Results tagged “beijing”

       

What's lurking underneath Tiananmen Square? It ain't just rats. In 1969, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, Mao commissioned the construction of an underground city, built right under Beijing. Fearing an imminent nuclear attack from the U.S.S.R, Dixia Cheng (地下城 the underground city) was meant to be a safeguard, designed to house 40% of the city's 7.5 million in case of catastrophe. It was meant to have apartments, stores, and even a skating rink: all the comforts of above-ground home.

Though Shanghai's latitude makes it pretty hard for us to see snowfall, northern China has been blanketed by it for days. As it's pretty rare for the area around Beijing to get snow this early in the cold season, the torrents have brought about some complications and tragedies, but also joy.

While on our regular traverses through the internets, we came across these hilarious netizen-made maps detailing what people from specific regions of China think about the other regions around China. And if you've ever been in a conversation with a Chinese person, you'll know they're full of opinions about what their Henan brethren are like, or what those damn Shaanxi people are always up to.

A student from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics has reportedly died from A/H1N1, marking the fourth death in China from the Swine Flu. The death was brought about from the contagion spreading during obligatory military training, where twenty eight students were infected with the virus and quarantined. The student was also the first in a major city to die from Swine Flu, although there have been related deaths. As the flu season descends on us in Shanghai, it might be a good idea to go get a flu vaccination. Or at least refrain from licking pigs. Photo from badgirlsrpeople2 @ Wordpress

If you were President Obama, what's the best possible news you could hear from Hu Jintao during your upcoming visit in November? That the Chinese military will agree to keep their agreement to work more closely with the US military? That recent threats to potentially raise tariffs on US automakers were just a big joke? Or were you thinking something perhaps...a bit more...magical?

• Growing Chinese Military Creates Uncertainty: U.S. [Reuters] "The U.S. military needs better dialogue with China to avoid "mistakes and miscalculations" given an unprecedented military expansion stoking uncertainty in the region, top U.S. defense officials said Wednesday."
• Why China Isn't Ready to Lead [The Wall Street Journal] "Chinese decision makers need to realize that global economic leadership does not stem only from a large cash hoard. In the long run, a credible respect for property rights and unbiased contract enforcement will draw a larger share of global investors into the Chinese economic sphere."
• Gang crackdown, lurid mob trials transfix China [Associated Press] "After she refused a corrupt cop's demand that she turn her teahouse into an illegal casino, three thugs beat Chen Yanling with electric batons, sending her to the hospital for nearly a month. Chen is now getting some vicarious revenge, joining the throngs outside a courthouse where modern-day China's biggest, most lurid mob trials are under way. The trials are exposing sordid, deep-seated connections between organized crime and corrupt officials and police in the central mega-city of Chongqing, once known as Chungking."

In case you haven't seen them, ObaMao schwag- shirts, bags, journals, you name it- is all the rage in Beijing. China Daily reported a while back on the entrepreneur whose political mash-up memorabilia (is it still Maomorabilia?) is making splashes on both sides of the pacific. Is it funny, insensitive, confusing, or just good old fashioned marketing? Salon.com draws some pretty funny insights from the shirts:

     

We're always fascinated by old pictures of China--we love seeing the tangible change in photographs from eras past. And since we can never get enough, here are a few more pictures from a wonderful photoset taken nearly thirty years ago.

Naturally, we think that Shanghai beats Beijing in the better city competition, but here's some extra reasons why. The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) has found Shanghai's air quality to be far better than Beijing's, an auspicious ruling ahead of the Expo. The blue sky index shows that Beijing's levels of PM10 particles are twice as high as Shanghai's.

     

We're fans of anything old timey, and so these photos of Shanghai (and Mongolia, and Beijing) in 1981 have really struck our fancy. Don't worry, despite depicting the 80s, there are no mullets or shoulder pads to be found.

Sometimes it seems as though there is nothing the government can't do. As we know, Beijing is going out of its way to ensure National Day celebrations run as smoothly as possible. With everything planned so meticulously and all those security measures put in place, we would hate for it to rain on our National Day parade.

Shanghaiist contributor Maggie Rauch had quite a startle today when an explosion destroyed a restaurant close to her in downtown Beijing this morning.

With only a week and a half left before the 60th anniversary of the PRC, it seems the whole country has caught National Day fever. Capturing the excitement, Boston.com has a wonderful collection of photos from various sources depicting many different preparations around China. We particularly like the fashion military parade pictures: those outfits are fabulous! But amidst all the hoopla, it's a difficult time to be in Beijing.

In one of the more bizarre incidents to come out of Beijing lately, especially with security gearing up for the National Day celebrations, a man armed with a knife went on a stabbing spree in the major commercial center of Dashilan. He killed two people and injured about a dozen more before being captured by police on patrol. The 46-year-old from Jilin allegedly came out of nowhere. Police said they would strengthen security management in key areas to ensure the safety of local residents and tourists - but considering that safety measures already include items like "tell people not to leave their houses unless absolutely necessary," how much safer can you get without, we dunno, emptying the whole of Beijing?

   

Gosh, is there anything we love more than old photographs of China? Chopsticks Café & Bar up in Beijing is organizing an exhibition featuring photos from 1890 to the 1960s. The pictures were organized by the two owners of Beijing postcards, who gathered them over the course of a decade from both private collections abroad and from Chinese flea and antique markets.

What's up with all this Tiananmen-styled commemorative hair? We've been trying to burn the image of the hair replica of Tiananmen from our memories for quite some time now, but with only two weeks to go until the big day, we're bracing ourselves for more China-related hair. It just seems like human hair sculptures are the most fitting way to celebrate an occasion as important as the 60th anniversary of the PRC, for some inexplicable reason.

The saga of problems and setbacks that China has faced in attempting to implement the controversial Green Dam internet censorship software just keeps on going. After postponing the software's release indefinitely this summer, the government has attempted to find ways to censor the 'net without provoking massive public outrage. Which is funny, because the government is sneaking around trying to do things on the internet without anyone noticing, just like us!

We always thought farming was a pretty exciting lifestyle- all that cyclical plowing, sowing, cultivating, picking and selling sounds like a blast! If you're actually farming, though, the charm wears off after a while, and you feel the need to move on to something more adventurous. Building walking, talking robots is old news, so why not up the ante and build a submarine, an airplane or a tank?

Evan Osnos over at The New Yorker has found a sneak preview of what's to come during the 60th anniversary celebrations in Beijing. According to Osnos, "Beijing college students have been pulled away from online games and the job hunt to take part in the extravaganza, and they have been practicing for months on playing fields and campus greens across the city."

Now that the Qingdao Beer Festival is over, we've been looking for other places to go to satisfy our wanderlust. We'd love to visit some tourist sites, maybe a beach or two, but what we're really looking for is a scenic, historic city filled with culture, nightlife, and of course, beautiful women. Lucky for us, ChinaHush has a translated list from Netease of the top 10 cities in China for beautiful women.

With the Washington Wizards coming, and Lebron James' recent Shanghai stop on his world tour, it seems that pro-basketball stars can't seem to get enough of China (or Chinese publicity).

True, the government has been quite busy in the preparations surrounding the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China: crackdowns on illegal firearms and explosives, tighter security than at the olympics for the National Day celebrations, and the classic visa clampdowns that come with every important holiday. But what about the celebration?

A Beijing hairdresser is preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Communist China's founding with a replica of the buildings and monuments around Tiananmen Square -- all made entirely of human hair.

Continue reading "Hairman Mao"

Wow, what is it with China Eastern Airlines? First their passengers staged a sit-in at the LAX in Los Angeles and now they actually started throwing fists at Beijing International Airport... all gloriously documented by security cams.

Egads! Another CCTV fire! Luckily, this one was not nearly as damaging as the one that happened in February, which basically rendered the not-fully-built TVCC building completely unusable. Yesterday's incident was minor: smoke had been rising from the CCTV building's roof, but the flames had already died by the time firefighters arrived. Unfortunately, the current explanation is not particularly relief inducing. According to a translation by Danwei, the fire possibly "occurred because of the scorching weather, which caused the film on the glass to spontaneously ignite." Great. Isn't flammable exoskeleton the thing that caused the TVCC building to become a fire beacon as well?

German national Christoph Rehage shaved his head in the fall of 2007, walked from Beijing to Urumqi on foot (yes, all 4,500 km of it!), taking pictures of himself wherever he went, and this awesome video is what he ended up with. Especially appropriate is his use of the Chinese song, Olive Tree 《橄榄树》with its haunting lyrics, "不要问我从哪里来" (Don't ask me where I'm from). We're already looking forward to the next video of his walk from Urumqi back to Germany -- if he ever gets down to it, that is. Check out the rest of his website The Longest Way.

Three Chinese men have been sent to federal prison in the U.S. for attempting to leak military tech to China. In separate cases, two men - Tah Wei Chao and Zhi Yong Guo - were charged with trying to export thermal-imaging cameras, and the third - William Chi-Wai Tsu - was charged with illegally sending hundreds of military radar systems circuits to Beijing. In the case of exporting circuits, a catalog from Tsu's Beijing company had pictures of military craft and stated a goal of "facilitat[ing] the building of athe national defense of China." He was given a 40-month sentence. Chao was ordered to serve 20 months and Guo was sentenced to five years. Source: Straits Times

Who'd have thought it - it's easier for the Shanghai elite to reach "aristocrat" status than their counterparts in Beijing. According to the latest research by a special agency that tracks the wealthy, 51,000 people in China are qualified to be labeled "new aristocrats." However, while in Beijing this would require having at least 87 million yuan at your disposal, in Shanghai the same status can be achieved for the low price of only 84 million yuan! Supposedly, the standard Shanghai aristocrat cruises around in 1.75 million yuan Porsches, kept parked inside 22 million yuan homes that also house specially bred 100,000 RMB carps. The report also includes the qualifications to be considered "upper class" in four other Chinese cities. So if you're running low on your millions but still want to be an aristocrat, head to Shenyang, where you can achieve 'crat status by spending only 33 million yuan. Source: AsiaOne News

Earnshaw Books will host an evening of performance to celebrate this month's release of two new titles - The Peace Correspondent by Garry Marchant and China Rhymes by Shamus A'Rabbitt, featuring a new foreword by Andrew Chubb.

• South China rains kill 20, force 700,000 from homes [Xinhua] "Torrential rains and floods in southern China have left at least 20 people dead and two missing. More than 700,000 people have been relocated as downpours have destroyed houses, flooded crops, cut power, damaged roads and caused rivers to overflow, according to the latest figures from the provinces of Hunan, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. "
• SHANGHAI BUILDING COLLAPSE: Hundreds protest [Straits Times] "HUNDREDS of Chinese homeowners protested outside government offices in Shanghai demanding refunds after a 13-story apartment building in a complex under construction toppled over, newspapers reported on Sunday. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said the protesters marched on Saturday through central Shanghai, holding handwritten signs and chanting: 'Lotus Riverside, refund (our) homes!'"
• China apologizes to Mexico for tough swine flu stand [AFP] "China's Health Minister Chen Zhu Friday apologized to his Mexican counterpart for failing to warn him about the tough measures Beijing imposed on Mexicans to combat swine flu. "I regret that I did not talk first" to Minister Jose Angel Cordova, Chen said on the sidelines of a meeting in Cancun about the swine flu pandemic."