City Sun, December 29th, 2010

Too much reading combined with poor reading posture work wonders for producing shortsighted kids. With a culture putting emphasis on rote learning, it is no surprising that China has more goggle-clad school children than elsewhere.

Here pupils routinely spend eight plus hours every weekday sitting in class reading and writing. It is hard to prevent the tired kids from seeking comfort by laying their heads on their desks and peek at books at a distance too close to be healthy.

In Qingdao, the government has that problem well taken care of. According to City Sun, a Qingdao-based paper, the local education bureau has distributed 10,000 anti-myopia devices to students free of charge. The device, as shown on the front page image, is essentially a fixed vertical bar that makes it impossible for kids to stoop forward.

The headline of the newspaper reports that in response to the construction of a cross-strait tunnel, the real estate prices in the less prosperous side of the city are shooting up. The per-square-meter prices of 18 new apartment complexes all exceed 10,000 yuan, with the most expensive one reaching over 30,000 yuan.