Extra! Extra! Pandas, trains, toilets, hot pot, fireworks ...

panda baby.JPG

  • Good to see Chinese entrepreneurial spirit is still going strong -- this time in Hunan province. Thirty-five-year-old Pang Zeng Sheng has seen a gap in the panda diplomacy market, and has bought 16 website domain names that are related to the two pandas that China gave Taiwan -- Tuantuan and Yuanyuan (maybe Jen Chung would be interested?). He has set his sights on 500,000 yuan bounties for sites featuring both names, and 100,000 yuan for a single name. He opined, "I am confident about these websites, which should be valuable. They are legal, because they don't violate anyone's rights", however some are saying that the government may snatch them from his hands as they are of public interest.
  • More and more Chinese people are travelling abroad ...
  • ... although finding a seat on a train inside the country, after the Spring Festival, is still mission impossible.
  • You should now find it much easier to rest your sweet behind on a toilet, should your bladder fill at an inopportune moment when you're out and about. Public toilet services are still improving: "[P]ublic toilets can easily be found now by simply dialing 962468 and by providing your closest intersection, a street name, or some symbolic buildings around you, Xinmin Evening News reported today."
  • Xiao Fei Yang is travelling to America (maybe no one there will rip off their trademark).
  • Yes, Chinese people spent a lot of money in the new year festival season, in fact 15.5 percent more than last year.
  • Finally, EastSouthWestNorth carries an interesting -- if slightly conspiracy-theory-based -- piece about "journalistic guidance" and the fireworks in Beijing.

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By Nick W in , on February 6, 2006 6:45 PM Comments 0 Likes Likes

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