Blogs » Society » China's Top 25 Hotels: Garden Hotel Suzhou

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• China's Top 25 Hotels: Garden Hotel Suzhou
• Five Street Children, Huddling For Warmth In Dumpster, Die Of Suffocation
• Tips for Dealing with Your Child's Homesickness
• Shanghai's Best Charcuterie Plates
• Company which used child models in bikinis did so to 'boost their confidence'
• Presented By:
• Unrest In Fujian As Thousands Protest Handling Of Traffic Accident, Smash And Overturn Police Vehicles
• Watch: 'New Directions from China' art exhibition in London's Southbank Centre
• ‘Gangnam Style with Chinese Characteristics’: China Media Project
• Acid Dumplings [38]
• China Trademark Basics. I Have My China Trademark, Now What Do I Do?
• That Picture Of Chinese Leaders Doing Gangnam Style Has Been Censored, Because Censors Hate Fun
• In Global Times’s Poll, “Child Bikini Modeling Is ‘Beneficial’” Is In The Early Lead
• Photos: Hainan couples compete, break records in kissing contest
• Chinese ambassador to Canada: Prove spy allegations or 'shut up'
• Auto Show Organizer Who Used Bikini-Clad Underage Girls Did So To “Boost Their Courage”
• Netizen arrested for 18th Party Congress 'Final Destination' tweet
• You’ve Been Warned: Hotpot Can Cause You To Catch On Fire
• Millions await news of test-tube panda Taotao's "return" to the wild
• The 18th Party Congress is over, let’s have some news

China's Top 25 Hotels: Garden Hotel Suzhou Posted: 19 Nov 2012 08:38 PM PST Date: Nov 20th 2012 12:33p.m. Contributed by: leemack

Five Street Children, Huddling For Warmth In Dumpster, Die Of Suffocation Posted: 19 Nov 2012 09:15 PM PST A really sad story out of Bijie, Guizhou province: on Friday, five young children were found dead in a dumpster, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning. Xinhua reports that "the boys were suspected to have suffocated as they tried to sleep in the dumpster to survive the cold night" — temperatures were around 6 degrees Celsius, with rain. Offbeat China, which has been on a heck of a roll as of late, tells us that the boys were Tao Zhongjin (12 years old), Tao Zhonghong (11 years old), Tao Zhong (12 years old), Tao Bo (9 years old) and Tao Zhonglin (13 years old), the sons of three brothers. "The five left home on November 5 and never came back since. According to their families, the boys often went out a few days without noticing family members. 4 out of the 5 boys were school drop outs. 8 local officials, including 2 school headmasters, were removed from their posts as a result." Offbeat China has also translated a Chineses story imagining the children's final moments. Excerpt: They rubbed the whole bundle of matched quickly against the trash bin wall, for they wanted to be quite sure of keeping their dreams stay. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day. Never formerly has they feel so secure. They held each other in arms, and all flew in the brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety – they were with God. But in the trash bin, at the cold hour of dawn, sat five poor boys, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against each other – poisoned by carbon monoxide to death on a Thursday night in November, 2012. Stiff and stark sat the boys there with their little pot, in which they set fire. "They wanted to warm themselves," people said. No one has the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things they had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with their companionship to each other, they had entered on the joys of a new life.

Tips for Dealing with Your Child's Homesickness Posted: 19 Nov 2012 08:26 PM PST Date: Nov 20th 2012 12:08p.m. Contributed by: pennycollins

Shanghai's Best Charcuterie Plates Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:37 PM PST Date: Nov 19th 2012 12:58p.m. Contributed by: electronicdrew

Company which used child models in bikinis did so to 'boost their confidence' Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:00 PM PST In perhaps the most disturbing story to break over the weekend, the company in charge of organizing the Chutian Auto Culture Festival has been roundly criticized for using 5-year-old girls in bikinis in the show. [ more › ]

Presented By: Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:00 PM PST

Unrest In Fujian As Thousands Protest Handling Of Traffic Accident, Smash And Overturn Police Vehicles Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:02 PM PST We see traffic accidents every day, but in Fuan, Fujian province, one such incident on Saturday reportedly sparked a protest/riot involving "thousands" of residents. The Associated Press reports, "Police said it was instigated by 'a handful of lawless people.' One resident said people became angry because police and paramedics took nearly an hour to arrive to help the injured, while a Hong Kong-based human rights group said it was to do with corruption." Meanwhile, "The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said about 10,000 people clashed with police, and that 10 police vehicles had been smashed, three overturned and 20 people injured." Accounts differ. AP again: Residents said police were stopping cars and checking people for driving after drinking on Saturday evening when the accident happened on a main road in Fuan. Wanting to avoid being tested, a driver in a sedan accelerated away and police started chasing the car, said a resident, who would give only his surname, Lin. About three motorcycles were hit during the chase, said Lin, adding he wasn't sure who hit them. "About 10,000 to 20,000 onlookers became angry because police officers and paramedics took nearly one hour to arrive," said Lin. He estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 people clashed with police and overturned three police vans. And the official version of events: The official Fuan city police microblog said Sunday that a sedan had collided with a car and three motorcycles just before 8 p.m. Saturday, leaving five people injured. "The accident made a small number of local people dissatisfied, so they smashed police vehicles and overturned three police vans," said the statement. An initial investigation found that a person with no driving license surnamed Jiang had caused the accident and was in police detention, it said. It said the driver wasn't drunk but had accelerated to avoid a patrol vehicle and aroused attention. … "As the rescue work was going on, some relatives of the injured people and onlookers got out of control," said the statement. "They started to push and shove the doctors and knock the ambulance and so the ambulance left the scene under police escort." It said "a handful of lawless people misled some people who didn't know the truth" and they began targeting police vehicles. The truth is somewhere in between, but good luck finding it. Youku has scrubbed most videos of the incident, but I was able to find one. It's unclear how long it'll stay on Chinese Internet. Photos via China Digital Times:

Watch: 'New Directions from China' art exhibition in London's Southbank Centre Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:00 PM PST London's Southbank Centre is currently hosting 'Art of Change: New Directions from China', an exhibition which celebrates the work of some of China's most innovative and influential artists from the 1980s onwards. This is the first major exhibition to focus solely on contemporary Chinese installation and performance art. [ more › ]

‘Gangnam Style with Chinese Characteristics’: China Media Project Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:21 PM PST Hey, Evan Osnos! Who says China doesn't have Gangnam Style? As soon as I saw this, my optimism about China's next 10 years just shot up. Then, as you have no doubt guessed, this is Photoshoped. And, it was taken down from Sina Weibo. So much for optimism. Here's the short explanation from China Media Project: The following post by Gangsong Samha (港怂萨沙) was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 2:57 p.m. on November 17, 2012. The post shares a photoshopped image of Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping and other top Chinese leaders dancing to "Gangnam Style," the popular dance song by South Korean pop artist PSY. The images of Chinese leaders are carefully managed by propaganda leaders, and the suggestion that they would dance in formation and shake their hips is certainly unwelcome. Gangsong Sasha currently more than 131,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]. PSY's Gangnam Style has been really hot lately! Wuppa! [Ha ha] http://t.cn/zlPmUfa In the unlikely situation that you have never seen Gangnam Style, have a look here and compare Oppan Xi's moves with PSY's:

Acid Dumplings [38] Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:30 PM PST

China Trademark Basics. I Have My China Trademark, Now What Do I Do? Posted: This is Part II to all the posts we have written stressing the importance of registering your trademarks in China, including the following: File Your Trademark In China. Now. China: Do Just One Thing. Trademarks. China's Changing Trademark Environment. Why You Need To Register Your Trademark Now. WHEN To Register Your China Trademark. A client recently sent us an email asking us a slew of good questions on China Trademark Basics.  We received this email after we had sent the client the certificate of registration from China's Trademark Office showing that it now had a registered trademark in China. Their questions and our answers were as follows: QUESTION:  Is there a specific trademark symbol we should use in China, other than ® on our literature or on our equipment? ANSWER:  China uses the same symbols as the United States and those symbols have essentially the same meaning in China as they do in the United States.   QUESTION: If our Agent Representatives in China generate sales/technical literature about [Company Name] equipment will it them make sense for us to "assign" our trademark? ANSWER:  If someone will use your mark on a product in China AND pay you a royalty in return, you must do a formal trademark license agreement or you are at real risk of losing your China trademark.  Not only must you have such a formal trademark license agreement, but you also must register that license with the PRC Trademark Office and, in many cases, with the local authorities as well.  However, if you are granting a royalty free license, formal registration is not required.  Nonetheless, you should still enter into an agreement with any party that will be using your trademark as such an agreement makes sense to ensure that you can control the manner and use of your trademark. QUESTION:  What is the difference between an trademark assignment contract and trademark license contract? ANSWER:  A trademark assignment occurs when you allow a Chinese party to make full use of your trademark in China in exchange for a payment of some type of royalty. Under a trademark assignment, you lose ownership and control of the trademark because you have assigned those over to the Chinese party.  In a license agreement, you allow a third party to make use of the trademark but you retain ownership and control over it.  This license arrangement can be a royalty based license or a royalty free license, as discussed above.  Very roughly, think of an assignment as a sale and a license as a lease. QUESTION:  I don't understand the non-use revocation possibility.  What proof is needed to show that we are using our trademark? ANSWER:   Chinese law requires that all marks be used in commerce and if a mark is not used in commerce, another party can demand that the trademark registration be revoked.  The requirement that the mark be used in commerce means that it must be used with a product or a service in a commercial context.  To date, the PRC Trademark Office has not been very strict about this standard, generally accepting virtually anything as a commercial use.  China's courts tend to be considerably stricter regarding this requirement so for this reason, it is a good idea to get out there and use your trademark. Any more trademark questions, readers?

That Picture Of Chinese Leaders Doing Gangnam Style Has Been Censored, Because Censors Hate Fun Posted: 19 Nov 2012 10:27 AM PST Hate it as I do, I understand why some things are censored. You can't have a perpetually restless populace in the countryside, for instance, believing that an alien overlord will descend from heaven and deliver them from misery if only they'll overthrow the current regime. You can't have top leaders exposed as hypocrites. You can't have porn. What I don't understand for the life of me, however, is why THIS is censored. The photoshopped picture of China's top leaders doing Gangnam Style — found on Facebook, posted to this website on November 13 (above link) — was shot down by the moderators of Sina Weibo. A user with more than 131,000 followers, Gangsong Samha (港怂萨沙), posted the pic to Sina Weibo on Saturday, 1:10 pm. It was removed at 2:56 pm. China Media Project explains: The images of Chinese leaders are carefully managed by propaganda leaders, and the suggestion that they would dance in formation and shake their hips is certainly unwelcome. But why is it "certainly unwelcome"? Are we making fun of Hu Jintao? Are we saying Wen Jiabao has a horse-face? Are we commenting on Xi Jinping's inability to move his hips laterally? Help me out here. How is 1) this picture at all political, other than the politicians? and 2) this picture at all insulting? I know the answer, of course. Because censorship. Because censorship. The accompanying text to the Sina Weibo post, by the way, reads: PSY's Gangnam Style has been really hot lately! Wuppa! [Ha ha] Ah, there we go. Maybe the censors deleted the post because it was stupid. By the way, we still don't know, definitively, the identify of this image's creator. Please step forward if you're the genius. (H/T Alicia)

In Global Times’s Poll, “Child Bikini Modeling Is ‘Beneficial’” Is In The Early Lead Posted: 19 Nov 2012 09:55 AM PST We're not sure how long this poll is going to be up on Global Times's English website's main page — it's not on the Chinese site – but go vote while you can. I actually am curious to see the final results. Only question: What is "Other"? Maybe something like, "Classless, but in a societal vacuum, nothing but harmless and confidence-building fun; yet in the real world, likely to be misconstrued by a segment of the population, especially as it is presented in the context of auto shows in China, and will probably become a source of embarrassment when these models come of age"? I'll vote for Other, just to be on the safe side. (This is what we're talking about.) (H/T Alicia)

Photos: Hainan couples compete, break records in kissing contest Posted: 19 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PST       Kissing competitions are officially a trend now, for some reason. Over the weekend couples in Haikou, Hainan province, competed in full wedding regalia. Prizes, including a trip to Hong Kong and Macau and a cruise to South Vietnam, were given for longest kiss as well as 'trick' kisses. [ more › ]

Chinese ambassador to Canada: Prove spy allegations or 'shut up' Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:00 AM PST China's ambassador to Canada took a break from traditional diplomatic language in an interview with CBC News, telling Canadian lawmakers who have accused China of conducting espionage in the country to "shut up". [ more › ]

Auto Show Organizer Who Used Bikini-Clad Underage Girls Did So To “Boost Their Courage” Posted: 19 Nov 2012 06:44 AM PST Over the weekend, pictures of preteen girls used as bikini models at the Chutian Auto Culture Festival caused controversy in and around China. Basically, everyone thought it was a bad idea, and probably felt a little uncomfortable looking at the images. But what does the Chutian Auto Culture Festival's organizer think? China Daily caught up with one Zhang Ping, general manager of the event's organizers, 7-Wind Motel Costume Company, and what she said might surprise you. [She] said the goal was purely to help the children "boost their courage" and no organization or individual made money from the show. Wait, there's more. "If you type the key words 'children' and 'bikini' into an Internet search engine, you'll find tens of thousands of results for child bikini contests," she said on Sunday. "It's natural for kids to wear bikinis and other things they like." Funny thing, because I did that just now, and here are the top results: And if we just scroll down a little, here's what we find: Outcry. Exploitation. Controversy. Which Internet search engine are we talking about, Ms. Zhang? Baidu? The first page of results is mostly about Chutian Auto Culture Festival. Congratulations, your master plan to gain publicity has worked 10 times better than you imagined. She said only two 5-year-olds wore bikinis, both with the permission of their parents. Just so we're clear on what we're talking about: car shows in China often feature scantily clad females (usually adults) who are necessarily sex objects. All car shows have cars, and usually the same ones, and there are hundreds of car shows every year. How do these events differentiate themselves? The women they hire have only one purpose, and that is to bring attention to the product they're standing next to. Somewhere down the line, organizers realized that having them read Tang poetry wasn't going to do it. Li Yingzhi, one such adult model, once  became famous for wearing a risque diamond dress at a car show, then went on a Web show and had a hostess feel up her breasts to prove they were real. This is the context in which Zhang Ping inserted five-year-olds, and she didn't even try to distance them from the context of bikini-wearing adults — they pose side by side. "But the public should not be fussy, as it's natural for children to wear bikinis at modeling contests," Zhang said. Okay you crazy shrew. Just let it all out. However, organizer Zhang said the publishing of the pictures online had potentially done more harm than the show itself. Yeah, it's our fucking fault. Not just the media, but social media. Because it's not like we live in the digital age. Look at the photo above. Look past the adults in suits, all those corporate types. Instead, look at the cameras and camera phones. How many pictures are going to stay on those cameras, or used solely for desktop wallpapers? And how many are ending up on Sina Weibo? Zhang, who merely wanted to sell some cars (in a country in which this happens), wants to say to you: for shame. In her beautifully twisted and alien mind, it is us who have exploited those children, viewing them in the wrong context, and drawing attention to the purely commercial cause of selling cars. For fucking shame, you guys.

Netizen arrested for 18th Party Congress 'Final Destination' tweet Posted: 19 Nov 2012 05:00 AM PST Chinese netizens have started an online petition calling for the release of a blogger detained since November 7th. [ more › ]

You’ve Been Warned: Hotpot Can Cause You To Catch On Fire Posted: 19 Nov 2012 05:15 AM PST "Man ignited in hot pot inferno," reads Global Times headline. The story: Firefighters have cautioned over the use of alcohol-fueled hot pot stoves, after a customer was seriously burnt in a fire caused when a waiter allegedly improperly topped up the fuel. A diner, surnamed Wang, was injured Friday when flames erupted from an individual hot pot, according to a Sina microblog post from his fellow diner, Wang Xiaolong. Wang Xiaolong posted that his friend was in danger of losing his right ear after going up in flames at Deyunzhai, a hot pot restaurant in Zhubang 2000 Mansion, on the East Fourth Ring Road. Ouch. GT again: Another fellow diner, surnamed Liao, told the Legal Mirror that as soon as the waiter lifted Wang's small pot and refilled it with liquid alcohol, his clothes caught fire. Restaurant staff attempted to use water to extinguish the flames, and when this was ineffective, they used a fire extinguisher. Of course, the restaurant denied responsibility, but it reportedly paid 50,000 yuan in compensation, mostly for Wang's surgery. The restaurant has also suspended services. What does any of this have to do with you, you ask? On Sunday, Dingding hot pot restaurant on Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang district, which serves hot pots using an alcohol stove, said their staff had received no specific training on how to deal with the fuel. "We use iron tongs to take the container out and refill it by following how the experienced waiters do it," said a waitress surnamed Jiang at Dingding. So as we enter the heart of hotpot season, i.e. winter, just keep in mind one of mom's first rules: don't play with fire. Or when you do, at least remember that alcohol, unlike water, is flammable. Be careful. (Photo via People's Daily via Sina Weibo)

Millions await news of test-tube panda Taotao's "return" to the wild Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:31 AM PST After a failed experiment in 2007, which led to the infamous death of the panda Xiang Xiang, China is once again attempting to introduce captive-bred giant pandas to the wild. On October 11, at the age of two years and two months, giant panda Taotao went home. This was China's second attempt to introduce a giant panda born through artificial insemination into the wild. Unlike last time, however, Taotao was born and raised in an environment designed to mimic his natural habitat. There are no precedents to follow in this process, and the failure of the release of another panda, Xiang Xiang, five years ago has cast a shadow over the programme. But that disappointment spurred the researchers at the Wulong Panda Centre into even greater efforts to prepare Taotao for the wild. The first step back In late October, the mountains of Liziping Nature Reserve were clad in autumn colours. It was here, 2,500 metres above sea level, in a mountain gully hidden by bamboo forests, that Taotao went into the wild. See also: Shame victory for China's pandas Taotao has been implanted with an identification chip, and wears a collar carrying both a GPS tracker and a wireless sensor. Every hour, staff triangulate his position. "You can triangulate a location with two signals, but we use three to be a bit more accurate," says Zhou Xiao, a member of the centre's team. If the signals show that Taotao is particularly active, the team increases monitoring to every half hour. They have found that Taotao is sticking to one small area. The researchers think he's getting used to his new environment. The same happened in 2009, when rescued panda Luxin was returned to the wild and went three months before making any long journeys. When Taotao's activities have stabilised, the researchers will make regular trips to collect stool samples, in order to monitor his health. But they will wait, explains Zhou, because at the moment he needs to use his excrement to mark out his new territory. And it really is new. Taotao was born in a training ground in Wulong Nature Reserve. It's a 450-kilometre drive from Liziping, though in terms of altitude and geography the two areas are similar. The researchers hope that Taotao's arrival will be the first step in strengthening the local panda population. But more importantly, they hope to avoid a repeat of the tragedy that took place five years ago. Xiang Xiang's shadow For the past five years, the Wulong Panda Centre has been haunted by the death of a panda named Xiang Xiang. In 2003, the centre launched its first programme training a captive-born panda for release to the wild. Three years later, on April 28, 2006, five-year-old male panda Xiang Xiang was released in Wulong, becoming the first captive-born panda ever to be "returned" to the wild. But things did not go well. In December the same year Xiang Xiang was injured fighting with other pandas. He was retrieved for treatment and then sent back again. That move was later criticised. On January 7, 2007, less than a year after his second release, Xiang Xiang's tracker stopped moving. On January 29, a search team found his corpse. The research team was distraught, and criticism from outside the centre was fierce – returning Xiang Xiang to the wild after his injury was simply "sending him to its death", some said. "The public didn't understand that this was a research project, and any research project can fail," says Zhang Hemin, director of the centre, who decided to push on with the programme training pandas for return to the wild. In December, 2007, less than a year after Xiang Xiang's death, Zhang announced the start of a second phase of the programme, and use of a new training method. Huang Yan, a senior official at the centre, was in charge. He explained that the release of Xiang Xiang had failed because humans had been too involved in raising the animal. The new project would see the cub raised by its mother, and the human impact minimised. That meant the cub would be born in a semi-wild environment and raised by its mother. The mother would be tended by human keepers, but the cub would not be aware of them. That meant the mother had to have experience of living in the wild, and to have raised cubs before. A panda named Caocao, who had been rescued from the wild when young, was found to fit the bill. To minimise exposure to humans, staff approaching the panda would dress in panda suits, smeared with panda excrement and urine, and avoid speaking. They even had their costumes fitted with devices to play panda noises to appear more realistic. The benefits were clear. Xiang Xiang hadn't known to avoid leeches in the wild and was plagued by them. But Taotao didn't suffer the same way. "This shows that his mother taught him well, and that's something we could never have done ourselves," says Zhang. Xiang Xiang's death was not for nothing – it showed the centre that it was on the wrong path and pointed it in a new direction. In the past, panda cubs have been taken immediately after birth to sterile incubators. While it was difficult, this time Huang Yan made sure he didn't interfere: "This is the kind of environment wild pandas should be raised in." Despite their worries, the researchers found that Taotao grew up with natural immunity – even in the dirt and hardship of the great outdoors, he didn't get sick. In fact, he was less prone to illness than the other cubs. The researchers also saw that Taotao quickly learned to climb trees, at the age of four months, after only one lesson from Caocao. Human-reared pandas of the same age couldn't do this. In the wild, pandas send their cubs up trees to keep them safe. Taotao could spend two or three days up a tree, and was able to tell that recordings of other pandas were fake when researchers tried to lure him down. Taotao also developed an excellent sense of direction and ability to find water – and more importantly, he was very wary of humans. Keeper Wu Daifu said that Xiang Xiang was friendly with humans, as they had raised him. But Taotao would growl at the keepers, even in their panda suits. In the end, Xiang Xiang died helpless, while Taotao has taken naturally to the wild, at least so far. More money – and pandas – to play with Despite criticism and setbacks, the centre has stuck to its plans to train pandas for release to the wild – because its experts believe it is now both feasible and necessary. Up until 1999, the number of pandas in captivity was in decline – any research programme had to take pandas from the wild. It was only in 2000 that Zhang and his team beat the three problems of captive breeding: bringing female pandas into heat; getting pandas to mate and become pregnant; and keeping the cubs alive. Over the following six years, all new cubs survived, and the number of captive pandas rose steadily. China now has 342 pandas raised in captivity, enough to ensure genetic diversity for the next century. No more are needed. "To put it simply," Zhang says, "we've got the capital to work with." Meanwhile, the outlook for panda habitats is bleak. Human activity has fragmented and isolated panda populations. Without human intervention, breeding may be reduced, perhaps even leading to extinction in the wild. Releasing pandas to strengthen small populations is an urgent task. Making all this possible are China's changed financial circumstances: "Raising animals in the wild for later release is a technique for developed nations," says Huang. It takes money. The Wulong Semi-Wild Facility has three different sections, each designed for a specific stage of the animals' training, ranging in size from 2,000-square metres to a square kilometre. Building just one of these sections can cost 3 to 4 million yuan (US$480,000 to US$640,000). "The pandas get through huge amounts of bamboo, and once you've used one section for a year you need to leave it for three years to allow the bamboo to grow back," explains Huang. Fortunately, the state is giving its full support to the project. Of course, you could keep the pandas in comfortable cages. "But that's the easy option," says Zhang, the main advocate for the release programme. "This is the direction we must take, or we aren't doing our jobs." This article was originally published in Southern Weekend

The 18th Party Congress is over, let’s have some news Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:57 AM PST by Barry van Wyk on November 19, 2012 Now that the 18th Party Congress is over, newspapers all over China are free again to report on whatever they think can make their front pages as interesting and as inviting as possible. So here's a selection of four front pages that caught our eye today with some everyday stories from around China: 海峡导报 济南时报 武汉晚报 现代快报 The Straits Times (海峡导报) from Fujian province has a Like (喜) and Dislike (惊) contrast on its front page today, where the Like is a picture of a massive pumpkin that was on display at an agricultural fair in Fujian last weekend (appropriately timed for Thanksgiving), and the Dislike is a picture of a child wearing a bikini and acting as car model at a car show in Wuhan last week (see more on this at Offbeat China). The Jinan Times from Shandong province today gleefully reveals the female members of the Liaoning, China's new aircraft carrier, who are shown posing on the deck. The front page of the Wuhan Evening News (武汉晚报) from Hubei province today features some pictures of a competition called "Wuhan Subway Experts" in which contestants had to pick out instances of uncivilized behaviour from a group of people on the subway. Finally, the front page of the Modern Express from Jiangsu province today features the story of Guo Hongzhen (郭红珍), a 69-old retired lady from Nanjing. Every time that a younger person has given up their seat for her on public transport, Ms Guo gave them a little bead ornament. She has so far given away more than 200 of these. Links and sources Straits Times (海峡导报): 喜 Straits Times (海峡导报): 惊 Jinan Times (济南时报): 揭秘海军首批女舰员 Wuhan Evening News (武汉晚报): 荡秋千 打扑克 跳骑马舞 Modern Express (现代快报): 南京郭奶奶传承爱心

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