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300 million Chinese people still do not have access to reliable, safe drinking water, according to Qi Xiaoqiu, head of the Disease Prevention and Control Department with the Ministry of Health.

The Olympics is expected to result in the creation of 1.82 million jobs in the Chinese capital.

China publishes almost 15 percent of the world's daily newspapers with a combined print of 100 million copies everyday, according to the Newspaper and Periodical Publication Management Department.

The country allocated 17.5 billion yuan for the retired soldiers or military officers' subsidies in 2005, an increase of 8.4 billion yuan or 92 percent year-on-year.

The Chinese Government is closing 5,290 coal mines in a safety crackdown on the country's mining industry, the government announced on January 3. The figure is higher than a previously reported estimate of 4,000 mines that will be closed in the wake of safety inspections in 2005, the Xinhua News Agency said.

388 million people, about 29 percent of or nearly one-third of China's 1.3 billion population, were described as mobile telephone subscribers by the end of November 2005, as usage continues to grow in the largest market in the world.

77 percent of stock investors lost money on Chinese stock markets in 2005, according to a recent survey jointly conducted by the China Securities Journal and the Huading Investigation Company.

218 billion yuan (US$27.25 billion) will be spent to help improve the country's education in the rural areas during the next five years, according to a recent executive meeting of the State Council.

About 47.6 percent of the Chinese respondents to a recent survey reported they were "very happy" or "happy" in 2005, 8.7 percentage points higher than in 2004.

Almost 70 percent of Chinese middle school students have serious problems with their parents. A recent survey indicated that 6.62 percent of the surveyed students were afraid of their parents, 13.13 percent of them loathed their parents and 56.28 percent were extremely disgusted with or even hated their parents. Only 4.75 percent of the young people surveyed said they like their parents. The recently conducted survey among 3,000 middle school students in a Beijing district asked questions about their attitude toward their parents and family education, a Beijing Morning Post report said.