The Shanghai Science and Technology awards – the city’s highest awards for science and technology achievements – were handed to 265 projects and individuals. For the first time, there were two winners of the top award. Hu Lili, Director of the R&D Center of High Power Laser Optical Components of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, won the top prize for developing technologies for the mass production of large-sized phosphate laser glass that can amplify the energy of a laser. Hu and his team spent 12 years developing key technologies for the mass production of “nd-doped” phosphate glass. The second top award winner is Yu Wenxian, Professor of the School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He and his team have made a series of breakthroughs on location applications to produce a satellite navigation system to make tracking more accurate. The technology developed has helped to create China’s largest indoor map database, which is used by internet companies including Tencent and the country’s largest map service provider Amap. The international cooperation awards went to Michail Ivanov from Russia and Jun Chen from the United States, the Shanghai Daily reports.

Liquor supplier Kweichow Moutai and gaming service provider G-bits Network Technology are vying to become the most expensive stocks on China’s equity markets. After being briefly unseated by G-bits during intraday trading on March 14, Kweichow Moutai has regained its lead as the priciest stock on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. The two stocks are the only ones trading above CNY300 among China’s 3,100-plus publicly-traded companies. Investors seem to favor Moutai due to the strong and growing demand for its products. Alexandre Werno, Executive Vice General Manager of Fortune SG Fund Management Co, says Moutai has solid fundamental support for its stock price, while the share-price gain of G-bits – which debuted on the Shanghai exchange on January 4 – is mostly the result of speculative buying of new listings, which are often subject to manipulation, due to their small proportions of free-floating shares. “Moutai will hold the title of the country’s most-expensive stock for the foreseeable future,” he said. “Sales are quite stable these days. Demand is always higher than supply. Therefore Moutai has the power to increase its retail price. This has driven the stock price higher.” The Chinese liquor distilled from sorghum is gaining favor among retail consumers, thanks to rising incomes, rather than public spending by government officials, the South China Morning Post reports. Kweichow Moutai expects first-quarter profit to rise 16% from a year earlier, accelerating from a 7.4% increase for the whole year of 2016.

Kazakhstan government-backed Eurasian Resources Group, which is seeking Chinese finance for four metals projects involving a total investment of USD6 billion, has called on Beijing to open up China’s stock markets to foreign firms to raise funds. The company, the world’s largest producer of ferrochrome – an intermediate material used to give stainless steel its anti-corrosion properties – is in talks with Chinese firms on four projects. Luxembourg-based Eurasian was previously listed on the London stock exchange, until it was privatized in late 2013 by a consortium led by the Kazakhstan government that now owns a 40% stake. Eurasian Resources Chief Executive Benedikt Sobotka said the company would be interested in listing on mainland China’s stock markets to help raise funds for its projects, but current regulations made it “almost impossible” to do so. “Mining projects are good investments as they provide good long term returns,” he said.

The newly renovated Terminal 1 building at Hongqiao International Airport has opened to the public, while the old T1 building will be closed for reconstruction, the airport authority said. All domestic and international flights at T1, mainly of China Eastern and Spring Airlines, moved to the renovated Building A terminal. It was the airport’s largest renovation since its opening in 1921. The building’s floor area has been expanded by almost 40%. The T1 building will service 42 international and 68 domestic flights daily. Among the key features of the renovation is a direct link to the terminal from the Yan’an Road highway. Previously, drivers had to exit the highway to a ground-level road to reach the T1 building. The new design is expected to relieve traffic congestion near Hongqiao airport. A three-story, 70,000-square-meter parking facility with 1,250 parking lots has been built next to the terminal. The full renovation will be completed by mid-2018 when Building B of T1 will open to the public. Once completed, Terminal 1 will be primarily a base for Spring Airlines and a small number of other carriers operating charter flights to Japan and South Korea.

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the Beijing-based bike-sharing start-up Ofo amid intensified fund-raising competition in China’s so-called “Uber-for-bikes” market. One of the country’s major players in the red hot app-enabled domestic bike-sharing market, Ofo is backed by Chinese car-hailing firm Didi Chuxing in which Apple made a rare investment of USD1 billion in May 2016. Cook described the investment in Didi as “a chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market”. Neither Apple nor Ofo revealed the purpose of the visit, so it is unknown whether Apple is interested in directly investing in the business, which is battling with Tencent-backed Mobike in gaining a dominant share in the fledgling but rapidly growing sector. “There is potential for cooperation between Ofo and Apple. For example, Apple Watch can be used to record and share exercising data when riding a bike,” said Wang Xiaofeng, Senior Analyst with Forrester Research. Cook’s visit comes three weeks after Ofo announced a USD450 million investment from investors including Didi Chuxing, MatrixPartners China and Citic Private Equity, which together brings the valuation of the three-year-old company to more than USD1 billion. Its biggest rival Mobike said in February that its funding in 2017 totaled USD300 million. Ofo’s daily orders in China for bike renting has exceeded 10 million and it is now looking to expand abroad. During his trip to Beijing, Tim Cook also took part in the high-profile 2017 China Development Forum, discussing the future of some key technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, the South China Morning Post reports.