Civil servant exam More than 1.1 million people took the National Civil Servant Exam in China on Sunday, a leap from last year’s 984,000, marking the second time the number has hit 1 million. Over 28,000 positions are expected to be filled by the examinees*, increasing by 1,472 from the previous year. Only one out of every 39 candidates is expected to get a government job this year. This year’s exam saw an increase of 76,000 compared to last year in the number of applicants for grassroots positions in difficult and remote areas, perhaps the result of the lower application thresholds for such posts, according to an inspector at the State Administration of Civil Service. Hottest words, characters A shortlist of the 20 hottest Chinese words and Chinese characters of 2017 has been announced. Words and characters on the list related to domestic topics include “share,” “cloud,” “new era” and “kindergarten,” while those related to international issues include “nuclear,” “intelligence,” “AlphaGo” and “gravitational wave*.” The campaign’s website got more than 200 million clicks from netizens, whose picks were discussed by a panel of experts before the shortlist was decided and released on Saturday. Loan project The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) announced on Monday that it has approved its first loan in China for a natural gas project. The US$250-million loan will fund a project to connect 216,750 households in approximately 510 villages in Beijing to the natural gas distribution network, according to an AIIB statement. Upon completion and after subtracting the emissions from burning natural gas, the project is expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide* emissions by 595,700 tons. NEV chargers The number of charging piles for electric cars has been surging in China amid the country’s campaign to promote new energy vehicles (NEVs) and fight pollution. By the end of October, 195,000 public charging piles for electric cars had been built in China, 82 percent more than at the end of October 2016, said Guo Wei, an official from the National Energy Administration. (SD-Agencies) ? | 