Blogs » Society » Escape Shanghai: Trek the 100 Waterfalls Trail in Northern Laos
Blogs » Society » Escape Shanghai: Trek the 100 Waterfalls Trail in Northern Laos |
- Escape Shanghai: Trek the 100 Waterfalls Trail in Northern Laos
- Forever 21 Brings American Fast Fashion to Shanghai
- Ningbo drops chemical project amid protests, but it is truly victory?
- People’s Daily Op-Ed Resorts To Plagiarism To Cast Stones At The New York Times’s Past Plagiarism
- Health Matters: Is Drinking Becoming a Problem for You?
- ‘China the Next Decade’: CNBC
- Ningbo protests rage on
- La Cocina: Mediterranean Fare in a Medieval Setting
- Acid Dumplings [35]
- Watch: NMA's take on Premier Wen's 'hidden riches'
- A Street Fight Involving Two Chinese Girls Set To Mandopop
- Sign up for the Shanghaiist Hairy Crab & Sex Museum Tour!
- Today's Links: People's Daily slams the New York Times, Rory McIlroy beats Tiger Woods and a young woman named Hua Youjuan
- The Saddest Fight: Beggars Tussle Over Territory
- Gangnam Style Gone Wrong: Stage Collapses Underneath Dancers In Beijing
- Watch: Kevin Garnett Plays Ping-Pong Against World Champion Wang Hao
- Mega-dams in China’s earthquake zones could have “disastrous consequences”
- Protest placard of the day
- Top-of-the-Week Links: On the New York Times, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping, Ningbo, and a Chinese man successfully suing his wife for being ugly
- Ningbo will ‘resolutely not have the PX project’
| Escape Shanghai: Trek the 100 Waterfalls Trail in Northern Laos Posted: 29 Oct 2012 08:40 PM PDT Date: Oct 30th 2012 8:17a.m. Contributed by: leemack In the north of Laos, there is an amazing trek that is perfect for anyone harboring Indiana Jones fantasies: the 100 Waterfalls Trail. |
| Forever 21 Brings American Fast Fashion to Shanghai Posted: 29 Oct 2012 08:39 PM PDT |
| Ningbo drops chemical project amid protests, but it is truly victory? Posted: 29 Oct 2012 07:42 PM PDT After days of protests over the proposed expansion of a petrochemical plant, the authorities finally gave in to swelling opposition by announcing that the environmentally sensitive project, which is expected to produce p-Xylene, or PX, will be permanently cancelled. Protesters who braved the online censorship by uploading photos of the scenes onto Chinese social media sites prided themselves on their concerted and peaceful effort to protect their hometown, marked by civility and altruism displayed during the protest that, in their words, "are loving and tear-jerking". The Ningbo Municipal Government made announcement about termination of the PX project at 6:45 p.m. on Sunday, both through its official account on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging site, and through the city's broadcasting system. But passionate crowds did not disperse right away. Many of them kept standing in front the government office compound and demanded the release of fellow protesters that had been previously detained by the riot police. According to several witnesses who stayed until late night, at around 9 p.m., at least a few hundred police officers dashed out of the government compound and swooped down on protesters at the entrance. Many protesters who did not manage to escape were arrested and dragged into police vehicles. On Sina Weibo, not all observers were excited about the so-called victory of the public opinion. While there is a consensus that from now on, it is increasingly hard for a local government to jerk the people around by making environmentally sensitive decisions single-handedly without having them participate in the process, it remains a question if the authorities will hand down subsequent punishment or backpedal on their earlier promises once the spotlight is turned away. Some commentators even pointed out that in Dalian, where a NIMBY protest over a similar PX project last year forced the authorities to scrub the plan, production resumed in secrecy after public furor subsided. Here is on overview of the developments in Ningbo and reactions on Sina Weibo on Sunday: @小巷中的怪蜀黍 : The deputy chief of Ningbo Public Security Bureau said with an off-putting face: "No national anthem singing! No national anthem singing!" I would say this buddy will surely betray the country within ten years…
赵楚：The deputy chief of Ningbo Public Security Bureau shouted in the square, "Whoever sings the national anthem will be arrested!" Everyone knows our national anthem is The March of the Volunteers, which was the song Chinese sang at the time of national crisis to encourage struggle for independence and freedom. So I want to ask the Ningbo authorities, are you a government run by Chinese or by Japanese occupationists?
@陈耀军律师：At around 11 a.m., more than more people gathered on Tianyi Square. A group of young men in their 20s began to shout slogans and broke silence. Soon afterwards, a bunch of riot police officers came and arrested whoever they see were shouting slogans. Before long, they arrested a dozen. 早上十一点左右，天一广场人开始多起来，二十几岁的那群年轻人开始喊口号，平静的气氛被打破了。过了一会，来了一群特警，看到谁在带头喊口号就直接抓人，不一会功夫就抓了十来个。
@那个宁波的老黄：A few things to thank today: 1, thanks to those who led the singing of national anthem. It seems the song, if sung in large groups, is really intimidating to those cadres. 2, thanks to the cancer patient who showed up and spoke out. It was as if he gave his earnest and solemn admonition in defiance of death. 3, thanks to the old people who knelt down in front of the city government, who let us know the sense of superiority that the public servants enjoy. 4, Thanks to the cooperation of telecom service provider for saving me the costs on mobile data usage by not allowing photo uploading. Oh, by the way, give my thanks to your damn father!
@被抢注的哎乌: Ningbo people were so rational that they did not even block roads and instead congregated around the fountain. When the ambulance came, they spontaneously backed off to make way for the vehicle. They are almost as good as Hong Kongers. The government is cruel and inhuman.
@mis-liz ：When we were chatting on the roadside, a few ladies said they would take the trash away. They even brought their own garbage bags. I look back and see no trash in this large square! This is the quality of Ningbo people's character! Ningbo's officials do not deserve Ningbo's people! @王冉：I've learned some elderly people knelt in front of Ningbo's government building. Power does not come out of kneeling and kowtowing. Your knees may get red from kneeling, but their eyes won't get teary from it. Straighten your back, look at them in the eyes, and tell them what you want and what you don't want. These are the rights each and every citizen is born with.
@墨者梁文道：How stupid, sordid and absurd is this? It can truly dumbfound the entire world. In order to prevent supporters and foreign journalists from entering Ningbo, the government has covered up all the road signs that point to Ningbo.
司令本：Well, don't tell the cadres that we all have GPS. 千万别告诉领导我们都有导航系统哦 @暮天钟A ：(Tears!) 1, when the foreign media showed up, on the spot there was thunderous applause! Which lasted a long time! Many people shed tears! Even the foreign reporter had tears running down! It shows how much Ningbo people yearn for support and expression! I burst into tears too. 2, When the heart-shaking singing in unison began, tears were everywhere! Even a soldier ten meters away from me had tears rolling down his cheek! I was so moved deep down! Indescribable feelings.
@醒醒吧———-辛巴 ：You speak for Ningbo people. You have Ningbo people "at your back".
@宋歪麦: By essay writer Wang Shengqiang: With such a huge matter going on in Ningbo, not a single Chinese media organization arrived at the scene to report it. One foreign news outlet went there, and people welcomed it as if it were their family. When the crowds blocked the camera's view, the people volunteered to hoist the reporter up. This scene reminds me that when the Eight-Nation Alliance launched the attack on Beijing's imperial city, ordinary people volunteered to held the ladders for them. As the saying goes, "When the state disregards the people, the people disregard the state."
@梅溜溜: This lady in black dress bought over 1,000 yuan's worth of pastries and said she would hand them out to students at the scene. I truly respect her! 这个黑衣女子在85度买了1000多元面包说要给现场的学生吃，我非常敬佩！
记者刘向南：Ningbo, a girl who picked up the litter in the crowd. I am truly touched by a compatriot like this! Those who claim Chinese are too ill-mannered to be ready for democracy, you should apologize to our citizens who are like her!
高处不胜醉: #moving# today in front of the city government building, a few elderly men and women pulled a few young men away and said to them, "Boys and girls, you step back. Later, if those inside come out and arrest people, you guys can escape, otherwise, you will be locked up in there and your study or career will be affected. We are old and can run no more. It is okay even if we get locked up. After all, we've already retired." My eyes immediately got wet. Are they what those SOBs called "unruly citizens"?? This is love, isn't it?!!
妞妞Jean ：People from Zhenhai district are invincible! They walked all the way to downtown Ningbo through the tunnel.
@一毛不拔大师: Some people defending the PX project argue that there are also many PX projects close to urban centers in Europe and America. But there are coal mines in Europe and America too. How about their death rates among miners, compared to China's? If the government tries to convince the public, at least be clear about what waste discharge facilities their plant will use and how are they compared with their European and American counterparts; what standards they can meet; who is held accountable in the event of failure. If they have done none of these, how can they blame the public?
@假装在纽约：When people in Xiamen hit the streets and fought for their city, guess most people in Dalian did not care, thinking it did not concern them. When Dalian people took to the streets, guess many in Shifang were indifferent. Likewise, when Shifang people hit the streets, many in Ningbo did not care. Now, people in Ningbo are walking on the streets. Those who are still indifferent, when do you think is your city's turn? @我不是云遥就怪了: The fight by Ningbo people for their health and life makes me aware of the strength of Ningbo people. People in Zhenhai district were capable of walking 30 kilometers (17 miles) to the downtown. Countless people handed out food and water for free to citizens.
Ningbo announcement: decisions after the authorities' discussion with the investor of the project: (1)Never start the PX project; (2) The first phase of the refinery and petrochemical plant integration project is suspended until further scientific assessments. @老徐时评: The authorities in Ningbo announced the termination of the PX project. I feel happy for and proud of Ningbo people from the bottom of my heart. This is victory of democracy. This is victory of the people. This is victory of Weibo…
斯伟江: Ningbo government has made the right choice by respecting the public opinion. Then they should release people they've detained. It is clearly against the law to detain people only because they have participated in the demonstration or spoken out and taken photos. Any form of subsequent punishment is going to offset the right choice they've made.
@王火山Volcano : On my way home, there were all private cars waiting on the roadside with their hazard flashers turned on and ready to take anyone from Zhenhai home. Touching!
@薄雪草QIQI: There is a whole line of cars with hazard flashers on waiting to pick strangers up. Suddenly I feel an itch in my nose and a rush of warmth in my heart.
宁波杨秋云: It is now 19:10 (7:10 p.m.). There are still tens of thousands at the entrance of the Ningbo government office shouting "Release them!" Now people are really impassioned! Please, don't let the situation get out of control!
@絮儿VV: People at the scene still don't want to leave. "Release them, release them," the voices reverberate through the night sky. And there are still riot police officers coming out for arrests! Hot-blooded young men can only throw water bottles at them! Now a big motorcade of police cars comes out. No idea what big shots they are. The cadres sitting inside the car, do you have any conscience? I am home now. Friends at the scene, please go home ASAP!
宁波杨秋云: I just witnessed some tragic scenes right on the spot! At around 9 p.m., nearly a thousand police officers dashed out of the government compound and chased citizens at the entrance. Citizens stampeded in horror! At 9:06 p.m., many people were arrested. Students, elderly people, men and women were one after another thrown into a bus!
@颜小兽zhi旅行季：#I love Ningbo# I escaped the scene…Attention: I mean escape, literally…Too horrific…So many people were arrested…And beaten the moment they were shoved into the car…I am truly concerned about those fellow townspeople who have been arrested. Ningbo…I cry for you tonight.
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| People’s Daily Op-Ed Resorts To Plagiarism To Cast Stones At The New York Times’s Past Plagiarism Posted: 29 Oct 2012 07:57 PM PDT
Venerable titans of journalism, People's Daily, published an attack piece on the New York Times yesterday (in Chinese) accusing the Gray Lady of deteriorating standards and bad breath. "In recent years, there has been an explosion in plagiarism and fabrication by its journalists," PD writes, highlighting two particular debacles involving infamous plagiarists Jayson Blair and Zachery Kouwe. Financial Times noticed something very odd about PD's words, however. Very odd and very ironic:
Sentences were lifted these sources (via Financial Times again):
Of course, China News Agency is basically Xinhua — which shares a bit more than words with People's Daily — and PD's editors probably think it's okay to plagiarize oneself (they have a point… in this country, it is okay, judging by industry standards). But isn't this such a lovely reminder that when it comes to journalism, some practitioners are clueless? You knew that already, of course, and if not, go read some of TAR Nation's columns. Yet we are equally reminded that media doesn't serve the same purpose in China as it does in "free" societies. The People's Daily op-ed, after all, was written exclusively for a Chinese audience, the kind that will not know it is plagiarized, and will take at face value the revelation that the New York Times has sinned in the past. So have your laugh at People's Daily; then weep for those who find no reason to. UPDATE, 11:02 am: Some more highlights of the PD piece, via AFP:
Also:
"Doomed to failure" will be a meme. |
| Health Matters: Is Drinking Becoming a Problem for You? Posted: 29 Oct 2012 07:01 PM PDT Date: Oct 30th 2012 8:45a.m. Contributed by: carlonseider Shanghai is a city that seems to revolve around alcohol. But how much is too much? |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2012 06:58 PM PDT Miranda Carr, head of China research at NSBO, in a few minutes laid out the options for China's leadership coming up as well as the current situation. Worth a careful view: |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2012 06:10 PM PDT |
| La Cocina: Mediterranean Fare in a Medieval Setting Posted: 29 Oct 2012 06:07 PM PDT |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2012 05:00 PM PDT
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| Watch: NMA's take on Premier Wen's 'hidden riches' Posted: 29 Oct 2012 04:04 PM PDT Taiwanese animation studio NMA takes on Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's "hidden riches", recently exposed in an article by New York Times' Shanghai correspondent David Barboza. For more NMA hilarity, click here. [ more › ]     |
| A Street Fight Involving Two Chinese Girls Set To Mandopop Posted: 29 Oct 2012 03:00 PM PDT The Youku title reads, "Pretty ladies also fight, much fiercer than men!" A table gets knocked over. A lady rubs the other's head against the concrete. And then there is hair-pulling. Yeah, they're fiere alright. But when they're pulled apart, they stay apart, like boxers asked to go back to their corners. That's good of them. All the while, upbeat Mandopop plays in the background. Youku video for those in China after the jump. |
| Sign up for the Shanghaiist Hairy Crab & Sex Museum Tour! Posted: 29 Oct 2012 02:20 PM PDT  Hairy crab season is rapidly approaching its zenith! And because Shanghaiist knows not all hairy crabs are created equal, we've decided to take it upon ourselves to take you to that one place in China that ensures you get the REAL DEAL -- Yangcheng Lake. Join Shanghaiist editors Kenneth Tan and Benjamin Cost on an oralgasmic getaway with Shanghai's most famous staple right at the source, happening on the weekend of Nov 3-4. FIND OUT MORE & SIGN UP HERE. [ more › ] |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2012 01:25 PM PDT  A few links to start off your day: People's Daily slams the New York Times, Rory McIlroy beats Tiger Woods and a young woman named Hua Youjuan [ more › ] |
| The Saddest Fight: Beggars Tussle Over Territory Posted: 29 Oct 2012 11:30 AM PDT "Has it come to this?" asks the Youku video description. "No one has it easy." No one indeed. But read that expression another way: no one is easy, as in, they're not pushovers. You might be tempted to think of legless beggars as pitiable, but that doesn't make them any less proud than the rest of us. They're out there trying to make a living, too, and if you threaten their ability to do so, you're liable to get slapped. Here, two beggars get into a confrontation over territory in front of a train station, we're told. Passersby can't stand the scene, so they intervene and arbitrate. We knows if they managed to strike a compromise — probably unlikely, because as everyone on the street knows, corners must be defended. Youku video for those in China after the jump. |
| Gangnam Style Gone Wrong: Stage Collapses Underneath Dancers In Beijing Posted: 29 Oct 2012 09:17 AM PDT Students in the throes of Gangnam Style on Sunday morning had their dance abruptly halted when the one-meter platform underneath them collapsed. The mostly international students were performing in front of a sizable audience as part of the Peking University International Cultural Festival. The festivities had just started when the accident happened, according to Beijing News, though there were no serious injuries. They'll be up and riding again in no time — we can only hope better than Ai Weiwei. Youku video for those in China after the jump, plus a photo and a postscript.
POSTSCRIPT: In other parts of China, here are 3,700 people dancing the Gangnam Style at Nanjing Hehai University. It took a while, but Gangnam has, officially, taken over this country.
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| Watch: Kevin Garnett Plays Ping-Pong Against World Champion Wang Hao Posted: 29 Oct 2012 08:07 AM PDT NBA star Kevin Garnett was in China last month to promote his new Anta shoe, the KG III, and it appears that his itinerary included a trip to the set of The Generation Show《年代秀》. He was joined in the studio that day by another major star athlete in China, ping-pong world champion Wang Hao. Naturally, the two played a rally. Naturally, Wang Hao used his off-hand, and still had to take it extra easy on the Boston power forward. And naturally, Wang Hao won the point. (This episode just aired on Friday.) But just as importantly, everyone looked like they had a lot of fun, par for the course for KG. As the Celtics fan site Red's Army notes about Garnett's trip, "I honestly think that KG had more fun in China than his fans did. He brought his energy and emotion to each appearance and event." Oh, and he speaks better Chinese than Lebron James, and plays better ping-pong than Kate Middleton. Youku video for those in China after the jump. (H/T Alicia) |
| Mega-dams in China’s earthquake zones could have “disastrous consequences” Posted: 29 Oct 2012 02:18 AM PDT The row over the safety of large dam cascades in earthquake-prone south-west China is heating up following revelations that 48% lie in zones of high seismic hazard. The Chinese government has approved a number of large dam cascades in the south-west of China. But not everyone agrees that the plans are safe. Seismic research "only just getting started" Research into RIS in China only started in 1963. In 2004, the China Earthquake Administration set up China's first network of digital seismic monitoring stations designed to monitor RIS across a number of reservoirs in the Wu River basin. The Earthquake Monitoring Regulations, implemented the same year, specifically required that all dams capable of inducing earthquakes of 5.0 magnitude or over – in other words dams more than 100 metres high, or reservoirs of 500 million cubic metres in volume – should have dedicated seismic monitoring networks. In 2007, methodology for RIS risk evaluation was issued by the China Earthquake Standards Technology Commission, the first of its kind. An expert at the Institute of Geology, who did not wish to be named, says that research on RIS in China is "only just getting started" and mainly focuses on areas of low seismic activity; there have been no in-depth studies in medium or high risk areas. Another geologist familiar with the seismology field in China says that RIS in western China only started to be taken seriously after the Wenchuan Earthquake. This article was first published in Caixin's New Century Weekly. |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2012 05:19 AM PDT  A mother comes out for her son at the recent Taiwan pride parade: "If I can have a husband, why can't my son? Who says we can't both love men? True love is more important than gender!" [ more › ] |
| Posted: 29 Oct 2012 05:25 AM PDT
Lot of things happened in the last three days. Here we go with links. From the public editor. "There surely was less harmony for advertisers on The Times's Chinese site, whose ads also were blocked from millions of viewers. // Nor could there have been much harmony for those at The Times who deal with advertising revenue, a difficult enough proposition as a discouraging third-quarter earnings report made clear on Thursday. // The episode is an extreme example of an enduring newspaper-world fact: journalism and business interests don't always go hand in hand." [NY Times]
Britishman Daniel Foa will soon be part of China's first family. "His wife, and the mother of his child, is Hiu Ng, the niece of Xi Jinping, China's next paramount leader. // …'I have no negative opinions about him at all. But I did not consider him likely to be able to penetrate China to the extent that he has. How does a guy like that make contact with the niece of Xi Jinping?' said one former member of Shanghai's expat community. // The answer, according to another friend who knows the couple, is that they moved in the same expat circles. // 'She studied abroad and her English is so good she could pass for a foreigner, and she spent more time in the expat scene than the Chinese scene,' he said. // Until recently, few friends were even aware that Mrs Ng is the daughter of Xi Jinping's younger sister, Xi Qianping, a low-profile businesswoman who lives in Australia." [The Telegraph] Corruption in China. "When investors and diplomats consider the risks facing China, they often assume that its corruption is of the kind we saw in Korea and Taiwan (or Chicago, for that matter), in which a political machine pulls money out of the state to give to favored friends and businesses, but does not ultimately kill the goose that laid the golden egg. But when Wedeman looked at the data, he concluded, to his surprise, that 'corruption in China more closely resembled corruption in Zaire than it did corruption in Japan.' In short, he found, 'the evidence suggests that corruption in contemporary China is essentially anarchy.' // …The Party is running out of time not because corruption is a drag on the economy—it can outrun that effect—but because the public is losing confidence. Last year, when two trains crashed on a stretch of China's new railways, citizens were not inclined to see it as an example of the inevitable problems that accompany an ambitious new improvement to public transportation. Instead, they circulated an anonymous message that read, in part: 'When a country is so corrupt that one lightning strike can cause a train crash … none of us are exempt. China today is a train rushing through a lightning storm…. We are all passengers.'" [Evan Osnos, The New Yorker] Foreigners: welcome to Ningbo! "According to people who were at the scene, the two journalists (one is found to be Angus Walker from ITV) were welcomed by protesters like long-lost family members. Like netizen Ccccccccbr, a protesting student at the scene, commented: 'Seeing those foreign journalists is like seeing long-lost beloved ones. The people of Ningbo welcome you.' // And Ccccccccbr wasn't along. 我们呛声 remembered: 'The crowd willingly made room for the two British journalists. Some even lifted the camera man up so that he can have a better view. It was such a touching moment. When they were about to leave, an old lady said to them, "Please don't leave. As soon as you guys leave, they [riot police] will start beating protesters."' Why did the old lady say so? Netizen 果果陈 described a scene that may explain: 'Seeing two foreign journalists approaching with cameras, the riot police retreated behind the gate of the municipal government headquarter. People started to cheer. An old gentleman besides me said, "After so many years of liberation, we still need to depend on foreigner."' [Offbeat China] Mad Men as depiction of slice of life in present-day China. "While Americans may see 'Mad Men' as an escapist retro-cool trip to their parents' boozy, bygone, better-dressed era, Ji and many of his fellow fans view the program through a different lens. In this country — where 63% of workers are exposed to cigarette smoke on the job, the divorce rate is rising as fast as GDP and boardrooms remain bastions of men who banquet — the AMC show is less like a portal to a lost past and more like an oddly relatable snapshot of the present, or maybe even the desirable future." [LA Times] Chinese man successfully sues wife for being ugly. "He was shocked by the child's appearance, calling her 'incredibly ugly' and saying she looked like neither one of her parents. // Mr Feng was so outraged that he initially accused his wife of cheating. // Faced with the accusation, his wife admitted to spending around £62,000 on plastic surgery which had altered her appearance drastically. // She had the work done before she met her husband and never told him about it after they met. // Mr Feng filed for divorce saying his wife had deceived him and convinced him to marry her under false pretenses. // The judge agreed with him and awarded him the damages." [Daily Mail] Xi Jinping's mandate. "The Chinese Communist Party has a powerful story to tell. Despite its many faults, it has created wealth and hope that an older generation would have found unimaginable. Bold reform would create a surge of popular goodwill towards the party from ordinary Chinese people. // Mr Xi comes at a crucial moment for China, when hardliners still deny the need for political change and insist that the state can put down dissent with force. For everyone else, too, Mr Xi's choice will weigh heavily. The world has much more to fear from a weak, unstable China than from a strong one." [The Economist] Han Han: "The main contradiction in China today is between the growing intelligence of the population and rapidly waning morality of our officials." [NPR] Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy "duel" in China. "Golf fans have been waiting all season for Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to go head-to-head with a title on the line. On Monday, in a match being promoted as 'the Duel' at Jinsha Lake Golf Club in Zhengzhou, China, they'll finally get their wish. // The Duel will be staged as a two-man exhibition, with both stars going mano-a-mano for 18 holes in match play. The match begins at 12:30 a.m. Eastern and will be live streamed on Golf.com.au." [Golf] Imitation is a form of flattery in this culture, but we're not sure about identity theft. Will the person impersonating Charlie Custer on China-related articles cut it out, or at least be funnier? "Just a very quick thing: it has come to my attention that someone is using my name (Charles Custer) to comment on China articles at various news sites (see this and this for examples). This person is not me." [The Real Charles Custer, China Geeks] World's highest national park opened on Friday. "The Qomolangma National Park, located at the border of China and Nepal, covers six counties of the region's Xigaze Prefecture with a total area of 78,000 square kilometers. // It includes five mountain peaks with altitudes of more than 8,000 meters, such as Mount Qomolangma. More than 10 others are over 7,000 meters, according to Sun Yongping, deputy chief of the region's tourism bureau." [Global Times] Pandas eating lunch interlude: Finally… The A to Z of Chinese politics. [John Garnaut, The Age] The Beijinger's gallery of Halloween photos. [the Beijinger] The National Party Congress cracks down on fun. [Barbara Demick, LA Times] On Iron Man 3′s half-Asian, half-European, definitely not Chinese villain. [io9] A denial. A denial. A denial. A denial. [Chinese Law Prof Blog] Finally, finally…
Big suit in Liaoning province, via Xinhua |
| Ningbo will ‘resolutely not have the PX project’ Posted: 29 Oct 2012 11:46 AM PDT  Right in the middle of the front page of the Ningbo Daily (宁波日报) today is a brief announcement: Ningbo will resolutely not have the PX project. After protests all of last week against an expansion project at a plant in the city that residents fear will pollute the environment , the paper reports laconically today that, after further research was carried out, the project will not go ahead but will be halted to enable further refinement and adjustment of the project based on scientific analysis. Ningbo thus now follows in the footsteps of Xiamen, Chengdu, Dalian and Shifang where protests by residents have in recent years resulted in the cancellation of similar plans to build polluting plants. Yet if you read the newspapers in China today, you almost would not have found the news from Ningbo on any other front page except the Ningbo Daily. The Qilu Evening News from Shandong, however, was one very notable exception. Ningbo was the scene last week for protests by residents of the city against a multi-billion yuan expansion project of an oil refinery and chemical plant by the Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Company, a subsidiary of the Chinese petrochemical giant Sinopec. Thousands of people took part in the protest against the project, which they believed would be spewing out more paraxylene, or PX, a hazardous hydrocarbon. Then on Sunday, following a meeting of the Ningbo city government, an official statement announced that the PX project would not go ahead. In a short article that was printed on the front page of Ningbo Daily beneath the laconic announcement, the newspaper describes exactly how the group of protesters reacted when told by journalists that the local government had shelved plans for the expansion project:
The only other paper that seemed to have reported much on the Ningbo protest and resolution is the Qilu Wanbao (齐鲁晚报) from Shandong. The front page of this newspaper today likewise featured the short announcement that the PX project will not go ahead along with an article that provides more details on the protest and how it was resolved. Additionally, on page 2 the Qilu Wanbao printed its own commentary on the resolution of the Ningbo protest. The decision to cancel the expansion project, it said, reflected the government's respect for public opinion. Yet the newspaper then reflects more deeply on the event:
So here is a quick run-down of the notable environmental 'not in my backyard' (NIMBY) protests in China in recent years, leading up to last week's Ningbo protest:
Links and sources Qilu Evening News: 宁波:坚决不上PX项目 Additionally, this map of sites that produce PX in China appeared on Weibo, posted by @李蒙记者  |
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