The latest figures from the Hurun Report show China’s billionaire lawmakers make US peers look like paupers, says Bloomberg News, and they've got the numbers to back them up. Try wrapping your head around these: more ›

Judging from our observations of our friends, we would say that if formal education fails, watching Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Korean, and Japanese TV shows, along with a healthy dose of Cantopop at the karaoke joint ought to get you started on traditional characters. Most PRC Chinese can read, if not write, traditional characters, but we suppose that's not the same as being formally educated in the subject. Anyhow, we think that, if it happens, it'd be a step in the right direction. Not as big a step as say democracy and free elections, but we're really into keeping our expectations low. more ›

Photo from Shanghai Daily. more ›

Xinhua: Foreign reporters enjoy greater freedom covering China's "two sessions":

Andrew Kirillov, Beijing bureau chief of the Itar-Tass News Agency in Russia, appeared joyous when registering to cover China's upcoming "two sessions", not only because he was to witness the important political event again, but he would find it much easier to locate interviewees. more ›

Photo by ranmachen more ›

Photo of Shanghai Museum, one of four locations offering a free entry trial next month, from mkools. more ›

By JFK Miller more ›

Today I saw reports on CCTV-12 related to the crackdown on porn sites. And unlike other reports on murder, theft, and sexual crimes, I thought there was a problem with these reports. more ›

The state media had reported around May of this year that the proposed Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev was canceled. In the report just linked to, it says that the official reason why the thing was canceled was because of health and environmental concerns, while the supposed "real reason" was that residents in the maglev's path were starting a petition. Reading over this report reminds of how this issue has been ping-ponging back and forth for years. We thought perhaps that the ginormous cost of the thing, including some behind-the-scenes bickering between Zhejiang province and Shanghai regarding the division of construction costs, was the final nail in the coffin, but if you think about it, since when can a few petitioners writing letters to their National People's Congress "reps" can hardly hold back the ineluctable forces of progress? more ›

Last weekend, we told you that Yahoo! is now apologizing for not telling the full truth to Congress at the February 2006 hearing where Yahoo! was taken to task for its role in the conviction of Chinese journalist Shi Tao. Now both Republicans and Democrats have launched scathing attacks on Yahoo. San Mateo Democrat Tom Lantos has called Yahoo "moral pygmies", and New Jersey Republican Chris Smith compared Yahoo’s cooperation with the Chinese government to companies that cooperated with Nazi Germany during World War II. more ›

Photos from powerprints, beatdrifter, and David Feng. more ›

Question: “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?” Or lately: "Name three people hating on the once mighty US dollar." On Tuesday, Cheng Siwei, the vice chairman of China’s National People’s Congress suggested that China’s foreign exchange regulators ought to consider shifting the country’s massive USD $1.4 trillion reserve into “stronger” currencies. The greenback has been on a downward spiral since 2003. Little did Cheng know that his remarks would trigger a... more ›

Superkiy of Current TV takes a look at the censorship of Chinese artists that took place before the opening of the 17th Party Congress. Fascinating interviews, and even more fascinating art! We loved, in particular, the statues of the female Mao's. We swear there's nothing like some good, dissident art to start our day with! more ›

Photo of the Mont Blanc superstore on Nanjing Lu from All Roads Lead to China more ›

So, as some of our commenters in a previous post brought up, Youtube is indeed back! So what was behind the temporary block — was it the 17th Party Congress or was it Youtube's Hong Kong/Taiwan versions? I guess we will never know. But enjoy it while it lasts people. You never know when the block will come back up, but when it does, you know you have VPN to fall back on ;-) more ›

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is bringing a clear message to China: Israel will not allow Iran to get the atom bomb. Israel is concerned that China and Russia, which are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have opposed calls by the United States for tougher sanctions on Iran. more ›

Li Lianyu (李连玉), the Party Secretary of Pizhou (邳州) with a population of 1.6 million in Xuzhou city, Jiangsu Province returns home from the 17th Party Congress in Beijing and receives a hero's welcome. The local government puts together a grand ceremony with banners everywhere screaming "Welcome Secretary Li's Glorious Return From the 17th Party Congress." (h/t to CDT and A Floor Sweeping Monk) more ›

There is no end in sight to the good news. Not only is Youtube blocked, but Blogspot is also back behind the Great Firewall, now that the 17th Party Congress is over. Nobody has to put up with this sh*te really. Grab your VPN now, and enjoy the Internet as it was meant to be. more ›

China will offer religious services for foreigners arriving for the 2008 Olympic Games, an official in charge of religious affairs said. more ›

The reason? Probably not directly the ongoing 17th National Congress in Beijing, then they would have blocked the site last week already (unless someone right now uploaded some video's that would upset the government). I suspect the real reason might be that YouTube just launched a Chinese version, which would make the site much more accessible for Chinese users. Not a very smart idea to do that in the middle of the National Congress, and I am surprised nobody at mother company Google's China offices rang an alarm bell about this before the launch. A typical example of the mistakes foreign companies make while trying to do business in China. more ›

So, like we told you, the word "democracy" (民主) was mentioned 60 times in President Hu's report to the 17th Party Congress. The China Media Project fills us in on other top buzzwords. “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” (中国特色社会主义) was mentioned 52 times, “scientific development” (科学发展) was a distant second at 38 times, “opening and reform” (改革开放) was mentioned 34 times, just edging out “harmony” (和谐) at 33. “Deng Xiaoping Theory” (邓小平理论) made 10 appearances and former President Jiang Zemin's pet phrase “Three Represents” (三个代表) racked up 9 appearances. See how the occurence of these phrases have risen/fallen over the past Party Congresses (totally useless information that you can try to use to impress your date with). more ›

The Chinese Communist Party, the world's largest political party with some 64 million members opened its 17th Party Congress yesterday. With over 2,200 delegates from all over the nation, the congress was opened by parliament chief Wu Bangguo with the national anthem, followed by a moment of silence marked for Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun and other "martyrs of the revolution" before President Hu Jintao began addressing the party. A great sense of expectation there as you can see on the video now that the party has just begun, but as the days go by, we will no doubt see more and more of these scenes instead. more ›

Looks like we spoke too soon. Just when we told you that Chinese media were getting the hang of the art of spin, look what we found in today's Shanghai Daily. Not one, but two pieces of pure, unadulterated propaganda that would make any Xinhua editor blush. Oh wait a minute, they actually came from Xinhua. more ›

And in Shanghai...
• John Pasden talks about his (Chinese) wife freaking out over his fever.
• Swiss James of ISpyShanghai recommends the Ganzhi Blindman Massage on the corner of Beijing Lu and Shaanxi Lu.
• Marc van der Chijs (of Tudou fame) shares with us the inconveniences that the cancellation of a recent China Eastern flight brought him and how he was handled.

China issued a sweeping denunciation of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian on Thursday, accusing him of stirring animosity between the sides to divert attention from his personal scandals. more ›

Starbucks Corporation, the world’s biggest coffee shop chain, recalled 250,000 children’s plastic cups made in China after receiving reports of the cups breaking and posing a choking hazard. more ›

Fresh off the press: A video of the secret police who watched over AIDS, environmental and democracy activist Hu Jia (胡嘉) day and night while they were under house arrest from July last year to March this year has just been released (h/t to CDT). more ›

Shanghai is back in Beijing's good books. Or so an article published by the People's Daily two weeks ago indicates, claims the Associated Press. The article, titled "Glad to hear the new good tidings from Shanghai", lavished praise on Shanghai for it's recent successes. "A golden breeze refreshes Shanghai; one important, auspicious event after another" gushed the lead article. It is a sign, claims AP, that the fallout from last year's pension scandal has started to settle. As AP points out:

...such propaganda is a cue that top communist leaders have come to a consensus that the scandal was confined to a few "bad elements" and that China's biggest and richest city has Beijing's support.

Ever thought of what you're doing to offset your carbon footprint? This Saturday, instead of driving your car or taking a taxi, why don't you try taking public transport, cycling or walking instead? Residents will be asked to avoid driving private cars within the Inner Ring Road, and while compliance is not mandatory, driving will be banned outright in some areas.
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We had a good laugh when we saw this "patriotic" banner by Chinese blogger Xiucai ("秀才") which reads: "Joyfully welcome the 17th Party Congress, building a harmonious society together. Xiucai is a good comrade. This site has temporarily shut down comments and forum features." [h/t to Rebecca Mackinnon] more ›