Ready to Go

A high school student in Yinchuan， capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region， shows his confidence before the college entrance exam.

There are 9.39 million students taking the exam this year on June 7-8， 270，000 more than in 2013.

In 28 provincial divisions， migrant students can take the exam in the places they live instead of going back to the place of their permanent residence permit， or hukou.

Chinese ‘Green Cards

China is considering relaxing its green card policy by lowering the application and approval threshold， in a move to attract more foreign professionals.

Authorities are debating revisions to regulations on permanent residence for foreigners， considering more flexible and pragmatic application standards， the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China revealed on June 2.

In China as a whole， around 5，000 foreigners from 91 countries and regions have been granted green cards since the scheme was launched in 2004.

The highest numbers of green card applicants have come from the United States， Japan， Canada， Australia and Germany.

The benefits of holding a green card include that cardholders can enter and leave China without requiring a visa. They can purchase homes and have the same rights as Chinese nationals when dealing with financial services such as banking， insurance， securities and futures. Their children can attend local schools as well.

Serious Situation

Chinas environment is in critical condition， especially its water and air quality， Li Ganjie， Vice Minister of Environmental Protection， said on June 4.

Li told a press conference that although Chinas environment has improved in general， the water quality is“not optimistic” and air quality in cities is“critical.”

In Chinas 10 most important river basins， about 9 percent of the water was class-V in 2013， the lowest level. Compared to 2012， the percentage of class-V water quality dropped by only 1.2 percentage points. Of 4，778 monitoring sites for groundwater， almost 60 percent reported their water to be poor or extremely poor.

Water quality offshore is not good either， with 18.6 percent of offshore water areas only reaching class IV. Water quality in the East China Sea and in four of Chinas nine biggest bays was reported to be extremely poor.

As for air quality in cities， only three of the 74 monitored cities met the national standard for good air in 2013.