Chinese dairy giant Mengniu hasn't just been poisoning our kids with melamine milk, they've also been treating their own interns like coolies. 70 vocational students from Jiangsu on an internship with the company's plant in Ma'anshan, Anhui, say they've been made to do nothing but manual labour, working up to 14 hours each day, lifting 10,000 boxes, each weighing 2.5kg. more ›

"For an explosion scene today, we laid over a kilometre of explosives and called up more than a thousand extras, as well as a Chinese aerial video company. The result was a catastrophe as they couldn't even maintain a steady hover height. This has taught me a lesson -- you may want to give domestic companies a platform, but they won't give you face, and eventually you'll still have to do a u-turn and get the laowais in. If you don't have the right techniques, you can practise, but what's frightening is that these guys will tell you they can do anything, and then mess it up when the big moment comes. Right, I'll just suck it up. Next time, I won't believe anyone again." more ›

We were aware that Shanghai's ladies know how to enjoy themselves better than most, but a report from Women of China that analyzes 2010 census results confirms it: Shanghainese are putting off marriage at higher than expected ages, with the average age for marriage registrations standing at 29.77 years-old for women, and 32.45 years-old for men (though this state of affairs might be different if more costumed proposals took place). more ›

According to People's Daily, Shanghai's minimum monthly salary standard is set at 1,120RMB, currently the highest in China. Under national law, provincial governments must adjust local minimum wage standards every two years - and Shanghai, part of the coastal economic powerhouses along with JIangsu and Zhejiang, were the first to raise the standard in February. Now they're joined by 27 other provinces, including, most recently, Qinghai. more ›

We've highlighted mini-documentaries on the plight of migrant workers before, but there can't be enough said about these 200 million generally faceless people who have borne the burden of China's economic boom on their backs. more ›

Tudou cofounder and mastermind behind the Chinese online game site game.com.cn (we wonder how much he paid for that domain name!) Marc van der Chijs seems to think so:

This week we were analyzing the traffic figures on our Chinese online game sites game.com.cn and xiaoyouxi.com, when we noted a strange effect. During weekdays there was hardly any growth on our portals, but on weekends the growth was similar to what we were used to. We looked a bit deeper into this and may have found a reason for this: staff in companies play less online games during working hours (normally we see a spike in traffic around 11:30 AM and from 4 PM onwards). more ›

Scenes of China at work shot by Dror Poleg in May-July 2008 in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changzhou, Shenyang, Xi'an, Chengdu, and Chongqing. more ›

"The man, a manager surnamed Liu, invited one of his new female staff into his office in southwestern China's Sichuan province to ‘discuss work matters’, but then told her he wanted to be her boyfriend, the Beijing News said, citing a local newspaper. When the woman turned Liu down, he turned off the lights, held her by the neck and kissed her, the report said. ‘Miss Chen screamed out and fought back. Colleagues next door heard her and dialed (the police),’ the newspaper said." [Reuters] more ›

Beijing News reports a weird measure taken in a company in southern China. According to aujourdhuilachine.com, a company that makes loudspeakers has demanded that its employees keep quiet during work hours — otherwise they'll be asked to wear a protection mask for 3 days! The company explained the decision (taken in May) that they want to preserve the production's quality standards:

"If our employees talk, they are bound to splutter and it will do harm to the equipment parts."

African nationals in the city have been running small businesses on flexible, six-month ``F'' visas and are now being given only tourist visas of up to 15 days, the Morning Post said. more ›

• Via Danwei: For the first time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has acknowledged that visa procedures have been tightened. Said Qin Gang, according to the AP:

  "We have made some arrangements according to usual international practice. That is, in the approval process we are more strict and more serious with the procedure," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. more ›

Here's an English news link:

CHINESE police have rescued 33 intellectually disabled people forced to work at a building site by slave labour merchants after the apparent suicide of a detainee alerted authorities.