Every day Li Yizhong translates and puts into brief perspective the headlines of the Shanghai Morning Post's daily newspaper, Shanghai's largest morning newspaper

Top Story

Zhang Lin’s gold medal was like a lightning bolt heading directly for the hearts of every Chinese. Well, we have just gone from 100 to zero in three days. Saturday of the same week, four Chinese women won the women’s four by hundred meters medley relay gold medal by breaking another world record in Rome, Italy. Aside from their pictures on the front page, if you want to find their story in the paper, you will have to go through Shanghai's professional soccer and the new sports favorite – Zhang Lin – first. Actually, I couldn't find their story in the paper today. The reference number on the right didn't give a specific paper number just said sports section.

Other Headlines Today

• Usage rights for apartments on the brinks of Shanghai have been the newest hot selling product on the property market. Selling for two hundred thousand RMB, you can use a 60 square-meters apartment for 30 thirty years. Many people are dipping their toes in this new product expecting a rent increase in the area, because nobody is sure if trading the usage rights is feasible in Shanghai.

• With so many rainy days, I am wondering if something happened to the sun during the last eclipse. I guess so, because we will continue to see the rainy weather heading into next week. The paper says it will get better after Wednesday but still no clear skies. But if you had your share of weather forecasts, making things a bit worse than what you hear brings us closer to what actually happens.
  

• What is up with the government holding these Dangan or your personal file that contains the key to your future? Imagine someone kept your passport or social security card. The most amazing thing is that this system still exists today. Why do anyone has the reason to trust someone they haven’t even met to keep they personal information and records? They don’t and shouldn’t. Lately, government officials who have been trusted with this critical duty has been exposed to have betrayed people’s trust. Innocent people found themselves wasting years of life so someone with a similar name but a more powerful parent can have a good life.