Trending across China

Increasing land prices expected to drive up housing costs in large cities. Debate over GM food takes Chinese to the US. And Christmas Eve haze could have left Santa in a daze - it's all trending across China.

High land price

Land-transferring fees increased sharply in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the year 2013, with the total sum of money exceeding 500 billion yuan ($82.35 billion), latest statistics of Centraline Group showed.

Experts said the increasing land price would drive up housing prices in large cities in the coming year.

Related: Land price in major cities hits 45-month high

Recruitment corruption

Independent recruitment of students created rent-seeking opportunities for college admissions officers. The amount of a bribe depends on the gap between a student’s score and the entry ore of the college, and the average amount is 100,000 ($16,471) for each student, media said.

Renmin University of China this year suspended independent recruitment of students, after Cai Rongsheng, head of the university’s admissions office, was investigated for bribery taking.

Related: Top universities face exams for corruption

Hooves of prosperity

This year the most popular Christmas gift in China is mashang youqian, which literally means "getting rich immediately." Some 1.8 million netizens showed pictures of toy horses carrying Renminbi.

The year of horse is just one month away, and mashang (means very soon) is a homophone for "on the horseback."

Related:

Chinese cherish culture over business at Christmas

In photos: New coin to welcome Year of the Horse

Insider: infant deaths are coincidences

Producers said the death of babies after hepatitis B vaccine injections were mere coincidences. Seven infant deaths were reported since November after injecting the hepatitis B vaccine produced by the same company, the Shenzhen-based Biokangtai.

The expert said there had been 28 injection-deaths from 2009 to 2011 in Guangdong province, most were coincidences.

Related: Two babies dead after hepatitis B vaccination

University VP detained

Chu Jian, vice president of the prestigious Zhejiang University, was detained for investigation into a fraud case, China Youth Daily reported.

Chu was investigated for his role in tunneling, or stripping assets from a university-affiliated company. Once a rising academic star, Chu was nominated for the Chinese Academy of Engineering more than once for his expertise at control systems.

Chu came to office in the university, located in East China's affluent Zhejiang province, in 2005 and was in charge of human resourses, logistics and university-affiliated companies.

Related：Renmin University of China official faces probe

GM food investigation

Well-known talk show anchor Cui Yongyuan went to United States to investigate the public’s opinion on genetically modified food. The trip did not change Cui’s attitude against GM food.

However, Beijing based media Economic Weekly sent reporters to the US and carried out their own investigation. They came to the opposite conclusion that GM food is considered safe among US farmers and consumers.

Related: Eating event adds spice to GM food debate

4G packages too expensive

Netizens complain that the cellular packages of China Mobile were too expensive for ordinary users and some said the 50-yuan ($8.23) package would be used up in six seconds.

In Beijing, there are three 4G packages available: 138 yuan for 600 M net flow, and 238 yuan and 338 yuan for more frequent Internet usage.

Related: China Mobile to debut 4G services

Christmas Eve haze

Pollution haze hovers over 16 major cities on Christmas Eve, and netizens joked that Santa would get lost passing through the sky.

The haze-hit region included eight provinces in North China and East China. In 16 cities the air-quality index to measure PM2.5 concentration was above 300.

Related: Chinese cities wrapped in smog

Zou Hengfu restricted on departure

Zou Hengfu, former professor of economics at Peking University, was restricted on departure because of his allegation regarding other Peking University professors’ sex scandals.

Last August, Zou claimed in a Weibo about his former colleagues regularly sexually harassing hostesses at a restaurant. In December, Zou tried to fly to the US be was stopped by a customers officer, when he just found he had been sued in court by Peking University.

Related: Court upholds verdict for sex tape official