Results tagged “eclipse”

Scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing supposedly caught footage of a UFO in the sky during July's solar eclipse. A UFO and an eclipse in the same day? What luck!

• Ever wanted a ranking of the five sexiest pavilions for the World Expo? Well now you've got it. [Chinatravel.net]
• Speaking of pavilions, Germany's pavilion will guide visitors through its many exhibits with a storyline involving a Chinese woman and her German friend and end with a live performance by the story's characters [China Briefing]
• If you thought that the all the rain this week had something to do with the eclipse, you are wrong [China Daily]

• Eclipse at Sheshan Hill [The Atlantic] "The forested slopes of Sheshan Hill rise a hundred meters above the plains of once rural, now suburban, Songjiang District in the southwest corner of sprawling Shanghai. At the top, China’s only Catholic basilica - an eighty-year old red brick building with an onion dome - is flanked on one side by the white dome of a modern telescope, and on the other by the century-old buildings that constitute the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory. Most mornings, the hilltop is silent but for a handful of priests and a few locals willing to climb the old stone stairways to go to mass. But this morning was a bit different: Sheshan was in the path of the century’s longest eclipse, and the local media had recommended it as one of three ideal locations for watching the event."
• In China, a Rocky Ascent for Basketball [NYT] "With 1.3 billion potential fans, China is increasingly seen as a financial promised land for N.B.A. stars through endorsement deals, and the league itself has established a robust organization here valued at $2 billion. But China’s own professional league, the Chinese Basketball Association, has hardly enjoyed a smooth ascendance alongside this country’s basketball boom. American players and agents describe broken contracts, unpaid wages, suspicions of game-fixing and rising resentment toward foreign players. Several players have left China after failing to receive paychecks. Last month, the league announced that it lost $17 million last season, which ended in May."
• Sweeping Africa under the rug: where is China in Darfur? [The Carter Center] "Given the importance of China's financial ties to Sudan, many in the international community have expected China to play a much larger role in the Darfur peace process. Development aid from China goes directly into the hands of President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party, which has been accused of war crimes relating to the Darfur crisis. Consequently, the Chinese government's practices run contrary to their ideology."

       

So like the weather nuts predicted, Shanghai was rained out on the Eclipse. That didn't stop most of us from venturing out of our homes to try and catch a glimpse of the disappearing sun through the foggy, cloudy skies though. While this Shanghaiist editor, stuck in rainy Xintiandi thanks to an address mix up, didn't get to see much, thankfully the internet is here to the rescue!

So even if weather forecasts aren't the most promising for tomorrow's solar eclipse, we'll still be at various Coffee Bean & Tea Leafs around the city chatting about the weather and keeping an eye on the sun. Well, not directly on the sun. Assuming the rains let up enough for us to actually watch the eclipse happen, here's some safety tips courtesy of Parkway Health:

The days are counting down to the Shanghai solar eclipse and we're all excited for our 6 minutes or so of morning darkness. While weather forecasts aren't exactly the most promising, it's still a momentous occasion that last happened three hundred years ago and do you really want to tell people all you did was mutter sadly to yourself in an office?

You didn't think we were just going to let a once-in-hundred-something-years event pass by without doing something about it, did you? Ha! It's like you don't even know us.