Society

Shanghai is still in its amazing developing speed.

As the key goal in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) for Shanghai, the city will focus on the urban planning of suburbs in seven new satellite cities and on developing links with neighboring cities in the Yangtze River Delta.

The municipal city held a news conference on Monday to announce a long-term plan to move development from the downtown area to the suburbs.

"The development of new cities in the suburban area will help Shanghai to become an international city with a well-balanced urban and rural development system and to lead the upgrading restructure of the Yangtze River Delta," said Hu Jun, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Planning, Land and Resources Administration.

According to the plan, the seven new cities, including Lingang New City in Pudong New Area, Qingpu New City and Jinshan New City, will be developed to be the main industrial bases for advanced manufacturing, emerging industries and the modern services industry.

"The construction of those bases will be done in cooperation with neighboring industrial regions such as Kunshan and Suzhou by making Shanghai the center of Yangtze River Delta development," said Hu.

China's second east-west natural gas pipeline went into operation on Thursday.

The pipeline, connecting central Asia and China, will send natural gas from Turkmenistan to South China's Pearl River Delta after passing through 15 of the country's provinces.

The pipeline is the world's longest, with a total length of 8,700 km. The pipeline was built with 142.2 billion yuan ($21.98 billion) in investments.

China's top legislature on Thursday adopted an amendment to individual income tax law, which raises the monthly tax exemption threshold from 2,000 yuan ($307.7) to 3,500 yuan($538.5).

The adjusted threshold is 500 yuan greater than the amount originally proposed in a previous draft of the amendment, which was submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on Monday for its second reading.

The new exemption threshold was agreed upon after the legislature held two meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to listen to its members' opinions. It was during these meetings that the NPC's Law Committee proposed raising the threshold to 3,500 yuan.

The amendment was "necessary and timely" and will reduce tax burdens for people with low incomes, as well as help to adjust the distribution of income, according to the committee's proposal.

China’s Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, the world’s longest cross-sea bridge, linking the eastern port city of Qingdao and the offshore island Huangdao, opens on June 30, 2011.

China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge.