Photo: Elderly parents visited by a "rented" daughter in Zhejiang
Source Taobao via SCMP

The numbers making news around China during the week of July 8, 2013

20 yuan
The hourly rate advertised by one vendor on Chinese shopping website Taobao for the "service" of paying a visit to the customer's parents on their behalf. Such services have been popping up since China introduced a law that requires children to visit their elderly parents. South China Morning Post

5 years
The average difference in the life span of Southern Chinese compared to their northern counterparts in recent decades because of the destructive health effects of pollution from the widespread use of coal in the north. Financial Times

750 billion yuan
The reduction in credit growth in China expected in 2013 as a result of the money-market liquidity reduction, equivalent to the size of Vietnam's economy. Bloomberg

8.18 million
Number of passenger cars sold in China over the first 6 months of 2013, up 16.7 percent on same period in 2012. Forbes

157 percent
The increase in China's holdings of U.S. government securities since the start of 2008. Bloomberg