More than half a million Chinese pupils hope to broaden their horizons with academic trips to the U.S., Europe and other countries this year, up from about 350,000 last year, according to Shanghai-based 2limi.com, which organizes tours. Revenue for the entire industry is expected to hit CNY12 billion. New Oriental has about 100 tours on offer that include such destinations as the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. Prices range from CNY10,000 to CNY50,000.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British company specializing in education and studies abroad, published its latest “Worldwide University Rankings by Subject” report on its website recently. The rankings showed that seven universities in China this year offer subjects listed among the Top 50 around the world. Among them, Peking University had 22 subjects, including linguistics, chemistry and law, in the global Top 50. Tsinghua University was next, with 15 subjects in the list, including civil engineering, architecture, materials science and mechanical engineering. The rankings were compiled from the professional opinions of 85,062 scholars and 41,910 university officials, as well as 17.3 million academic publications and more than 100 million bits of data analysis. “Such good rankings show that China has been rewarded after investing in higher education over the past 20 years,” said Ben Sowter, Chief Inspector of Research at QS. The annual global university ranking by subject is a comprehensive guide to the world’s top universities in a range of popular subject areas, the China Daily reports.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange increased the number of constituent stocks in its benchmark index from 40 to 500, ahead of the launch of a stock trading link between the Shenzhen and Hong Kong bourses. The constituent stocks in the Shenzhen Component Index have a combined market capitalization of CNY13 trillion, representing nearly 60% of the total of Shenzhen-listed shares. The index now covers 199 companies listed on the main board, 211 firms on the SME board for small- and medium-sized enterprises and 90 entities on the ChiNext board, with weightings at 48%, 35% and 17% respectively. The adjustment raised the weighting of information and technology-related companies to 20% from 14% while the weighting of financial and property stocks was reduced to 14% from 31%. UBS Securities said earlier that China is likely to allow overseas investors to trade stocks in the expanded Shenzhen Component Index under the link between the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges, which is expected to launch later this year.

Shanghai stocks closed at a fresh seven-year high on May 22. The Shanghai Composite Index rose over 8% last week to close at 4,657.60. Infrastructure builders were given a boost when the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) approved rail projects worth CNY450 billion. Investors were also bullish on the nuclear sector as China plans to have 30 million kilowatt of nuclear power capacity by the end of this year. The index rose further on May 25 as the government announced a plan to seek private capital for projects worth CNY1.97 trillion to help revive sluggish investment. The Shanghai Composite Index was up by 3.35% to close at 4,813.80, posting the biggest single-day rise since January 21, while the Shenzhen market ended 1.9% higher. The two markets saw combined transactions amounting to more than CNY2 trillion. Investors in Shanghai each booked an average profit of CNY156,400 in the January-April period. Beijing took second place with the average gain for each investor at CNY80,200. Nationwide, the average profit generated from the A-share market was CNY14,000. According to iFind’s data, among the 2,547 listed stocks in the A-share market, only 14 saw their share prices fall in the first four months. Some 397 stocks more than doubled their share prices during the period, while 685 stocks soared by more than 80%.

Shanghai will start an online car-hailing services platform soon, the first city in China to legalize car-hailing smartphone applications. To be launched on June 1, the officially backed service will be jointly operated by the traffic and transportation authorities, taxi companies and third-party car hailing service provider Didi Dache. The merged Didi Kuaidi holds a 78% share of Shanghai’s car-booking market, according to Analysys International. Market rival Uber, which has an 11% market share in China, is not included in the new platform. There were 172 million mobile app car-booking accounts in China last year. Analysts said Shanghai’s move to give third-party car-hailing apps official public backing may inspire other cities to follow suit, helping develop and grow the market.