Deepening focus on the city's elderly

Shanghai will be developing a more comprehensive and modern education system for its senior residents as it aims to provide a greater variety of enrichment activities for 40 percent of the city's elderly population by 2020. The 13th Five-Year Plan for elderly education development, which was released by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission on Nov 7, stated that 300 more social study locations, 100 workshop service points and an additional 10,000 online study groups will be set up to help local elderly learn new things and enhance communication among one another. As of the end of 2015, the Shanghai's elderly population, defined by those aged over 60 years old, had exceeded 4.35 million. It was the first time in the city's history that elderly people had accounted for more than 30 percent of the total population.

Major book fair to return to city

The China Shanghai Children's Book Fair, the largest cultural convention for young readers in the Asia Pacific, will take place at Shanghai's World Expo Exhibition Center from Nov 18-20. The global market for children's books has been growing by 10 per cent every year, in contrast to the sluggish performance of the book industry. The book fair has enjoyed rapid growth since its inception in 2013 and will this year feature an exhibition space that is 30 percent larger than last year. More than 300 publishers, distributors and other vendors from related sectors from around the world will be participating in the show. The event organizers expect more than 30,000 people to visit the three-day fair.

Regulations for nighttime park lighting

The municipal government of Shanghai is poised to become the first city in China to create standards regarding the illumination of parks at night. An official from the Shanghai municipal administration of landscaping and city appearance said that 89 out of the city's 165 parks are open during the day and night, with 21 of them accessible round the clock. As such, measures need to be taken to regulate the installation of lights in the parks.

Experts talk about supply chain reforms

The China-US Supply Chain and Purchasing Summit 2016 was held in Shanghai on Oct 21, with a host of experts sharing their insights into the topic of reshaping the industry as well as the supply and value chains in China. Cai Jin, deputy director of the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing, said during the opening speech that it is essential for traditional Chinese enterprises to carry out innovative development of the supply chain and solidify the reform of supply-side structural reforms in order to achieve sustainable development in the country's economy.

Teaching Chinese in Venezuela

The first Executive Council of the Venezuela Confucius Institute, which was jointly built by Changzhou University in Jiangsu province and the University of Bolivariana in Venezuela, was held recently. The institute stated during the meeting that it will be offering Chinese language classes as well as integrating the academic strengths of both universities in order to advance their industrialization of research findings on Chinese culture as well as industries such as petroleum and petrochemical. According to Shen Jufen, Chinese dean of the Venezuela Confucius Institute, the first Chinese language class is planned to commence in January 2017.