Attacking by oblique means and stealthy feints since 2007
Wuhan finally gets a US Consulate:
The United States will open its fifth consulate general on the Chinese mainland in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province in central China and a major city on the Yangtze River, early next year. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday morning I saw a helicopter flying eastward directly above the South Third Ring Road. I thought about it for a while and couldn’t remember ever having seen a helicopter in Beijing, or anywhere else in China for that matter. Does anyone know what this story is behind this one? Monitoring traffic seems the obvious explanation, but they could just as easily put cameras atop the taller buildings along the entire Third Ring Road, if they haven’t done so already.
I have been telling anyone in Beijing who will listen to get out to the “second tier” of cities in China–the several dozen provincial capitals and regional trade centers scattered across China’s interior. Here’s an article from GlobeSt.com touting the benefits of the second tier for real estate investment:
Names such as Qingdao, Shenzen [sic] and Wuhan may not roll from the tongue as easily as Shanghai or Beijing, but these lesser-known cities are becoming increasingly popular with foreign investors squeezed out of deals in tier-one cities of China… Read the rest of this entry »
Some guy in Shenyang got married and wanted something better than the typical fleet of black Audis for his wedding convoy. It probably didn’t take long for him to figure out that the only solution was 38 Hummers (link in Chinese). In order to ensure a long and happy marriage, the convoy wantonly ran through red lights and intentially blocked traffic along a major road for 20 minutes.
Although those covering the story were afraid to reveal unable to find out the name of the lucky groom, they did talk to the local police, who assured them that harsh punishments would be handed out for all the infractions.
…given that MLB is making inroads into China – such as Cal Ripken’s recent trip to promote the game in Beijing and Guangzhou – and the likelihood that the Padres and Dodgers will play exhibition games in Beijing in March 2008, we’re going to take this opportunity to bash the New York Yankees and Alex Rodriguez.
You don’t have to surf very long to find articles and blogs coming out of NY and elsewhere that Rodriguez is a “selfish” player and that he has a knack for underperforming. His stats would say that argument is really overblown. But now the Yankees have incentivized Rodriguez to selfishly pursue the home run record by awarding him a contract that will Read the rest of this entry »
My sources tell me that if you’ve got a single eyelids and want doubles, the hospital at Capital Normal University is the place to go. They’ll double you up for 300-400 RMB.
If you’re a guy, though, you might want to hold off on the surgery. Many of the current crop of Korean studs that Chinese girls are going gaga over are monolidded, and their Chinese counterparts are being seen in a better light because of it.
Check out Elizabeth C. Economy’s “The Great Leap Backward?” from the September/October edition of Foreign Affairs. It contains an astonishing collection of data and facts about China’s rapidly deteriorating environmental situation. A few samples:
In 2000, China anticipated doubling its coal consumption by 2020; it is now expected to have done so by the end of this year….
The country is home to 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, and four of the worst off among them are in the coal-rich province of Shanxi, in northeastern China….
China’s leaders plan to relocate 400 million people — equivalent to well over the entire population of the United States — to newly developed urban centers between 2000 and 2030….
The Gobi Desert, which now engulfs much of western and northern China, is spreading by about 1,900 square miles annually; some reports say that despite Beijing’s aggressive reforestation efforts, one-quarter of the entire country is now desert.
Pretty depressing stuff.
Chinese forums are full of this stuff. I found this picture of a urinal about a year ago.
Momentum has gathered, and now the State media is heavily advancing, though not clearly rallying around, the view that the 7-day long Labor Day holiday in May is no longer necessary (People’s Daily Article). The plan as currently contemplated would reduce the May holiday to one day off (as is done in Hong Kong), and add 3 new one-day holidays of Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, and Mid-Autumn Festival.
State media articles point out what what everyone knows is bad about these 1-week melees. People Mountain People Ocean. Tickets for anything are scarce. Read the rest of this entry »
Found on a forum a few years ago. Originally published in Life Magazine. Wow.
And…
