Topic 1: Apple Inc co-founder and former chief executive officer Steve Jobs died on Oct 5 at the age of 56 from pancreatic cancer. US President Barack Obama called him one of the greatest US innovators. Jobs' death aroused a massive outpouring of comments and tributes among micro-bloggers.
Topic 1:Chinese basketball star Yao Ming attended a ceremony in Shanghai on Sept 22 with British billionaire Richard Branson to call on people to stop eating shark fin soup.
Topic 1: Ever since Chinese company Xiaomi Corp announced its plan to release a 1,999 yuan ($313) smartphone to compete with industry giants such as Apple Inc on Aug 16, it has attracted much attention.
Topic 1: With the rising cost of production in China, and its lowering in the United States, many small US enterprises have started to consider moving their factories back home. The overall cost of production in China is expected to be equal to that in the US around 2015, according to the Boston Consulting Group, as cited by the official micro blog of Wall Street journal's Chinese version.
Topic 1: The Economist Intelligence Unit last week released a half-year survey of the most liveable cities worldwide. Unexpectedly, Beijing ranks 72nd among the 140 most livable cities across the globe - the first among all listed Chinese cities - leaving Dalian, in Liaoning province, Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, and Shanghai behind it. In local residents' opinions, Beijing struggles with high housing prices, terrible traffic congestion and heavy pollution. The survey involved many factors, including the crime rate, natural environment, medical and education services, politics and social stability. The findings have attracted much online debate.
Topic 1: The new term "BMW" is making the rounds: B is for bus, M is for Metro and W is for walking. Nowadays, many people in big cities go to work by a combination of the three means of transportation. They take a bus to the nearest metro station, take the metro to the stop nearest work, and walk the rest of the way to the office building. Such people are called the BMW group. Because BMW is a low-carbon-emission way of getting around, some people take pride in being members of the BMW group.
Topic 1: After Google Inc announced its plan to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc with $12.5 billion, Peter Chou, chief executive officer of HTC Corp, Asia's second-biggest maker of smartphones, said that it will stick with Google Inc's mobile software despite the software giant's planned acquisition of its rival, and will continue to seek acquisitions to grow.
Topic 1: While demand for Apple Inc's tablet computer the iPad exceeds supply, the US company's competitors have been cutting the prices of their own tablet computer products to promote sales. However, the tactic does not appear to be working. The indications are that customers do not just want any tablet computer; they specifically want the iPad, according to the official micro blog of the Chinese version of the Wall Street Journal.
Topic 1: Chinese NBA star Yao Ming announced his retirement from basketball in Shanghai on July 20. He played for the Houston Rockets for nine seasons but missed 250 regular-season games over the past six years because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. Chinese basketball fans paid great attention to Yao's retirement and held heated discussions over the issue through micro blogs.
Topic 1: A long flight delay was broadcast via micro blogs recently, attracting much public interest. Flight delays have become common nationwide and passengers who frequently travel by airplane have experienced the disruption on more than one occasion on average. Currently, it is not unusual for flight passengers to encounter a flight delay of two to three hours. Many now wonder what can be done to about the situation.
Topic 1: China raised the individual income tax threshold from 2,000 yuan ($309.28) to 3,500 yuan a month recently, which is 500 yuan more than that proposed in the original draft issued a few months ago. The new policy will be executed from Sept 1. The final amendment is partly a result of heated public discussion on the issue, with many citizens expressing their opinion that the threshold should be raised further than just 3,000 yuan when the original draft came out. Micro-bloggers are very active in talking about the upcoming policy.
Topic 1: Rental prices in many cities are on the increase. Analysts say it's caused by rises in the cost of housing and the government's new policy that limits the number of homes a family is allowed to buy. Micro bloggers nationwide have different opinions on the issue:
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 
