BEIJING, March 5 -- Eight residential plots in Shanghai have been put up for sale since land transactions opened officially on Saturday.

    Potential buyers can check the sale procedure, including the process of claiming documents, seeking appointment for land inspection and the time for application on the Shanghai Municipal Housing, Land and Resource Administration Bureau website.

    And from now, announcements on the sale of all residential plots in Shanghai and their transactions have to be done at an open market in Pudong, set up jointly by the bureau and Shanghai's Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

    The move shows the Shanghai municipal government's determination to fight corruption and prevent speculators from hoodwinking people and making extra bucks.

    Authorities will inform the public of sales and the developments not only in the market, but also at the relevant offices in each of Shanghai's 19 districts.

    The aim is to pre-empt illegal activities in the city's booming property market, says a bureau statement.

    Earlier a district used to announce the sale of land in its area, which insiders say bred nepotism or encouraged people to bribe their way to a plot.

    (Source: China Daily)

China's arable land barely above critical minimum 

    BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's arable land stood at 1.83 billion mu (27.45 billion hectares) as of October 31, 2006, a mere26.6 million mu above the 1.8 billion mu critical mark set by the government, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.

    The figure was originally reported by the Ministry of Land Resources in 2006 and subsequently confirmed by the NBS. Full story