Biz Scene: BIZ UNUSUAL

Carnivore's delight

The second Shanghai Internati

onal Meat Industry Exhibition is under way at the Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center in Shanghai.

But it's not just an industry forum - thousands of consumers are sampling products at the three-day event, which began on Tuesday.

More than 120 companies including importers and exporters, wholesalers and retailers are participating in the event.

Support site

A website for students who don't finish school is getting over 400 hits a day, and earning its founder up to 8,000 yuan a month. The website (www.tuixue.cn), was set up by a 25-year-old nicknamed Roma. In Chinese, tuixue means "to drop out of college".

Roma was studying at a maritime university in Northeast China, but dropped out because he wasn't interested in his major and failed many classes.

He said he set up the website to provide a community forum and information for students who drop out of school.

Climate control

An inventor from Southwest China's Sichuan Province has come up with a solution for being too hot or too cold in bed at night.

Huang Bin, 42, has invented a mattress with a semi-conductor panel inside that allows temperature control ranging between 18C and 50C.

It runs on a battery that lasts three to five hours after being charged.

Huang has a patent on his invention and has received investment offers from more than 20 local mattress manufacturers.

Top tutor

The parents of a senior high school student in Cangzhou, in North China's Hebei Province, are advertising for a private tutor - and they're offering 200,000 yuan a year.

The boy's parents said they are anxious to find a tutor who can help their son get into a good university.

Applicants for the tutor job must be graduates of top universities and have gained a high score in their national college entrance exam.

The tutor is expected to accompany their son 24 hours a day for a year, and will earn the high salary if he makes the cut at a good university.

A dozen college graduates have applied for the job since the ad was posted online a month ago.

(China Daily 08/23/2007 page15)