Beijing, Shanghai increase salaries

Despite the severest economic crisis in decades, Beijing and Shanghai continued to significantly increase workers' salaries last year, according to official statistics.

In Beijing, workers earned on an average 44,715 yuan ($6,570) last year, 4,848 yuan more, or a 12 percent increase, than in 2007, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

In Shanghai, the average monthly salary last year was 3,292 yuan, a 400-yuan, or 13.8-percent, jump from 2007, according to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau.