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Today's Links: Virtual farming, luxury Buicks, and more counter-intuitive news

China blocks 'Berlin Wall' Twitter page: organisers [AFP] China has blocked a website inviting users of microblogging site Twitter to comment on the fall of the Berlin Wall amid a deluge of protests at Beijing's Internet censorship, organisers said Thursday. The site was meant to be a place for people to share memories of the night the Berlin Wall was yanked down 20 years ago, but quickly morphed into a forum for protest against what users described as "The Great Firewall of China."

How New Buicks Took Shape in China [NYT] Sales of Buicks in China first outpaced sales in the United States in 2006, and the margin is considerable today. The design for the 2007 Riviera would be a modern-day version of the 1963 version, which was a trend-setting personal luxury coupe inspired by vintage Rolls-Royces. After the Shanghai debut, the 2007 Riviera concept was not forgotten; its design language, drawn from Buick history and Chinese culture, became the basis for future Buick concepts.

Number of A/H1N1 flu cases in Beijing soars over past week [Xinhua] Beijing has recorded nearly 60 percent more A/H1N1 flu cases over the past week, said the municipal health bureau Thursday. The bureau said the city has recorded 1,299 cases during the period, up 58.61 percent, and 6,196 such cases involving 3,727 men and 2,469 women so far. In Shanghai, the local government and health bureau said the number of A/H1N1 flu cases was increasing, but at a steady pace.

The Death of an Overseas Returnee [China Hush] Dr. Tu Xuxin, a man who had recently returned to China from overseas study to pursue a career as a university professor, committed suicide on September 17th. The information concerning this case, including Dr. Tu’s six-page suicide note, was released earlier today to the public. Investigators speculate as to what instigated his anxiety leading up to his suicide, as there were no obvious signs preceding his death.

China 11th National Games: Controversies, Scandals, Costs [ChinaSmack] The 11th National Games, held in Jinan, Shandong province, have been hit by scandals, such as pre-decided gold medals, doping, match-fixing, unfair officiating, and so on. The intention of the National Games is picking talented athletes for the Olympic Games, but the scale and cost of the National Games has grown significantly since the Games started 50 years ago. The National Games has become the “Authorities’ Pride Games” of the different provinces and sports associations, and also important to officials looking to not lose face for their respective areas

China’s growing addiction: online farming games [VentureBeat] A new agrarian revolution has occured in China, but only in the virtual worlds of social games. Social farm games now dominate all major Chinese social networking sites — RenRen (formerly Xiaonei), Kaixin001, 51.com, and QQ’s QZone. The May launch and 2H 2009 adoption of QQ Farm — a version of China’s already popular Happy Farm game built to run on Tencent’s estimated 228 million active-user QZone platform — may very well have transformed China into the leading country of online farmers.

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