City achieves flight travel milestone

Shanghai welcomed its 100 millionth flight passenger in December, making it the fifth city in the world to do so, following London, New York, Atlanta and Tokyo. Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao International Airport accounted for 11 percent of passengers among all the airports in China in 2015. With airport infrastructure upgrades and growing air traffic demand, Shanghai's two airports are expected to handle more than 120 million passengers annually by 2020, according to the Shanghai Airport Authority.

Hourly wage to spike

during festive season

Short-term wages will soar from 20 yuan ($2.88) per hour to as high as 30 yuan during the coming six weeks as the Chinese Spring Festival approaches, reported local paper Jiefang Daily. As of December 2016, Shanghai is ranked first in the nation for minimum monthly salaries (2,190 yuan), while Shenzhen and Tianjin follow with 2,030 yuan and 1,950 yuan respectively, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

In terms of hourly minimum wages, Beijing offers the highest at 21 yuan per hour, followed by Tianjin (19.5 yuan) and Shanghai (19 yuan). The lowest monthly wage is 1,270 yuan in Qinghai province and the lowest hourly pay is 12.6 yuan in Hainan province.

Hectic lifestyle

affects dinner times

As many as 23 percent of the city's two-income families are not able to have dinner with their family members due to work commitments or long commuting times.

According to a survey conducted by Labor Daily, 54 percent of the 1,057 working family members polled do not have time for cooking while nearly 42 percent of them consume dinner only after 7 pm. The research also found that nutrition (82 percent), taste (75 percent), food safety (61 percent) and emotional communication (38 percent) are the main considerations during dinner time.

Phone fraud

suspects prosecuted

Thirty four suspects have been prosecuted for telecommunications fraud in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, according to Eastday.com. In October 2015, Chinese police arrested 73 people in Indonesia suspected to be involved in a phone fraud ring that also comprised 34 other suspects from the Chinese provinces of Fujian, Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. During the period between April and October 2015, nearly 130 people nationwide fell prey to this fraud, losing a combined total of more than 3 million yuan.

Steel sheets kill four

Four workers were found to have been suffocated to death by fallen stainless steel sheets at a steel company in Putuo district. According to a man surnamed Zhou, the owner of a convenience store located beside the company, he heard cries for help at 9 am and had rushed out to find the workers pinned down by the steel sheets which each weighed about 40 kilograms. It took 20 minutes to rescue the trapped workers.

(China Daily USA 12/30/2016 page7)