Results tagged “southchina”

Today's Links: South China rains kill 20, displace 700K

  • South China rains kill 20, force 700,000 from homes [Xinhua] "Torrential rains and floods in southern China have left at least 20 people dead and two missing. More than 700,000 people have been relocated as downpours have destroyed houses, flooded crops, cut power, damaged roads and caused rivers to overflow, according to the latest figures from the provinces of Hunan, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. "
  • SHANGHAI BUILDING COLLAPSE: Hundreds protest [Straits Times] "HUNDREDS of Chinese homeowners protested outside government offices in Shanghai demanding refunds after a 13-story apartment building in a complex under construction toppled over, newspapers reported on Sunday. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said the protesters marched on Saturday through central Shanghai, holding handwritten signs and chanting: 'Lotus Riverside, refund (our) homes!'"
  • China apologizes to Mexico for tough swine flu stand [AFP] "China's Health Minister Chen Zhu Friday apologized to his Mexican counterpart for failing to warn him about the tough measures Beijing imposed on Mexicans to combat swine flu. "I regret that I did not talk first" to Minister Jose Angel Cordova, Chen said on the sidelines of a meeting in Cancun about the swine flu pandemic."

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.

A lady loves a man in uniform, but the police officers of Hefei have definitely taken this mystique to the next level with their strenuous winter training. What could be more attractive than young, shirtless officers rubbing snow on their chests and doing push-ups? Ya, we couldn't think of anything either! Ladies (and gentlemen), we present you with two images to warm your hearts on those cold Shanghai nights. And let's hear no more complaints about your drafty apartment and your cold fingers.

A BBC report (proxy needed) talks about the Confucian schools that are now thriving across China. And why are parents sending their kids to such schools?:

"Traditional culture has many advantages that cannot be learned by modern education," says Yu Fang, the mother of a three-year-old pupil. "It emphasises virtues like kindness and self-discipline. It is very good for my son and very good for Chinese society as well." Another mother, Wang Ching, agrees: "This is a material world, people want a higher standard of living and they are focused on material things, not spiritual ones." Modern China, with its headlong rush for growth, needs more balance and more of the social order and courtesy extolled by Confucius, she says. Confucianism and Communism have never been happy bedfellows... [read more]

A South China tiger has been born in a South African wildlife reserve in South Africa, the first to be born outside China, raising hopes that the species can be saved from extinction. Only about 90 South China tigers are left in the world today. More from Sydney Morning Herald.

A man on the inside sent us this Brand Republic story from late last week. If you've ever wondered why bloggers never link to the South China Morning Post or why you don't see any stories from them on Google News, here's why:

Some things you were never supposed to hear about ... so keep them to yourselves please! Shhhhh.

Ching Cheong, the Hong Kong journalist who was chief China correspondent for the Singapore-based Straits Times, is ailing in prison somewhere in the Guangdong province right now. On 22 April 2005, Ching was apprehended by Chinese security agents in Guangzhou, where he was to meet a source who had promised to give him a copy of a politically sensitive manuscript on former premier Zhao Ziyang. It took one and a half years before he was eventually prosecuted (for spying on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency and for divulging state secrets) and sentenced to five years in prison.

You know how people are always saying Shanghaii isn't representative of China? Here's an interesting juxtaposition of newspaper headlines:

Picture of Chinese soldiers from tigeranger1971.

For most girls, the dream to have a wedding gown with a ridiculously long train that requires a dozen or more train-bearers remains but a dream, but for this lucky bride in Guiyang in South China's Guizhou province, that dream became a reality. Her 99,800 yuan ($12961) wedding gown comes with a 28m-long train that took 10 tailors 45 days to sew, and 20 train-bearers to carry. Now if you don't actually realise how ridiculous that is yet, Queen Elizabeth's gown was a paltry 13 feet long, and even Princess Diana's fairy tale gown was no match at 25 feet. More pictures after the jump.

  • New York Yankees sign on first Chinese players.
    The New York Yankees announced today that they have signed left-handed pitcher Kai Liu and catcher Zhenwang Zhang to minor league contracts, becoming the first Major League team to sign a player from the People's Republic of China with approval from the country's baseball association.


  • China's banking regulator fined six banks for making loans that were illegally invested in shares, the first sanctions announced after a yearlong investigation aimed at cooling speculation and curbing financial risks.



  • China’s double-digit economic growth remains sustainable with the rapid expansion expected to continue over the next few years, state media reported, citing a senior government advisor.



  • China Mobile , the world's largest mobile phone operator, plans to raise more than $6 billion in a stock offer in Shanghai as early as next month that would be China's largest ever.



  • Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced during his visit to China last month that his company would further expand its research and development institutes in Beijing and Shanghai.



  • Shanghai is set to overtake Singapore as the world's busiest port in 2008 as the Chinese economy continues with its stellar growth, an executive of the city-state's port operator said in remarks published Monday.



  • Workers at Shanghai Science and Technology Museum today opened 59 cases containing more than 20 scarce dinosaur fossils from Zigong City, Sichuan Province, which will be exhibited at the museum for free from July 10 through August 31.



  • The unfinished Shanghai World Financial Center eclipsed Jinmao Tower to become the tallest building on the Chinese mainland as it scraped the sky at 423.8 meters yesterday, exceeding Jinmao's 420.5 meters.



  • China will begin to feel the pain of labor shortages nationwide in the next couple of years - much earlier than previously forecast - as the country's seemingly ample supply of rural migrant workers dries up, say latest studies by state think-tanks.



  • The Chinese authorities have acknowledged the 'removal' of a giant gold and copper plated statue of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) donated by Chinese Buddhists to Samye monastery in Tibet and demolished by Chinese People's Armed Police in mid-May.



  • Tong Xiaofeng, a Chinese professor at Khartoum University, says most of the Sudanese students in his class are motivated by money.



  • Many people in Taiwan are disappointed with the behaviour of the Chinese government, according to a poll by Taiwan Thinktank. 85 per cent of respondents think China’s efforts to exclude Taiwan from world bodies will affect two-way relations.



  • Alibaba.com, China's biggest e-commerce company, will raise up to US$1 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering this year, spurning the U.S. markets, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.



  • According to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, Chow Yun-fat's role in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie was censored for "for vilifying and defacing the Chinese and insulting Singapore."



  • Dozens of employees from Chinese beverage giant Wahaha descended upon a five-star hotel and office complex in one of the city’s richest districts last week to shout their wrath at Groupe Danone of France for its attempted takeover activities.



  • Dozens of Wahaha employees took to the street yesterday shouting "Oppose Danone" and "Boycott Danone" to protest the alleged takeover bid by Groupe Danone SA of its Chinese partner Wahaha.


  • For more del.icio.us. links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.
    Photo by yunny.

    Villagers help a pregnant woman evacuating from her home in low-lying areas along a water-flooded street in Zi Jin County, South China's Guangdong Province June 10, 2007. It is the worst flood to threaten 15 towns of the county in 50 years.Floods and landslides have killed 1,292 people and left another 332 missing this flood season in China, and crops on at least 15.43 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed and 1.22 million houses ruined, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Saturday.

    Remember the Bus Uncle? Maybe we'll call this latest Hong Kong video star the Bus Nephew, or maybe just Bus Bitch. Tian emailed us with the story and a link to the video (embedded) entitled "巴士四眼仔欺負82歲老翁" or "Bus Four Eyes Bullies 82-yr-old Man." We don't understand Cantonese and there aren't any subtitles, but it's not too difficult to get the gist. Here's Tian's summary:

    An unlinkable story from the South China Morning Post relays the chilling tale of Chongqing municipality's Wanzhou district, where the local government has ordered that all pet dogs be put to death because a resident died of rabies. Just when you think being a dog owner in China can't get any scarier ...

    Photo by chinapix taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site.

    This week’s editions of SH and City Weekend, summerviewed. (That’s a combination of summary and review. Look it up.)

    CNET reports, via Reuters and the South China Morning Post, that a courts in a city in Shandong province have been using a computer program to help calculate sentences in more than 1,500 criminal cases:

    Shanghaiist keeps following these stories on rabies that keep popping up around the country. Slaughters are happening in places like Nanjing, and now stories about dog bites and rabies cases in Shanghai and Beijing. Our paranoid mind can't help but wonder if the state media is planting seeds of warning.

    media reported on Friday. They welded the cage shut. Add him and his wife to the ranks of the sexually frustrated.

    Shanghaiist was horrified to find another story in the unlinkable South China Morning Post about another planned mass-slaughter of dogs in another part of China:

    But taking a dip into a major, disgustingly-polluted body of water is exactly what the governor of Guangdong Province and the mayor of Guangzhou did ... along with 3,500 other loyal citizens. Why? To prove that the Pearl River is now "neither black nor stinky" -- in certain sections -- after 30 years of being completely offensive:

    Meanwhile, at Shuffle Bar, a supposed “stolen” mobile phone led the lead singer of the Cuban band to shout a few obscenities from the stage and storm off. Also, a bachelorette party showed up totally expecting “Shanghai Latin Power” to be a different kind of show.

    Many American private universities have huge endowments, which are something like a trust fund, or more colloquially a "nest egg," sometimes worth billions of dollars that the universities use for whatever purposes they see fit. The size of the endowment (stop snickering now) is in no small way related to the reputation of the university. For example, Harvard University's is worth a whopping $22.6 billion (second only to the Gates foundation in net worth among non-profits). Of course, you don't get this kind of money by letting it sit in the bank -- you use all the investment tools and expertise at your disposal to make more money.

    After seeing this story on the Chinese legislative body, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, deciding not to criminalize sex-selective abortion, Shanghaiist was admittedly surprised that this practice had not actually already been outlawed. Turns out that currently, selective abortion is only in violation of much less stringent family planning regulations which have no clear provisions for any sort of punishment. These regulations do have a significant effect on clinics practicing selective abortion, but still a very limited reach when it comes to individuals actually getting the abortions. Some of the reasons the lawmakers shied away from this decision are understandable:

    A couple items of interest from the ever-unlinkable South China Morning Post's online Mainland news rundown. These are quick hits that often leave many facts open to interpretation:

    A couple stories that you may have seen on Shanghaiist recently have ended up in the mainstream media.

    Which should at least ensure that our Friday nights out are slap-free. From the North Korea Times, a piece about censorship:

    Have you ever heard of Henrik Stenson? He's a very good golfer, but not exactly a household name (unless, of course, you are from Sweden). He is, however, the highest ranked golfer participating in this week's BMW Asian Open in Shanghai. Ernie Els, Luke Donald and David Howell all pulled out of the tournament, citing one ailment or another. It's leading some to wonder: Are the world's top athletes allergic to Shanghai? You may remember the mass exodus of top names at the ATP Tennis Masters Cup last fall. And more recently, many of the big guns did not make the trip to the World Short Course Swimming Championships. The South China Morning Post has taken to calling this the "Shanghai Sickness" -- we always thought that was food poisoning. Anyway, here's a list of athletes that don't seem to be current on their Shanghai shots:

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