The craze for Chinese language learning The Economist: False Eastern Promise: The craze for teaching Chinese may be a misguided fad Ken Carroll: The Economist at its misguided worst The Peking Duck: Is the rush to study Chinese a time-wasting fad? The Pudong petrol station blast Shanghai Scrap: China National Petroleum to Dead Workers: Blame Yourselves. Wang Jianshuo: Diesel shortage caused traffic jam The lifestyles of the rich and famous Sydney Morning Herald: Britney......

Leave it to the Chinese to make a business out of anything. Richard Spencer of The Telegraph reports that a new breed of waste collectors has struck deals with jewellery makers to pan for gold in the sewage. This business is now proving to be so lucrative that one building has sold the rights to its sewage for 140,000 yuan a year. We wonder how much our sewage is worth.The Indians may be generally envious......

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......

About 100 Chinese teachers are expected to arrive at state schools in the United Kingdom (yes, that haven of foreign language education) by next year, but schools which have already employed some of those teachers in their classrooms (which they described as "lovely") have already found problems, such as the following:"Their lack of familiarity with the English system of discipline, target setting etc is a problem.""They also tend to have different, perhaps unrealistic, expectations of......

Has Cosette finally found a reason to smile in China? Richard Spencer of the Daily Telegraph shares with us some juicy moments at a press conference announcing the signing of a joint venture between musical impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh and the state-owned China Arts and Entertainment Group, including the following anecdote from the Vice Minister of Culture, Ding Wei: Ding Wei also said he was of course delighted to be overseeing the arrival of musical......

China rejects pork imports from U.S., Canada [Reuters] China has rejected shipments of pork kidney from the United States and of spare ribs from Canada after finding traces of a banned growth agent in them, in the latest volley of cross-border accusations over product quality. China's kung fu peace-keepers head for Darfur [The Telegraph] With kung fu, automatic rifles and armoured personnel carriers, China showed off its new-found power this weekend, and how it says......

... and we thought Xinhua's mistake of illustrating a story on the causes of the debilitating disease multiple sclerosis with an X-ray photo of Homer Simpson's brain was bad! In his latest blog entry, Richard Spencer of the Telegraph cites a report by a group of Sinophile Brits organising a festival called ChinaNow that supports the notion (held by well-educated Chinese types) that "Chinese people were better informed on foreign affairs than British people were".......

Okay okay, we've all had a bit of a Macau overdose lately, but we just couldn't resist sharing with you this tid-bit of information that we found on the blog of Telegraph journalist Richard Spencer. He shares a rumour that "the Louis Vuitton store in Macau is, per square foot, the company's most profitable anywhere in the world. And that the big seller is man-bags. The men buy them to put their cash in before......

Shanghai's booming subway [LA Times] The Chinese metropolis was even later than L.A. in building its system. But it is already big, with plans to make it the biggest within a decade. Shanghai: Art Deco capital - for now [The Telegraph] Just as Shanghai's priceless architectural legacy is gaining overdue recognition, it faces new threats from developers, reports Richard Spencer. Don't exaggerate product quality issues--China [The Inquirer] Concerns about the quality and safety of products......

Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: The TIME China Blog can't help but think of the beyond-terrific HBO series "The Wire" after hearing about the Chinese government's decision to shut down 180 food production centers. Will this decision signal real change in food quality and safety, or is it just akin to the authorities trying to put some "dope on the table for the 6 o'clock news?" So Yi......

Our weekly round-up of some of the highlights from China's English-language blogosphere: Native inhabitants of a large Chinese city looking down on Chinese newcomers from outside that city? Eyes East is surprised that Dalian may not be as "open" as it advertises after all. He ends his post by asking: "Is this just a Dalian thing?" We glance up and take a look around and conclude that it's definitely not. Beijing Newspeak writes about the......