China's 93 percent year-over-year growth rate for auto sales in November bodes well for all car makers and suppliers. And the icing on the cake goes to luxury vehicles.

According to the Wall Street Journal, compared to a year ago, Mercedes-Benz tripled its November sales in China to 8,900 cars, and Audi more than doubled to 16,503. Audi AG has said it expects China to surpass Germany and become its largest sales region in 2012 or 2013. BMW AG also said sales in China were up 40 percent, to 8,470 cars.

Shen Changyu, an expert of plastic molding and tooling, has been elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. One of his best-known achievements is the development of the space suit helmets used in China's first space walk last September.

Professor Shen, 46 years of age, is president of Zhengzhou University and director of the National Engineering Research Center for Plastic and Rubber Molds. His research fields include cooling systems for injection molds, and the formation and evolution of microstructures in the molding process.

A popular tourism destination near Shanghai is discussing ways to encourage hotels and restaurants to cut back on disposable supplies, including toiletry items.

Personally, I don't mind if they cut back on one-time-use plastic combs or toothbrushes, but there's one item I hope they don't take away.

Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, is famous for the West Lake and other natural scenery. Local tourism bureau officials said this week that hotels could use incentives like complimentary breakfasts or souvenirs to make up for the reduction on disposable supplies, according to local newspapers.

This one item that I actually use and hope to continue to use is disposable slippers, something I've never seen in America. From US$20 a night inns to five-star global chain hotels, all hotels in China offer disposable slippers, made of materials ranging from paper-thin plastic nonwoven fabric to cushioned terry cotton.

I understand why hotels in America provide, say, coffee makers, while the Chinese hotels don't. But is the need for disposable slippers a cultural or regional matter?

Back to the main subject, the hotels could probably start the green initiative by having customers request specific disposable items that they need, still free of charge, when they make reservations or check in. It may be some extra work for both the customer and the hotel, but still worthwhile for the sake of eco-friendliness.

Beijing-based market research firm ePanel Co. Ltd. has revealed some interesting trends about cosmetic packaging consumption after conducting a recent online survey of 1,492 young women in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The survey, targeting white-collar women in the age group of 25-35 and with monthly income higher than 2,500 yuan (US$366.11), shows that 59.5 percent of the subjects keep the container after they use up the skincare or makeup or fragrance. About half of these consumers simply collect cosmetic containers as a hobby, while the other half said they repurpose the containers for, say, storage or home décor.

According to the findings, 78.3 percent of the respondents said glass is their favorite material for cosmetic packaging.

However, respondents in Guangzhou report a higher appreciation for plastic packaging, with 17.9 percent of them preferring plastic packaging to other materials. The rate is 8.6 percent among respondents from Beijing and 7.4 percent for Shanghai.

The survey respondents also said they are most attracted by packaging material (48.5 percent), followed by the volume (43.5 percent), color (37.6 percent) and shape (28.3 percent) of the packaging.

China's Shenzhen Development Bank has launched two sets of biodegradable credit cards, which are said to be able to break down to water and carbon dioxide. The bank said one of the green-themed sets comes with paperless statements only, another way to protect the environment.

It's unclear what specific material(s) the cards are made of. But the bank started issuing the first set of four "Beauty Cards" in November, targeting environmentally conscious female consumers.

The second set of four "Green Cards" made a debut in Beijing this week. These cards use electronic statements exclusively, the bank said on its Web site. Users can choose to receive an email newsletter on environmental protection from the bank. They also have the option to redeem membership points for "green products."

According to a report from the Xinhua News Agency, China had issued 170 million credit cards by the end of 2008.

By using the images on the bank's Web site, I compiled this low-resolution photo, just to give you an idea how the collection of "Green Cards" looks. (Yes, these are vertical cards.)

No more worries about losing paper tickets or plastic admission cards -- the first mobile phone admission system in World Expo history is bound to add a sense of high-tech culture to the Shanghai World Expo. All you will need to tour the event is your cell phone.

The new concept is based on a special type of cell phone SIM card that incorporate radio frequency identification technology (RFID). The Shanghai World Expo Bureau and China Mobile introduced the technology last month.

Users will be able to use the SIM card - which conveniently carries over their existing phone number - to check-in and even make payments in restaurants and shops at the World Expo.

These SIM card tickets are priced the same as regular paper tickets.

This week, the manufacturer of these SIM cards was revealed by a news report from the Jiangnan Evening News.

Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co. Ltd. (JCET) of Jiangyin, Jiangsu province, said the production of 3 million World Expo SIM cards began in November and will be completed in four months. Production procedures include the installation of chips, sealing with epoxy resin, cutting, and testing.
Publicly listed JCET said it is adding equipment and improving production lines in preparation for more production of such cards, up to tens of millions, depending on market response.

Maybe Santa Claus decided to cheer up in November. China's Guangdong province, which reportedly makes more than 70 percent of the artificial Christmas trees in the world, said November exports of Christmas-themed items reached US$39 million, 78.2 percent higher than a year ago.

Further data released by the China Customs this week show, however, that Christmas-related export from Guangdong to the U.S. dropped 16.6 percent during the first 11 months, compared to the same period in 2008. The decline rate is 10.3 percent for Canada and 6.1 percent for the European Union.

Meantime, exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations soared 87.6 percent.

Regardless of the fluctuation, the U.S. remains the largest buyer of Christmas goods from Guangdong with total spending of US$400 million from Jan.-Nov. 2009, followed by the EU (US$180 million). ASEAN countries imported US$27.3 million in total, less than how much U.S. import decreased in the first 11 months.

The average annual compensation per job in the United States in 2008 failed to keep pace with inflation, growing just 2.6 percent to $56,116. The rate of inflation rose 3.3 percent during that same 12-month period, according to statistics just released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The U.S. durable goods manufacturing sector -- those big-ticket items meant to last three years or more -- suffered the largest rate of contraction at minus 2 percent in the 2,265 small U.S. counties covered in the survey.

"Small counties" are defined as those with total compensation of less than US$1 billion. BEA said small counties represent 72.8 percent of all U.S. counties, but only 8.3 percent of total national compensation.

EBA's definition for "compensation" is the sum of wage/salary plus employer contributions for government social insurance, employee pension and insurance funds.

China's plastics processing industry achieved 1.14 trillion yuan (US$166.9 billion) in sales and 64.6 billion yuan (US$9.5 billion) in profit in 2008, according to latest figures from China's National Bureau of Statistics.

That gives the industry an average profit margin of 5.7 percent.

The industry possesses 865.1 billion yuan (US$126.6 billion) in total assets and 468.9 billion yuan (US$68.6 billion) in debt, making the industry-wide equity 39.6 billion yuan (US$ 5.8 billion), the Dec. 25 report said.

The industry consists of 95,000 registered business entities with a total workforce of 3.87 million.

Plastics materials, equipment and recycling are not included in these figures.