Despite China's strident attempts to protect itself from the A/H1N1 virus, a domestic case was discovered yesterday in Guangdong province. The patient had been in direct contact with another suspected flu patient, one who was confirmed to be a carrier of the virus on Thursday.
What’s causing these wing-like appendages is still a mystery, but theories have been aplenty since the first incidence of winged cats appeared in Sichuan. Cat owners there reasoned that the province's hot summer spell and a stressful love life for their felines were causing wings to appear. Scientists were not convinced.
Though Deng Yujiao, the 21-year-old waitress accused of killing a government official, may have been saved by the flurry of internet postings in her support, the same netizen fervor may be making it dangerous for reporters to get the full story.
Yup, “Shanghai Metro Pole Dancing” is as avant-garde of a public art form as it gets in Shanghai, and faithful subway riders - to their dismay, we hear - have been getting more than they’re paying for.
This news piece from Shanghai Daily about a man who got drunk and raped his girlfriend's mother is pretty horrific, but we were particularly struck by a contention near the bottom of the article that the perpetrator, Liu Changren, had been accused of having sex with the mother last year as well. Allegedly, Liu told her she was possessed by the evil spirit of her dead husband and needed to sleep with a young man to cast him out. It sounded very similar to a previous sexorcism story we'd heard, only that guy's name was Ji Renhu. So... is this an editorial mistake or is there now a trend of young men in Baoshan district routinely performing sexorcisms on their girlfriend's mothers?
What was meant to be a friendly game of basketball in Hunan Province has burst into a furious debate on the internet, after an American player tossed money out to a crowd of students... and some students actually scrambled to pick it up.
So now not only are you not allowed to pose as a fake doctor (sadly killing off most expat men's chances of appearing on Chinese television), you're also not allowed to endorse a product without knowing if it actually works. A law that makes celebrities liable if their endorsed products turn out to be fake or dangerous has gone into affect today. According to the newest interpretation by the Supreme People's Court, “If these people know the nature of fake and inferior drugs but still help promote them, they will be dealt with as accomplices of producers and dealers of the products.” It doesn't really state how the courts plan on making sure celebrities knew their products were harmful before they started endorsing them, which calls into question how effective the law will actually be. Depending on how far the courts take this, it'll either have a chilling effect on celebrities appearing at all on ads, or everything will stay exactly the same. Source: China Daily
Did hell freeze over? Because somebody was actually able to win a censorship case against the Chinese net police... in China! Hu Xingdou, an economics professor who discusses politically sensitive topics on his blog, unsurprisingly had it shut down for “hosting illegal content” by his ISP Beijing Xin Net. Surprisingly, he decided to fight back, suing them in April. Even more surprisingly, a judge in Beijing has now ruled that Beijing Xin Net was wrong to close his blog. The Daxing district court said the company had failed to prove that it had contacted Hu about the “illegal content” before shutting down his little part of the web, and therefore owed him the 1,370RMB fee he had paid for two years of services. Okay, so it's not exactly a victory for free speech, but it's at least a step towards not being shut down willy nilly anymore. Source: Ars Technica
Another day, another real estate dispute in Shanghai. This time around, it's residents in the Dong Cheng Community in Pudong fighting against the company that built their compound, according to this BBS thread on Sohu.
It's good to know that despite us being bosom buddies, China is still “resolutely opposed” to North Korea's nuclear weapons test. A Foreign Ministry statement called Pyongyang's test in defiance of the international community and its own commitments against nuclear weaponry. It called for North Korea to avoid actions that would raise the tension between it and other nations, and return to dismantling its nuclear programs. But will stern words from their compatriots (and aid providers... and tickets to the 60th Anniversary bash providers) be enough to stop Kim Jong-Il from going ahead with his atomic vision? Nobody puts Dear Leader in a corner! Source: AP
Those two suspected cases we told you about this morning have now been confirmed! That means that Shanghai has now gotten its first swine flu victim. The 30-year-old who arrived from Australia on Saturday was hustled straight to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center after registering at 38.8 degrees upon getting off the plane. He had first started experiencing symptoms, including runny nose and fever, three days before his flight. 24 people who were in close contact with him on the plane are now under quarantine and the Shanghai government is on the look out for 20 more passengers that ought to be under observation as well. If you were on or know anyone who was on the Air China CA178 flight from Melbourne on Saturday, please contact authorities now by calling 12320. Source: Shanghai Daily
Has KFC been substituting cod fish in its food with some other type of species? According to Xinmin, an insider at the fast food establishment has alleged that it uses a species of fish called "Dragon Cod" (龙鳕鱼) instead.
Now that the suspects have been rounded up and everything has settled down a bit, we can confirm that the shooting in Shanghai's Putuo district on Friday was a fatal clash between two gangs. All in all, four homemade (homemade?) guns were confiscated and 10 people were detained, of which two have now passed away from gunshot wounds. While police would give no more explanation than that the argument was over a dispute, Shanghai Daily speculated that it was a drug deal gone wrong. The last time we saw a shooting was way back in 2002, and there were two injuries. Source: Xinhua
There have now been nine confirmed cases of H1N1 on th Chinese mainland, with two new patients cropping up in Beijing and Fujian province over the weekend. In Fujian, a two-year-old girl tested positive for swine flu after returning from the U.S. with her family via Hong Kong. Meanwhile, in Beijing, the confirmed was a 46-year-old man surnamed Zhang who had flown over from Canada. Unfortunately, he took the subway several times before showing symptoms, possibly contaminating all of Beijing. Meanwhile, there are two suspected cases in Zhenjiang province and Shanghai. The Zhenjiang patient is a 19-year-old boy who came to New York. The Shanghai case is a 30-year-old Chinese man working for an Australian company who flew in from Melbourne. So far, swine flu has claimed no casualties in this country. Source: China Daily
Perhaps Spring fever's hit Shanghai. If you thought that shooting story was crazy, listen to this: Yesterday morning at 8am, a 20-year-old man was found hanging on a wire between the second and third floors of a building in Xuhui district - completely naked. We promise we aren't stringing you along.
That's right - people actually got SHOT in Shanghai, despite the country's incredibly strict laws on gun control! Two men are said to have received gunshot wounds in the Huili Garden apartment complex off Changshou Road in the Putuo District.
After being unable to find a decent job because of their weight, four rotund girls found each other on the internet and decided to organize a band called 千斤组合 (qian jin zhu he) in 2007. We just found them this week. The name means thousand pounds band, but can be punned to also mean "daughters from noble families."
Yet another swine flu patient has been found in Beijing, making it the third case to be discovered this week and China's fifth case overall. The latest patient is a 21-year-old Chinese Canadian male who came over from Toronto. He arrived in Beijing on May 16 and sought treatment for a fever on the 19th. It seems like there really is an uptick in H1N1 discoveries recently, which makes us really worry about our plans to head out of the country this summer. It also brings up the question: how many more cases before we stop reporting them individually and start in bulk? Source: Economic Observer Online
Just two days ago, a four-year-old Siberian Tiger at the Changchun Zoo in Jilin gave birth to a healthy little cub. Since we've never quite understood why Tigers were the redheaded stepchild to Giant Pandas in this country (their diets actually make evolutionary sense, for goodness sake!), we've made it our mission to publicize it whenever these furry little creatures take a step back from extinction. Hurrah for Siberian Tigers!
In October last year we reported that Oak Pacific (the owners of Xiaonei.com), in a bid to capture more Chinese online social networkers, registered the domain name kaixin.com to compete with kaixin001.com, the fastest growing social network in China for young white collar Chinese wasting time at work. TechWeb.com.cn reported today (h/t @ganglu) that kaixin001 finally got around to suing Oak Pacific and the case has been accepted by the courts for using the 开心网 (kai xin wang) name. Looks like not-so-happy times may be ahead for Oak Pacific.
Just two weeks before the 20th anniversary of... you know... that event, China has reportedly freed the last activist that was jailed for "hooliganism" in 1989. Liu Zhihua had been jailed for life after leading a strike at a factory as part of the June demonstrations. He was accused of inciting crowds with anti-government speeches. According to the BBC, he was actually freed in January but news of his release had only now been confirmed.
It is pretty common to see yelling fights in a city like Shanghai - but it's not quite as common to see these fights actually come to blows... especially when it's one guy against two girls.
Despite stereotypes, it seems like Shanghainese men are less henpecked than you would think: they're less likely to wash their wives' panties than other Chinese. Wait, what?...
Xinhua News: Around 5 o’clock on the 17th, an elevated road on Hongqi Road of Zhuzhou City in Hunan province collapsed, and at present the number of casualties is unknown (four casualties confirmed). Here are some pictures that were posed on various BBS forums incuding Sina, NetEase, and Mop."
What would have been a 60-year-old woman was found dead in her Pudong home last week - after rotting there for roughly two years.
The days of the hallowed Volkswagen Santana, long the automobile of choice for basically all Shanghai taxi companies, may soon be screeching to a full stop.
Is it just us or does it seem like China's starting to rack up the swine flu cases faster? A man who returned to Guangdong from a tour in the U.S. and Canada was confirmed to be the country's fourth case of swine flu. He began to display symptoms en route from Hong Kong to Guangdong and was immediately put into quarantine. Meanwhile, an Italian tourist with swine flu symptoms is being treated at a hospital in Tibet. The 23 people traveling with her are now staying at a local hotel under observation. Source: Xinhua
"Over the course of time,
The drag-racer who killed a pedestrian on May 7 has finally been arrested on charges of vehicular manslaughter, after a week of public outrage that the boy's money might protect him from being charged.
Around 6:40 this morning, the scaffolding of the elevated on Huaxiang Lu near Beiqing Lu in the Minhang District collapsed in the construction area. More than 10 construction workers had been standing on the scaffolding before it suddenly crashed down. Immediately after the collapse, 120 emergency technicians rushed to the scene and brought the injured people to Qu Jing Hospital. According to Xinmin, one construction worker had died and another six have suffered injuries.
The swine flu count stands at China:3, Hong Kong:3 after each region confirmed its third case of H1N1 over the weekend. In China, the afflicted is an 18-year-old student in Beijing who was admitted to the hospital a few days after returning from the U.S. For her troubles, she got a visit from Grandpa Wen, who warned her and other overseas students to learn more about protecting themselves. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong case was a 23-year-old male who returned from New York. He was picked up by an infrared temp screener and immediately sent to the hospital. Even though he had worn a mask on the flight, his fellow passengers may still need to be quarantined. Source: SCMP (behind paywall)
U.K. newspaper The Guardian has got China fever! Not only are they doing a week-long portrait of China series (the first of which looks at migrant workers returning to village life), but it's also actually offering Chinese translations of some of their articles now.
Looks like China's first attempt at a sexually explicit theme park came a little before its time. After videos of its statue, a giant pair of leggy legs in a red thong spinning atop the park's name, were released to the internet - Chongqing officials demanded that LOVE LAND be torn down. Love Land had been set to open in October and was envisioned to be a path towards sex education and a way to help adults "enjoy a harmonious sex life." Unfortunately, it seems like much of the population just found it "vulgar" and overly-explicit instead. Source: NYTimes
56minus1 takes a look at Shanghai's first ever wooden roller coaster. It'll be built over in Happy Valley at Sheshan, which ought to open some time in July... Also coming in mid-July: regular flights between Taiwan and China! The first direct flight ever, as we know, was through Shanghai.
From Forbes: "Chinese movie fans will be able to see the newest Hollywood hit, Star Trek, in movie theaters across the country beginning this weekend. They won't have the same opportunity to see the next blockbuster, Angels & Demons, on the big screen-not Friday (when it opens in the U.S.), not soon, maybe not ever."
We've heard of some barking mad methods to throw renters out on the street, but this particular incident is really boneheaded. A developer in Taiyuan, the capital of Shaanxi Province, unleashed dogs on its tenants and put some of them in a dog cage because they did not move out of their house on time.
The anti-smoking campaigns have begun! Well... at least they've begun in Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, which just enacted a new smoking ban in all restaurants, toilets, offices and other public spaces inside the terminals. The enforcement is pretty stringent too - any business contaminated with evidence of cigarette smoking, such as the smell of smoke or wayward butts, will be fined upwards of 1000RMB. Now the only place to take a drag will be one of the five specially ventilated smoking rooms after the security check-in. Apparently, you're still allowed to puff away at the Pudong International Airport... for now. Source: Shanghai Daily
After nearly two months of being detained in North Korea, Asian-American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling will allegedly be put to trial on June 4, according to the AP. The DPRK's Korean Central News Agency did not reveal any other details, including what charges the two face. If they are accused of illegal entry, they could spend up to three years in a labor camp. If they are found to have engaged in “espionage” or “hostility towards North Koreans,” they could add five to 10 years in prison onto their sentence. Lee and Ling were caught filming along the China-DPRK border in March. Both were working for Current TV.
"When I set off to cover the Sichuan earthquake last May, I did not know my life and the lives of the families of quake victims would acquire a strange symmetry: of lost hopes, and the struggle to find a space to mourn. Three days after the quake struck, I found a group of migrant workers in the Beijing West railway station. They carried all they had -- bedrolls, thermos flasks, plastic basins, cooking oil -- to travel a distance equivalent to that between California and Minnesota, on badly damaged roads and rails."
As most of us in China were aware, yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the earthquake that killed 90,000 people in Sichuan province. While Shanghaiist was having our own commemoration and fundraising event at our weekly happy hour (thanks to sponsors and everyone who came!) the rest of the country was finding its own way to remember the tragedy. Here's a breakdown of what went on:
Guangdong officials, perhaps not always known for their selflessness and incorruptibility, are in the middle of graft scandal that has brought down the province's top political adviser and (ironically) anti-corruption official.
China is now reporting a second suspected case of swine flu located in Shandong Province. A man, surnamed Lv, had flown from Canada to Beijing before taking a train to Jinan, Shandong's capital on May 8. Three days later, he checked himself into the Jinan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, complaining of fever, sore throat and a headache. Tests showed he was "suspected positive" of the A/H1N1 virus, though the virus specimens need to be sent to a main office for further testing. This follows two days after China's first suspected case, a man surnamed Bao who was quarantined in a Chengdu contagious disease control hospital. Source: China Daily
Here's something to consider if you're thinking of buying a car in Shanghai: the city is discussing a scheme to grant discounts to license plates of low-emission vehicles. Every year, the Shanghai government puts a set number of license plates its willing to issue up for auction in an attempt to slow urban congestion. Though they've raised the amount of issued plates each year to pace growing demand, getting a " 沪 （hu）" license can still be astronomically expensive (this January, it cost around $4,388 per plate - and that was considered low). Officials weren't clear about what discount would be offered, but the policy would hope to balance reducing the cost of owning a private car and boosting sales of more environmentally friendly motor vehicles. Source: Shanghai Daily
USA Today has an intriguing feature on the audaciously slow progress of the Freedom Tower (now called One World Trade Center), the 1776-foot building in New York that is supposed to replace the spot where the two WTCs once stood. But of the 2000-plus-word article, one particular sentence caught our attention. Apparently, one of the few companies that have actually leased space in the laboriously slowly-to-be built skyscraper is a Chinese firm. They've signed on for 190,000 square feet of space. Our interest is piqued! Who are they? What do they do? And why were they one of the first non-American government entities to buy up a floor? Update: It's Beijing real estate company, Vantone! As to why they've bought a floor, we're still not sure - but apparently they've been shopping around for a while. Source: Slate
In another case of a Oceanic hit-and-run in recent weeks, a fishing boat which collided with a ship in the Yangtze River estuary off Shanghai has left one person dead and eight others missing. The boat contained 11 people in total when it rammed against a ship at 3:40am this morning. Three of the passengers were rescued, but a fourth died of serious injuries. The search for the missing is still ongoing. Meanwhile, the vessel that hit the fishing ship has run off and is being pursued by maritime authorities. In late April, a ship modeled after an ancient Chinese junk met an untimely end on its trip across the Pacific after a tanker smashed into it and ran off. Source: Xinhua
Australia seems to be taking the early bird proverb pretty seriously these days. It became the first foreign pavilion to finish its outer structure last week, and then revealed its own official mascot for the World Expo - a kookaburra! And now it's looking for the Chinese to give the Ozzie representative a name.
Thought the swine flu fears were ebbing? Think again! Beijing reported the mainland's first suspected case of H1N1 (if you don't count the Hong Kong patient that was transferred over from Shanghai) after a 30-year-old male Sichuan student developed flu-like symptoms. The patient, surnamed Bao, had traveled from St. Louis to Tokyo, and then boarded Northwestern Airlines flight NW029 to Beijing. Then, on the transferring flight to Chengdu, he began exhibiting hints of the swine flu. He has tested mildly positive for H1N1 and is now quarantined in a Chengdu contagious disease control hospital. Those in direct contact with him during the diagnosis have also been placed under observation. Source: SCMP. (Photo by benchau)
So the Shanghai World Expo organizers have set another date for when they will finally say “No way, no how, you're too late to build your pavilion now”: June 30.
If you're in China, you probably won't be able to watch the HBO documentary "China's Unnatural Disaster" which chronicles the aftermath of the Sichuan Quake from the perspective of the grieving parents.
Next week marks the first anniversary of the Great Sichuan Earthquake, which flattened entire towns in the province on May 12th last year. To try to ensure that next week passes harmoniously, local police in Chengdu have already started rounding up foreign reporters who might want to interview parents who lost their children in the quake.
An anonymous driver slammed into the Adidas store on Huaihai Middle Road and Ruijin No.1 Road earlier this morning. Shop employees discovered an abandoned motor vehicle lying by the side of the store when they shuffled in at 7am. Thankfully, since the shop was not yet open, nobody was hurt, and while a side column and a billboard suffered some damage, none of the goods inside the store were broken or stolen. The driver, who sneakered off sometime after the accident, was no where to be found. What a heel. Source: Xinmin
Another day, another clash at sea between the U.S. Navy and Chinese fishing boats. This time around, the USNS Victorious was harassed by two Chinese vessels who maneuvered “dangerous[ly]” around it in the Yellow Sea.
Under debate right now at the city transportation bureau: whether taxi fees need to be rejiggered. According to Xinmin, the bureau is considering abolishing the “night time fee” since low demand and strong supply was causing passengers to negotiate directly with drivers for lower fares. Instead, they would consider increasing fees during rush hours - a sort of “peak time fee” instead - that would hopefully help decrease demand for taxis during the most crowded parts of the day. The bureau said that since new regulations will effect everybody, they would conduct comprehensive feasibility studies before passing anything.
Yes, we're sick of the scaremongering, paranoia and misinformation. While we're already cringing every time someone sneezes in the office or metro, we've realized what real paranoia is after spending the weekend in Hong Kong: doormats being disinfected every half hour, people talking through masks, masks being sold at every convenient store and an entire hotel being put under quarantine.
Those who stayed in the city for the May holiday, did it feel more crowded to you? According to Xinhua, it was - since more than 2.45 million tourists decided to make Shanghai their holiday destination. That's about 20,000 more tourists than last year. Despite the crappy weather, these intrepid travelers trekked out to downtown Puxi, the Pearl Tower and Century Park in droves. Other fun statistics: On May 1, the Shanghai railways handled over 1.27 million passengers, over 2,700 people left from Pudong International Airport on between 7 and 8:30am, and at least 50 people missed their flights because of traffic jams due to road construction.
Despite their draconian health measures at the airport, swine flu managed to enter Hong Kong anyway. On Friday, a 25-year-old Mexican national who had come to Hong Kong via a flight from Shanghai (sigh) was found to have Asia's first confirmed case of H1N1. So Hong Kong authorities decided to extend their draconian health measures to the rest of the island and have now quarantined tourists and employees at the hotel where he was staying.
sorry Pyjama link is here:
http://www.guariglia-chen.com/#/shanghai/
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