Shanghai Daily news

Despite a decline in trading in the second-hand housing market in Shanghai during the Spring Festival, prices still rose 1.4 percent last month.
The benchmark index for the second-hand housing prices rose to 1,273 points in January, compared with a 1.5 percent gain in December, the Shanghai Existing Property Index Office reported yesterday.
"The Spring Festival saw lackluster trading, which curbed the market's overall growth rate," said Huang Weiwei, secretary general of the Shanghai Existing Property Index Office.
However, second-hand apartments in the city's suburbs maintained a price hike due to demand from common salary owners, the office noted.
The performance of the pre-owned apartments in Taopu area, Putuo District, topped in Shanghai by surging 4 percent last month.
The housing prices in the area gained 173 yuan (US$20.8) in merely one month to 4,459 yuan per square meter.
The apartments in Huajing, Xuhui District, and Zhenbei, Putuo District,  also achieved a monthly increase of more than 3 percent.
"Some people are betting on the metro lines and tunnel construction," said Huang. "That helps improve the convenience of living in the suburban areas and drive up the housing prices there."
For the whole year, the office forecasts that the rise in the existing housing prices will slow down, after running at "rather high levels" for more than two years.