An angry Chinese demonstrator named Du Jianguo burst in on World Bank President Robert Zoellick during a press conference on privatizing state-run business in China. Zoellick was addressing the World Bank's new "China 2030 report" - a report advocating for more control by China's private business sector - when Du stormed up to the podium, handing out protest pamphlets and yelling things like "This report from the World Bank is poison!"
Photos: Chinese protester bursts in on World Bank meeting
Around Asia: Poverty in Vietnam, Gay rights in Singapore and Islam in Malaysia
World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday praised Vietnam as a "tremendous success story" in fighting poverty but said institutional reforms were needed as it seeks middle-income country status.
China Blog Parade: July 8-15, 2007
Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere:
Today's Links: Toothpaste, melting glaciers, and expensive art
Photo by 2dogs taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page.
Today's Links: St. Lucia, mistresses and p0rn
For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.
Photo by jules_shanghai found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.
m97 Gallery and Jiang Zhi: Blinded by the lights
Last Saturday, Shanghaiist was invited to attend the unveiling of Shanghai's newest gallery space, m97. Once we negotiated the tricky shared building entrance, we made our way to the second floor and was immediately impressed by the physical space and airy nature of the gallery. The grand opening featured an exhibition of by emerging Beijing photographer and artist Jiang Zhi titled "Things Would Turn Simpler Once They Happened". Immediately we had diametrically opposing thoughts. "How were these photos taken?", and "I don't quite get it...". We wished that our interpretation of the photographic exhibition was as simple as the exhibition's title, but we assume this is the art part of the exhibition. Here's a little about Jiang Zhe (pictured below) and his exhibit from information posted by m97.
Guangzhou set to be first 'developed' city in China
Chinese media reported yesterday that Guangzhou is set to become the first city in China to be recognised as 'developed' under World Bank standards, which define developed cities as those with a per capita GDP of over US$10,000.
World Car Free Day made official in Shanghai?
We're a bit confused here: We just read a report (in Chinese) that says 70 mayors of Chinese cities have signed agreements that make World Car Free Day -- September 22 -- somewhat official. However, it seems that Beijing tried this in 2005 in an attempt to meet "blue sky" goals. Supposedly Chengdu was the first Chinese city back in 2001 to try to do something for WCFD. After the signing of this agreement, most of China's big cities, such as Chongqing, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, etc. are on board. Not only are they going to encourage more people to walk, bike and use public transit, they might even carve out a no-car zone in parts of the cities.

