08.11.08
Posted in Beijing, Industry, Olympics, The Second Tier, Wuhan at 18:14 by Nator
The rest of the country continues to sacrifice for Beijing’s Olympic party. Yesterday SHTig and I visited one of the nicest (and largest) office towers in Beijing. The entire building was frigid–on a Sunday, when perhaps a few dozen people were inside. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports on electricity rationing in Wuhan:
The provincial government decided to cut power supplies to the capital city of Wuhan by 34 percent, the city of Huangshi by 31 percent and Huanggang by 16 percent, the local economic commission said in a statement posted on its Web site.
China, facing its sixth year of electricity shortages, mothballed 3 percent of its coal-fired generating capacity as of July 25 after fuel supplies dwindled, State Grid Corp. of China said last week. Coal stockpiles at Hubei’s power plants have fallen below the “caution line” of 750,000 metric tons, the provincial government said.
“Insufficient coal supplies forced the closure of an increasing number of power plants in the province,” the commission said. “We decided to start rationing power supplies from Aug. 5 in order to ensure basic power demand for the summer and Olympics are met.”
Unfortunately for Wuhan and the rest of China, the current shortage is not being caused by the Olympics alone, but is rather part of a much greater problem:
State Grid said last week 46 percent of the power stations on its network have coal stockpiles below the “caution line” or seven days of consumption. More than 1 billion people rely on State Grid for their power.
The Three Gorges hydropower station in Hubei had a daily output of 440 million kilowatt-hours yesterday [August 5 or 6], or 5 percent of the nation’s total consumption, the Xinhua News Agency reported today.
Permalink
06.03.08
Posted in Food, Industry, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake, Wuhan at 13:11 by Nator
The earthquake donation roll call extends from the largest companies in China down to the smallest. This photo is from a poster on Hubuxiang, an alley in Wuhan famous for its dozens of stalls selling tasty snacks. About 80 stalls are listed, with individual donations as small as 10 RMB mentioned. Most of the snacks here cost 1-3 RMB, and thousands of people eat on Hubuxiang every day, so 10 RMB isn’t exactly a generous donation, even for these small-time proprietors. I wonder whether those in the 10 RMB group are proud or ashamed to have their name and donation amount listed like this — probably a bit of both.
Permalink
05.22.08
Posted in Media/Internet, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake at 21:29 by Mul
After publishing what Gawker aptly labeled “earthquake porn“, a small Chinese magazine called New Travel Weekly has been shut down. The magazine apparently published a spread of photos of bikini-clad models traipsing about amid the ruin and rubble of the earthquake. Very tasteful. The government, surprisingly, did not think it to be so tasteful - rather they labeled it an “extremely evil social influence” . After some “rectification” it is possible that the magazine may be re-opened.
With a new managing editor, editor and deputy editor, natch.
Permalink
05.21.08
Posted in Chinese Nationalism, Media/Internet, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake, USA at 20:02 by SHTig
Chinese netizens express overwhelming thanks and appreciation to the Bushes and the United States
Today George W. Bush and his wife are very popular people in China. That’s not something you’ll read very often. And all it took them was a short trip from Pennsylvania Avenue down to the Chinese Embassay in Washington, to mourn the vicitms and sign a book of condolensces in memory of the Sichuan earthquake victims.
To see the American president bow his head in mourning (吊唁) to the victims plays exceedingly well to a prestige conscious culture that has felt slighted lately. So far, nearly 1800 comments have been posted to this story (in Chinese).
The comments are very interesting - I’d say 90% of them are positive toward President Bush, his wife, and Americans! This is unlike what one usually finds in the Chinese Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
05.20.08
Posted in Law and Order, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake at 13:46 by SHTig
There has been regular information online and television about how to adopt an earthquake orphan. According to this explanation, the Adoption Law of the PRC (收养法) clearly stipulates 4 conditions: the adopter must not have any children, must be able to raise and educate the adoptee, must not be ill or deemed medically unfit to adopt a child and must be at least 30 years of age. An additional stipulation is that if an unmarried man wants to adopt a female orphan, the age difference between the two must be 40 years or greater. (Go ahead, imagine all the dirty-old-men scenarios that could exist around this loophole.)
Orphans are Like Puppies
As for the the comments to this explanation, I’m sure they are well intentioned, but to me they read like requests for a free puppy. Post after post there is a similar theme - ‘I think the law should be amended because I already have a child but want another child of his/her age. , or ‘I want to raise a baby, under 2 years old (the same age as my son/daughter, the same/opposite sex as my son/daughter). Here is my email, please contact me”. Many, many of these comments are confessions from mothers saying that Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
05.19.08
Posted in Manners, Media/Internet, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake at 00:22 by SHTig
A few days ago I reported on China’s earthquake donation effort. Little did I know then that the donation effort would blow up into a full fledged attention grabbing event. I’ve had CCTV1 on for the past few hours. A program just ended where company after company made very conspicuous donations (putting huge packages of money into boxes). This was interrupted by songs and kind words, but the focus of the program was to broadcast the companies that were giving the most. For the record, Tianjin Rongcheng United Steel donated the most, having pledged RMB 30,000,000. This was already the largest corporate donation made but during this live program on CCTV1, as the Tianjin Steel person was putting all that cash into the box, he spoke up to say “I’m now deciding on the spot to raise this amount to RMB 100,000,000.” The company had originally donated 10,000,000 before raising it, to stay ahead of the Jones’, errr, Wangs’. The person (a director of the company) was an orphan from the Tangshan Earthquake 32 years ago.
I have to say, I have never observed anything like what is happening in China with this donation effort. It is becoming nearly as big a focus as the earthquake. From the Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
05.18.08
Posted in Environment, Media/Internet, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake at 20:01 by SHTig
Sina.com is now reporting that the Wenchuan, Sichuan earthquake measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale. No wonder they could feel it in Beijing and Thailand. The China State Council has ordered that from May 19-21 all flags be flown at half mast.
SHTig Update at11:45pm PRC time (5.18): CNN is reporting on the 3 days of mourning that will begin in China tomorrow. CCTV1 has reported that when the mourning period begins at 2:28pm (1 week after the earthquake), everyone should observe 3 minutes of silence. People should stop work, classes should stop, traffic should stop. This is an interesting time to be in China and observe the country’s response to the calamity. 加油中国!
Permalink
05.15.08
Posted in Chinese Nationalism, Media/Internet, Olympics, The Second Tier at 12:11 by SHTig
Chinese are coming together to extend moral support, cash and blood to help the victims in the Sichuan disaster. It’s a heartening thing to witness. So much blood was collected on Wednesday 5.14 in Beijing and Shanghai, that the blood collectors had to turn people away.
Sina.com is keeping a list of companies that have donated RMB 1,000,000 or more. It’s good to see lots of major Chinese corporates kicking in some cash. Several foreign companies with a presence in China are big donors too (Mary Kay, Intel, GE, Carrefour, IDG (venture capitalists putting their money to great use!)).
The French retailer and target of Chinese nationalist fury over the Olympic Flame controversy, Carrefour, has donated RMB 2 million (US$290,000) in earthquake relief. Chinese ‘netizen’ response is mixed. One site has mixed postings of thanks and others pointing out it’s a pittance considering Carrefour “broke the hearts of all Chinese people”, with one posting a picture of a french baby giving the bird, cynicism was expressed here from a user named “son of a bitch little Japan (狗日小日本) that Carrefour wouldn’t have made the donation if not for the boycott of its stores in China earlier this month. But lots of commenters kept it positive with thanks, and one here saying this proves Carrefour is a friend not an enemy of China.
Permalink
05.12.08
Posted in Media/Internet, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake at 17:22 by SHTig
It’s now 5:30pm in China. The 7.8 earthquake with an epicenter in Wenchuan, Sichuan province that struck at 2:28pm is being reported on local TV and the internet. While State media is reporting that Premier Wen Jiabao is headed to the area and that emergency aid is being sent, and that Hu Jintao has said the injured must be helped immediately. However there have been no reports of injuries or deaths. Television reporters on CCTV9, the Chinese language news channel, have not even mentioned the possibility of casualties. They are currently doing interviews with reporters around the country, but have not been able to reach any reporters near the area of Wenchuan.
My friend in Shanghai from Shaanxi Province (which borders Sichuan) called a friend in Shaanxi. The friend said that students in Shaanxi have been hospitalized due to falling debris in their school. My friend in Shanghai from Sichuan has been calling Sichuan but Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
03.18.08
Posted in Environment, Industry, The Second Tier, Wuhan at 17:50 by Nator
From Xinhuanet:
WUHAN, March 15 (Xinhua) — A five-year pig raising project involving 1.36 billion U.S. dollars in investment launched on Saturday in Hubei, making the central China province the nation’s largest pig raising base.
China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp.( COFCO), the country’s largest oils and food importer and exporter and leading food manufacturer, started the project in Wuhan, the provincial capital.
Permalink
« Previous entries
