MANGO SEASON: A worker rearranges mangos at a fruit market in Baise, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on June 16. Baise is famous for its rich variety and high-quality mangos (WEI WANZHONG)

Highway Plan

China will invest 4.7 trillion yuan ($767 billion) in road projects by 2030, strongly boosting its domestic economy, said Dai Dongchang, chief planner of the Ministry of Transport, at a news conference on June 20.

The country will have more than 400,000 km of national roads and highways by 2030, compared with 173,000 km in 2012, he said.

A national plan for the country's road network from 2013 to 2030 was released at the conference. This plan was approved by the State Council in May.

Dai said that about 2.5 trillion yuan ($408 billion) will be allocated to highway construction, with the remainder going to non-toll roads.

So far, around 900 of the nation's 2,800 counties are not linked to national roads.

Carbon Trading

Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, launched a carbon trading scheme on June 18, the country's first market for compulsory carbon trading.

The scheme covers 635 industrial companies and some public buildings that account for about 40 percent of the city's carbon emissions, the Shenzhen carbon trade exchange said in a statement.

Under the trading program, those that emit below their quotas could sell their excess limits to other emitters and even investors for profit.

The carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon produced per unit of GDP, of the 635 industrial companies in 2015, will slump 32 percent from levels in 2010.

Eight deals, or 21,112-ton carbon quotas, were traded on the launching day at prices ranging from 28 yuan ($4.6) to 32 yuan ($5.2) per ton.

Home Price Slowdown

New home prices continued to see slower rises in Chinese cities in May.

Of a statistical pool of 70 major cities, 65 saw new home prices increase month on month in May, down from 67 cities in April, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The data show that new home prices in 34 cities saw slower month-on-month rises compared with April. Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, and Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, saw price rises narrow by at least 0.6 percentage points.

In May, prices of existing homes rose in 64 cities month on month, down from 66 cities in April, said the NBS. A total of 30 cities saw slower rises from April.

Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician with the NBS, attributed the slowing price rises to the effects of recent property tightening measures.