From our archives

Feb 21, 1984

Capital made a computer center

The State Council has designated Beijing as a computer research and production center in northern China.

The capital has set up a municipal computer industry corporation, which heads the 50 research and production units in the city area. In 1983 they produced about 1,860 electronic computers of various kinds and 920,000 calculators, with a combined output value of over 300 million yuan.

Beijing has technical forces of more than 33,000 in computer research and production.

Rural home building booms

China's building materials industry is gearing up for the rural home-building boom, is which expected to last to the end of this century, according to the Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection.

The rural home-building boom started in 1980 when farmers' incomes began to rise following the implementation of the contract-responsibility system.

Over the past three years, housing construction grew at an annual rate of 600 million sq m of floor space compared to some 100 million sq m a few years ago. The figure soared to 830 million sq m of floor space in 1983.

Families hire housekeepers to help out

The Housework Service Company of Beijing's Chaoyang district has found jobs for 145 young girls as housekeepers in private families throughout the city.

Li Gangzhong, chairman of the Beijing Women's Association, said the girls all came from Miyun county of Beijing. The county has about 40,000 surplus laborers.

The lowest wage of a housekeeper is 20 yuan a month plus board and lodging.

The housekeepers get two days off a month and one day for study in the company headquarters.

(China Daily 02/20/2009 page9)