Society

At the end of March 2010, a 78-year old man, Huang Rixin, built a cell apartment (smaller than 2 sqm) for graduates.

Now the first resident, 25-year lady, Zhang Qi moved in after one day trial period.

Ten parents converged on Beijing from various provinces in the hopes of finding clues to the whereabouts of their missing children.

The parents, who hail from provinces such as Hebei, Guangdong and Shaanxi, met through websites such as baobeihuijia.com (which means "baby comes back home"), which include postings for missing children.

"Most of us have traveled many places around China in the past few years, and Beijing is one of the stops," said Wu Xinghu, 31, a father from Pucheng county of Shaanxi province.

The group has been in the capital for about a week and has appeared near large intersections to garner attention for their mission.

The restriction on car use in the national capital will be extended for another two years starting April 11, as traffic jams are still one of the city's most serious problems, the municipal government announced on Friday.

The restriction, which will be extended until April 10, 2012, will continue to follow the pattern as before, under which Beijing's car owners are prohibited from driving one day each week based on the last digit of their license plates.

According to statistics from the Beijing Transportation Research Center, until the end of last year, the streets of Beijing, with a population of 17.55 million, were packed with more than 4 million vehicles.

So-called job hotels, low-rent apartments for job hunters, are proving extremely popular as the recruitment season in Beijing heats up.

In a city where the monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment within the Fourth Ring Road averages more than 2,000 yuan, this price is really tempting, especially for those, who have just left college and are still searching for a job.

The units for rent are usually beds instead of rooms. The daily rent for one bed in the downtown area is no more than 30 yuan, while the lowest is only 15 yuan.