IN BRIEF

World's top city for new energy vehicles

Shanghai currently has 100,000 new energy vehicles, making it the world's top city in terms of the number of such automobiles, according to the city's latest transportation development report. There are nearly 3.6 million registered vehicles in Shanghai as of the end of last year, an 8 percent year-on-year increase from the previous year. The report also stated that there are 2,600 public parking lots and about 570,000 parking spaces, a 20 percent annual increase.

US child model earns more than 1,000 yuan per hour

A five-year-old girl named Orly from New York became a child model in Shanghai a year ago and is today commanding an hourly rate of more than 1,000 yuan ($150), according to Chinanews.com. Orly is one of the more than 400 foreign and mixed race children models who work with an agent named Flower. Western child models are rare in China and many local businesses like using them to front advertisements, with the average cost of hiring a foreign child model ranging between 1,000 and 1,500 yuan per hour.

Majority of children attend enrichment classes

Nearly 60 percent of the city's children aged between 0 and 6 have attended a variety of enrichment courses and more than 70 percent of those aged from 4 to 6 receive early education to prepare for primary school, according to a report on Shanghai's childhood education. On average, children attend more than two hours of enrichment activities every week, with families spending 17,832 yuan per annum, added the report. Unsatisfied with the curriculum at kindergartens, 59.3 percent of parents send their children to at least two enrichment lessons per week. The most popular courses are art, dancing, music and calligraphy.

British schools to use Shanghai math books

Starting in September, some primary schools in Britain will use Real Shanghai Maths, the same set of 36 mathematics books that are being used in Shanghai primary schools, ThePaper.cn reported. This will be the first time a complete set of Chinese primary school books are used in developed countries. According to the agreement signed at the London Book Fair in March between HarperCollins Publishers and Shanghai Century Publishing Group, the former will translate the math textbooks from Chinese into English.

Tsinghua and Peking universities among world's top 100

A total of 45 universities from the Chinese mainland and 12 universities from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were ranked among the world's top 500 universities by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). Tsinghua University has for the first time entered the top 50 list with a ranking of 48, with Peking University coming in at the 71st place. Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Zhejiang University are the four Chinese universities ranked between 101 and 150. ARWU, also known as Shanghai Ranking, is an annual publication of university rankings by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. It is regarded as one of the four most influential university rankings in the world.

A sanctuary for bored husbands in malls

Malls in Shanghai have introduced "husband storage" facilities to keep husbands and boyfriends entertained while their significant others go shopping. By scanning a QR code provided by Koubei, a local commerce platform, men get access to free massage armchairs, snacks, drinks and Wi-Fi connection in selected shopping centers across the city. Another shopping complex Global Harbor previously unveiled glass booths with chairs and PC gaming setups to entice bored shopping companions.