Chinese cricket and golf, Olympic journalism and fake ski slopes

Not content with the prospect of being the next world power in cheerleading, China has now set its sights on cricket. The quintessentially British sport that is played mostly in Commonwealth nations has had a surprisingly long history here though, with the first recorded match played in Shanghai in 1858, between a team of officers from the HMS Highflyer and a Shanghai XI. Now the Asian Cricket Council wants China to start playing the game in a big way, sending cricket experts and coaches from Australia, Britain, India and Sri Lanka to help develop the sport. Now, Bhutan isn't exactly the greatest sporting nation, but in this clip we find out that they do beat China in at least one sport: cricket. Golf, as it turns out, is doing much better here. Thanks to corporate sponsors, prize money for certain tournaments has been bumped up 100 times to about US$5 million, and set to rise further (although as far as we understand, most of that money is being won by foreign golfers so it remains debatable what good is being done for Chinese golf). Liang Wenchong (梁文冲), China's top golfer, is only 30 but has made waves last year by making it to the top of the Asian Tour's Order of Merit. He is now Asia's top player, 83rd worldwide and has a permanent place in the European Tour. For golf aficionados out there, here's a shameless plug: Watch out for Par for China, a book that is currently being written by Shanghaiist's managing editor.

The second clip on the right includes an interesting interview with the editor of AroundTheRings.com, a niche publication for all things Olympic-related, as well as a segment on a fake ski slope that is apparently all the rage in Beijing at the moment.