Air quality

    SHENZHEN ranked fifth among 74 Chinese cities in air quality over the first two months of the year, sources from the Ministry of Environmental Protection showed.

    Haikou, Zhoushan, Lhasa and Fuzhou ranked in the top four and Shenzhen was followed by Huizhou, Lishui, Kunming, Xiamen and Taizhou.

    Six of the 10 cities with the worst air quality were in Hebei Province including Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Handan and Baoding.

    Capsule rooms

    A MAN was detained for three days and fined 500 yuan (US$72.7) by Futian police for illegally running a hotel that failed to meet firefighting standards.

    The man, Zhang, had renovated his 120-sqm apartment into 30 capsule rooms with beds for sleeping. Zhang charged 58 yuan a day for a bed.

    Xiangmihu police officers found this suspicious apartment in a check last week and closed the business.

    Holiday rush

    HUANGGANG and Futian checkpoints will open as many inspection lanes as possible to handle the surge of holidaymakers during the Qingming Festival holiday that will fall between Sunday and Tuesday.

    The checkpoints suggest that travelers stagger their departure times and avoid the rush hour periods between 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

    Car plate auction

    THE average auction price for car plates reached 42,023 yuan, the latest round of auctions Monday showed.

    The city provided 2,938 plates to individuals in the auction. In addition, more than 650,000 residents applied for the 2,934 plates through the lottery.