Over the last week or so, the Global Post has been looking into the China real estate bubble in an interesting four-part multimedia series. Besides worrying about unsustainably rising house prices - especially in Shanghai - it also checks out hte underlying causes of the bubble and examines some of the unique social customs driving prices even higher. Highlights below: more ›

• The best way to show how hot the earth will be (thanks to global warming)? Strip off your pants in public. 20 people did just that in Guangdong. [Treehugger]
• Xinjiang is continuing to lift communications restrictions, including on international calls and *gasp* the internet? [Xinhua]
• Exactly how much have officials swindled out of China? It's hard to say, but a 2004 study places it at $50 billion USD. And this is before the stimulus. No wonder Beijing keeps on holding corruption conferences. [China Media Project]

• An extremely rare Chinese map of the entire world, which was made in 1602, is now on display at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. It's pretty awesome. [Guardian]
• In the latest sign of new openness about homosexuality here, state media all over China (not just internet media) covered Zeng Ge and Xiao Pan's gay wedding on their front pages. [AFP]
• Kevin Spacey is about to become the biggest Hollywood actor to star in a 100% Chinese movie. Luckily, it seems like he won't have to learn a lot of Chinese to do it. [Hollywood Reporter]

• The internet has collected Mao Zedong's 12 Time Magazine covers. Check them out here. [Chinasmack]
• If you must gamble, it's probably better to do it in Macao rather than a shady casino across the border in Laos. Apparently those will torture you until you pay off your debts. [China Hush]
• While China's economic strategy over the past two decades has been incredibly successful for China, the possibility of it working for anyone else is... nil. [New York Times]

• If China actually reevaluated the poverty line from when it was established decades ago, the number of people here defined as "poor" would triple... at least. [China Daily]
• Think you're scared of the "Made in China" label? Actually, Chinese consumers are even more scared. [Forbes]
• And you know what some U.S.-based political risk consulting group is scared of? Worsening ties with China and America thanks to trade tensions. [BusinessWeek]

5. The star anise bubble. The first swine-flu-induced bubble of the year was the Chinese spice star anise, popular in stews. This maroon star-shaped pod is actually the active ingredient in the anti-flu drug Tamiflu, so star anise prices can reflect the level of public panic about flu epidemics. Way back in May, I wrote about the star anise bubble, which had been inflated by health minister Chen Zhu suggesting that cooking pork with star anise might combat swine flu. more ›

• Chinese athletes boycott closing ceremony of World Games [Earth Times] "Chinese athletes boycotted the closing ceremony Sunday evening of the 8th World Games in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan. When athletes entered the Main Statium in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan, there was only a Taiwan student holding the Chinese red flag marching behind the girl holding the "China" placard."
• Chinese Steelworkers Fight Privatization Effort [WSJ]"A Hong Kong-based human-rights group said thousands of steel workers in China's northeast staged an at-times violent protest against the planned takeover of their state-run employer and a group of them killed a top executive at the private company that was to acquire it. Several local officials and residents confirmed a protest took place Friday in Tonghua, in Jilin province, but details of the report by the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, including the size of the protest and the manager's death, couldn't be confirmed."
• Taiwan’s Ma Takes Party Post, Boosting China Summit Prospects [Bloomberg] "Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou was voted chairman of the ruling Kuomintang party, an appointment that may pave the way for a historic summit with China. Ma, the only candidate for the position, received 94 percent of votes cast yesterday, Chen Shu-rong, a Kuomintang spokeswoman said in Taipei."