children getting bigger but losing out on free bus rides
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-17 15:05

China has given children free bus fares, amusement park admission and other services since 1949 so long as they are below age 7 and under 1.1 meters (3 foot 7 inches)tall.

But many under 7 are now excluded because, with better nutrition and health care, even the average children getting bigger but losing out on free bus rides age 5-year-old is 1.2 meters (4 feet)tall, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

Some local governments have raised the height limit. But most haven't, causing a lot of complaints by parents.

``My son is just 5 years old, but I am often asked to buy a ticket for him when we take buses,'' one aggrieved mother in Beijing was quoted as saying.

Today's average 5-year-old is 10 centimeters (four inches) taller than in 1949, according to Xinhua.

Chinese children are growing at a faster rate because they are eating more these days, almost a quarter of children in Shanghai, China's most prosperous city, are reported to be malnourished because they eat too much junk food and not enough fruits and vegetables.

Close

Today's Top News     Top Life News
Zoellick: US can't close door to Chinese goods         US, N. Korea bilateral contact lasts one hour         Capital, Hebei in row over river water use         Referendum provokes rise in tension         Import of two Isuzu autos suspended         Farmers to get direct subsidies from the state	From hutong to who's who       China's transsexual eyes Miss World crown       Does Lee Ao's daughter complain too much?       Chinese students' sexual evolution       When literature falls across Internet       Michael Jackson and ex-wife hired retired judge