Internet users found that 92.6 percent want to have part-time jobs, and the top three reasons are to make extra money, accumulate work experience and expand networking and study new knowledge, the China Youth Daily reported.

18.99 million

The number of people over 80 years old in China reached 18.99 million by 2009, and it is still increasing by one million each year, according to a report released by China National Committee on Aging.

Down 0.3 percent

China’s summer grain output hits 123 million tons, less than 390,000 tons than last year or a drop of 0.3 percent, according to National Bureau of Statistics of China. This marked the first time in seven years that China saw a drop of summer grain output.

10 million

Over 10 million people in South China's Guangdong province, one of the most developed regions in the country, face the threat of stony deserts and desertification, Southern Rural News reported.