China imported its first mobile phone telecommunication facilities in 1987 and it took a decade for the number of subscribers to reach 10 million. Four years later, the country had the largest population of mobile phone subscribers in the world.

Financial Center Ambition Still Alive

A bill to be submitted to the full session of the National People's Congress this March is set to refute claims that Shanghai has dropped its international financial center ambitions.

The bill will call on China's top legislature to grant special lawmaking powers to Shanghai to support development of the local finance industry.

"Special legislation for Shanghai's international financial center status has become a concern," said Zhu Ronglin, a professor at the East China Normal University.

Last December, Shanghai announced its 11th Five-Year Plan for building an international financial center.

Premier Wen Jiabao also urged pushing forward Shanghai's international financial center program at a national conference in January.

Costly Pollution

Environmental pollution cost China's capital Beijing over 11.6 billion yuan in economic losses in 2004, amounting to 1.92 percent of the city's gross domestic product (GDP), according to a government report.

"Of all, air pollution accounted for more than 81 percent of the total losses," said Du Shaozhong, Deputy Director and Spokesman of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.

It's the first time Beijing has issued a report of its "green GDP," which is calculated by subtracting economic losses incurred by pollution from GDP.

Beijing is among the first batch of cities to pilot the green GDP calculation, after the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) announced the national figure last September.

According to SEPA statistics, environmental pollution caused China 511.8 billion yuan in economic losses in 2004, which amounted to 3.05 percent of national GDP that year.

Since 1998, Beijing has invested over 119.2 billion yuan in environmental protection.