Shanghai universities

Some of Shanghai’s universities are expected to have their walls and fences dismantled, making campus resources more accessible to the public.

“We plan to remove the wall and open the campus to the public,” said Xu Xu, secretary of the Communist Party of China committee of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, who is also a political adviser in Shanghai. Xu made the remarks at the annual meeting of the municipal committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that concluded on Saturday. The school campus is located in Fenyang Road in the city’s downtown area. There are six historical buildings on the campus, including the former Jewish club and the former Belgian Consulate in Shanghai. These old buildings shaded by green trees attract many music and history lovers.

Officials punished

A total of 90 officials in Henan Province have been punished in relation to a flood which left 398 people dead or missing in the province in July, according to discipline authorities and an investigation report released on Friday.

From July 17 to 23, floods caused by “historically rare” rainfall left heavy casualties in Henan and resulted in direct economic losses of about 120 billion yuan (US$18.9 billion). The vast majority of the casualties happened in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, though the city only suffered about one-third of the province’s economic losses, according to the investigation report by the State Council.

Maternity leave

New mothers can have an additional maternity leave ranging from 30 days to 90 days in general in 25 Chinese provincial-level regions, which have completed revising their population and family planning regulations, an official with the National Health Commission said on Thursday.

The revised regulations also added stipulations about public-benefit child care service development and interest protection for one-child families, said Yang Jinrui, an official in charge of demographic surveillance and family development. China released a decision on improving birth policies to promote long-term and balanced population development in July 2021, allowing a couple to have three children.

Anonymous donation

Wuhan University in Central China received a donation of 78 million yuan (US$12.3 million) from an anonymous alumnus last week, according to sources from the university.

The donor is a genetics graduate from Wuhan University’s College of Life Sciences. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the college. The alumnus expressed gratitude to Wuhan University and named an education fund established with the donation after the late professor Yu Xianjue, who had a profound influence on the donor, college Dean Song Baoliang said.(SD-Agencies)