Weird News: Pet plots, long arms and very public toilets

We're not sure if we like weird news because it proves how normal we are or just because it proves that the real world is stranger than fiction and hence, not boring. Here's a run down of news items we've come across recently:

• From Weird Asia News: Would you rather pay 2,500 yuan for your dearly departed pet's tomb, or 20,000 yuan? The price depends on whether or not the plot is part of a group tomb or a single one. Stop for a moment and think: What kind of afterlife do I want for my chinchillas?
• The world's tallest man, the 2.36 meter tall Bao Xishun, helped aquarium doctors by using his 1.06 reach to pull some plastic out of the stomachs of dolphins.
• From Weird Asia News, again: Shanghai's free hugs team might have gotten the cold shoulder, but that's not going to stop the free smiles movement from bringing a touch of human warmth to the cold, distant, alienated souls of Shanghai.
• Chongqing has some outdoor toilets on its famous "Foreigners' Street" which have aroused some curiosity because they cover a man's privates but not his face. While local guards and employees have used such restrooms, most men have found it too embarrassing. The women's bathroom covers the person entirely.
• Shanghai's Xiyue hospital is a five-star post-natal hospital where the cheapest rooms come to 40,000 RMB per month. That's a bargain compared to the luxury rooms, some of which cost nearly 10,000 RMB per day—a rate that the hospital considers "reasonable." Reasonable to Bill Gates and an oil sheikh, maybe.

Photo from China Daily.