China's infant mortality rate dropped to 9.5 per thousand in 2013 thanks to an improved healthcare system, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figure has continued to decline in recent years compared to 12.1 per thousand in 2011 and 29.2 per thousand in 2002, said the NBS.

The mortality rate of children under 5 has also continued to drop to 12 per thousand, down from 34.9 per thousand in 2002 and 15.6 per thousand in 2011.

The NBS data also revealed that both the infant mortality rate and the mortality rate of children under 5 were higher in rural areas than in cities in 2013, reaching 11.3 per thousand and 14.5 per thousand, respectively.

Online Population

China's netizen population, the world's largest, had reached 649 million by the end of 2014, driven by the popularity of Internet surfing on smartphones.

The number of people accessing the Internet from mobile devices totaled 557 million at the end of last year, up 56.72 million year on year and accounting for 85.8 percent of the total online population, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

According to the CNNIC, there were 31.17 million new Internet users in China last year, a relatively small increase compared to the 53.58 million users added in 2013.

Liu Bing, the center's deputy director, attributed the decline in new netizens to the widened digital divide between rural and urban areas.

In 2014, Chinese netizens spent an average of 26.1 hours online per week, just over an hour more than in 2013, according to the report.

Undersea Discovery

China's deep-submergence vehicle Jiaolong has discovered a huge hydrothermal vent 20 meters tall and 2 meters wide in a hydrothermal area of southwestern Indian Ocean.

"Deep sea vents as huge as this one are rarely seen," said Shao Zongze, a researcher with the Third Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration who was aboard the sub.

Hydrothermal vents often contain seabed deposits of copper, zinc and precious metals such as gold and silver. Those metals form sulfides after undergoing chemical reactions in high heat and high pressure around the vent, eventually settling and solidifying into a characteristic "chimney."

Jiaolong found hints of a new active chimney vent on February 2 north of a hydrothermal area called Dragon Flag, which was the first hydrothermal area Chinese scientists discovered in 2007, according to Shao.

Jiaolong is on a 120-day expedition in southwest Indian Ocean.

UNESCO Bid

Shanghai has planned to apply for a local neighborhood that sheltered Jewish refugees during World War II (WWII) to be inscribed on the Memory of the World Register of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Xinhua News Agency reported.

Shanghai accommodated about 20,000 Jewish refugees fleeing from Nazi persecution during WWII. Many of them lived in the Tilanqiao area of Shanghai's Hongkou District.

The city has completed the collation of the refugee list, data bank; and of literary, video and audio material, said Chen Jian, Curator of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum that is working with the Hongkou District Government on the application.