Results tagged “threegorges”

By Derek Sandhaus

By Derek Sandhaus

The yuan broke the 7.4 mark against the US dollar for the first time yesterday largely fueled by expectations that China is seeking a quicker appreciation of the currency to fight inflation.



  • "Academics who study China, which includes the author, habitually please the Chinese Communist Party, sometimes consciously, and often unconsciously. "




  • "China plans to expand its use of animated police figures into a virtual force symbolizing the government's monitoring of all major Web sites and online forums, state media said Saturday."




  • "The story was about some mainlanders believing that eating human fetuses can improve looks and heal diseases, and therefore they purchase dead fetuses from hospitals."




  • "So let's call this nail house what it really is: blackmail."




  • "Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes Magazine is in China right now and blogging on it. In Karlgaard's most recent post, he asks whether Shanghai or Beijing are China's future in a post, appropriately entitled, 'China's Future: Shanghai Or Beijing?'"




  • "Nearly 60 percent of saleable tickets will be reserved for residents of China, while the rest of the world will get 25 percent, said Rong Jun, director of the organising committee's ticketing department."




  • "Severe pollution in the Yangtze River is threatening the existence of the Chinese sturgeon, or Acipenser sinensis, an anadromous fish that has lived on the earth for more than 140 million years."




  • "However, there is something about China's video sharing sites that makes them much more interesting than their American counterparts: broadcast TV in China is really boring."




  • "Tears, wild hair and unhealthy songs are banned when China's latest version of "American Idol" goes on the air next month."




  • "Shanghai, China: In its relentless rush into capitalism and modernity, China's second city is currently exploding in every aspect."




  • "Phantom Shanghai is a spectacular look at a Shanghai that won't survive the vision the country has for itself."



  • "Children in more than 40 percent of families with one full-time parent are looked after by house husbands, a survey conducted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences suggests."




  • We apologize to the guy we hit in the head while we were playing Wii tennis.




  • "Pay starts at a measly RMB 2000 a month, and can rise up to about a base of RMB 2500 plus bonuses for kilometers driven. Take-home after tax for the year is about RMB 38,000 (USD 4,900). Benefits are pretty good, though."




  • "More than half of paint products available for sale in the city have failed quality tests in recent random checks by the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administration."




  • "China's Three Gorges Dam reservoir has been fouled by pesticides, fertilizers and sewage, and more than 600 kilometres of the Yangtze river are critically polluted, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday, citing a report."




  • "Everyone, if you travel to Shanghai, definitely avoid Hong Qiao Airport on Friday night. Never ever think of landing in Hong Qiao on Friday night. There is a simple reason for that - there is just no taxi that can help you get out of the airport."




  • "Now that China's showcase megacities are experiencing rising costs and fierce competition both in most sectors, foreign investors are slowly waking up to the fact that there are other cities in China besides Shanghai and Beijing."




  • "The investigated data from Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences presented that more than a half wine and overseas wines in Shanghai market were fake." So then what is it?




  • "The report said Shanghai's online consumers totaled 1.76 million last year, accounting for 34.6 percent of local Netizens, with Beijing following by 29.2 percent."


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

    Photo by gguillaumee found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.



  • He started in 1941 and kept it until 2001, and now the sixty year diary of over 2 million characters has been published. (article in Chinese)




  • Now it's Westerners asking the Chinese to cut out parts of their films?




  • Daniel A Bell asks whether China might not learn from Singapore and consider the "pragmatic benefits of legalizing the trade" — meaning the sex industry.




  • This part of a new "diversification strategy designed to move the industry away from the traditional markets of the UK, US, and Australia."




  • Which doesn't mean that prostitution is allowed elsewhere, just that the problem is more serious in this particular area, leading local law enforcement to put up the sign.




  • Red lights will now indicate service quality, with a minimum of three of five stars necessary—the stars that you currently see inside the taxi on the driver's name/ID card.




  • China's capital Beijing is bulging with 15.6 million permanent residents and the city government may have to rein in the population growth by granting fewer "hukou", or permanent residence certificates, to new settlers in the coming years.



  • Chinese auditors believe 37 million dollars has been embezzled from funds earmarked for resettling residents displaced by China's landmark Three Gorges Dam project, state press has reported.

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

    Photo by Shanghai Sky found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.

    Jia Zhangke’s Golden Lion-award-winning Still Life (in Chinese, Sanxia Haoren, or "The Good People of the Three Gorges") isn’t quite the masterpiece that we’ve come to expect from the man responsible for the pitch-perfect The World (2004) or Platform (2000). But save for a few minor hiccups, it comes awfully close.

    For the ever-pragmatic Chinese, adopting English names has always represented a way for them to bridge the linguistic and cultural gap. Now, as China widens its reach abroad and as the number of expatriates living in China swells, picking an English name has become a rite of passage for most young, urban Chinese. So ... this is news?

  • Mac William Bishop discusses the PLA's cadre of young hackers and the information warfare attacks between the PRC and Taiwan
  • Another interview with Qiu Xiaolong, the Shanghai born writer of English language detective novels featuring the poetry-loving Inspector Chen.
  • Taipei has gay pride parades every year, but this year was a bit different: the parade culminated with a wedding ceremony for four lesbian couples, a first in Asia.
  • The number of people to be displaced by the Three Gorges Dam has been raised by 270,000 to 1.4 million.
  • Photos from Reuters: a man in Hefei attempting to extinguish a torch in his mouth.
  • A Chinese company unveiled a "G spot" female condom that they say 90 percent of female users to achieve orgasm. This number came from a clinical trial of 135 people, and other than seven women that were pregnant and four that were post-menopausal, all the other women reported achieving orgasm. The report (in Chinese) says that the "bumps" on the top of the condom do the trick.
  • Photos: a man in a remote mountain village in Chongqing who has not cut his hair in 26 years decides that washing his hair isn't a bad idea. His hair is 2 meters long and his beard a close second at 1.5 meters. If you're not squeamish, you check out the pictures of people washing his hair -- they had to use nine bags of detergent to do the job.
  • Michael Schumacher lifts the Shanghai curse.
  • Ten expats win friends of the city prizes, and we were not one of them.
  • Shanghai is on its way to becoming a major airport hub in Asia -- and all will come to pass, you guessed it, before 2008.
  • There's a serious drought affecting Chongqing and neighboring Sichuan, which recent reports have stated is the worst such drought to hit the region in 50 years. Water levels on the Yangtze are at lows unseen for 100 years, water is being rationed in Chongqing, and millions of people are already without safe drinking water. Losses are already in the billions of yuan, and it looks like the autumn harvests are going to be shite, thus leading to huge agricultural losses.

    Photo by Shanghai Sky taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos 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.

    Back in September we told you about the new eco-city of Dongtan out on Chongming Island. It seems that it's made the news again though it seems that this new Reuters report doesn't tell much of anything new. A couple of trivial new facts: all the cars will be electric, and the precarious wetlands, which are what the environmentalists are mostly concerned with, will be protected and separated from the eco-city by a 5 km buffer zone. The reporter (we saw no byline) then does what every reporter does when they want to seem like they've canvassed local opinion -- talk to a cabbie. See for yourself:

    In New Orleans, we have seen the devastation that can come from failing to heed scientific warnings. Will Shanghai be the victim of a similar stubborness regarding the Three Gorges Dam? Well, here's another warning:

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