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Despite a late-afternoon rally, Chinese stocks slumped to their lowest level in 2013 on Monday, with sectors such as aviation and hospitality hit hardest by the bird flu scare.

The market opened after the three-day holiday break down 1.31 percent on the previous close. Prices stabilized somewhat after the lunch break, with the Shanghai Composite Index closing at 2,211.59, down 0.62 percent from 2,225.30 on the last trading day before the holiday. Daily turnover reached 73.7 billion yuan ($11.9 billion), up from 68.8 billion yuan previously.

Xu Niansha submitted a simple but highly focused proposal in March as a new member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body.

He said the central government should help and support State-owned enterprises buy high technology from abroad.

A look at what Xu and his company, China National Machinery Industry Corp (Sinomach), is all about shows that his proposal is more than reasonable.

Chinese property developers are increasingly expanding their businesses abroad following Chinese people's desires to purchase properties overseas.

Shanghai-based property developer Greenland Group is to invest A$480 million ($498 million) in an Australian property project, becoming the latest Chinese developer to explore an overseas market.

Greenland said it has reached a deal with Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management Inc to buy two buildings in downtown Sydney. It is the largest single investment made by Chinese developers in Australia.

Properties in the former US industrial city Detroit started to fall to as low as $100, attracting Chinese investors who have found their investments in the Chinese property market becoming harder under the central government's tightening policies.

As real estate hits rock bottom in Detroit, Chinese investors are planning to purchase properties there, the People's Daily reported.

There are more than a dozen properties priced lower than $100, with some extreme cases on offer for $1.

A huge name in Chinese entertainment, dancer Yang Liping is now hoping for a second career as a businesswoman, Cai Xiao discovers.

In the e-commerce industry, a problem has recently arisen over the issue of management succession, or in some instances ownership, given the lack of quantifiable, fixed assets or laws for resolving disputes.

The deaths of two e-commerce merchants in China last year and the subsequent wrangling over ownership amid a rapidly growing Chinese market have once again raised concerns over the lack of proper regulations for the industry.

Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's second-largest personal computer maker by unit sales, said on Tuesday that it plans to make its server and storage business arm into one of the company's major revenue sources over the next three years.

The announcement comes amid a dramatic decline in global PC market sales. International brands such as Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co are also seeking ways to boost their bottom lines.

The latest government measures to reverse rising property prices are chilling speculation in Shanghai, while prospective homebuyers are waiting for the rules to take effect.

In Shimao Riviera Garden Shanghai, a high-end residential development that has attracted well-heeled buyers from across the region, an owner is offering his apartment for up to 10 percent less than the average market price. The owner, who also owns six other apartments, is offering discounts ranging from 5 percent to 10 percent on all the properties.

Property prices in China's major cities saw a 10th consecutive monthly increase in March, but new government policies aimed at cracking down on speculation are expected to rein in the price increases.

China Index Academy, a Beijing-based real estate research institute, said on Monday the average price of new homes in 100 monitored cities was 9,998 yuan ($1,600) per square meter during March, up 1.06 percent on the previous month.

The month-on-month growth rate, according to the academy's figure, is up 0.83 percentage points from the previous month.

Industrial activity maintained a moderate recovery in March, with economic indicators reflecting positive growth.

"The economic environment in Europe seems to have improved, but it has not brought us the sharp increase in orders we had expected for the first quarter," said Zhang Wenhua, owner of a company in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, that exports machinery to Europe.

"We just hope there will be more growth in the next three months," Zhang said.

The first thing that catches the eye when you enter the Yuanwang Digital Mall in Huaqiangbei is the multitude of shoppers and the din that is normally associated with Black Friday shopping in the US. Watching the crowds rifling through the array of mobile phones and electronics accessories on display, and the amazing bargains that are on offer at the various other shopping centers in the city, it is not hard to understand why Huaqiangbei, a street in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, is often referred to as the “No 1 street for electronic products in China”.

Carriers say negative global factors will continue to plague industry.

China's three largest airlines saw their net profits decline in 2012 and have a cautious outlook for this year, as negative global factors are still expected to affect the civil aviation industry.

The airlines' profits declined for three consecutive years, after they posted solid figures in 2010.

China Eastern Airlines Co Ltd's net profit decreased 29.81 percent year-on-year to 3.43 billion yuan ($547 million), the lowest drop among the three major carriers.