• Evan Osnos of The New Yorker uses his crumbling 4-year-old Beijing hutong home as a metaphor for some possible liabilities surrounding China's breakneck development.
• Malcome Moore of the Daily Telegraph gives us the blow by blow account of a town in China first made filthy rich, then totally ruined by a pyramid scheme.
• China Digital Times takes a look at US China Ambassador Gary Locke's unexpected and immediate rise to stardom in China, and some not-so-friendly editorials in Chinese State Media that have come out as a result.

Well, I suppose it's not AS unlikely when you take into account the crappy job market. The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau has revealed that of the 3,500-plus people involved in pyramid sales cases in the last three years, college students outnumbered everyone else. They usually join by either being bullied into it (as what happened with four local students) or by being tricked into thinking it's an NGO, only realizing it's a pyramid scheme when they're forced to recruit lower-level participants. more ›

• China says 35 killed in blast at coal mine [latimes.com] "Chinese officials says a blast in a coal mine has killed 35 in central Henan province and left 44 other miners trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety said the predawn explosion today happened at a pit in Pingdingshan city. A statement on the administration's website did not give a cause for the blast. It said 14 miners managed to flee to safety. Ninety-three men were working underground at the time of the blast, it said."
• China enters list of lower-middle-income countries: NBS [China Daily] "China's economic aggregate ranked third in the world as of 2008, pulling it into the list of lower-middle-income countries from low-income ones, according to a Sept 7 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The report, featuring the nation's 60-year development since 1949 when new China was founded, also said China has gradually become a large manufacturing country as it strengthened industrial infrastructure construction and expanded productivity."
• Taiwan premier quits over typhoon [BBC NEWS] "Taiwan's premier Liu Chao-shiuan has resigned, after the government was heavily criticised for its slow response to last month's typhoon. Mr Liu will be replaced by the ruling party's secretary general, Wu Den-yih. Mr Liu told reporters that someone had to take political responsibility for the fact that at least 600 people had died as a result of Typhoon Morakot."