For almost two decades, DJ Vadim has been DJing and producing some of the most innovative hip-hop and electronica around. He's worked solo, putting out records on the legendary Ninja Tune label as well as on his own BBE imprint. Vadim has collaborated with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Kraftwerk, from Paul Weller to Sly Stone. Even his wife, MC Yarah Bravo, is a regular collaborator, as Beijing will find out when Free the Wax bring the pair to perform at Yugong Yishan this Saturday.

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We asked notable Beijingers: "What's on your bookshelf?" Here's how Evan Osnos, China correspondent for the New Yorker magazine, answered:

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Every month or so, I get an email from someone asking me for my views on their starting a business in China. These emails usually come from someone who has been in China for a year or so at a really low paying job or from someone who just recently graduated from college in the United States. I typically respond with one or two sentences of lawyer advice, something along the lines of the following:

I really do not know what to tell you, never having been an entrepreneur in China myself, but from the perspective of a lawyer who spends his life representing companies (including start-up companies there), I can tell you that it is going to be much more difficult and more expensive for you to start a company there (at least legally) than in the U.S. For an on the ground view of what it takes to be a foreign entrepreneur in China, you should read Sam Goodman's book, Where East Eats West.

I am now also going to tell them to read Rand Han's recent post, entitled, "Confessions of A China Entrepreneur." This paragraph both tells you what Rand's post will be about and why you absolutely should read it:

So in the interest of fully answering the “China Entrepreneur” question, I’m going to take those of you not already bored with this article down memory lane, and reflect on how many times I got my assed kicked, punched, and handed back to me in a beautifully arranged gift basket during my journey through China’s “wild wild east” business frontier… from the street level looking up.

The post is a no holds barred history of Rand's Shanghai-based advertising agency Bloody Amazing and his just-formed digital social media agency, ZeroDegrees. Though it does ramble a bit at times (which Rand admits and which really only adds to its charm), doing so it only makes us better "feel" what it is like to go through starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur in China. I am hoping this is only part 1 of a series.

A few days ago, I did a post borrowing from and remarking upon an excellent post by Geraldine Johns-Putra on five ways doing deals in China differs from doing deals in the West. I loved her first post and she has just come out with a second, entitled, "Ten things about doing deals in China that are different from the West – Part 2," which is also so good that I would be remiss if I were not to follow up on that one as well.

This time around Ms. Johns-Putra focuses on the approval process in China for getting a deal done and she rightly notes how different this is from the West and how confusing this can be:

Government approvals: Ms. Putra calls this one of the "key things about Chinese deals that are different from the West" and she is absolutely right. Much of what foreign companies do in China must be properly registered with the authorities or it just does not count. My firm has been called in to "clean up" many a deal that was flawed because the foreign party had failed to secure proper registration. If there is one tip to be gleaned from those matters it is that it you will find it far easier, far cheaper and far more likely to meet with success if you properly register your deal at the time of the deal then to try to backtrack and fix things after your relationship with your Chinese counter-party has gone bad.

You should also never rely on your Chinese counter-party to do this registration. Nine times out of ten it will be the foreign party that will end up paying for a failure to register and so it is incumbent upon you as the foreign party to make sure it is done and done right. At least half of the botched failure to register deals on which my firm has worked arose from situations where the Chinese company had assured the foreign company that it would "take care of all necessary China filings." It is your company and your deal on the line and it never makes sense to put all that into someone's hands who may have very different incentives than you do.

Feasibility study reports: Ms. Johns-Putra does a great job explaining this:

Very much a feature of the approval process, the feasibility study report has traditionally been viewed as a necessary evil, but not too problematic. The aim of the document, as the name suggests, is to present a business case to the government authority responsible for approving the transaction. It used to be the case that a feasibility study report was a document that was very much modelled on a precedent. This is changing to some extent, especially as the policies of the Chinese government have also changed in the last 2-3 years and are favouring certain sectors and technologies (e.g. renewable energy) as well as homegrown innovation and developing export markets. As a result of these changes to policy, a little more creativity is required in preparing FSRs to show how deals will satisfy these new policies.

The government has a seat at the table: Ms. Johns-Putra points out that even after the parties have agreed on the deal, the Chinese government oftentimes likes making its own requests. Ms. Johns-Putra notes, correctly, however, that the "person at the government end is just trying to do their job. In my experience, they will accept reasonable answers to their queries." I concur.

Buffers: Ms. Johns-Putra correctly points out how you will need someone Chinese to deal with the Chinese government on your behalf. She is absolutely right. My firm has plenty of lawyers fluent in Mandarin and yet we virtually never have any of them meet directly with the Chinese government simply because no matter how good their Chinese, they are not Chinese and they are not Chinese lawyers. Because even Chinese who work for foreign companies and Chinese who live in the United States can be viewed with suspicion, we use trusted Chinese lawyers from our affiliated Chinese law firms.

Foreign exchange regulations: Again, I will simply defer to Ms. Johns-Putra, who states it beautifully:

The foreign currency exchange angle can be neglected in the excitement of getting a deal signed and approved, but it is sometimes the last and trickiest obstacle to completing an investment. The basic approach is that currency exchanges on current account (i.e. trade payment flows) don’t require approval from the State Administration for Foreign Exchange (SAFE) but trades on capital account (i.e. investment payment flows) do. SAFE approval is, generally speaking, therefore required for foreign investments. It is best to try and sort out the requirements as early as possible. You also need to be prepared for particular requests to come from the bureau you are dealing with. SAFE requirements can differ from province to province and city to city in the actual paperwork required. Don’t forget this. If you get SAFE approval for the relevant currency transfer on your M&A deal, then, and only then, has the fat lady sung.

Doing deals in China is very different from doing deals in the West, but that just means it has its own rules, foibles and inconsistencies. This post and our previous post (thanks obviously in large measure to Ms. Johns-Putra) set out ten differences. Ms. Johns-Putra concluded her post by making clear she would like to hear of more. I would too.

Sometimes the strangest things get me to thinking. Today it was an article, entitled, "Court of Appeal rules on without-prejudice communication," by London lawyer, Andrew McGregor. An incredibly rough summary of the article is that British courts will exclude settlement negotiations as evidence.

Bear with me here, as there will be a China angle here soon.

As an American lawyer, my first thought was, "of course." Of course because US Courts have long had such a rule. But does China have such a rule? I do not know, but I doubt it. The point here though is not whether China has such a rule or not, but how easy it can be to engage in settlement negotiations on a Chinese case without giving any thought as to whether your communications might one day show up as evidence in court. US lawyers do not even give this a second thought, and that is really the problem. It is difficult to take what has become instinct and re-examine it each time you are dealing with a new country.

Back when I was just starting out as a lawyer focusing on emerging markets, I wrote an article setting forth what I saw as the "Four Principles of Emerging Market Success, which included the following:

PRINCIPLE TWO: Keep an Open Mind. Assume Nothing.

Doing business in an emerging market means taking nothing for granted. I have a mantra for my own legal work in these countries that translates well to the business world: "Assume nothing, but assume that you are assuming things without even realizing you are doing so."

Things will be different. Very different. Things you take for granted in your home country might not exist in the emerging market country. Things you take for granted in your home country might be the exact opposite in the emerging market country. Things you think will be totally different in the emerging market country may be exactly the same. Things you thought you knew about emerging market countries based on what you know from another emerging market country may be completely different in a neighboring country, or even in another region within the same country. The principle, one more time: Keep an open mind, and assume nothing.

My firm and I are involved right now in a very high profile case in an Asian country other than China (and on which I hope to be able to write more later, but which is too sensitive right now) that is forcing us to confront anew certain legal doctrines we usually just take for granted, such as the following:

1. Right to counsel of your own choosing.
2. Right to due process.
3. Admissibility of hearsay evidence.
4. Conflicts and waivers of conflicts.

These are the sort of things that go to the heart of lawyering and yet seldom arise in the typical international business transaction. We are finding ourselves wanting answers to these sorts of very basic issues as those answers may influence our overall strategies.

I actually enjoy being tossed out of my comfort zone from time to time and I would guess most of our readers do as well. I say this because Westerners interested in China almost have to be the sort of people who revel in the new and different. Right?

Stories welcome.....

“All brides are beautiful”. This saying comes to my mind when I look at the wedding pictures of my friends and cousins. Picturesque clothes, tasteful make-up and happy smiles make every girl beautiful...There are many little and big worries that bride and groom have to go through to prepare an unforgettable wedding. One of them is to make an album of wedding photographs. In China the photo sessions are very long (sometimes the shootings are not finished in one day) and bear heavy expenditures. But also the result is collection of unique pictures that promise to keep sweet memories alive… First thing the new weds should do is to choose the photography company

Tony Roma's
1/F, Shanghai Center,
1376 Nanjing Xi Lu
Shanghai, China

There's nothing I love more than a good 'ol slab of ribs. Well, alongside big burger & fries or a luscious pizza, that is. And in my mind, Tony Roma's do one of the nicest ribs - at least in the Tony Roma's that I've had around the world. They're also in Shanghai, though we hadn't had the chance to check it out yet. And so we did :)

Stepping into the restaurant feels like stepping into an American restaurant/diner. It doesn't feel like you're in China at all! Well, apart from the odd Chinese New Year decorations that were still left hanging around. The staff were friendly and competent, and there were expats as well as Asians chowing down. It's cosy without feeling cramped, though the decor is all a little old and slightly bedraggled.

We're delighted that we're served with a complimentary bread roll with plain butter and herbed butter. I don't see this often in Shanghai, so it was a nice touch. The bread roll, however, was a small one (are we meant to fight over this??) and a cheap roll, nothing handmade or special about it. Fortunately, the garlic herbed butter is delicious, so we heap a ton onto our bread roll rations.

The highlight is, of course, the St Louis-Style Ribs (regular slab) with Blue Ridge Smokies sauce. The St Louis-style ribs are meant to be a very special cut of spare ribs, ranking high in the thick, juicy and meaty departments. Well, they were right!! Initially I was a little concerned as the ribs 1) looked a little small/thin, and 2) looked a bit dry. However, they fell apart when I cut them and the meat was tender and delicious. The smokey flavour of the sauce was in perfect proportion so it didn't drench out the flavour of the ribs itself, and it was a fantastic, meaty meal. It came with a small side of coleslaw (nothing interesting) and 2 corn-on-the-cobs (delicious slathered with their garlic herb butter).

The Chicken Philly Sandwich was also a delight. A marinated chicken breast topped with mushrooms, onions and Monterey Jack cheese, it came happily SMOTHERED with the cheese. The sandwich was so filling, with the chicken breast still tender and juicy, and with a more-than-generous amount of mushrooms. The coleslaw side was, again, unexciting. The fries were also a little dry.

A surprisingly great meal, which we weren't expecting - thinking it'd be an American chain that falls flat in Shanghai due to serving up sub-par food and sloppy service. The only downside is that it's not worth the price. I don't know how they justify the prices, but it's the prices of a very fine meal in a classy restaurant in Shanghai. Yet Tony Roma's is a casual, family-style cafe. For that reason, we probably won't be back.

Tony Roma's

Some sort of cocktail (I forgot!)

Complimentary bread roll with plain butter and herbed butter

St Louis-Style Ribs (regular slab) with Blue Ridge Smokies sauce

Chicken Philly Sandwich

Yinghui Zhang-Carraro, a Beijing resident, talked to the Clean Energy Project about organic food in China. She said most organic farming has been driven by premium prices and the “gift business”. Here is her interview.

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Can some of the most vulnerable species be saved from extinction due to climate change? One biologist has a radical idea: pick them up and move them, writes Suzanne Goldenberg.

Picture an elephant in the wild, making its stately progress across the ­savannah, tall grass bending ­beneath its feet. Now ­transplant that image to the American prairie. In one of the most startling new ideas to emerge about ­climate change, a leading conservation biologist is calling for plants and wildlife facing extinction to be saved simply by picking them up and moving them.

Camille Parmesan, a butterfly ­biologist at the University of Texas at Austin, has been monitoring the effects of rapid climate change on ­species – particularly those threatened because they cannot adapt to or ­escape from rising temperatures – for more than a decade now. But her idea for a modern-day Noah’s ark remains hugely controversial.

“The idea is that, for certain ­species at very high risk of extinction due to climate change, we should actively pick them up and move them to ­suitable locations that are outside their historic range,” she tells me in her ­office at the university campus, near the biology laboratory in which she and her ­husband keep myriad caterpillar samples in the cold store.

Her proposals, once confined to a handful of scientists, are now getting a broader airing as governments begin to grapple with the enormous problem of how to insulate animal and plant life from a warming climate. Shortly after appearing inThe Atlantic magazine’s list of “brave thinkers”, ­Parmesan ­lobbied negotiators, ­environmental ­activists and scientists at last December’s climate-change summit in Copenhagen to start drawing up plans to move animals that are most at risk.

She is, not ­surprisingly, frustrated and angry with the failure of governments to cut the ­emissions that cause climate change. After the ­subsequent ­discovery of a false claim about melting Himalayan ­glaciers by the UN’s climate body the IPCC, Parmesan also stresses that conservationists should not fall into a pattern of reflexively blaming climate change for each and every decline in wildlife. However, she ­remains convinced of the dangers to the world’s animals from a rapidly warming atmosphere.

Scientists have long believed that 20% to 30% of all known ­species of land animal, bird and fish could become extinct because of climate change. But recent studies, based on more elevated temperature ­projections, have suggested an even greater rate of die-off – 40% to 70% – as heatwaves, drought and the increasing acidification of the oceans drive animals from their native habitats and destroy their food supply.

The sheer scale of threatened ­extinctions has forced conservationists to rethink what was once dismissed as an outlandish notion. And it’s got Parmesan thinking about elephants …

To date, there is little evidence about how climate change – rather than traditional threats such as poaching or growing urbanisation – is affecting the grasslands where these majestic creatures live in the wild. “But at some point, I think we might want to think about moving them around,” ­Parmesan says.

She has already been pushing for efforts to regenerate America’s prairie grasslands in parts of Texas and the US Midwest, by bringing in big grazing animals. There are fossils to suggest there were elephants in North America tens of thousands of years ago. So why not transplant African elephants to North America?

“With climate change, I am starting to think that, if we do get a massive reduction of Africa’s grassland, then as I am advocating restoration of the US prairie anyway, we can use the large herbivores from ­Africa to help that process because they are already co-adapted [or mutually accommodating]. I wouldn’t be opposed to that.”

Parmesan can see her way to ­moving other big herbivores too, such as ­giraffes. She can even justify finding new homes for pandas. However, she concedes that most of the planet’s iconic large animals would still have to find their own way out from climate change – it would be impractical to move carnivores, for example.

“What we are advocating is not moving tigers to Africa, nor moving polar bears to Antarctica – nothing as dramatic as that – but [on the whole] to take species that are fairly innocuous, including a lot of plants and insects,” she says. “We know enough about their competitive abilities and their behaviour, and we have no expectation that they are going to be able to take over an ecosystem.”

Climate studies since 2000 reveal a growing threat to animal life far ­beyond the polar regions that have been feeling its early impacts. A review of ­recent scientific literature showed 52% of species striking out for more temperate areas as their traditional habitats became unsuitable, migrating from 50 kilometres to as far as 1,600 kilometres away when geography and human settlements allowed.

Climate change is also altering their way of life: some 62% of ­species, for example, are mating earlier in the spring. The studies noted huge ­varieties in response to climate change except for one fatal trait: no species was exhibiting the kind of large-scale evolutionary changes needed to adapt to warming temperatures in its existing habitat. “Evolution is not going to save the polar bear,” says Parmesan simply.

If it were up to her, the evacuation would start now – perhaps with a ­variety of the ephemeral Checker­spot butterfly that started her on this ­unlikely career path. Now 48, she did not set out to become a campaigner – or even a lepidopterist, for that ­matter. The youngest (and smallest) of six daughters, she grew up in a solidly Republican family with deep roots in the Texas oil industry. Her mother, a geologist, worked for an oil company, as does one of her sisters.

Initially, Parmesan wanted to study primates, but she did not have the stomach to work with caged animals. She claims she is uncomfortable even describing herself as an environmentalist – although she does drive a blue Prius, and watches her carbon footprint.

It was fieldwork that set Parmesan on her more public trajectory, ­after she published her first paper on the plight of Edith’s Checkerspot. In the early 1990s, she spent more than four years rattling across the Pacific Northwest in an old Toyota pickup truck, tracking these butterflies from Mexico to Alberta.

Earlier researchers – including her husband, Michael Singer – had established that the Checkerspot was sensitive to temperature. The trek convinced Parmesan that it was dying out because of climate change: rising ­temperatures in California were ­drying up the plant that was its main food source, although the butterfly continued to do fine in northern ­latitudes. And yet Parmesan admits she was, at first, sceptical about ­projections of the broader impacts of climate change on the animal world.

“I have to admit that 10 years ago, I thought they were a bit too extreme,” she says. But now she fears the scientific community is under-estimating the risk of extinction, and is frustrated with conservation organisations for failing to grasp the urgency of this situation.

When Parmesan first began talking about moving species, or “assisted ­colonisation”, at academic conferences, her fellow biologists erupted. They accused her of playing God; of tampering with nature in ways that carry enormous risk. They warned that her approach would set off a whole new chain of problems. How did Parmesan know the transplants would take to their new surroundings? How did she know they would not stage a hostile takeover, chasing out the native species?

“I was surprised at how angry ­people got – how emotional,” she says. “They were just horrified that I advocated playing God. They thought I was advocating an engineering ­approach to conservation.”

Which, Parmesan concedes, she is. But she argues that her approach may be the only way left to save some ­species whose escape routes are blocked by urban sprawl or punishing desert, or which cannot adapt in time.

Unlike traditional threats to wildlife, Parmesan says there is no prospect of recovery from climate change. Loss of habitat and poaching can be reversed, given enough money. Threatened animals can be coaxed back to healthy numbers – as in the case of the wolf in the Rocky Mountain West region of the United States. Degraded landscapes can be ­restored. But climate change is ­irreversible, at least on a human timescale. And besides, it’s not as if there hasn’t been transportation of animal or plant life in the past.

“It doesn't make any sense to say it’s OK for the shipping industry and the transport industry to accidentally move stuff around, for the aquarium trade to move stuff around, for the garden trade to move stuff all over the place, but that it’s not OK for a conservation biologist who is desperately trying to save a species from extinction to move it 100 miles [about 160 kilometres]. Come on, we have mucked around with Earth to such a degree that I think it’s a ridiculous argument.”

In recent years, Parmesan and a handful of other scientists have ­ begun work on a blueprint for moving plants and wildlife on the verge of extinction. She argues it would be far more effective to ­transplant entire communities of plants and animals, rather than a few token species.

“If we move individual ­species, it will just be: ‘Let’s save a few cool things for our grandkids.’ But if we can get people to think about it on a grander scale, it could save some significant percentage of species.”

Their idea is to start small – with plants, butterflies, birds, small rodents, and mammals – and to restrict the relocation plan to isolated spots that are immediately threatened by climate change. That is, high-altitude species that are being forced to migrate higher and higher up mountains to find cooler temperatures. Parmesan would shift those populations to ­another, higher mountain within close range.

It is too soon to say if she is winning the argument. Her ideas are still considered ­outside the mainstream of conservationists, and undertaking any kind of mass animal rescue will require rewriting existing international laws on transporting animals, as well as huge infusions of cash. But some of the bigger wildlife NGOs are beginning to listen more seriously to what was seen only a decade ago as an outlandish idea.

“We need to have as many potential tools as possible in our tool boxes,” agrees Thomas Brooks of Conservation International. “It is not very easy and it is not very cheap, but I do see this as an option that needs to be explored when cheaper and easier options aren’t working. But this is a more difficult and expensive approach, and needs to be evaluated carefully in that light.”

Even with temperature rises of 0.7° Celsius [1.26° Fahrenheit], some animals have already been lost – such as the golden toad that lives in the cool mountains of Costa Rica. ­(Biologists there have warned that more than a dozen amphibian species have disappeared from the ­jungles ­because of climate change). And last year, researchers in Australia ­reported what would be the world’s first mammalian extinction of modern times: the lemuroid ringtail possum. These animals drop out of trees and die if the temperature rises above 30° Celsius [86° Fahrenheit] –although subsequent reports suggest a number have since been sighted.

Many other species are under a death ­sentence. In the American west, ­researchers have charted a sharp ­decline in the pika, a small, furry brown animal that lives in the Rocky Mountains. As for the polar bear, its natural hunting grounds are fast disappearing with the melting sea ice. Some studies suggest the Arctic’s summer sea ice could disappear entirely by 2020, and with it the seals that are the bears’ main food supply. Recently, Canadian biologists reported several cases of male polar bears eating their young because they were going hungry.

But while it’s too late for the ­polar bear, Parmesan believes there is a chance of saving other animals – ­provided governments and conservation organisations overcome their ­reservations and act now. “Otherwise, we are going to see a whole slew of species go extinct that we could have saved, if only we’d been willing to think a little bit more outside the box.”

www.guardian.co.uk/

Copyright Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Homepage image by lensbug.chandru
 

There are varying definitions of authoritarianism and totalitarianism on Wikipedia alone. For something more lasting, here is what the Encyclopedia Britannica online says. Authoritarianism is …[a or the] principle of blind submission to authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action. In government, authoritarianism denotes any political system that concentrates power in the [...]

See also: Battery Tests for MP3, MP4 and Consumer Electronics – Battery Life CheckIf you are buying consumer electronics from China it is essential that you perform this important check on the goods before accepting them.  Batteries may appear completely acceptable at first, but after using the item ...

Cheap toys like this one below have been the source of a great deal of China product recalls in the past few years.  Often it is the result of poor quality lead-containing paint used to coat the toys, but in this case it was due to the tip ...

The government has summoned the Kenya Bureau of Standards and oil importers to a meeting on Monday next week to sort out the controversy over a multi-million oil inspection tender.This emerged even as the Industrialisation permanent secretary John Lonyangapuo admitted that the process of identifying the Indian firm - Geo Chem - ...

I’m sure this is not the first time I’ll write about this over the coming year BUT…

The centenary of the Wuhan Uprising/Xīnhài Gémìng 辛亥革命 is, well, nearly 18 months away which makes the planning process in Wuhan a little premature perhaps, but nobody ever lost a wager betting against the reflexive compulsion on the part of Chinese local officials to take the most mundane and boring event and blow it out of all proportions.

Nevertheless, “some people” (the Global Times’ favorite source) are already concerned about the costs associated with the Wuhan municipal government’s plan to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of an accidental uprising that succeeded completely in spite of itself, which is not exactly how Wuhan’s leaders spin it:

The Wuhan government’s plan to spend 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) to celebrate the centenary of the Xinhai Revolution, the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, has stirred debate among residents who say the government has failed to effectively use public money.

Ruan Chengfa, the mayor of Wuhan, Hubei Province, and also a deputy to the National People’s Congress, told the Xinhua News Agency that a grand celebration is needed because the revolution is a landmark event in China and even Asia, as it ended feudalism. Wuhan is the birthplace of the revolution.

The revolution led by Sun Yat-sen began with the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911 and concluded with the abdication of Emperor Puyi on February 12, 1912, when the Republic of China was established to replace the Qing Dynasty.

Expect plenty of triumphalism in the coming year, as well as a fair amount of tip-toeing around some thorny historiographic issues. (PRC historians have traditionally denigrated the 1911 revolution as incomplete because of its failure to address root social and economic problems and the subsequent shenanigans with Yuan Shikai, warlordism, and the total unraveling of the country, etc.)

Oh, and for the record, while Sun Yat-sen gets credited with being the “father of the revolution” and all that, let us not forget that he only learned about the Wuchang Uprising when he picked up a newspaper on the train between Kansas City and Denver.   In fact, given Sun’s track record when taking an active role in the planning process for an armed insurrection, it’s probably a good thing he was 6000 miles away.  Let’s just say that the good Dr. Sun makes for a pretty decent example of the “Ewing Theory” and its application to the the study of Chinese history and leave it at that.

Choose your own pillow at the Hilton hotel.

I chose Buckwheat and Kapok pillow.

This is really uninteresting info, but the Kapok pillow was awesome!

• In an exchange that has been making rounds on the internet, Mao Zedong's grandson lost his bearings last Friday and, beleaguered by journalists on all sides, asked "comrade, where is my car?" [AFP]
• He's not the only one to say a darndest thing though. Lots of officials have given meme worthy answers and opinions this week. [WSJ]
• The head of the environmental ministry in China has proposed that an environmental tax be studied - maybe it can help curb pollution? [Reuters]
• Did you know that the average Chinese luxury consumer will spend roughly 11% of her income on luxury handbags alone? That's INSANE. [Forbes]
• With that whole arms sale to Taiwan and the meeting with the Dalai Lama, China has insisted that it's up the United States to prove they should still be friends. [AP]
• Bo Xilai is a really popular guy. After his clean up of Chongqing, there's talk that he'll be named for one of the top jobs in China in 2012, when many of the current leaders are set to retire.[Washington Post]
• While the National People's Congress is important and all, even more important is the "raucous online discussion" among China's 380 million Internet users. [The Globe and Mail]
• The Oregonian argues that "market forces and ambition, not activism or corporate initiatives, pushed up wages and improved working conditions" at sweatshop factories. The proof: rich peasants who have gleaming three-story houses in the middle of their dusty villages. [The Oregonian]
• Sure China's building - but nothing is filling its buildings. Last year, around 100 million square feet of Beijing buildings was considered empty: zombie space. [Christian Science Monitor]

China-online-marketing.com chief author Steven Chow, recently wrote an article “going green” goes red in China, which is published exclusively on alrroya, a financial daily in Dubai, U.A.E.In 2009, China has become world leader in the manufacuturing of green energy. The western media has been saying that China has wrecked the Copenhagen deal, but the facts [...]

What keyword research to an online marketing campaign is like what compass to a traveler, a tiny mistake could send you to the wrong direction. At the beginning of my online marketing career, I have worked for weeks and months to create articles of wrong keywords, promote the article, try to achieve high ranking, but [...]

Alipay is the leading online payment company in China with over 300 million registered users. To do business in China(especially for online business), Alipay is one of the most popular payment options among buyers. So as a foreign company or individual, you need to learn how to use Alipay before you enter the market.Q: What  [...]

Given that the Shanghai Expo is supposed to represent the future, it was only a matter of time before we were inundated with robots. Shanghai has kindly delivered robots, and not just any robots: Haibao robots!

One of these mechanical Haibaos (which, in our opinion, looks roughly like a gas pump) made its entrance at Shanghai’s Infinity Plaza in all its robot-glory.

There will be thirty-seven of its kind at both international airports and Expo venues. The touch screens on their chests offer Expo-related information and transport options in six languages, presumably with beaming Haibao-smiles on their faces. They also - in our favorite function - take pictures for their users. Unfortunately, despite the resemblance, there seem to be no reports of whether they can dress up and make us food Jetsons-style.

Can you see them? My wife says she has never seen them before.

The decor of this soulful little restaurant a block north of the Bell Tower is equal parts rustic teahouse and friend’s living room. The old-style wooden menu (in Chinese only) offers a hodgepodge of regional comfort foods. Try the whole braised fish (RMB 39), the potato vermicelli with homemade sauerkraut, beef and chilli (RMB 26), and the divine lao Beijing-style frozen hawthorn jellies.

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When you live as a foreigner in China, sometimes you can’t help but feel like a child. Maybe it’s because you can’t speak the language — or stumble through it, like a toddler...

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The Chinese government certainly appreciates the delicate balance economic policy must strike between sustaining healthy, rapid economic development and transforming into a more domestic-consumption f...

Sorry for the last minute notice on this one, but I wanted to encourage those in the Bay Area who might be interested to attend. The State Bar of California International Law Section is hosting “Careers in International Law” tomorrow (Tuesday, March 9, 2010) at 12:30 pm at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. More information after the jump.

Here is the program description:

Interested in developing an international law career? These programs, geared towards both law students and practitioners, will feature a panel of seasoned attorneys practicing in several fields in the international law area. The panelists will discuss their respective paths in pursuing an active international law practice, provide advice about starting or growing an international law practice in this challenging market and answer questions from attendees.

Panelists:
Cedric C. Chao / Morrison Foerster
Dean Fealk / DLA Piper
Amy Reinhorn / Reinhorn & Associates
Neil A. Smith / Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Daniel R. Zimmerman / Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP

Should be interesting since they have very different practices: international arbitration (Cedric Chao), corporate (Dean Fealk, Daniel Zimmerman), IP (Neil Smith), and immigration (Amy Reinhorn).

I would attend myself, but I am trying to close two M&A transactions at once, one of them being cross-border. As you can imagine, I haven’t slept much (Baby China Esquire notwithstanding), and as a result, the blog has been third priority. Apologies for the late notice!

According to the vice governor of People's Bank of China, Mr. Yi Gang, the return on Gold in the last 30 years is not that great and China will be cautious to increase the holding of Gold (See Article from WSJ). There are large speculations that China is considering reducing the investment in US treasury and convert part of it to Gold. Given the limited amount of tradable gold on the market, however, any significant move from China on back of its record Foreign Reserve will result in a surge of Gold price almost for certain. For the moment China holds about 1054 metric tons of gold, which represents about 1.6% of China's total Reserve (See Graph from Chinatells).近年来市场经常猜测中国政府会主动增持黄金，用来替代逐渐减少的美国国债。跟美元或者国债相比，黄金的生产不是美国政府能够随便控制的，因此其价值应该更趋稳定。但是增持黄金也有不少实际的难处。比如世界上的大部分黄金主要由美国政府，国际货币基金组织和一些欧洲国家银行持有，只要他们不卖，市场上可以买到的黄金数量就很有限。因此任何想增持黄金的举动，都可能造成黄金价值大幅波动。同时黄金没有利息，因此在没有通胀或者通缩的预期之下，其保值功能经常不及其他投资工具。

Information Times, March 9, 2010

After speed skater Zhou Yang won the 1,500 meters short-track at Vancouver, she mentioned her parents but neglected to thank her country for supporting her in her quest for an Olympic gold medal.

Her ingratitude was criticized by Yu Zaiqing, an International Olympic Committee vice-chairman and a deputy director at the National Sports Bureau. Yu said that she ought to thank the country first.

Today's Information Times reports that Zhou has taken the criticism to heart.

The paper's front-page story emphasizes the involuntary nature of her do-over: "Zhou Yang offers a second thanks meeting to the leader's standard" and "Zhou Yang follows orders and does it again" are headlines. Zhou's second statement now thanks the country first and foremost, and puts her parents last, after her supporters, her coach, and other sports staff.

Zhou's initial remarks after winning the gold:

This is my dream. I think that this gold medal will bring lots of changes. First of all, it will definitely give me more confidence, and it will also improve life for my parents.

Yu Zaiqing's criticism:

There's nothing wrong with thanking your parents, but first you should thank your country. You've got to put the country first, and not simply thank your parents alone.

Zhou Yang's mother, Wang Shuying:

What Chinese person does not love their country? We raise our children to bring glory to the country! The leader's quibbles — are they really necessary? After bringing so much honor to the country, what does such a little thing matter?

Zhou Yang's second statement, made yesterday:

What I really want to say is thanks. I thank the country for providing us with excellent conditions, for giving us the excellent conditions for our Olympic campaign. And I thank everyone who supported us, I thank our coaches, I thank the staff, and I thank my mom and dad.

Tags: gratitude, Information Times, patriotism, Zhou Yang

This article is from Danwei.org

De-leverage is the word of fashion in 2009: according to most leading economists, the world is entering a lengthy period of de-leveraging. The main reason is that the leveraging has gone out of wire prior to 2008, when the financial crisis hit the world. A close look at the change of gross leverage ratio (Asset/Equity) across several countries, however, reveals that it is not a universal case applying to all the countries. For example, notably China's leverage ratio actually has come down by about half during 2002 - 2007, which is a sharp contrast to that of US (up 40%+). This is probably one of the main reasons that China walks out the crisis relatively faster than anyone else.去杠杆是当今最时髦的词语之一。与之对应的当然是金融危机之前最被追捧的扩张策略：杠杆化。大多数经济学家都预测全球各国在未来的几年都将不得不勒进裤袋进行去杠杆。然而对一些国家杠杆率变化的对比可以看出，并不是每一个国家都受到杠杆化的影响。比如说，美国在02-07年的杠杆率提高了40%强，而同期中国的杠杆率下降了50%。中国可以比其他国家更快的从容走出危机，在早先几年杠杆率的下降可谓功不可没。

Through Twitter and a bit of procrastination, I stumbled across the very well-written and often chortle-worthy blog Red, White and Blue in Beijing.   While clearly of a genre, it’s nice to see the “expat rambles” thing done so well.  For those of you familiar with the Beijing blog world, think of it as a Yankee cousin to the consistently excellent and amusing Froog blogs.

I’m not a food fanatic, I seldom get impressed by food. I am, as you all know, more of a dessert fanatic.

But if there is one restaurant that I do really get impressed by, both when it comes to the food, the service and the ambiance, it is definitely Haiku by hatsune. It is not the most expensive restaurant in town, nor is it the trendiest. But the food is pure heaven!

Address: Taojiang Road near Hengshan Road (next to South Beauty)

Sushi rolls with cream cheese and salmon

Asparagus in butter sauce

Excellent fresh tempura

And you have to try their Mövenpick strawberry icecream together with the tofu-cheesecake!!! Mmmmmmm

Submitted by Dan Wu on March 9, 2010 - 11:54

I have received lots of email from users on shenzhenparty.com, asking me about how to post the job opening. Here I will show you the steps to post that.

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Alexander Pan, March 9, 2010
Beijing, China

In a move to help alleviate the ever worsening air quality in Beijing, Miao Wei, vice-minister of Industry and Information Technology and deputy to the ...

Alexander Pan, March 9, 2010
Beijing, China.

Beijing’s Exorbitant, and rapidly increasing housing prices have come under fire from many senior government officials at the national legislative mee...

Wow. WordPress has made a lot of nice improvements since I last used it.

I am currently sitting at my dining room table, listening to the humming of the construction drills placed two floors above my head, cutting down the innards of a wall while a team of workmen renovate an apartment. I say hum because there is that point in drilling where the sound is smooth, constant and not as unnerving as the coarse, harsh, start-stop action of a worker who is just getting started with the machine; that deep grinding noise from pressing into the wall too hard and too fast, and then halting to readjust your plan of attack.

Ever since I passed the two-year mark of living in China — Feb. 18 — I’ve been treated to the sounds of construction at home, during classes at school, even out on a Friday night. That is not to say the construction is any different than at any other point in my adventures in China, it’s just my ears are starting to take notice of the higher decibel levels. I feel the building is more apparent.

I wake up thinking about the noise my ears will have to undergo throughout the day. My music player on my computer and sound on my television are cranked to higher-than-normal levels to drown out the outside drilling.

For all of Shanghai’s excitement, and nothing beats living in a city more Gotham than anywhere else I could possibly imagine, I have to wonder when it all stops. When does China exhale? When do the people here halt for a second and just ... stop? When does the break come? When does the moment of quiet hit? And I am just asking for a moment.

Or does eight percent growth annually not entitle the People’s Republic to a moment to catch its breath?

Even centuries later, Cao Cao sure knows how to start a turf war.  This week the Henan Cultural Preservation Office issued a statement saying that there were no plans to commercialize the recently discovered tomb of Three Kingdoms era general Cao Cao.  Spokesperson Sun Yingmin said that great care was needed to preserve and study “one of China’s greatest archaeological discoveries.”

I suspect what may be going on here is akin to an ongoing battle in Shaanxi over the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first Qin Emperor.  Some government officials, anxious to develop the regional economy, are eager to exploit famous archaeological sites for tourism hoping to add some cash to the local coffers.  Archaeologists, historians, and the like are reluctant to rush excavations for fear of causing irreparable harm to the contents of the tombs.

This sounds like a bit of preemptive strike on the part of Henan Cultural Preservation officials to their more profit-driven brethren to back off and let the researchers work.

China is proposing a cover pad in its elections to prevent problems for the voters. This is odd for several reasons.
1- they can vote but it doesnt matter, the Communist Party decides the victors.
2- a telepad, use a damned curtain
3-they are worried about old ladies being beaten about the head and shoulders if they make a poor choice
4-the funniest thing is that the telepad is used to cover up, something in the elections- how poetic.
exceprt:
The “telepads” used for anonymous voting ballots at the People’s Hall of China should be equipped with a cover-up lid to ensure the delegates’ privacy, according to a proposal by Guan Chengyuan, a National Committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top advisory body.

The proposal has garnered more than ten signatories from other members attending the annual session of the CPPCC National Committee in Beijing so far, the Beijing Times reported Monday.

Last week the PRC said obey or leave an dthey would not negotiatie but now it is said that they may be negotiating with Google. Like a school yard struggle, this is tiring.
excerpt:
BEIJING: The Chinese government’s ambiguous expressions on whether Google was in talks with the country have put a cloud over the search engine’s further development in China during the past three days.
And the words of a top official from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Monday make the atmosphere even murkier.

Li Yizhong, minister of MIIT, told reporters on Monday that Google must abide by Chinese laws and respect the wills of Chinese Internet users, if it still plans to continue its operations in China.

When asked whether Google was in talks with China, the 65-year-old minister said, “On this matter, Google knows it best itself.”

Anybody who's been to the hospital in Chengdu knows what a drag it can be. Long lines, or worse, no lines at all and a free-for-all rush to get into the doctor's office, little or no privacy, bureaucracy and paperwork and payment systems that baffle even the locals ... but now some of Chengdu's blogging doctors have an alternative.

From the Chengdu Commercial Daily

One lives in America. For a long time, his hands have been shaking uncontrollably. The other is a doctor from the Chengdu Military Hospital. His specialty is in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the nervous system. Via his blog, although they are separated by long distances and oceans, they have overturned the traditional confinements of medical practice.

Currently, the Chengdu Military Hospital employs nearly 100 specialists who also offer online consultation in order to provide a better platform through which to answer patients' questions. Word on the street is that the Chengdu Military Hospital is now considering a "Blog Hospital" project.

On the afternoon of Feb. 25, Chengdu Military Hospital Department of Nervous System Disorders. When the American David enters department head Wang Qingsong's office, it already seems that the two are old acquaintances. Even though it's the first time the two have met, they have already been corresponding for several months through Dr. Wang's blog.

It turns out that David is a "son-in-law " of Chengdu. At home in the Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone, it was Ms. Du who got to know the American David via the Internet. In 2004, after she married David, the pair decided to live in the U.S. In January of last year, the 70-year-old David's hands started shaking uncontrollably. The family doctor examined him numerous times but could not diagnose the cause of the trembling. Seeing that her husband's shaking hands were getting worse and worse, Ms. Du turned to the Internet for help. Wang Qingsong's blog caught her attention and gained David's trust. With Ms. Du translating, David left messages on Dr. Wang's blog, describing his condition and current medications. He quickly received a response from Dr. Wang.

Although it was impossible to make a final diagnosis over the Internet, Dr. Wang was able to suggest a number of ways to improve David's condition, and they set a date to meet this year in order to examine David more thoroughly.

That afternoon, these two unlikely "'net buddies" finally met and under Dr. Wang's direction, David received a series of examinations. According to Dr. Wang, David's shaking hands isn't due to Parkinson's disease but the distortion of the limb, which can be corrected by surgery.

"This is already the third time that I have made acquaintance with a foreign patient due to the blog!" said Dr. Wang. At the end of 2007, he had started a blog, and the entire department of doctors participated in its maintenance. The blog offered tips on staying healthy and also offered a forum in which patients seeking medical advice could ask questions. The blog has been up for three years, contains mountains of information, and receives millions of hits.

As it turns out, Wang Qingsong is only specialist at the Chengdu Military Hospital who's also a star blogger. The blog of hospital's director of marketing Zhang Hujun received an "Outstanding Creative Space" title during the First National Science Blog Awards.

His blog has already received over 10 million visits.

In April 2007, Zhang Hujun started his blog on Sohu. In the beginning, Zhang published a series of essays about the medical-engineering field but mysteriously the blog saw no traffic. A short time later, Zhang Hujun revived the blog with "My Story," and the visitors, medical-school castaways, swarmed in to discuss their own stories.

Zhang Hujun started to get a taste of sweet success. Through his blog he's met no small number of literary friends. And it was due to the concern of his blog-buddies that Zhang even changed his lifestyle: Every day he gets up one hour early to ensure that he'll have time to make a new blog post for the day. "If I don't update, a reader will call me to complain!," said Zhang.

Not long after the 2008 earthquake, Zhang Hujun posted news of the hospital's food and water shortage on his blog and immediately received a huge response. Within a month, the hospital was receiving daily donations of bottled water and instant noodles from all corners of the city.

Taking advantage of this period of high traffic, Zhang Hujun returned to his "regular job" of posting health tips. He settled arguments, posted essays about foreign popular science, and dispensed advice on how to stay fit, all in straightforward language. His down-to-earth style garnered lots of fans; one essay titled "It's Possible to Be Poisoned by Drinking Water" received over 300,000 views.

At the same time, Zhang Hujun's blog was a platform for asking and answering medical questions. "The blog can both serve patients and allow me to exercise my writing abilities," said Zhang. Because of this, Zhang Hujun was awarded the "Sohu Blogs 10 Most Popular Doctors of 2008" and a 2008 title from CCTV commending him for his blog's wealth of information.

According to Chengdu Military Hospital president Gu Jianwen, nearly 100 of the hospital's specialists blog, including many top-level specialists. Gu himself is the hospital's pioneer blogger.

He started his blog on Sohu in 2006, documenting the surgeries he performed, explaining the patients' illnesses, and offering online consultation to patients.

A year after Gu Jianwen started his blog, he had received over 1 million visits. Many of his visitors were patients with difficult-to-diagnose brain disease; after receiving online consultation, they would visit him at the hospital. In order to better serve patients, Gu Jianwen suggested that all of the hospital's specialists start blogs and update them regularly. Doctors who are particularly busy with patients or are unfamiliar with computers are assigned trainees to assist them in blogging.

Gu Jianwen finds time in his schedule to update his blog late at night and early in the morning.

Gu revealed yesterday that the Chengdu Military Hospital will create a "Blog Hospital" for all doctors on the Internet to blog on, each with a fixed online/live chat time in order to provide detailed consultation to hesitant patients.

EDIT: 3/8: Mistranslation (see comments) corrected.

Anybody who's been to the hospital in Chengdu knows what a drag it can be. Long lines, or worse, no lines at all and a free-for-all rush to get into the doctor's office, little or no privacy, bureaucracy and paperwork and payment systems that baffle even the locals ... but now some of Chengdu's blogging doctors have an alternative.

From the Chengdu Commercial Daily

One lives in America. For a long time, his hands have been shaking uncontrollably. The other is a doctor from the Chengdu Military Hospital. His specialty is in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the nervous system. Via his blog, although they are separated by long distances and oceans, they have overturned the traditional confinements of medical practice.

Currently, the Chengdu Military Hospital employs nearly 100 specialists who also offer online consultation in order to provide a better platform through which to answer patients' questions. Word on the street is that the Chengdu Military Hospital is now considering a "Blog Hospital" project.

On the afternoon of Feb. 25, Chengdu Military Hospital Department of Nervous System Disorders. When the American David enters department head Wang Qingsong's office, it already seems that the two are old acquaintances. Even though it's the first time the two have met, they have already been corresponding for several months through Dr. Wang's blog.

It turns out that David is a "son-in-law " of Chengdu. At home in the Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone, it was Ms. Du who got to know the American David via the Internet. In 2004, after she married David, the pair decided to live in the U.S. In January of last year, the 70-year-old David's hands started shaking uncontrollably. The family doctor examined him numerous times but could not diagnose the cause of the trembling. Seeing that her husband's shaking hands were getting worse and worse, Ms. Du turned to the Internet for help. Wang Qingsong's blog caught her attention and gained David's trust. With Ms. Du translating, David left messages on Dr. Wang's blog, describing his condition and current medications. He quickly received a response from Dr. Wang.

Although it was impossible to make a final diagnosis over the Internet, Dr. Wang was able to suggest a number of ways to improve David's condition, and they set a date to meet this year in order to examine David more thoroughly.

That afternoon, these two unlikely "'net buddies" finally met and under Dr. Wang's direction, David received a series of examinations. According to Dr. Wang, David's shaking hands isn't due to Parkinson's disease but the distortion of the limb, which can be corrected by surgery.

"This is already the third time that I have made acquaintance with a foreign patient due to the blog!" said Dr. Wang. At the end of 2007, he had started a blog, and the entire department of doctors participated in its maintenance. The blog offered tips on staying healthy and also offered a forum in which patients seeking medical advice could ask questions. The blog has been up for three years, contains mountains of information, and receives millions of hits.

As it turns out, Wang Qingsong is only specialist at the Chengdu Military Hospital who's also a star blogger. The blog of hospital's director of marketing Zhang Hujun received an "Outstanding Creative Space" title during the First National Science Blog Awards.

His blog has already received over 10 million visits.

In April 2007, Zhang Hujun started his blog on Sohu. In the beginning, Zhang published a series of essays about the medical-engineering field but mysteriously the blog saw no traffic. A short time later, Zhang Hujun revived the blog with "My Story," and the visitors, medical-school castaways, swarmed in to discuss their own stories.

Zhang Hujun started to get a taste of sweet success. Through his blog he's met no small number of literary friends. And it was due to the concern of his blog-buddies that Zhang even changed his lifestyle: Every day he gets up one hour early to ensure that he'll have time to make a new blog post for the day. "If I don't update, a reader will call me to complain!," said Zhang.

Not long after the 2008 earthquake, Zhang Hujun posted news of the hospital's food and water shortage on his blog and immediately received a huge response. Within a month, the hospital was receiving daily donations of bottled water and instant noodles from all corners of the city.

Taking advantage of this period of high traffic, Zhang Hujun returned to his "regular job" of posting health tips. He settled arguments, posted essays about foreign popular science, and dispensed advice on how to stay fit, all in straightforward language. His down-to-earth style garnered lots of fans; one essay titled "It's Possible to Be Poisoned by Drinking Water" received over 300,000 views.

At the same time, Zhang Hujun's blog was a platform for asking and answering medical questions. "The blog can both serve patients and allow me to exercise my writing abilities," said Zhang. Because of this, Zhang Hujun was awarded the "Sohu Blogs 10 Most Popular Doctors of 2008" and a 2008 title from CCTV commending him for his blog's wealth of information.

According to Chengdu Military Hospital president Gu Jianwen, nearly 100 of the hospital's specialists blog, including many top-level specialists. Gu himself is the hospital's pioneer blogger.

He started his blog on Sohu in 2006, documenting the surgeries he performed, explaining the patients' illnesses, and offering online consultation to patients.

A year after Gu Jianwen started his blog, he had received over 1 million visits. Many of his visitors were patients with difficult-to-diagnose brain disease; after receiving online consultation, they would visit him at the hospital. In order to better serve patients, Gu Jianwen suggested that all of the hospital's specialists start blogs and update them regularly. Doctors who are particularly busy with patients or are unfamiliar with computers are assigned trainees to assist them in blogging.

Gu Jianwen finds time in his schedule to update his blog late at night and early in the morning.

Gu revealed yesterday that the Chengdu Military Hospital will create a "Blog Hospital" for all doctors on the Internet to blog on, each with a fixed online/live chat time in order to provide detailed consultation to hesitant patients.

EDIT: 3/8: Mistranslation (see comments) corrected.

China announced that they need more skilled workers for their nuclear facilities, no shit? wtf? You mean they have nuclear facilities? China, the country that cant even produce milk from a cow without fouling it up, in charge of toxic nuclear waste- heavens help us all.
excerpt:
“BEIJING: A shortage of experienced technicians is posing a grave challenge to China’s nuclear safety as the country is rapidly expanding nuclear power plants, a former nuclear safety administrator has said.

“Experienced senior technicians currently comprise less than one-third of operating staff, while the rest of the positions are filled by new hands,” said Wang Yuqing, former director of the National Nuclear Safety Administration.

Stressing that there has been a drop in the proportion of experienced technicians across all operating staff at nuclear plants, he attributed the disparity in the proportion of experienced technicians to operating staff to the rapid growth in the nuclear power industry.”

Ai Weiwei will show in the turbine hall at Tate modern this October.Adrian Searle profiles him here.In more Ai Weiwei news, he’ll chat with twitter founder on March 15.*** *** ****This show at M97 gallery has caused some excitement amongst t...

#1 They're Sending Mixed Signals

This is another unfortunate example of what I consider 'making news without making a commitment'.  Read between the lines with the language used: "...in the near future", "It won't be long...", "as soon as possible".  They haven't actually done anything yet, but somehow it's news.  Chalk it up to the beauty of politics.  What would the harm be in setting a date to open the internet?  None I can see, unless of course there isn't really a specific date.

• December 28, 2009: Xinhua and People's Daily opened
• January 10, 2010: Sina and Sohu are restored, although severely altered
• January 17, 2010: Text messaging restored
• January 20, 2010: International calling restored
• February 5, 2010: 27 more websites restored

Throughout this whole ordeal I've been trying to figure out the one question I can't quite answer: what is the purpose of this blackout?  It could be they are trying to keep certain facts (or rumors) from leaking or perhaps they are trying to keep foreign influence out.  Of course, for the sake of security they could just be trying to interrupt "terrorist communication".  If any of these happens to be the answer, though, restoring full access to the internet would be counter-intuitive.

You tell me, am I being to cynical?  Should I instead be giving Nur Bekri the benefit of the doubt?

The above was aired at the Oscars earlier. The first official iPad advert! What do you think?

China's Debt Level has increased dramatically since SH of 2008 following the global financial crisis. A horizontal comparison among the peers, however, shows that China's debt level is modest at an international level. Total debt is about 150% of the GDP, which is at the similar level as Taiwan, Hongkong and Korea. In contrast, Japan's debt level is way out at 270% of the GDP. China's debt is mostly concentrated on corporate loan, with ignorable exposure to consumer loan and corporate bonds.中国债务水平自08年金融危机以来快速上升。但是国际上各个国家几乎全都大举借债以图度过危机。目前横向比较来看，中国的债务水平和香港韩国台湾等地相当，处于GDP的150%左右。相形之下，日本的债务水平要远远高于国际同行。

Whatever you do -as a girl- only pay attention to the guys

Sometimes, China’s just so funny. While western guys can receive an unlimited amount of compliments over here (from men as well as from women), there’s a clear line when it comes to women. The other day I went shopping with four Chinese girlfriends. We are not super close, but have known each other for some years still. They are all a bit younger than me, and especially one of them (her name is Luna) really likes me and the fact that I’m tall, blonde, and big-nosed.

We went into some shops and were all trying on clothes. I had one of those good (and rare) days when everything fits, and my dear friend Luna simply would not hold back on the compliments:

-Ah, Jonna, you look so great in everything you try on today!

-That’s perfect on you!

-You’ve got a great figure!

-What’s the matter with you Luna, the way you speak to Jonna one would think you have a crush on her?!

-Come on… I’m just saying she looks good in this dress.

-No you’re not. I think you like her. 

-I don’t, come on.

-Well, so how come you don’t have a boyfriend.

-I have not found one I like.

-Well maybe you like girls. Maybe you have a big problem…

-Hahhaha, well well, shall we all go for lunch?!

However, the conversations continued over the food when Luna asked me if I wanted to try her salmon pasta (we were having a Wagas lunch).

-Seeeeeeeeee….. you totally like her!!! You've got a problem! You like girls!

Both me and Luna sighed.

Man! There’s no way to get a compliment over here, is there?

The following video doesn’t highlight the most chaotic moments of crossing a Chinese street. This is just a normal day in Changzhou, after all. But count how many close calls you see. It’ll be fun!

Today is International Women's Day, which doesn't mean much around here as most women still have to work. In honor of the day I thought I'd share a few sites managed and written by women (particularly sites I find interesting).

Solo Travel Girl -- Written by Jennifer Huber, a world traveler who has frequently stopped by this blog.

Freelance Writing Jobs -- Created by Deb Ng, a fellow New Jerseyan who is also a friendly and helpful writer. She also published one of my articles on the site back in November.

Aimee Barnes -- A New Yorker who spends a lot of time writing about China. She writes some fascinating articles, and she's one of the few bloggers I have met.

China Sports Today -- News of sports around China, written by Maggie Rauch.

Thechannelc -- Mostly tech posts, but some other interesting posts as well. Written by the humorous and friendly Carolyn Chan, whom I met in Shenzhen.

Photos: Ray Ally

Last week the new look China Daily newspaper landed on my doorstep. Launched on March 1^st to coincide with the opening of China’s National Peoples Congress in Beijing. The newspaper has made many new changes in editorial and content as well as implementing a bold new design.

China Daily is the official Chinese government English language newspaper launched in 1981. It has a circulation of over 300,000 and reaches 150 countries. The redesign makes a modern statement and refreshes the previous outdated and traditional image.

The most obvious feature is the new masthead. Replacing the old fashioned and crude serif font with a bolder, modern Futura sans serif font. The Chinese characters 中国日报 (Zhōngguó Rìbào), previously in red, have been reduced in size and play a secondary role beneath the English name. It reminds me a little of the Guardian, but that’s not a bad thing, as the redesigned Guardian did win the Newspaper Design of the Year in 2006 and 2008.

A new font has been specially designed for the newspaper, based on a traditional typeface, but given a modern feel to improve readability. Interestingly The Times in London, was the first newspaper to commission its own typeface back in 1931. Designed by Stanley Morrison, the font Times New Roman became an industry standard for newspapers and books around the world.

The layout of information inside the China Daily has been given a cleaner look, with more use of white space. This creates a more interesting and visually appealing page layout. Although this may sound theoretical to those not in the design industry, you can clearly see the difference when you compare the old design to the new one.

The new design looks good, is easier to read and is a huge improvement on the previous design. Although the new look brings China Daily into the 21^st century, it won’t win any awards for its design and layout. As it still has a long way to go before it can sit alongside the innovative designs of the world class, Guardian or New York Times.

Surprising, at the recent Society of Newspaper Design Awards in 2009, the world’s best designed newspapers were from Moscow, Athens Paço De Arcos, Mexico City and Berlin. Take a look at the site and you’ll see how the best in the world do it. Combining modern design and layout, with powerful visual photography and illustration to communicate a story’s message.

China Daily has come a long way, but as the saying goes; “Even the journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step”. I think the newspaper has made a giant leap into the future, but still has many steps to take in becoming a truly world class newspaper.

Landscapes/ InsightsPhotography Show at AroundspaceZeng Li, Lu Yuanmin, Luo Yongjin, Maleonn, Dong Wensheng, Wang Yuming,Chang He, Yan Yibo, and Bo YunjunThere are different ways to interpret landscapes in art, as well as different criteria to judge ...

A few little Juicy Couture pieces I picked up a few weeks ago... I got all *inspired* 'cos rollagirl9 gave me a Juicy couture burger (!!!!!) for Christmas. Just about fainted because I love Juicy Couture charms, and I LOVE BURGERS :D Out of all their charms, I think this is the #1 one that suits me the best, hehe.

Anyway, so got these little bits and bobs to ride the Juicy Couture wave and to add to my charm collection. One day I'll pass them all to my daughter to play with :)

Flower hairtie with a cute bumblebee

Hairtie with lots of lil charms

Gingerbread house

How cute is this lil thing?!

With a lil Scottish terrier sitting by the fire inside

BURGER!!!! Omg *head explodes*

© BenBenWIt's easy in the investment world to think of China as one big business opportunity. But if you actually get to go to China, remember to budget a little time for seeing the place. Because China is much more than a business opportunity. It is a cradle of civilization filled with wonders, both natural and manmade. A friend of mine was able to spend a couple of days touring China as part of a small delegation of business people from his state. ...

He told me that the following night's 'Whisky Wednesday' event at The Worm - first Wednesday of the month, almost every month - had almost no sign-ups (only two advance reservations, and a handful more showing up on the night), but that it would go ahead as planned: this month's theme was to be Irish whiskeys, and at least four bottles would be available for tasting, despite the likely thin turnout. So, basically, unlimited whiskey for 100rmb! Hello!!!

Yes, of course I went along. Yes, I got VERY drunk (so drunk, in fact, that I actually turned down the offer of a free whisky from one of the punters in 12 Square Metres later that night!). I don't remember too much about the latter stages of that evening. In fact, the whole week since has been a bit of a blur....

I was thinking at the time that this tip-off had been extremely fortuitous. But perhaps it was the reverse: a random piece of ill fortune, Fate up to its wicked mischief again, a temptation that should have been turned down.

The next battle in the war between heritage activists and the Hong Kong Government looks likely to be Wing Lee Street, in Hong Kong's Central District.

The Urban Renewal Authority has condemned nine out of its twelve tenement blocks for redevelopment.

It is now only two weeks to go until the street's fate is sealed at a scheduled Town Planning Board meeting.

What the government did not count on was the street gaining sudden notoriety, as it was used as the main location in Hong Kong director Alex Law's art house movie, 'Echoes of the Rainbow'.

The movie won the prestigious Crystal Bear Award in February at the Berlin International Film Festival, or 'Berlinale 2010 Festival'.

Since the award was announced, Hong Kong heritage activists, movie buffs and local people alike have been flocking to the street.

They come to soak up the atmosphere, take photos, whilst others are organizing a protest against the government's decision to demolish the street.

Most of the buildings on Wing Lee Street were built back in the 1950's.

Director Alex Law needed a location that had a Hong Kong-in-the-sixties feel to it.

This orange plastic chair has a seventies feel to it.

This printer is still running his business in the small street, which is off the beaten path, with no road access.

If the government's plan goes ahead, the crumbling street will be demolished later this year.

I can understand the heritage activists argument who say the issue is all about money. They point to Singapore as a shining, albeit sterile, example of how to go about successfully renovating old Chinese buildings. Closer to home, 'The Pawn' is often cited as an example too.

On the other hand some buildings are just a little bit too far gone. And I fear Wing Lee Street, in light of what happened recently in To Kwa Wan, may just be in that category.

But the real issue here is that a land premium the Hong Kong government receives from a developer who successfully bids for any given site at a land auction always far outstrips any potential expenditure the government would otherwise have to actually spend in order to renovate old 'tong lau' buildings. Selling slice after slice of Hong Kong's cultural heritage makes sense for the Governemnt as by doing so they don't have to pay for costly renovations.

Yes, it really is all about the money.

ALEX HOFFORD : HONG KONG CHINA PHOTOGRAPHER

Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) president Li Ruogu (李若谷) told reporters on Sunday that China had built up a sustainable cooperation model with Africa, which had benefited the continent. The West had displayed a lot of misunderstanding about China’s push to invest outside its own borders: “Let them say what they want to say [...]

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