Shanghai workers aren’t the only ones enjoying an increase in take-home pay. In China, minimum wages are set city by city and province by province. For instance, the same day the city’s government unveiled its plan to lift salaries, the official Xinhua News Agency reported the northeastern province of Shandong would be raising its minimum wage, too. The provincial government is mandating an increase in the monthly wage by as much as 19 percent, Xinhua said, with full-time workers in the most developed parts of Shandong entitled to make a minimum of 1240 yuan ($197). And Shandong workers can expect more raises to come, with the government planning annual wage increases “of at least 13 percent in the years to 2015.” This month workers getting the minimum wage in Shenzhen, adjacent to Hong Kong, got a 13.6 percent raise. Foxconn Technology Group (HNHPF), a big Shenzhen employer that makes iPhones, iPads, and other products for Apple (AAPL), in February gave pay increases ranging from 16 percent to 25 percent. As salaries rise so does production costs. I see man manufactures looking to produce else where in the world as the costs sky rocket in China.

Shanghai, Shandong, and Shenzhen are on China’s coast, which has benefited the most from the Chinese economic boom, so you might expect their wages to be rising. Even provinces in China’s poorer interior, though, are pushing through significant increases in minimum wages. Starting Apr. 1, Gansu, a landlocked province that has not been a major investment focus for export-oriented companies, is going to raise its minimum wage by 13.5 percent to 860 yuan. By the end of 2015, Xinhua reports, the province aims to have its baseline monthly wage at 1,500 yuan. Similarly, the southern province of Guangxi is pushing through a big wage increase, with Xinhua reporting on Feb. 15 an increase of about 22 percent, with workers in Guangxi’s biggest cities now required to earn at least 1,000 yuan a month.

Why the widespread interest in increasing minimum wages? In part, local leaders are simply responding to directives from on high. As part of its latest five-year plan, the country’s Communist Party leadership wants to make sure workers can have more take-home pay, which should help with the government’s goal of shifting the Chinese economy’s focus toward domestic demand and away from export industries.

Local governments are also competing with one another to show they’re the most worker-friendly. With demand for workers so strong, governments are finding they need to raise wages in order to keep locals from migrating to other provinces where the pay is better. According to Xinhua, one reason for Shandong’s new minimum-wage policy is “a bid to attract workers and buffer rising living costs.”

The labor shortage isn’t limited to factory workers. Workers for desk jobs are also in short supply. “There just aren’t enough people,” says Shaun Rein, managing director of Shanghai-based market research firm CMR China and author of the new book The End of Cheap China. Rein points to announced plans by Citigroup (C), Microsoft (MSFT), Google, and others to boost their number of workers in China. “That’s creating a huge fight for white-collar workers,” he says. “Salaries are soaring.”

Rising wages along the coast and in the interior put many companies—both foreign and local—in a bind. Hit by increased labor costs in traditional manufacturing regions like Greater Shanghai in the east and the Pearl River Delta in the south, many manufacturers are already shifting production inland to places such as Sichuan, where wages are supposed to be lower. But with even poor provinces like Gansu and Guangxi mandating big increases in minimum wages, the inland areas might not provide much relief.

Some manufacturers scared by rising labor costs have the option of moving to low-wage locations in Southeast Asia. (See my colleague Dexter Roberts’s story last month about the shift of textile companies to Cambodia.)

However, for many companies, picking up and moving to another country isn’t possible: Multinationals that want to compete in the fast-growing Chinese market have little choice but to keep raising pay much faster than in other parts of Asia. For instance, British recruiting firm Hays (HAS:LN) released on Feb. 8 a survey of more than 900 companies that found about 72 percent of employers in China raised salaries for white-collar workers by more than 6 percent last year; that compares with 21 percent of employers in Hong Kong and Singapore and just 7 percent of companies in Japan. And there’s not going to be any letup this year: According to Hays, 81 percent of employers in China are planning to bump up salaries by more than 6 percent, vs. 32 percent of employers in Asia as a region.

1. In good health, with no mental illness and epidemic such as leprosy, AIDS, venereal diseases, open tuberculosis etc. or the disease prohibited by the post they hold;

2. With a clearly-defined employer;

3. With professional skills, proper academic background required for the job of the intended employment and more than two-year relevant working experiences;

4. With no criminal record;

5. With valid passport or other international travel document in lieu of the passport;

6 aged between 18 and 60 for male, and between 18 and 55 for female

The application procedures

1. Applying for Employment License

The employer intending to employ a foreigner shall apply to the Shanghai Municipal Labour & Social Security Bureau for Employment License.

Address: No. 1800 Tianshan

Tel: 021-12333

After the application is approved, the Bureau will issue the License to the employer. Then the employer shall go through formalities with the authorized organizations for the Employment Visa and entry of the foreigner with relevant documents, including the Employment Visa, and send the letter of visa notification and the Employment License to the foreigner to be employed through the authorized unit.

2. Applying for Employment Visa

Foreigners with permission to work in shanghai shall apply for the Employment Visa at the Chinese embassies, consulates or visa offices, by presenting the letter of visa notification and the Employment License mentioned above.

3. Applying for Employment Permit

The employer should, within fifteen days after the entry of the employed foreigner, bring valid documents to the Labor &Social Security Bureau to apply for the Employment Permit.

4. Applying for residence certificate

Foreigners who hold their Employment Permits should, within thirty days after their entry, apply for the residence certificate to the municipal public security authority, bringing with them the Employment Permits.

5. Representatives applying for Employment Permit

Foreigners who are representatives or chief representative of shanghai Office of foreign enterprises or enterprises of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao may be exempted from the Employment License. After their entry, their office shall apply for the Employment Permit to Labor and Social Security Bureau with“Work Permit for Representatives of the Office of foreign Enterprise in China”issued by the Municipal industry and commerce administration authorities and the relevant documents mentioned above.

Duration of the employment Permit

1. Defining the Duration of the Employment Permit

The duration of the Employment Permit is determined by that of the labor contract signed by the employer and the foreign employee or the duration of the work, but the valid period for one review shall not exceed one year and shall not exceed the term of the business license of the employer, and the validity of the foreigner’s passport or other international travel documents in lieu of the passport either.

2 .The renewal of the Employment Permit

If the renewal of the Employment Permit is required, the employer should, within thirty days prior to the expiration of the Employment Permit, apply to the labor and social security Bureau for extension of the Permit.

3 .Termination of the employment

If the employment is terminated at the expiration of the labor contract or revoked within its term, or if the foreigner switches his employer and moves to other province or city to work, the original employer should, within ten days after his leaving, return the Employment Permit to the original certificate office; if the Employment Permit cannot be returned, the employer should, within ten days after his leaving, present a written report to the shanghai Labor and social security Bureau.

The 1,318-kilometer-long high-speed rail line will cut travel time between China’s two major metropolises to about five hours, the ministry said. The line is scheduled to go into commercial service at the end of June, according to the ministry.

Fault simulations and emergency drills will be carried out during the one-month trial, the ministry said.

Some sections of the rail line have already started trials. One section between the city of Zaozhuang in Shandong Province and the city of Bengbu in Anhui Province began trails on Nov. 15, 2010, according to the ministry.

Trains on the line will run at two speeds, 300 kilometers per hour and 250 kilometers per hour, with different ticket prices depending on the speed of the train. A precise ticket price scale has yet to be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planning body.

The line will use 90 pairs of bullet trains after it goes into service, with the ministry vowing to optimize the use of its trains to provide the best service possible for prospective travelers.

China plans to invest 2.8 trillion yuan (431.7 billion U.S. dollars) to build about 30,000 kilometers of new rail lines over the next five years.The total length of China’s railways is set to exceed 120,000 kilometers by the end of 2015, railway minister Sheng Guangzu said last month.

Shanghai 7-ELEVEN 468号 Jinling East Road, Huangpu, Shanghai, China

Shanghai 7-ELEVEN Zhejiang Middle Road, Huangpu, Shanghai, China

Shanghai 7-ELEVEN Tianlin Road, Xuhui, Shanghai, China

Shanghai 7-ELEVEN Jiangchang West Road, Zhabei, Shanghai, China

Shanghai 7-ELEVEN Changning Road, Changning, Shanghai, China

Shanghai 7-Eleven 333号 Tianyueqiao Road, Xuhui, Shanghai, China

7-ELEVEN 121号 Xingeng Road, Xuhui, Shanghai, China

7-ELEVEN 707号 Zhangyang Road, Pudong Xinqu, Shanghai, China, 200120

7-ELEVEN 789号 Zhaojiabang Road, Xuhui, Shanghai, China

7-ELEVEN 45号 Mengzi Road, Luwan, Shanghai, China

I just got back to Shanghai May 1st and the city seems to be as it was.  What slow down, does not seem to be one in Shanghai.  More news to come when I get back into gear and check out the city.