Blogs » Society » Interns given 'psychological test' on their first day freak out and quit

---

• Interns given 'psychological test' on their first day freak out and quit
• Guangxi doctor convinced patients to use his sperm as a 'secret prescription'
• Watch: Zhejiang's basketball playing granny
• Presented By:
• The Most Uncomfortable Ad To Look At, Unless You Like Bees And Ants On Your Scalp
• Evan Osnos: Masterful Interview on Charlie Rose
• Friday Night Musical Outro: Beyond – Boundless Oceans Vast Skies
• Luzhou riot may have been sparked by a false rumour
• Chinese crave Aussie Cheese
• Watch: 2012 10th Annual Taiwan LGBT Pride begins on October 27th
• Friday Links: Chinese reactions to Mitt Romney, inside Foxconn, and Ai Weiwei curates New Statesman
• Foreign Policy: Why China wants Mitt Romney to win
• Overfishing pushes 80% of Chinese fishermen towards bankruptcy
• How a multibillion dollar rail project in London is building a wetland
• Chinese 'Thunder God Vine' kills tumours in mice, cures cancer maybe
• Chinese speakers: Download the Ai Weiwei curated issue of the New Statesman now for free!
• The Spark That Started The Luzhou Riot This Week Was Probably Just A Rumor
• Top 10 Search List (October 19, 2012)
• Sign up for the Shanghaiist Hairy Crab & Sex Museum Tour!
• Big bad China cancelled poor ol' Jon Huntsman's visa (Update: kind of)

Interns given 'psychological test' on their first day freak out and quit Posted: 19 Oct 2012 09:00 PM PDT The Shenyang Evening News reports on ten new "post-90s" interns, who were given a "psychological test" by their new boss on their very first day, the results of which caused them all to have a collective freak out. [ more › ]

Guangxi doctor convinced patients to use his sperm as a 'secret prescription' Posted: 19 Oct 2012 08:00 PM PDT A 47-year-old doctor and professor who convinced patients to use his own sperm to cure gynaecological issues, has lodged an appeal against his conviction after he was sentenced to four years behind bars for rape. [ more › ]

Watch: Zhejiang's basketball playing granny Posted: 19 Oct 2012 07:00 PM PDT ITN has a short report on the 76-year-old basketball playing grandmother from Zhejiang who became something of a Weibo celebrity earlier this month. [ more › ]

Presented By: Posted: 19 Oct 2012 07:00 PM PDT

The Most Uncomfortable Ad To Look At, Unless You Like Bees And Ants On Your Scalp Posted: 19 Oct 2012 05:00 PM PDT Congratulations to BC&T, a Hangzhou-based advertising company that has created the most aggravatingly effective ad for Yangyuanqing, as brought to us by Ads of the World. Got an itchy scalp? You must have bees or ants on it, of course. Yet what does this ad actually communicate? No one likes being reminded of their afflictions, best I can tell, especially if that affliction involves bees and ants on the scalp. It would've been nice to see an after-shampoo-use picture, featuring milk, honey, the Monteverdi Choir and colorful ribbons flouncing against a heaven-blue sky. Hopefully that's not asking for too much.

Evan Osnos: Masterful Interview on Charlie Rose Posted: 19 Oct 2012 02:57 PM PDT Evan Osnos of the New Yorker did a great interview on Charlie Rose on October 15. He began with a few minutes about his excellent 9 page post on the Wenzhou rail disaster, 'BOSS RAIL: The disaster that exposed the underside of the boom' and its implications: The Wenzhou collision and the downfall of Liu Zhijun have come to symbolize some of the essential risks facing the Communist Party. The crash struck at the middle-class men and women who have accepted the grand bargain of modern Chinese politics in the era after Socialism: allow the Party to reign unchallenged as long as it is reasonably competent. The crash violated the deal, and, for many, it became what Hurricane Katrina was to Americans: the iconic failure of government performance. Mr. Osnos went on to discuss a dazzling series of issues in about 23 minutes: Bo Xilai, the leadership transition, the slowing economy, U.S.-China relations, and more. I am especially impressed at how he took on each of these complicated issues and give a quick, succinct, and very insightful answer. Wish I could do that. Well worth watching. Unfortunately I am not able to embed the interview–complain to Charlie Rose, but you can watch it here.

Friday Night Musical Outro: Beyond – Boundless Oceans Vast Skies Posted: 19 Oct 2012 08:55 AM PDT I might've mentioned I'm in Hong Kong this weekend, so it's only fitting that we feature one of Hong Kong's most influential and fondly remembered bands, Beyond. On June 24, 1993, just a month after the release of "Boundless Oceans Vast Skies" (海闊天空), lead singer and founder Wong Ka-kui died in a horrific accident in Tokyo when the three-meter-high stage he was on collapsed under his feet. Out of this tragedy, the other band members solidified their place in the musical mainstream, and continued to record and tour until 2005. I'm not trying to compare Beyond to Nirvana, but one gets the same vibes watching this video as You Know You're Right – doubly so if you're in a position to appreciate what Beyond meant to Hong Kong's music scene. Youku video for those in China after the jump.

Luzhou riot may have been sparked by a false rumour Posted: 19 Oct 2012 09:00 AM PDT We reported earlier this week on a riot that broke out in Luzhou after a man was beaten to death by traffic police officers. Now it seems that the entire riot may have been one huge misunderstanding, caused by someone irresponsibly or maliciously spreading a rumour that police had killed someone who actually died of natural causes. [ more › ]

Chinese crave Aussie Cheese Posted: 19 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT In a surprising new trend considering China's seemingly collective lactose intolerance, China can't seem to get enough of Australian dairy products, especially cheese. [ more › ]

Watch: 2012 10th Annual Taiwan LGBT Pride begins on October 27th Posted: 19 Oct 2012 07:00 AM PDT Over 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets this year to celebrate Taiwan's 10th Annual LGBT Pride and to push for the legalisation of same-sex marriage on the island. [ more › ]

Friday Links: Chinese reactions to Mitt Romney, inside Foxconn, and Ai Weiwei curates New Statesman Posted: 19 Oct 2012 05:50 AM PDT At the Beijinger's 11th anniversary party last night, via the Beijinger. On my Dragon Air flight to Hong Kong this afternoon, we were given the food option of beef brisket rice or chicken with casserole. The casserole featured thin slides of egg between soft slices of potato. Both set meals came with a shrimp salad and bread, and after all that, we were served Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Obviously beverages were free, including red and white wine, and the coffee was brewed from a pot, and on top of all that, THERE WERE OUTLETS UNDERNEATH THE SEAT, AND FLIGHT ATTENDANTS HAD ADAPTERS IN CASE YOUR PLUG WASN'T COMPATIBLE. In conclusion, Dragon Air is the best. Links. On a scale of "not at all" to "not," how surprised are you that Yang Rui supports Mitt Romney? "Yang Rui, the host of an English-language news broadcast, found himself in hot water earlier this year for calling for the government to 'clean out foreign trash,' and writing about the 'Jewish bosses' of the American media and the 'wrong biased policy of shielding Israel.' After the debate, Yang Rui wrote, 'Romney has the upper hand on many topics, in my estimation. Obama seemed weak and young. His opponent was mature and calm, with a mouthful of statistics, clear logic, concise language; he is a very good debater!' (His post was later deleted for reasons unclear, but you can find a remnant of it online.) // We can expect more Chinese reaction to come. In the next and final debate, on October 22nd, which will focus on foreign policy, a fifteen-minute segment has been set aside for 'the rise of China and tomorrow's world.'" [Evan Osnos, The New Yorker] Corollary: Chinese reactions. [The Atlantic] Foxconn humanized, with photos. "I am not yet going to characterize what I saw, and I am not pretending to know more than I do. This was a few hours out of one day. But what I saw once inside the gate was very different from the picture that 'Foxconn' had always conjured up in my mind. I'll plan to post a series of photos day by day until I've conveyed the range of what I saw. If scenes like these conform closely to how you had imagined Foxconn to look, congrats on your insight. They surprised me." [James Fallows, The Atlantic] Ya don't say. "A White House-ordered review of security risks posed by suppliers to U.S. telecommunications companies found no clear evidence that Huawei Technologies Ltd had spied for China, two people familiar with the probe told Reuters. // Instead, those leading the 18-month review concluded early this year that relying on Huawei, the world's second-largest maker of networking gear, was risky for other reasons, such as the presence of vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit." [Reuters] More on China and "currency manipulation." "Candidate Romney's repeated promise that he would label China a currency manipulator on his first day in office is well known. But could he really afford to do so? China imported $120 billion of U.S. commodities in 2011, and roughly 1 million Chinese visitors toured the United States that year, each spending an average of around $7,000. Despite China's slowing economy, these numbers will increase in 2012. Would a President Romney really honor his threat, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs? Two days before the 2008 presidential election, Obama issued a similar threat to protect the U.S. textile business from Chinese competition. After winning the election, his administration spent roughly four months investigating whether China was, in fact, artificially suppressing its currency. The conclusion? China was not manipulating the renminbi." [Foreign Policy] Another award-winning Chinese writer. "The Taiwanese poet Yang Mu (楊牧) has been chosen by an international jury as the winner of the third Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. Sponsored by the University of Oklahoma's Institute for U.S.-China Issues, Newman Prize is awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding achievement in prose or poetry that best captures the human condition, and is conferred solely on the basis of literary merit. Any living author writing in Chinese is eligible." [Chinese Literature Today, University of Oklahoma] Mo Yan will speak the truth. "At the end of the interview the People's Daily asks Mo the question we all would like an answer to: 'In your December 10 acceptance speech, what will you say?' // Mo Yan responds: // I will say things that are real. I will speak the truth." [China Media Project] Probably too optimistic an article, but still important for the nut graf. "Chinese government-controlled newspapers have openly criticised the detention of a village official who called for the end of Communist Party rule, an extraordinary move that some media experts see as a sign that Beijing is granting more leeway on free speech. // The campaign is all the more remarkable because Ren Jianyu, 25, was sentenced to a labour camp for posting online messages that called for the downfall of the party's 'dictatorship' – sentiments that would normally mark him out for harsh treatment by China's media, assuming they gave any coverage at all." [Reuters] Belated, from Tuesday. "Besuited and fiercely disciplined, with a powerful family background and experience in the Communist Youth League, Liu Yandong appears much like other cadres jockeying for position in China's pending leadership transition, bar one very obvious difference: her gender. // She is the only female member of the 25-member politburo and would be the first woman to reach its standing committee, the country's top political body. Though she is regarded as a long shot, 'the door is not closed', said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution." [Tania Brannigan, The Guardian] China trip montage interlude: Finally… Competition to be "pambassadors." [Sina] Digital version of the New Statesman, featuring Ai Weiwei. [New Statesman] Ai Weiwei's cats. [Buzzfeed] What tier is your city? Now you can find out with this handy formula. [Dave Lyons, Rectified.name] Finally, finally… Another world record; via Global Times: A total of 900 tents form the image of a dragon on a beach in Qingdao, Shandong Province on Saturday. Workers from the Guinness World Records went to the scene and certified the dragon as the world's largest tent diagram."

Foreign Policy: Why China wants Mitt Romney to win Posted: 19 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT One way to sell copies of your magazine is to have a dramatic cover that effectively trolls the readership into buying a copy. TIME's recent Xi Jinping cover is a good example of this, as is Tina Brown's entire career at Newsweek. Another tried and tested method is to publish an article that deliberately bucks consensus opinion (Slate does this a lot), which is what Foreign Policy is doing with "Red State". [ more › ]

Overfishing pushes 80% of Chinese fishermen towards bankruptcy Posted: 18 Oct 2012 08:55 AM PDT Catches of the four main species in the South China Sea – the Japanese Spanish mackerel, eel and the large and small yellow croaker – have plummeted. In mid-September, the fishing season got under way as usual in Ningbo, on China's east coast, after the three-month season when fishing is forbidden. Over 2,000 steel-hulled boats headed out to sea. But, on board, there was little cause for optimism. "For the last two years profits from coastal fishing have been low," explained Chen Jiming, chief engineer at Hainan Fisheries Research Institute. "Early estimates show that, with increasing fuel and labour costs, about 80% of fishermen will suffer losses without a diesel subsidy or similar support." Chen's comments have been backed up higher up the chain. Speaking at the first Annual World Ocean Congress in Dalian city on September 9, head of the China Fisheries Association Qi Jingfa said that China leads the world in production and trade of aquatic products, but is weaker than other nations when it came to ocean fishing. Catches from China's coastal waters have been static for years. Closed seasons for fishing in the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea have recently ended, but both experts and fishing boat captains predict overfishing and pollution will mean boats setting to sea this year will see little in the way of profit, and may even suffer losses. Young fish, depleted stocks and unused boats Mo Zhaolan, a researcher at China's Institute of Oceanology, said that overfishing and pollution are having a much bigger impact than a decade ago. The four major fisheries of the 1950s – Bohai, Zhoushan, the South China Sea coast and the Gulf of Tonkin – are so badly degraded that they exist only in name, Mo said.  One captain working the South China Sea coast off Guangzhou said that many local fisheries have been lost. Catches of the four main species – the Japanese Spanish mackerel, eel and the large and small yellow croaker – have plummeted. In the past, a successful fishing trip might have netted hundreds of kilograms of the large yellow croaker, but you only get a few a year now, the captain said. This has lead to rocketing prices for the fish: from under 100 yuan a kilogram to 4,000 to 5,000 yuan.  Lu Shuxin, former head of the Shandong Oceans and Fisheries Institute, said that the traditional fisheries of the Yellow Sea off Shandong province have been badly damaged. The fish caught have got smaller and younger. China's prawn catch once reached 40,000 tonnes a year, but recent surveys put the figure at only 7,000 tonnes. In the 1970s, most Chinese seerfish caught were three years old. By the 1990s, they were two years old and today they are only one year old. According to a report by Weihai fishery authorities, in the first quarter of 2012, some 80% of boats were tied up in port at any one time – at times, 90%. This is more than in any other year, and fishermen are now more likely to stop fishing before the end of the season. In July, the State Oceanic Administration published China Regional Fisheries Studies, a set of academic works on issues affecting the fishing industry. One of its volumes, on the ocean environment, describes the downward spiral of overfishing in China's coastal waters: once large and valuable fish have been overfished, attention turns to a less valuable species, and so on. This continues until all species have been over-exploited, fisheries depleted and biodiversity damaged, it says.  In the Yellow Sea, between 1979 and 1999, catches grew in parallel with the number of boats out fishing. But since 1999, catches have fallen, even though the number of boats has risen. The Yellow Sea's ecosystem can no longer support the excess fishing capacity. Damaging fishing methods and pollution Fishing methods used in the South China Sea are also a cause for concern. The use of trawl and set nets – both very damaging to ecosystems – is common in China. The Guangdong fishing boat captain explained that a net dragged from sea to shore will catch many immature fish, and remove prey for larger fish. "We've just been using big trawl nets for a little more than 10 years, and the four main species are facing extinction. Even after the off-season you don't catch much after the first couple of trips." The set nets often seen in the Qiongzhou Straits and off the south-west coast of Hainan are hugely damaging to fisheries. With a mesh size of less than 1 centimetre in width, these nets catch immature and small fish. Boats have increased the number of nets and decreased mesh size, resulting in more intensive fishing. "For a quick profit some fishermen use electrocution, explosives or poisons, which is disastrous for the ocean environment," said Chen Jiming of the Hainan Fisheries Institute. Pollution is also a major cause of the fisheries' decline. Li Yongqi, honorary dean of the Oceanic Economy and Law Institute, said that China's coasts are facing unprecedented resource and environmental pressure, with ever greater tension between developing the oceans and protecting the environment.  Chen Leizhong, of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences and head of the East China Sea Fishery Research Institute, explained that the East China Sea suffers from three main types of pollution: industrial waste-water polluted with nitrates, phosphates and heavy metals dumped into the sea; pesticides washed off farmland by the rain; and untreated sewage. These, in combination with the loss of mudflats to land reclamation, present a severe threat to China's fisheries.  The "2012 China Oceans Development Report", published in June, shows that in 2010 excessive levels of petroleum hydrocarbons were found in organisms at Guhuang Hekou, Shengsi, Hangzhou Bay, Sanmen Bay, Taizhou Duqiao and Jinjiang Weitou bay. At 12% of monitoring stations, levels were in breach of Class III marine organism standards. During the 2011 Bohai Gulf oil spill, oily substances were seen floating off the coast of Changdao in Shandong, coinciding with unusual fish die-offs. Oil was found on the beaches at Leting in Hebei, and large numbers of farmed clams died. There have been some efforts to stem the degradation. Over the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), fish catches were held steady at around levels from the year 2000, and China has gradually implemented closed seasons – times of the year when fishing is not allowed – in the Yellow Sea, Bohai Gulf, East China Sea and South China Sea. This aims to reduce the overexploitation of fisheries, arrest degradation of the marine environment and boosting aquatic populations, ensuring steady growth for the nation's fishing industry. Fishing communities and busineses are also working on the more technologically demanding deep-ocean fishing, which may provide the industry with some relief. This article was first published in Economic Information Daily, where Liang Jialin is a reporter and Jiang Han an intern.

How a multibillion dollar rail project in London is building a wetland Posted: 19 Oct 2012 04:51 AM PDT As China loses its coastal wetlands, the UK is attempting to revive an ancient salt marsh with the help of London's US$26 billion Crossrail project. Jeff Kew has got a lot of dirt on his hands: seven million cubic metres of it to be precise. The operations manager at Europe's largest wildlife conservation charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), is heading up a £50-million, 10-year project to restore a system of ancient wetlands on a vulnerable section of UK coast. By bulldozing seawalls and raising land levels, his team will return an island of reclaimed farmland to the sea, creating, they say, a birds' paradise of salt marsh, lagoons and sea banks. It's a wetland restoration project with a difference. The mountains of earth needed to realise the charity's vision are largely to come

Chinese 'Thunder God Vine' kills tumours in mice, cures cancer maybe Posted: 19 Oct 2012 05:00 AM PDT Chinese traditional medicine might not be completely useless after all! A drug made from a plant known as the "thunder god vine" (雷公藤, léigōng téng) destroyed pancreatic tumours in mice, according to research released this week. [ more › ]

Chinese speakers: Download the Ai Weiwei curated issue of the New Statesman now for free! Posted: 19 Oct 2012 03:00 AM PDT British political magazine the New Statesman invited Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei to guest-edit their latest edition. In order to beat the Great Firewall, the New Statesman have released the Chinese edition of the magazine for free, and encourage their readers to torrent and share it. [ more › ]

The Spark That Started The Luzhou Riot This Week Was Probably Just A Rumor Posted: 19 Oct 2012 03:05 AM PDT People rioted in Luzhou, Sichuan province on Wednesday evening after they heard that police had beaten a truck driver to death in broad daylight. Tea Leaf Nation relayed several messages from incensed netizens who never doubted it, notably from a Sina Weibo user, @Aluo阿罗, who declared, "Luzhou police have beaten someone to death, causing tens of thousands of onlookers to gather 'round. …." Global Times, however, offered an alternative narrative; we honed in on this humorous quote from an official at the scene: "The driver died of an acute disease during the law enforcement process when he was told by the traffic police to remove his truck from the middle of a road." Strange as that wording is, South China Morning Post, a sane voice muzzled by its own paywall, published a corroborating account early yesterday: "At around 5.30pm, I rushed to the scene, which is around 100 metres from my office, and saw that the victim, who was then surrounded by three traffic policemen, was suffering from some kind of heart attack, before asking someone to help him to get his drugs from his vehicle," she said. She said the man, in his 40s, was a fish vendor in the street where she worked. "I left the scene when the man was still conscious after having swallowed two drug tablets," she said. "When someone told me the man had died, I went back to the scene at about 6.30pm and found out that was true." She said she had not noticed any injuries on the man's body. SCMP has since followed up with an article about authorities being uncannily proactive in punishing those who spread false rumors: At least 20 people were detained following a riot in Sichuan on Wednesday sparked by rumours that a man had been beaten to death by traffic policemen, state media reported yesterday. Gan Junyuan , 58, died from a pre-existing medical condition in central Luzhou on Wednesday afternoon, and not because of a scuffle with police, Xinhua reported. Local officials told a press conference yesterday morning that Gan had refused to move his illegally parked truck at around 5.30pm when asked to do so by two auxiliary traffic policemen and had shouted abuse at them. The policemen and Gan jostled each other before Gan became ill and yelled that he needed medicine that he kept in his truck, the report said. Gan's condition worsened after he took the medicine and he was pronounced dead after an ambulance arrived at the scene. The official version of events was essentially in line with a report in this newspaper yesterday quoting a young woman who witnessed the incident. The exact details remain unknown, and it's unlikely that we'll ever find out. At this point, hearsay piled upon hearsay is all we'll get, and it'll elucidate nothing. But indications are that some very vocal and very convincing rabblerousers were among the first to descend upon Wednesday's unfortunate tragedy and turn it into something much more. Perhaps we could say something here about pent-up  anger at incompetent governance needing outlets. But perhaps it'd be equally worthwhile to say that some assholes decided to endanger public safety because they're assholes. How you react to this incident, like so many in China in the absence of solid facts, probably ends up saying more about you than the situation itself.

Top 10 Search List (October 19, 2012) Posted: 19 Oct 2012 02:18 AM PDT 1) 四岁姐姐 训两岁弟弟 (sìsuìjiéjié xùn liǎngsuìdìdì, four-year-old girl lectures two-year-old brother) – A British schoolgirl and her troublesome little brother have become an Internet sensation after a video of her delivering a fond but stern lecture went viral. These key words made our list two days ago for the first time. English story and video here. 2) 黄秋生 罗志祥 骂战 (Huáng Qiūshēng Luó Zhìxiáng màzhàn, Huang Qiusheng Luo Zhixiang spitting war) – Hong Kong actor Huang Qiusheng said on Weibo in June that he didn't know who Luo Zhixiang, a Taiwanese singer, was. After Luo's fans poured their angry protests on his Weibo, Huang said during a TV interview that when a man passes a pile of shit covered by flies, all the flies get angry and worry that the man is going to take that shit away from them. Luo fought back on his Weibo, saying he was not shit and uploaded photos of his fans. Huang later said that he would withdraw from Weibo as it is only a insignificant dust in one's life. Chinese story here. 3) 永州车祸 (yóngzhōuchēhuò, Yongzhou bus accident) – A bus overturned in Yongzhou, Hunan Province, leaving 4 dead and 8 critically injured.  About 50 people were aboard the bus. Chinese story here. 4) 金韩松 (Jīn Hánsōng, Kim Han-Sol) – Kim Jong-Il's teenage grandson Kim Han-Sol said that he has never met his grandfather or his uncle, North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-Un in an interview conducted at the school in Bosnia where he studies. English story here. 5) 高晓松 流氓体 (Gāo Xiǎosong liúmángtí, Gao Xiaosong's "hooligan" catchword) –Gao Xiaosong, a pop icon in China, recently updated his weibo with a adapted phrase from an ancient folksong, "build your wall high, stock up your barn and act like a hooligan". This line was used by the leader of a peasant rebellion against the emperor. "Act like a hooligan" quickly gained popularity and were attached to the end of every sentence people say. Chinese story here. 6) 雅安地震 (Yá' ān dìzhèn, Ya'an earthquake) – A earthquake of 4.2 degree hit Ya'an, Sichuan Province this morning. No casualties have been reported. Chinese story here. 7) 新加坡大学生拍色情片 (Xīnjiāpō dàxuéshēngpāisèqíngpiān, Singapore College student shot porn video) – A Malaysian man who is a law student in the National University of Singapore posted on his blog picture and video featuring him having sex with his girlfriend. He said he was trying to see where the moral bottom line of Singapore society is. Chinese story here. 8）最美红衣大姐 (zuìmeíhóngyīdàjié, the most beautiful lady in red) – A middle-aged woman wearing a red sweater was seen buying clothes and helping a half-naked homeless man put on the clothes in Hebei. Her kind move was captured on camera by a witness and uploaded online. Internet users started looking for the "most beautiful lady in red". Chinese story here. 9) 黑龙江集贤倒塌办公楼 (HēilóngjiāngJíxián dáotābàngōnglóu, Jixian county collapsed building) – An office building belonging to the local running water company in Jixian, Heilongjiang collapsed a few days ago. The rescue efforts have ended and 6 people died. A rescuer told media that the whole building has not used a single steel bar, but the investigation committee said what he said was only his personal opinion. Chinese story here. 10) 赴日 0元机票 (fùrìlíngyuánjīpiào, zero-yuan plane ticket to Japan) – While most domestic airlines were scaling down their air routes to Japan due to sharp decrease in seat occupancy rate,  Spring Airlines started selling plane tickets to Japan at zero yuan and more than 2000 tickets were sold in the past two days. The airline suspended its offering of free tickets yesterday "due to nationalistic outcries against it". Chinese story here. READ MORE

Sign up for the Shanghaiist Hairy Crab & Sex Museum Tour! Posted: 19 Oct 2012 04:36 AM 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 › ]

Big bad China cancelled poor ol' Jon Huntsman's visa (Update: kind of) Posted: 19 Oct 2012 02:00 AM PDT Jon Huntsman, who was appointed Ambassador to China by US President Barack Obama but quit the position in order to lose the Republican primaries to Mitt Romney, now isn't allowed back into the country after Chinese officials allegedly blocked his visa. [ more › ]

You are subscribed to email updates from Update » Blogs » Society To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610