05.18.08
Posted in Food, Hong Kong and Macau, Rumors at 21:12 by Mul
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.
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05.15.08
Posted in Rumors, USA, Wenchuan Earthquake at 20:21 by SHTig
This article (没有证据表明中国四川大地震是美国的地球物理武器的作用, “No proof that America’s global geophysical weapons are the cause of the earthquake in Sichuan, China”) is all over the Chinese blogs. Despite the title, its thesis is that you need to open your mind to accept the possibility that the US is using unconventional weapon technology to make the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma), the snowstorm of February 2008 in China, and now the earthquake of May 2008 in Sichuan China. It postulates that only an advanced country like the US would be able to pull something like this off (though noting that dispersted Soviet scientists could do it too, and could be used by states like India, but ultimately concludes that it was the US). The article says it’s easy to understand why the US would want this – the earthquake would destroy Chengdu’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center, destroy Chengdu’s Aircraft Corporate, destroy the weapons program in Tibet and cause unrest in Tibet, would destroy many plants located in Sichuan, and would lower the global price of oil (by reducing China’s demand), would weaken China’s relations with Southeast Asian neighbors, etc.
SH Tig Adds: Update of 16May2008 – I see Sina took that article down. It is still findable elsewhere if you use the above Chinese characters in your search string.
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05.09.08
Posted in Chinese Nationalism, Food, Industry, McDonald's in China, Olympics, Rumors at 16:16 by SHTig
China’s chip over the monks (and Coca-Cola’s LIES about China)
True to our name, Truth from Facts weighs in on the Coke controversy sweeping the Chinese blogs.
Read the rest of this entry »
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04.18.08
Posted in Chinese Nationalism, Industry, Internet and Media, Laowai, Olympics, Rumors at 12:13 by SHTig
An email petition swirling around the internet (search the Chinese characters to see the dozens of Chinese blogs carrying this):
重大消息: 法国政府准备拿出二千万美金，家乐福自己再拿出五百万美金，用于五一降价促消，听说家乐福高层很狂妄，让中国人在五一降价中挤破家乐福，最好踩死几个人．法国电视台也在积极做准备，拍摄中国人到家乐福疯狂购物的镜像．让中国人自打自的嘴．
如你是爱国的中国人，把此信息传给你的亲戚朋友，不要到家乐福购物，不要为了丁点的小便宜，而丢了尊严，丢了民族志气，让外国人笑话．再不能让外国人把我们看作东亚病夫了.虽然我们的努力可能微不足道,但大家团结起来一定要让外国人看看我们的力量,有良心的中国人转发10个朋友
SHTig Quick Translation: Important Information: The French government is preparing US$ 20,000,000, and Carrefour is preparing US$5,000,000 for a May 1st sales promotion. It’s said that Carrefour’s senior management is insolently planning to cram pack its stores on May 1st with Chinese people, with the hopefully result of causing some people to be trampled to death. French television is also actively preparing to record the mad rush of Chinese shoppers at Carrefour stores, to show Chinese people smashing each other up.
If you are a patriotic Chinese, send this information to your friends and family, and don’t go shopping at Carrefour to chase some tiny discount that will cause loss of respect, national spirit and will make the foreigners laugh. We can’t let the foreigners once again make us the sick men of East Asia. Even though our efforts might turn out to be negligible, by us all uniting together it will show our strength to the foreigners. Good hearted Chinese people please send this to 10 friends.
SHTig’s Quick Comments:
1. I don’t believe this in full, especially the ridiculous part about trampling and wanting the Chinese to lose face. I did go shopping at Carrefour on April 13 in Shanghai. They had a very good promotion running (spend RMB500 on select items, get a voucher for RMB250 to be used within April). April 13 was a Sunday. The store was crowded, but not nearly as it usually is. The checkout line was shorter than normal. Anecdotal.
2. This note has an unnecessary pandering tone to “the foreigners” as it is. Are any of us foreigners really that important?
3. Carrefour is an unfortunate target in all of this (as is the Olympic torch). Can someone tell these petitioners that Carrefour is not a State-owned enterprise, so attacking it is not akin to attacking the French government?
4. One thing is universal with these spam requests — no matter what the language, they beckon you to forward them to others. Would be funny if they had added “send this to 10 people or else your daughter will hook up with a laowai”
NATOR ADDS: I got this letter, with ” 爱国的中国人转发50个 ” (“Patriotic Chinese people please send this to 50 friends”) added to the last sentence.
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04.07.08
Posted in Beijing, Olympics, Rumors, Travel and Tourism at 12:03 by Nator
On April 6 the South China Morning Post offered the most solid confirmation to date (subscription required) of the recent rumors that China visas are going to be harder to obtain until after the Olympics:
Beijing has stopped issuing multiple-entry visas, risking major inconvenience to foreigners who travel to the mainland regularly, especially on business. Hong Kong travel agents say the ban will stay in place until after the Olympic Games.
Travellers are now restricted to single- or double-entry visas valid for 30 days. Multiple-entry visas that have not expired are still valid. . . . Read the rest of this entry »
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12.16.07
Posted in Health, Rumors, The Second Tier at 18:56 by Nator
Today my girlfriend received an SMS from a friend, a grad student at one of China’s top universities here in Beijing:
最近少出去少在外面吃东西！一伙新疆感染爱滋病毒的人在全国部分城市通过竹签挑破自己皮肤沾血来传染给他人。把血滴到食物里！事情被证实是真的。已有部分大学生感染，不管怎样小心吧！尽量不要外出！最好用自己的碗筷，预防为好！
Roughly translated:
Avoid going out and eating outside in the next few days! A man with AIDS from Xinjiang has been going around to cities all over the country and spreading the disease by pricking himself with a bamboo stick and then dripping blood into other people’s food! This is not a hoax. Some university students have already been infected, so please be careful! Don’t go out unless you have to, and if you eat out, bring your own eating utensils!
Apparently Xinjiangers, already widely maligned as the “Thieves of China“, aren’t satisfied with just pickpocketing anymore. Now at least one is traveling across the country and dropping his AIDS into the food of unsuspecting students–mostly Han students, no doubt.
I didn’t know that one could get AIDS from eating a drop or two of AIDS-infected blood–unless it’s super AIDS, in which case all bets are off. At least we now know that bringing your own sanitized bowl and chopsticks will kill the super AIDS, though.
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12.04.07
Posted in Awesome, Internet and Media, Rumors at 17:49 by ODB
According to a recent Reuters report, China has dismissed Internet gossip that its first photo of the moon taken from a lunar orbiter might have been plagiarized from NASA.
Some Chinese Internet users have questioned its originality after comparing it with an almost identical lunar image from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2005.
The article brings further comments from Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist for the lunar probe:
“The Chinese and U.S. lunar images looked similar only because they had aimed at the same area of the moon’s southern hemisphere…”
“But a careful examination will tell some small differences…”
“There were two craters on a certain spot of the Chinese photo, but there was only one on that same spot of the American picture…”
“Maybe it’s because the resolution of the American photo was not high enough, or a new pit might have been generated by an asteroid hitting the moon between 2005 and 2007.”
I guess this too can be added to the long list of fake products in China.
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11.25.07
Posted in Health, Rumors at 21:38 by Nator
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.
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11.22.07
Posted in Rumors, Travel and Tourism at 11:25 by SHTig
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 »
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11.20.07
Posted in Industry, Law and Order, Rumors at 13:04 by Nator
Frederik Balfour at Businessweek writes about China’s “sky high” gambling sector stock market and makes an excellent point:
The conventional wisdom is that China’s greenhorn individual investors will take the hit, while corporate China—the companies that make shirts, build ships, and run utilities—won’t feel much at all. The real economy these companies operate in is far too strong to be affected by stock wobbles, goes the argument. The price of corporate shares may fall, but underlying earnings will power on.
That line of argument, though, is looking suspect for the simple reason that companies big and small are now playing the markets with abandon, using corporate funds to invest in each other’s initial public offerings and bolster their bottom lines. Although figures are hard to pin down, Morgan Stanley figures a third of reported corporate earnings in China stem from investments outside companies’ core businesses—which in almost all cases means plowing money into stocks. “It’s quite dangerous for these Chinese companies because these gains have no cash basis,” says Ding Yuan, a professor of accounting at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “It’s really frightening.”
It has been fascinating to watch how quickly Chinese companies and individuals have jumped into the world of investing over past few years, first in real estate and now in stocks. I do admit feeling a bit envious Read the rest of this entry »
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