Two interesting Xinhuanet English articles came to me today through my Google Alert on "Putuo", the name of the Shanghai district in which I live.

<q><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/24/content_2993672.htm" title="Xinhuanet English News">Shanghai real estate prices cooled off in April</a></q> tells me that:

<quote>Last week, seven key ministries and government authorities including the People's Bank of China and Ministry of Construction announced what seemed to be the most stringent measures to stabilize property prices.

According to the measures, property owners who sell within two years of purchase will have to pay tax on the full sale price, effective from June 1. The central government did not specify the level of the tax but it is generally believed to be about 5 per cent.

The rule is more stringent than the Shanghai government's policy issued in March.  The municipal government imposed a capital gain tax on properties sold within 12 months. The 5.5 per cent tax comprises a 5 per cent tax on the difference between the purchase and the sale price, and a 0.5 per cent construction tax. </quote>

The big five percent tax was a headline in the Shidai Bao a couple days ago.  As a quote later in the article opines, this does seem like it could be a turning point in the Shanghai real estate market.  It's exciting to see government regulation having a real, positive effect on the overjubilant property speculation happening here.  But then again, I may just be interested in this because I'm reading Lardy right now, so I have macroeconomics on the brain.  Regardless, the quantity of information and analysis in this article is pretty impressive.  I recommend it.

A little more frivolous is <q><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-05/23/content_2990481.htm" title="Xinhuanet English News">Parking a headache for school campuses</a></q>, which mentions the East China Normal University, a university that is right down the street from my house:

<quote>East China Normal University in downtown Putuo District tells student drivers to park their cars in a supermarket parking lot beside the school gate.

Drivers have to pay the supermarket 10 to 15 yuan to park for the day, students said. </quote>

I know what parking lot they're talking about, and I can confirm that it's tiny.  Still, I'm surprised that they have students driving to school there.  I guess it makes sense when you live in a city with some of the top universities in China, and also some of the highest average incomes.  What gets me, though, is this quote:

<quote>Officials at Tongji and Jiao Tong universities, however, said that students should be entitled to the same benefits as teachers, especially as cars become more popular.</quote>

Huh?  Teachers at my high school had a separate lot (that, granted, often filled up, though I always managed to find a spot), and professors at Caltech had personal spaces with their names printed on the parking space headstones.  What do they mean by "same benefits"?  Are attitudes of student-teacher equality from the GPCR still around?

--As an aside to these two articles, it's both nice and annoying to live in a city that plays host to so many international reporters.  One the one hand, so many articles about "China" are really about Shanghai, so if you read them that way then they are a great source of local news.  On the other hand, it's easy to realize how misperceptions about China are caused by myopic reporters who don't leave the City to get a better sense of the larger, national picture.