Nationalistic optimism hits its worldwide high in China, a new survey by PEW Global Attitudes Project has found. Eighty-six percent reported being happy with their county’s direction, with 82 percent positive about the national economy. These numbers have risen startlingly in the past six years, growing 38 and 30 percentage points respectively during an era when many nations, including the United States, have seen severe declines. Chinese national pride may be up, but personal satisfaction......

Travel agencies in Beijing have been asked to withdraw France as a tourist destination, starting this week. The move appears to have come from the Beijing Municipality. CITS says that they have been asked to suspend travels to France until further notice. Tours to France in June are on, but July's trips are cancelled. BTG International Travel Tours had the same info but CTS said all groups departing for France are now officially off. An......

Our second show for the day is the critically acclaimed documentary Seoul Train (featured on PBS) which offers a look at the estimated 250,000 North Korean refugees living underground in China today, who have braved untold dangers to escape a food and humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of 3 million back home. The camera follows several groups of North Korean refugees, some have chosen to forcibly make their way past the gates of......

A New Zealand-born contestant of the first series of Big Brother Australia, Gordon Sloan, has died in Beijing on a suspected heroin overdose. From the Herald Sun: According to a source close to Sloan, the former reality star's parents had travelled from their home in New Zealand after their son was admitted to hospital in a coma on September 1. It is understood the devastated couple opted to turn off the life support that had......

Worker beaten to death in strike for unpaid wages An unpaid migrant worker has been beaten to death at a building site in South China's Guangdong Province and hundreds of his workmates who were striking to get delayed salaries were bashed by thugs hired by the building owner. Beijing Olympic venue catches fire A fire broke out on Monday at the nearly completed table tennis venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but damage appeared limited......

The first rule that many foreigners hear about doing anything in China is that you will need guanxi - relationships that help you clear the jungly bureaucracy, receive preferential tax treatment, or "free" land. Of course, the follow-up rule that is never stated in polite company is that guanxi means money, a greased palm, a sop, and a board seat. However, as useful as some relationships can be, they frequently outlive their usefulness and......

On Saturday, November 11, New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist Thomas L. Friedman spoke at Three On The Bund as part of the Three Talk Lecture Series which was co-hosted by the Penguin Group, publisher of Friedman's bestseller The World Is Flat (TWIF). When the globe-trotter, Friedman comes to Shanghai, it is clear how much he travels by the fact that he seems to be unsure of exactly where he is, as in one instance,......

The British highbrow magazine Prospect has come out with its 2005 list of the 100 most influential "public intellectuals" in the world, which ranges across nations, disciplines and professions. The list includes five (ethnic) Chinese, all of mainland extraction, but not all of whom are living or working in mainland China. "Public intellectuals" is a loaded and often dangerous term in China. In 2004, two months after Prospect magazine first came out with a list......