A letter passing through offices in China lately warns against the dangers of the smoke from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland:

转发: 从今天到28号，请大家不要淋雨。
Fwd: Avoid exposure to rain from today until the 28th.

从今天到28号，请大家不要淋雨。750年一次的酸雨，被淋到后患皮肤癌的几率很高。因为欧洲的一个火山的大爆发，向高空喷发了大量硫化物，在大气层7000~10000米的高空形成了浓厚的火山灰层，强酸性。请大家注意，把这个信息转发给你身边的人。
Avoid exposure to rain from today until the 28th of the month. Every 750 years there is a major occurance of acid rain, and the probability of getting skin cancer high if one is exposed to it.  The volcanic eruption in Europe has spewed a large amount of sulfides into the atmosphere, and a thick, strongly acidic layer of volcanic ash has collected at an altitude of 7000-10000 meters. Please take care to pass this information to those around you.

The note appears to be based on a similar rumor spread in parts of Africa in February and March. This is from The Punch, Nigerian newspaper, and is dated March 24, 2010:

A United Nations space chief, Mr. Takao Doi, has allayed fears of acid rain accompanying the current harmattan haze accross the country. . .

A text message circulating through mobile networks had warned that there could be acid rain in the country between March 20 and 28.

The text message said, “Be careful from the 20-28th of this month. There is the possibility of an acid rain. The dark circle appeared on 17th of last month and this is an indication of acid rain. Apparently this happens once in 750 years. It rains normally but it may cause skin cancer if you expose yourself to it. This information is from the National Space Agency in the United States.”

The “dark circle” supposedly appeared around the moon, but this part of the rumor was left out of the Chinese version. Other versions used “NASA” instead of “the National Space Agency in the United States.”

I felt clever for figuring that out in like April.  Now I’m just exhausted from the hysteria in China over swine flu in America and telling people that swine flu has not been a serious news story there for months.  I’ve have a colleague who was on a flight from the US to Shanghai that was QUARANTINED in Shanghai for one week in June, because – apparently – someone on his plane came down with swine flu like symptoms.  I myself just returned to Shanghai from the US yesterday ~ the entry procedures were totally reasonable.  But my ayi won’t come this week because her main employer forbids her from doing so — they fear that she could catch swine flu from me and pass it on to them.  I can live without my ayi for a week (Nator, hold your snarky comments) but why oh why must Chinese people be led so out of touch of reality by state media.

The last few days, though, I’ve noticed them getting aggressive.  On February 5th, I was identified by them well before I got to the bank’s door, and one guy walked along with me giving the standard greeting but with much more urgency in his voice.  Dismissing him, but before inside the bank, another guy gave me the same pitch, and actually walked one step with me inside the bank.   Once safely inside the bank, I looked out and saw yet another guy pacing around like a caged tiger and clutching a huge stack of crisp RMB notes. 

Are they trying to dump their RMB?  Do they know something? Is RMB depreciation on the way?

After I completed my bank business – which did not involve “changing money” – I stepped outside and asked one of the guys why they were trying so hard to actively change money.  Did they expect the RMB to depreciate? The response – an adamant, “no, it’s going to appreciate.”  To that I said well, “I’ve heard a rumor that it’s going to depreciate”, which was met with an emphatic “Impossible! bu keneng!” and a dismissive wave of the hand. 

In truth, I hadn’t heard any such rumor, except commentary and my own view that now is probably a good time for PBoC to devalue if they want to go that course.  It’ll help boost exports, as the explanation goes, and really what is the US going to do about it given its problems and how much it needs China’s help generally? Anyway, here’s the rumor – a recent report by the Ministry of Finance saying that the rate should go to RMB 6.93 = USD 1, a modest loss compared to the current rate of about RMB 6.83 = USD 1.

More than 100 terror victims filed a class action lawsuit August 21 against the Los Angeles branch of Bank of China (BOC) for allowing millions of dollars to be wired by Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Hamas and PIJ are designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, and such wire transfers are a crime under American law…

The plaintiffs allege that beginning in 2003, BOC executed dozens of wire transfers for the Hamas and PIJ totaling several million dollars. These dollar transfers were initiated by PIJ and Hamas leadership in Iran and Syria, were processed through BOC’s branches in the United States, and were sent on to a BOC account operated by a senior operative of the Hamas and PIJ in southern China’s Guangzhou City. If the accusation is true, BOC would have facilitated the funding of terrorist activities. 

In 2005, Israel counter-terrorism officers met with officials from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and BOC regarding these wire transfers. Despite Israeli warnings, BOC persisted in wiring funds for Hamas and PIJ. 

If true, this is another example of how China’s “internal affairs” (in this case, corruption and lack of oversight) inevitably become external problems that affect the rest of the world.

This article says that you can exchange old notes for new ones at any of China’s Big Four banks in Beijing, but that there may be problems doing so in other places.  Why?  “Because of the earthquake.”  My initial scan of the Chinese blogs suggests that there are shortages in availability of these notes and that some cities don’t have any at all.  Hoarding could take place.  The picture in this story shows people in a long line waiting to exchange bank notes.  Heaven help you if you have any real banking to do in China this week.

Of note, this is the only bill in circulation that does not have Mao Zedong’s image on it.  From this I predict Mao will be largest fazed out of upcoming Chinese currency (but not eliminated).  This is a very logical first step toward achieving that.  It will also be interesting to see if a larger denomination Chinese note is brought into circulation.  There have been rumors in the past of an RMB 500 note.  The current top valued note is only RMB 100 (less than US$15), though personally I like that and don’t hope to see an RMB 500 note any time soon.

10 July - edited 60million to 6 million notes that were printed (600万).  nator emailed me to point out that is only one bill per 200 people. 

It says that all students in certain areas of the school have to move out by July 5. (It’s “for the safety of the dormitories”, of course.)  Certain areas will be cleared out completely to make way for various Olympic teams and officials, and all students will need written permission with the seal of various school bodies in order to stay on campus. The application process to stay on campus is detailed for students who have work related to the Olympics (most likely as volunteers), as well as for any other students with “special reasons”. No one who does not have special permission will be allowed to stay on campus.

This has come as a surprise to many students. Although many were notified months ago that facilities at their schools would be used for the Olympics, it was not stated that students would not be allowed to stay in the dormitories over the summer. Even though many students will in fact be doing volunteer work for the Olympics, and even though many others will choose to go home for the summer break, there are surely tens of thousands of others who want to stay around: graduate students writing dissertations, science majors doing labratory research, and students doing summer work internships, to name a few. Most of these students would have difficulty renting an apartment in Beijing during normal times, and rents will likely be unusally high this summer as landlords look for wealthy visitors coming in for the Games.

I looked around for links online, but most had already by blocked, so here is a screen capture from the ChinaRen online forums instead (click for full size):

Quick summary (Again, I don’t have time for the full translation right now): The author pasts part of an IM chat with a friend who is attending graduate school in Beijing. The friend mentions that all the students in his school are being kicked out to make way for a team of Olympics “representatives” from the US. The author complains about the forced evictions (rough translation):

This is going too far. . . We’ve already done so much — building the Olympic village, all the stadiums and gymnasiums, and all the infrastructure improvements. What else do you want from us?

My sources tell me that that only certain schools have made such announcements, but that others are likely to do so soon. Notably, nothing yet has been heard from Peking University and Tsinghua University, but if students there are asked to leave, you can be sure that there will a lot more talk about this. And if no more students are asked to leave, those who have been asked to leave are likely to be even more angry that some of their peers at other schools that will get to stick around in their inexpensive dorm rooms all summer. 

Please help pass this around!  Two people from the Zhongjiang Red Cross came to my pharmacy today to buy RMB10,000 worth of medicines, but demanded that we issue an invoice for RMB50,000.  We (First Pharmaecuticals Manufacturer of Chengdu) did not comply, resulting in the management of the neighboring Tonghua Yijia Pharmacy giving it (a receipt) to them.  These people are terrible!  According to State regulations, all donations go into a fund, and they can legally take 10% of this fund for administrative expenditures.  Under the current law this is considered legal!  Therefore, of the several billion in RMB already raised, several hundred million has already been taking out.  If you don’t believe it, you can ask the fund official right here.  Now of the 90% remaining of donation money, are the materials being purchased done so at the lowest market price? Are they being bought at bulk price? Is the purchase receipt showing 50 RMB or 500 RMB? Who knows? Our media and great people should now demand that that the purchase receipts from each day should be made public!  Don’t just make public the receipts of donations collected, we want to see the purchase receipts! Where are these trillions of RMB going each day!!  It’s Chinese people, please forward this!  If the people won’t take pains to investigate the government, then the government will tend towards rot!

SHTig adds (5/26 5:00pm PRC time):  This rumor led the Red Cross chapter in question to issue this formal statement on the Zhongjiang government website, saying this rumor is bunk and beckoning people to report names of those who are damaging the reputation of the Red Cross without warrant.  Also, since I first posted this article, I learned that Tonghua (the location of the factory that was supposedly next door to the Chenghua store that refused to give out the inflated invoice) — is in Jilin province, some 3 hours away by plane!  But none of this stops the non-thinking hoards to pass along dumb messages like this…

帮人转发的，看看！今天又两个中江县红十字会的人来我们这里购买了1万多元的救灾药品，但要求我们开5万多元的发票。我们（成都制药一厂）没有答应，结果由隔壁通化一家药厂经营部开给他们了 这些人渣！按照国家规定，所有捐款到了基金会，他们合法的拿走10%作为行政经费.按照现存法律来说，这是合法的！所以几十亿捐款已经有几亿元被合法拿走！不信你可以问问身边的基金会的人。那么，剩下90%的捐款，采购的物资是否按照市场最低价格？是否按照批发价？采购帐篷的时候是50元还是500元？谁能知道呢？我们的媒体和广大市民，现在应该要求公布每天的采购清单了！别再单方面公布捐款清单，我们要知道采购清单！几十亿元每天的使用动向！！是中国人的，请转发！如果民众都没有努力监督政府 那么政府有腐败现象 ！

The silliness continues online as China’s citizens struggle to find an explanation for the horrific earthquake in Sichuan:

Gossip sites are full of speculation that four of the five cartoon mascots have fulfilled prophesies of doom with one more, connected to the Yangtze River, still to come, the South China Morning Post said.

Jingjing, a panda, is the animal most closely associated with Sichuan province where the earthquake struck.

Huanhuan, a cartoon character with flame-red hair, is being linked by bloggers to the Olympic torch that has been dogged by anti-China protests on its round-the-world tour.

Yingying, an antelope, is an animal confined to the borders of Tibet, which has been the scene of riots and the cause of international protests against China, the bloggers say.

Nini, represented by a kite, is being viewed as a reference to the “kite city” of Weifang, in Shandong, where there was a deadly train crash last month.

That leaves only Beibei, represented by a sturgeon fish, which online doomsayers suggest could indicate a looming disaster in the Yangtze River, the only place where sturgeon is found.

Also see here for further discussion of the fuwa connection, along with alternate explanations involving numerology and feng shui.

MUL adds: Great theory, but isn’t Nini a sparrow rather than a kite? What does Weifeng have to do with birds?

SHTig adds: Never realized this before, but Yingying is kind of hot.

MUL adds: Do we know if Yingying is male or female?

SHTig adds:  umm, according to this, Yingying is male, and a minor.  I hereby recant my previous statement.  Not that there would have been anything wrong liking a little boy. 

Here is a wow story (重庆渝北区红十字会否认用救灾款吃喝). To summarize the story:

The Yubei, Chongqing Municipality Red Cross made an appeal for donations after the May 12 earthquake in nearby Sichuan province. And for the past few days, a message has been passed around on QQ that says (translation): “On May 16, the Red Cross of Yubei District, Chongqing City got a great response to its appeal for donations of cash and goods to area hospitals for disaster relief. However, at noon today, all of the Red Cross members hand lunch at the best restaurant in Yubei, occupying 6 tables at RMB 6,000 per table, having both lunch and dinner there.”

The QQ message led many “netizens” to question whether the Red Cross used donation funds to whoop it up, and to attack the Red Cross by saying that even if it wasn’t misusing funds, this is no time to be whooping it up at a feast.

The story goes on to quote an official from the Yubei Red cross who said, “on the 16th, we were so busy collecting money. How would we have had time to go to that hotel and eat and drink. Besides, the oversight department has extremely strict standards on our donation collection, no one would have the audacity to use donations for (personal) meals.” Another Red Cross official went on to explain that a Yubei Construction Committee member had invited them as guests that day to have lunch at a local restaurant, and that “If netizens are saying that we used public funds for our meals and that we had 6 tables and whatnot, well it’s just not true”. The Construction Committee Office of Yubei District, Chongqing confirmed that they had invited the Red Cross workers to have lunch, and that because the Planning Bureau’s cafeteria was full, they went to an outside local restaurant. A total of 17 people from the Construction Committee and the Red Cross ate together, spending a total of 786 RMB.

My comments? First, the QQ allegation is that the Red Cross ate and drank up a bill of over US$5,000! Any reasonable thinking person should reasonably deduce that this is just not very likely. But the story puts the issue to rest. The Red Cross people went to a local restaurant as guests of the Construction Committee. They had a lunch that cost $112 total for 17 people. It was totally legit. Chinese blogosphere is littered with posts attacking the Yubei Red Cross. That’s less than $100 for lunch for 17 people. But that hasn’t stopped the bashing of the Red Cross. Even with this explanation, netizens are bashing the Yubei Red Cross for various, unsubstantiated, reasons. I just don’t get it.

I posted with excitement a few months ago  (back in February) about stumbling across a soon-to-be opened Fatburger on Queen’s Road East, across from the Hopewell Centre.  This is, or was, to be Fatburger’s first outpost in Hong Kong.  The Hong Kong Fatburger was originally announced back in November last year. 

Here we are, it’s mid-May and … nothing.  No change whatsoever.  Timeout Hong Kong, which by the way just began publishing in Hong Kong this month, informs that there’s been a snag with government approvals.  When will the Fatburger open?  No one knows.

SHTig Adds:  Wikipedia says the Fatburger is still “upcoming” for Hong Kong.  But personally I’m more interested in Wikipedia’s mentions that there is already a Fatburger in the Venetian Macau.  Ever been to the Venetian?  I don’t know if it’s exactly like the one in Vegas or not, but either way it’s tacky despite its grandeur.  A Fatburger there fits in perfectly.  Win a bunch of money, celebrate at the Fatburger.  Lose your shirt, and hopefully you still have enough dough for a Fatburger.