CONTACT US AT: 8351-9427, CLAUDIAMENTE@HOTMAIL.COM

Tuesday March 13, 201802 x SHENZHEN

At a Glance

In-fl ight injuryA WOMAN surnamed Li was paralyzed from the waist down when a suitcase slipping out of another female traveler’s hand hit her while the plane was taxiing on the runway Sunday when Li was fl ying to Shenzhen from Beijing.

The airline’s ground ser-vice took Li to Bao’an Central Hospital for treatment and promised to cover the cost.

The troublemaker refused to pay the cost. According to the rules of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, passengers would be fi ned 500-10,000 yuan (US$79-1,579) for leaving their seats as a fl ight descends, ascends or while it is taxiing, and airlines will be held liable for injuries caused to passengers while in fl ight.Fake drugA MAN in Nanshan has been sentenced to fi ve months in jail for dealing drugs, despite the drug in question later being confi rmed as fake.TCM theme parkSHENZHEN will build a park themed on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the near future, according to a three-year action plan aimed to promote TCM in the city.

AS demand for rental apart-ments increased after the Spring Festival, the rents for apartments in Futian and Nanshan districts have been soaring, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

According to the report, the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment in the Zhuguang area, which is close to High-tech Park in Nanshan District, is above 4,500 yuan (US$709) per month, up 5 percent compared to a month ago.

Apartments in Zhuguang Village are even more sought-after, with the rents soaring by 10 to 25 percent. Almost all of the rental apartments in the village have already been leased.

“Many residential buildings in Baishizhou have been demol-ished for the renovation project. As a result, lots of tenants moved to Zhuguang Village,” said a landlord in the village. “The average rent of a two-bedroom apartment was 2,600 yuan per month before the Spring Fes-tival, now the monthly rent is above 3,000 yuan.”

Xiasha is another area where the supply of rental apartments couldn’t meet the demand because of the renovation project in its neighboring Shangsha area. A resident, surnamed Huang, has lived in Xiasha since 2003. She said the average rent in Xiasha is especially high this year after many tenants moved to Xiasha from Shangsha.

According to Homelink Real Estate’s research institute in Shenzhen, a one-bedroom apartment is favored by many young white-collar workers who prefer living alone to shar-ing an apartment with others, which has driven up the rents of one-bedroom apartments in downtown areas.

The monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment in Kaifeng Garden in the Meilin area was 3,366 yuan before the Spring Festival and it has soared by 9.3 percent to 3,800 yuan since the holiday.

The average rent of apart-ments in Futian District was 98.85 yuan per square meter per month in February, the highest among all districts. It was fol-lowed by Nanshan District, with an average rent of 96.58 yuan, and Luohu District, where the average rent was 78.77 yuan.

Xiao Xiaoping, head of Homelink Real Estate’s research institute in Shenzhen, said the fl uctuation of rents is mainly infl uenced by the supply and demand of rental apartments in the market. Statistics from Midland Realty show that the rents in Shenzhen will continue to grow this month.

(Zhang Yang)

Demand for rental fl ats drives up rents

SHENZHEN’S consumer price index (CPI) in February rose 3.7 percent compared with the same period last year, reaching its highest mark in the past two years, the Shenzhen survey offi ce of the National Statistics Bureau said.

February’s CPI was up 2.1 percent over January’s. The price rise was mainly driven by consumption during the Spring Festival holiday period.

“Food prices in February grew by 7.2 percent compared to January, and the prices of nonfood goods increased by 0.9 percent, while the prices of consumer products and service

items went up by 2.3 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, compared to those in January,” said Wu Jianming, spokesman of the survey offi ce.

The prices of some aquatic products, like crab and shrimp, increased by 30.2 percent, and the prices of fresh-water fi sh and seawater fi sh increased by 18.2 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively, during the Spring Festival holiday, compared to prices in January.

The price of pork increased by 8.5 percent, and due to the cold snaps that affected Shenzhen during the holidays, the price of fresh vegetables

increased by 21.2 percent.Some travelers who spent

the Spring Festival holiday in Shenzhen were surprised by the prices in the city.

“I know Shenzhen is expen-sive, but I was still surprised when I saw the prices,” a woman surnamed Lin said, recalling her experience purchasing food on the Chinese New Year’s Eve.

The shortage of housekeep-ers and other service industry employees in February also caused prices in the industry to rise, according to Wu.

“We have to pay higher salaries to those who stay to work during the Spring Festival period,” said

a businessman, surnamed Li, who operates a car maintenance shop in Futian District, adding that most of the revenue from price hikes went toward the employees’ extra pay.

Statistics show the price of car maintenance and repair increased by 28.5 percent in February over January. The price for housekeeping services increased by 16.6 percent.

Fares for long-distance buses also increased by 43 percent over January, as operators implemented a Spring Festival holiday fee standard Feb. 1, the start of the Spring Festival trans-port season. (Han Ximin)

Feb. CPI up 3.7%, hitting 2-year high

THE cross-border health-care business is taking shape in Shenzhen as many patients are willing to travel abroad to get medical treatment, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

Tang Chen, 34, traveled to South Korea to get stem cell treatment after he was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. His left knee was injured while doing outdoor sports in 2016 and the injury developed into osteoarthritis despite receiving medical treat-ment at several hospitals.

Statistics show that there are over 100 million osteoarthritis patients in China, and the dis-ability rate of the disease is up to 50 percent.

Tang lost his job as an elec-tronics engineer because of the

disease. According to Tang, he could choose to inject sodium hyaluronate or a steroid into his joint every year, but such therapy is merely palliative.

He could also choose to implant an artifi cial joint, but the 10-kilogram artifi cial joint would bring inconvenience to his daily life and he might lose the opportunity to accept a new therapy in the future if his origi-nal joint were removed.

When the stem cell therapy for arthritis was approved by the government in South Korea in 2012, such a therapy was only available for clinical trials in China and only a few patients could be chosen to volunteer to receive the therapy.

Knowing that he had little

chance of getting the stem cell therapy in China, Tang decided to seek treatment in South Korea. A cross-border health-care agency in Shenzhen helped Tang reor-ganize and translate his medical records, get a remote diagnosis from South Korean doctors and arrange his trip to South Korea for the therapy.

The cartilage in Tang’s knee recovered well after three months of therapy. “I will have a new knee soon,” he said excit-edly.

Li Juan, a 47-year-old who was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer, also got a remote diag-nosis from doctors at the Massa-chusetts General Hospital in the United States. She felt helpless after visiting many hospitals

in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing as most doctors sug-gested she undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

After the remote diagnosis, doctors from the United States made a fi ve-year disease surveil-lance plan for Li and suggested that she take medicine to alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy. The doctors also said she could consider receiving immunother-apy in the future if needed.

Wang Junyu, chairman of a Shenzhen-based cross-border health-care agency, said patients don’t necessarily have to go abroad to receive treatment if the treatment plans offered by doctors in China are approved by doctors overseas. (Zhang Yang)

Cross-border health-care business taking shape in SZ

THE average monthly salary of white-collar workers in Shenzhen came in third among 50 cities in China for the fi rst two months of this year, according to a report by recruitment website zhipin.com, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

Among the 50 cities that have the largest demand for talents, the average monthly salary of

white-collar workers is 8,730 yuan (US$1,378), an increase of 2.9 percent year on year.

Beijing and Shanghai led the chart with average monthly salaries surpassing 10,000 yuan, followed by Shenzhen at 9,738 yuan. Guangzhou ranked fi fth with 7,862 yuan. Seven cities in Guangdong Province have made it onto the list.

The report said 45.1 percent of people surveyed were consider-ing switching jobs, up 7 percent compared with fi ve years ago. The Internet, educational train-ing and medical sectors were their top three choices.

Internet, fi nance and profes-sional services remain the high-est-paying industries.

(Zhang Yu)

SZ has 3rd highest salary nationwide

Government employees with Gongming Subdistrict Offi ce in Guangming New Area plant trees along Bahang Boulevard yesterday. More than 130 civil servants participated in the tree-planting activity, and 500 trees were planted. Chen Ximin

500 trees planted