Around Shanghai: The Hongqiao Transport Hub, freak accidents, and a new sex culture research centre

• The ground has been broken for the new Hongqiao Transport Hub which will cover an area of 240,000 square meters and contain facilities for both high-speed and normal trains. In service before the 2010 World Expo, the hub is expected to reach an annual turnover of 52.72 million people by 2020. Meanwhile, new security measures at the Shanghai South Railway Station mean that only travelling passengers will be allowed onto the platform and family and friends will now not be able to enter the area.
• Three boys died and another was injured in four separate accidents on Sunday — one fell from the 20th floor in Pudong when climbing over the window ledge to see if his mom was coming home, another died while swimming in a 3-metre creek by Xianxia Lu, and a third boy also died swimming in a river in Minhang District. The fourth boy nearly drowned in a Yangpu District swimming pool and is in critical condition.
• A 44 year old man by the name of Yao Guoxing has been sentenced to four years in jail for trying to gas his wife, son and mother-in-law while a mahjong club owner has been sentenced to death with a reprieve of two years for driving a car through a crowd of people he thought was sent by a rival mahjong club to attack him, and killing one person.
• At the Fifth China International Adult Toys and Reproductive Health Exhibition on Saturday, Shanghai sexology expert Prof Liu Daling announced that a sex culture research centre will be set up soon in neighbouring Tongli, which is expected to attract scholars from around China. The centre will open within a year if it wins backing from the Ford Foundation.
• The Shanghai People's Higher Court has unveiled plans to set up a compensation scheme which, if approved will award up to 50,000 yuan to victims of crime in the city.
• Shanghai is expected to sizzle through most of the week, with the mercury hovering between 35 and 38 Celsius.

Photo by Ryan Pollack