China

• 
  WSJ.com: China Real Time Report

• Xinhua and Minmetals: Closing The Loop

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:40 pm

  A spat between a newspaper owned by state-run Xinhua and a powerful state-owned company over a report on environmental pollution appears to have reached a truce. A little more than a month ago, the Xinhua-owned Economic Information Daily newspaper began reporting on allegedly illegal discharges from two iron ore mines owned by metals trading giant Minmetals Corp. into a river in the city of Wuan in Hebei province. The initial report drew strong protests from Minmetals. But the Economic Information Daily, later with clear support from higher levels of Xinhua, slogged on. On Friday, the…

• Video: Taiwan Eyes China’s Tech Sector

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

  As China and Taiwan move closer towards establishing free trade under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, or ECFA, Taiwan-based tech companies are looking forward to gaining entry to China’s massive consumer market. Matthew Rivera looks at the importance of the trade negotiations for Taiwanese chip-maker Via.

• Dashan Is a Friendly Face

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:08 am

  In his nearly 21 years as perhaps one of the most famous Westerners in China, showman Mark Rowswell says he has seen how the world’s largest television audience increasingly prefers foreigners with a friendly attitude. When Rowswell popped onto the scene in 1988 playing a character dubbed “Dashan,” the Chinese audience wanted to see foreigners in the role of the “happy-go-lucky buffoon,” he told the Foreign Correspondents Club in Shanghai this week. Getty Images Rowswell at a recent forum “Now, there’s this new stereotype — the friend-of-China stereotype,” Rowswell…

• Where Do China’s Emissions Come From?

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:06 pm

  From the WSJ’s Environmental Capital blog: There’s plenty of interesting stuff in the latest paper in Nature Geosciences about the growth in global greenhouse-gas emissions—that the growth is overwhelmingly concentrated in developing countries, for example, or that natural carbon “sinks” such as oceans appear to be less effective at absorbing carbon dioxide than in years past. (More on the paper here and here.) Associated Press Right back at you But one thing in particular stands out: The role played by the rich world’s “offshoring” of manufacturing emissions to the…

• Video: Bloggers’ Mountain Meet-Up

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:25 am

  An ancient cave was the backdrop to this year’s Chinese Blogger Conference in the remote Chinese city of Lianzhou, Guangdong province. WSJ’s Sky Canaves went to find out why the netizens decided to hold their annual conference there.

• 
  CNReviews

• Quote: Kelly Hammond on Pepsi for China

  Kai Pan

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am

  “What does all this mean for scholars who work so hard to deflate this false conflation of westernization and modernization?” Kelly Hammond, Ph.D. candidate in Chinese History at Georgetown University, wonders how a fizzy drink like Pepsi became the object that Chinese people rally around, whereas the other nationalities represented in the pre-2008 Beijing Olympics Pepsi commercial filming she was participating in had more “traditional” acts like cheerleaders, samurai drummers, Mardi Gras dancers, and sombreros. Sombreros! Sound interesting? If so, be sure to check out…

• 2012 Movie: Praising China & The Chinese? No, Not Really

  Kai Pan

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:39 pm

  I first learned about 2012 during a visit to the States this past summer and was instantly sold on the doomsday scenario. Though it stars John Cusack and Danny Glover (as the United States President no less. What happened to Morgan Freeman? Oh right, he was in the Elijah Wood abortion that was Deep Impact), the real star for me is the premise of cataclysmic disaster befalling humanity, and I greatly anticipated the movie’s release many months later, though not without some consternation of knowing I wouldn’t be able to watch it in an American megaplex but instead possibly over…

• Rednecks, Red Guards & Trolls: Kaiser Kuo on US-China Online

  Elliott Ng

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:59 pm

  For those of us involved in the development of new internet media and technology, there is almost a faith-based view that what we are doing has an inexorable, positive force toward ushering in the world we want to live in.  However, in the area of US-China relations, the growth of unmediated internet contact between China and West has not led to greater mutual understanding, and has largely exposed great rifts between “Them” and “Us.” In a speech at the TedX Honolulu and Rethink:Hawaii conference, Kaiser Kuo highlighted the fact that online contact has been a…

• CNBloggerCon: For The Chinese, Not The Foreigners

  Kai Pan

  7 Nov 2009 | 10:25 pm

  The title sounds judgmental, but it isn’t in the least. It’s the truth and, more importantly, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. I am, of course, generalizing the China Blogger Conference and all of the varied speakers, talks, and subject-matter presented over this weekend. While these have definitely included both foreigners and matters that both indirectly and directly affect foreigners both in and outside of China, the vast majority of foreigners will find this conference largely inaccessible and very distantly relevant to them. That almost all of the talks are…

• Busing From Guangzhou To Lianzhou

  Kai Pan

  7 Nov 2009 | 6:55 pm

  Guangzhou Min and I boarded a long-distance bus in Guangzhou at 7:55 for what we thought would be a 3 hour drive to Lianzhou. Much of the distance was covered quite quickly on a smooth new highway, smooth enough for me to get some more sleep under my belt after an early morning. When I awoke, we were coursing through the mountains, mountains covered with lush green trees. Then, we were soaring over huge valleys supported by massive columns of concrete rising dizzily through the air from the ground hundreds of meters below. Seeing the latter, I couldn’t help but marvel at how all of this was…

• 
  Silicon Hutong

• Fixing GOME

  David

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:24 pm

  GOME is in trouble. There is a lot of happy-talk coming out of China's electronics retail giant, suggesting that despite a 14% drop in revenues and a 39% plunge in earnings for the first nine months of the year, things are actually looking pretty good. Same store sales are apparently up 2.1%, and they expect the chain to grow.Reading between the lines of the WSJ report, GOME management is suggesting that the drop in sales was due to the global financial crisis. I am not so sure. Even if you grant that the crisis did have an effect on China's economy (and therefore electronics…

• Whose Moral Relativism?

  David

  14 Oct 2009 | 1:59 am

  In the HutongDry dry dry dry1701 hrsUber-establishment public intellectual and Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria does a decent job calming the otherwise financially panicked in a pallative column from June 13. What I found most intriguing about the article was the conclusion (proving, once again, that it does occasionally pay to read long essays all the way through,) where he explains that the West is in the throes of a crisis of morals as much (or arguably more) that a crisis of finance. When he first started this bit of his rant I shook my head. "Yes," I thought.

• Indra Nooyi's "focus" On China

  David

  11 Oct 2009 | 11:34 pm

  In the HutongFall hath Fallen1634 hrs.Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi did a grand tour of China not too long ago, forgoing the normal jet-in-jet-out itineraries that frame most global CEO China visits. Given the time constraints that face any CEO, regardless of the size of the business, carving 12 days out of the executive schedule to do a deep dive anyplace is no mean feat. It must have been that much harder for Nooyi, who runs a Fortune 500 fast-moving consumer goods company with a global market. Even better, Nooyi prepped extensively for the trip before she even got on the plane, and once here she…

• Afghanistan 2009 = China 1945

  David

  8 Oct 2009 | 7:40 pm

  In the Hutong Contemplating Awareness 0936 hrs Starting to catch up with my reading - I'm at least four years behind - I came across some of the writing CFR Fellow Elizabeth Rubin is doing from Afghanistan, in particular an August 4 piece in the New York Times Magazine called "Karzai in His Labyrinth." I spend less time than I should reading into the situation in China's neighbor to the southwest (an oversight, because much of China's thinking about the world is dictated by the "near abroad"), so this piece was something of an eye-opener.  The more I read…

• Questioning China's CyberLegions

  David

  7 Oct 2009 | 6:44 pm

  In the HutongNot a Caveman1045 hrs.The Open Society Institute is not an organization you would classify among China's great supporters. But OSI Fellow Evgeny Morozov suggests in the Boston Reviewthat our fears of "digital Pearl Harbors" and "cyber-Katrinas" launched from non-democratic countries are, at best, overblown, and at worst distract us from more worrisome threats. Not least of those in Morozov's mind would be the implicit threat to democratic regimes by their own governments who may curtail freedoms in the effort to secure their systems, driven by good…

• 
  Danwei Media

• A new look for the Beijing Morning Post

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:27 am

  Beijing Morning PostNovember 20, 2009 The Beijing Morning Post, a daily published by the Beijing Daily Group, underwent a major redesign this week, switching from broadsheet to tabloid format and thoroughly overhauling its content. Established on July 20, 1998, the Beijing Morning Post was the capital's first commercial morning paper and became the first to print in full color. But in today's newspaper landscape, it has to contend with the much more visible and influential Beijing Youth Daily and The Beijing News without the security of an exclusive distribution deal like the one the Beijing…

• China in Africa: the poor and the elites

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:31 pm

  On Yale Global: How do Africans see China after all? Based on 163 interviews and over a decade of living in Africa, I shall argue that both views are wrong and right, depending on to what region of Africa and to which group of Africans one is referring... ...From this small sample, hailing from Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Cape Verde and Zambia it becomes apparent that African elites clearly welcome the Chinese presence, while the people are growing increasing ambivalent. Link picked by Danwei.org

• The good, the bad, and the boring: Obama in China

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:27 pm

  At The China Beat, Maura Cunningham reviews Obama's visit to China with links to the best coverage and commentary. Link picked by Danwei.org

• Anti-corruption chief: let the Internet fight graft

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:59 pm

  In The China Daily: China's anti-corruption chief He Guoqiang Thursday urged authorities to utilize the public's online comments and postings in the country's ongoing attempt to fight corruption. He, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said channels should be expanded to solicit public opinions and efforts be made to give full play to the positive role that the Internet has had in the fight against corruption... ..."The top officials of the CPC have realized that online opinion is a weapon to curb graft, but it is a tough…

• Learn from the Jews

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:39 am

  From The Global Times American Jews are known for their formidable lobbying power in the US. How is this accomplished? What can Chinese learn to launch an effective lobby within US politics? [This] is an interview by Global Times reporter Lu Jingxian with Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Jewish Congress (AJC) and the American Council for World Jewry, on the issue. Link picked by Danwei.org

• 
  XINHUA NEWS

• Aimer's acctraction

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:28 pm

  A model presents a creation of the ...

• Street culture in eyes of little photographer

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:25 pm

  Li Minghao takes photos of the leaves in ...

• Presidential elections begin in Romania

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:13 pm

  BUCHAREST, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The presidential elections ...

• Boy of bouyei ethnic group's village life

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:10 pm

  Jia Liuyong salutes at school in Pianpo ...

• Fuzhou gov't renovates Lin Zexu Square for subway construction

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm

  Photo taken on Nov. 21, 2009 shows the Lin ...

• 
  EastSouthWestNorth

• Sima Nan Comments On Obama's China Trip

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Translation of an interview with a Chinese citizen about Obama's China trip.

• Han Han Talks Back To TIME

  13 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Chinese writer-blogger Han Han was interviewed by TIME magazine and then interviewed by Beijing Youth Weekend about that interview.

• Is Dialogue Possible?

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  These are my prepared remarks at the 2009 CoChina-5, which was scheduled to be the HKbloggerCon-CNbloggerCon online exchange.

• Three Teens Drowned In Jingzhou

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Three reports from Xinhua, Southern Weekend and Tianya Forum about the tragic case of three university students who died while trying save others.

• The Case of Reporter Yao Haiying

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

  Changjiang Business News reporter Yao Haiying reported on a case about the leaking of business secrets and finds himself the target of an investigation for graft. In frustration, he publicized his case on the Internet and got justice (more or less).

• 
  Shanghaiist

• Follow Team Shanghaiist on Twitter

  Kenneth Tan

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am

  If there's one thing that we at Shanghaiist would like to thank the Net Nanny for, it's that she's totally reunited Chinese microbloggers with the one big happy family that is Twitter again. You see, previously, everyone was distributed across a plethora of local microblogging services, but now with the demise of the two kingpins of the Chinese twitter clone world, Fanfou and Jiwai, everyone's just decided to collectively show the GFW their middle finger by signing up for a damn VPN and rejoining the conversation on Twitter. Now Chinese microbloggers and their foreign counterparts are finally…

• Presented By:

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

• Extra! Extra! Swine flu shots, press corps history and the almighty yuan

  Elaine Chow

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Wow, that's a huge amount: 1.5 million people per day are getting innoculated with the swine flu vaccine. [AP]This year's Chinese Blogger Conference was held in an ancient cave in Lianzhou, Guangdon. Why? You'll have to watch this video to find out. [WSJ]A government report has said that China's Three Gorges Dam has doubled in cost and has been plagued with multiple problems. Here's a summary of them. [Al Jazeera (on Youtube)]Back in 1972, when the first U.S. press corps visited China, they got rashes from the toilet seats. This year's press corps got thirty-seven-inch flat-screen televisions…

• We actually quite like this Shanghai Eat & Drink Guide

  Elaine Chow

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  We were sent Silk Guides: Shanghai Eat & Drink Guide a couple weeks ago, but it took us a little while to get off our lazy butts and actually take a look inside... Which is a shame, because the guide, about a size that would fit handily into a purse if not really a pocket, is actually a pretty decent look at what restaurants you ought to try in the city right now. The guide is the creation of Gary Bowerman, Amy Fabris-Shi and Tina Kanagaratnam - three people who've lived in Shanghai for a combined 25 years and spent that quarter-century of experience eating (and writing about eating). As they…

• Philanthropist: Rockin' with Roots & Shoots

  Batul Abbas

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  In Shanghaiist's Philanthropist feature, we highlight individuals and groups doing interesting things to make the world a little bit of a better place. This week we talk to one of the organizers of the third annual Rock for Roots & Shoots concert. Rock for Roots & Shoots is a charity concert benefitting the Million Dollar Tree Project.Where: Yuyintang, 1731 Yanan Xi Lu, near Kaixuan Lu. 延安西路1731号(凯旋路) 中山公园小白楼 When: Saturday, November 21, 6PM to late Cover: Donation of two trees, 50 RMBFeatured Bands: Boys Climbing Ropes, Resist Resist, Varde, Booji, Duck Fight…

• 
  Imagethief

• At Ad:Tech on Wednesday

  will

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:24 am

  Imagethief will be moderating the digital PR panel at Ad:Tech Beijing (or, as they style it, ad:tech) tomorrow (November 18, Wednesday). Panelists will include Hong Kong-based Jeremy Woolf, SVP and global social media practice lead for Text 100; Vincent Li, digital lead for Edelman Beijing; and Jeffrey Wu, COO of CIG Advertising. Our blurb:The Evolving Role of Digital PREveryone knows the Internet is important for communication. Everyone knows social media is critical. Everyone has heard about “the conversation.” But what does all this really mean? Behind the received wisdom, hype and…

• Sail a river of moonshine at Guizhou's expo pavilion

  will

  28 Oct 2009 | 4:47 am

  From the strange PR files comes this article in today's Shanghai Daily about the Guizhou provincial pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. The theme is apparently liquor and girls. This seems like a winner on many levels (after all, it worked for the NFL), but the implementation is a bit weird:The province will make the liquor the centerpiece of its pavilion because it's world famous, Yang said. The liquor won the gold prize at the Panama World Expo in 1915 and became renowned across the world. A highlight of the pavilion will be a giant upturned bottle of Moutai that pours water on a model of the…

• Don't scoop the reporter who interviews you, and other PR basics

  will

  23 Oct 2009 | 11:28 pm

  Note: As threatened, Imagethief is coming out of hiatus from time to time, when things catch his eye. Last Wednesday, the 21st, the IT news channel of giant Chinese portal Sohu published the transcript of an interview of Sohu CEO Charles Zhang by Hong Kong-based BusinessWeek journalist Bruce Einhorn. All well and good, you might think. Chinese portals regularly translate and run foreign media articles, and it makes sense that a portal might want to run a high-profile interview with its boss. But there were two problems. First, the interview was on the rather sensitive topic of the dueling IPR…

• The only version of China's National Day Parade you need to watch

  will

  2 Oct 2009 | 5:16 am

  An outstanding video from photojournalist Dan Chung, who was in the stands for yesterday's National Day parade and has produced a three-and-a-half minute version with a mix of time-lapse and slow motion. Much more watchable the tedious CCTV version (which, airplanes aside, felt like it was all in slow motion). More on the parade from me soon. Also worth your time is Danwei's collection of October 1st front pages from Chinese newspapers. PS: I am not "back". This is just another one of those hiatus interruptions I said would happen.

• Video: Tanks roll in Beijing for the PRC 60th anniversary parade rehearsal

  will

  6 Sep 2009 | 5:41 am

  We interrupt this hiatus, as we threatened we would from time to time, to bring you some video from this evening's dress rehearsal for the upcoming military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. As it happens, the mustering area for many of the armored vehicles participating in the parade is just north of my apartment complex, in a large empty lot with a convenient rail spur (they didn't drive the tanks all the way in). This evening at about 4PM they started blocking Dawang Rd. between Guanghua Rd. and Jianguo Rd. (which becomes Chang'an Ave, the main…

• 
  China Law Blog

• The iPhone In China: Ain't No Mountain High Enough.

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:18 am

  At least once a week, I will sarcastically say, "I'm from the government and I'm are here to help you." I love blaming the government for just about everything. But even I have my limits. In its post, "The iPhone debate: what can Apple do?" China Herald has a nascent debate going on regarding Apple's China foray. On one side, Shaun Rein, who believes Apple's less than stellar start in China is its own fault and believes it needs to do the following to succeed in China: 1. Listen to local consumers 2. Pick China Mobile as a partner rather than China Unicom 3. Treat China as a part of the…

• Travel Tech for China. My Idiosyncratic Views.

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

  "And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear...." Space Oddity, by David Bowie I love technology and I am constantly on the road. I definitely fit the definition of "early adapter" and my friends are constantly asking me what technology they should be buying, oftentimes for travel. I just got an email on that and I figure I might as well just write about it here. Here's what I use, have used, and wish I used. 1. My laptop is a 14.1 inch Lenovo t400 with a solid state hard drive. I picked the lenovo T400 because it was well priced and because I like how I can remove the DVD drive and…

• Will China Create The Next Silicon Valley?

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

  Whenever I get together with tech people who have been doing business with China for a few months, they seem to throw out expressions about China like "next Silicon Valley" or "going to be even bigger than Silicon Valley." But whenever I get together with tech people who have been in China for years, they never say such things; they talk about how much China needs to change if it is ever going to have its own Silicon Valley. So which is it? Why or why not? Please weigh in.

• China Negotiating Strategy. An Expert's Perspective.

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:08 pm

  Andrew Hupert over at the Chinese Negotiation blog did an interesting and helpful post on negotiating strategy in China in a post entitled, US-China Variation of Prisoners Dilemma -- The Factory Game. In his post, Andrew, who teaches at New York University's (NYU) Shanghai campus, discusses in detail the experiment he did with his students and the results of that experiment. More importantly, he then sets out five good lessons American businesses can learn from relating to their business negotiations with Chinese companies: What lessons can US negotiators in China draw from this exercise? 1…

• China's Microsoft Case. Everyone Just Move Along.

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:28 am

  I have a new rule. When I get three or more emails on a topic, and at least one of them says something like the following: "Dan, I am sure you are familiar with the recent Microsoft case and already planning to blog on it, but...." I am going to blog on it even though I don't want to and even though I have nothing to say on it -- none of you better be thinking, yeah, what else is new? Yes, I have read about the China Microsoft decision. Yes, Microsoft is in my backyard. Well not literally, but even though I live in the city of Seattle and Microsoft is in the far away ex-burb of Redmond, my…

• 
  RConversation

• China isn't happy with the IGF

  Rebecca MacKinnon

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:33 am

  On the final day of a four-day meeting, most government representatives expressed support for renewing the Internet Governance Forum's five-year mandate which ends next year. China did not.  Chen Yin, the head of the Chinese delegation to the Internet Governance Forum, said yesterday that the IGF's mandate should not be continued without reforms. Below is the full text of his statement, taken from the official transcript here (PDF). Video (with bad-quality audio in Chinese) can be found on YouTube here. I've added a few links so that the acronyms will make more sense to people…

• Muzzled by the United Nations

  Rebecca MacKinnon

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:41 am

  The Internet Governance Forum is winding down today in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. There have been a lot of very constructive conversations in workshops and panels over the past four days about how to advance security, privacy, child protection, AND human rights and free expression on the Internet. Unfortunately, the biggest headline coming out of the forum so far has been an incident on Sunday in which a poster promoting a book about censorship by the Open Net Initiative was removed by U.N. security. See reports by the BBC, the Associated Press, and the ONI's FAQ on the incident. Also see a…

• Chinese BloggerCon 2009: Micro Power from the mouth of a cave

  Rebecca MacKinnon

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:04 am

  Twitter is blocked in China. Even so, a large and growing community of Chinese people are using it every day to trade news, ideas, and increasingly first-hand information about things that people are experiencing or witnessing. Several people have reported their detentions or "chats" with police live on Twitter. Others recently used Twitter to mobilize postcard-writing campaigns to get friends released from jail. If you want to keep abreast of the most interesting liberal-leaning social and political commentary on the Chinese Internet, Twitter is the most effective way. Since all of…

• Happy Internet Human Rights Day!

  Rebecca MacKinnon

  9 Oct 2009 | 8:06 pm

  Today is the 98th anniversary of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising which led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and founding of the Republic of China in 1912. (I wonder how the 100th anniversary will be celebrated in the People's Republic two years from now?)  To mark the occasion, 15 Chinese intellectuals have issued a Declaration of Internet Human Rights, suggesting that netizens of China and the world celebrate October 10th to be Internet Human Rights Day. C.A. Yeung at the blog Under the Jacaranda Tree has done a great public service and posted a translation. I've made a few small…

• Obama administration disappoints on civil liberties

  Rebecca MacKinnon

  9 Oct 2009 | 1:49 am

  On Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to renew all of the powers granted to the U.S. government by the USA PATRIOT act - passed hastily in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks - that were set to expire by the end of this year. The committee rejected changes that would have strengthened the protection of Americans' civil liberties and privacy while still retaining expanded power to conduct anti-terrorism investigations. They also voted to approve Republican-sponsored amendments - most of them recommended by the Obama administration - that removed remaining civil…

• 
  All Roads Lead to China

• Light Week @ All Roads Ahead

  Rich

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:58 am

  Just a quick note to let everyone know the next week is going to be a light one as I am in Copenhagen speaking at a pre-COP15 conference. I still owe you all my thoughts on Obama’s visit, and I am working on that… and another metro post, but that will probably be the sum of activity for the next 8-10 days.

• Transfer Pricing in China

  Rich

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am

  While in university, and while at Thunderbird, I was exposed to the academic model called transfer pricing. For many firms, it was a key tool for repatriating profits. while for others, it was a way to hollow out a local operation. In China, they are tough on firms who go to far, and when I received this week’s Transfer Pricing Newsletter from the International Tax Review, the article Transfer Pricing Audits Becoming More Focused in China was the lead. A summary of a recent AMCHAM meeting in Suzhou on the topic, the lead sentence said it all: Loss making companies, those with strange…

• If I Could Redesign People’s Square Metro Station – Part II

  Rich

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:03 am

  Following up from the post last week, If I Could Redesign People’s Square Metro Station, I thought I would put forward another design change. Far easier than the previous one, which I admit would probably require money and time on the magnitude that could only be justified by a double dip recession, this one is cheap (I think) as it is an operational item. Using the above pictures for reference, one of the things that I have been most bothered by is the fact that every time the train pulls into a station with barriers (added to prevent people from being pushed or jumping into the…

• US China Joint Plan to Improve Ethics in China

  Rich

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pm

  Over the years, some of the more interesting and heated dialogues I ahve seen surround the issue of ethics. Linked to IP Protection, corporate governance, graft, and a whole host of other issues that firms face, many Westerners have long believed that as China’s economy developed, this would become a hurdle.  That, while the “ways of the old” may certainly have greased the system, eventually a transformation would have to take place for there to be long term stability. So the theory goes. My own opinion on the matter was a bit different though, and was largely different…

• Reorders Finally Catching Up?

  Rich

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:56 am

  A quick note from a friend at one of the large freight forwarders leads me to believe that we are in the initial phases of a restocking: I don’t know what’s going on, everyone, needs everything yesterday and no capacity in the market…. total boom… Anyone else seeing signs that Dongguan is about to have the lights turned back on?

• 
  China Herald

• The iPhone debate: what can Apple do

  Fons Tuinstra

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:03 am

  Image via WikipediaLast week Shaun Rein advised Apple what they should do to save their iPhone in China, after their sales appeared to be minimal. His advice (and you can read a longer edition here) had three elements:Listen to local consumersPick China Mobile as a partner rather than China UnicomTreat China as a part of the global market, not as a separate oneNot everybody agreed and in the comments a debate emerged. PTaylor wrote to Shaun Rein:This is not a very well informed critique of what Apple is doing in China:1: The monthly subscription plan problem is a decision by the State Owned…

• Why strengthening the Renminbi does not help - Shaun Rein

  Fons Tuinstra

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:31 am

  'Wrong' by jmtimages via FlickrLeading economists like Nobel-prize winner Paul Krugman, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and even US president Barack Obama pushed China to revalue its currency, the Renminbi. Shaun Rein explains in Forbes why strengthening the Chinese currency even more - it went already up 20 percent - is not going to help the United States, or anybody else.Revaluing it right now would jeopardize the world's fledgling economic recovery. It is better for American businesses for China to maintain current yuan rates until the worldwide recovery is on a firmer…

• Barbie misses target in Shanghai - Paul French

  Fons Tuinstra

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:02 am

  Barbie via WikipediaThe famous doll Barbie was received with many cheers as its groundbreaking store opened in Shanghai earlier this year. But Barbie has been missing its target as it seems to appeal more to the Americans than to the Shanghainese, a problem that sounds very familiar for more foreign brands that try to enter the China market.Retail guru Paul French tells toy giant Mattel might be on the wrong track: in Bloomberg:“Every retail store operates at a loss when it opens, but they’ve been open long enough that it should be working by now,” said Paul French, founder of…

• Most-sought speakers for November 2009: China-US relations galore

  Fons Tuinstra

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:11 am

  Still no.1 via WikipediaWhen you are reading these words, two historical events might be over. First, and you might have noticed that one, is the first visit of US president Barack Obama to China. The second one, many of you might not have noticed, but Europe might have its first minister of foreign affairs. While Europe getting its first president and formal representative in the rest of the world could have a been a watershed moment - and might actually be with hindsight - the 27 European member states have for the time being sought for not-so powerful representatives in Europe, that would…

• China's rich are relatively young - Rupert Hoogewerf

  Fons Tuinstra

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am

  Image by Fantake via FlickrCompared to the rich in the developed nations, China's well-to-do are relatively young, tells Rupert Hoogewerf, composer of the Hurun rich list, the New York Times.Typically, a Chinese individual worth $150 million or more is about 50 years old — about 15 years younger than someone in that category in Britain or the United States, Mr. Hoogewerf said.The average age of someone with 100 million yuan, or about $15 million, is 43. The approximately 825,000 Chinese with personal wealth of 10 million yuan are on average as young as 39, according to Hurun’s data —…

• 
  China Photos, China Travel for Charity, Education and Undertanding

• Adventures in China remain with students

  Four Manalapan High School students and science teacher Heather Sullivan have returned from a 15-day trip to China, where they studied kung fu at a martial arts school, rode in rickshaws, and scaled the Great Wall of China. The all-expense paid trip was organized by Discovery Student Adventures, the Discovery Channel's ...

• Texas State says ni hao to Mandarin

  This fall, Texas State students will be able to take Mandarin Chinese for academic credit as the Department of Languages unveils its newest course listings. The classes are made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to Texas State’s Center for International Studies. The grant is in support ...

• IELTS TRAINING BEGINS IN GUANGZHOU

  One of the projects we have worked on for over a year to develop is an IELTS training program for China. It begins this week in Guangzhou in conjunction with Broadlearn and Queensland in Australia. Using Cambridge and Queensland University content the Dreamblogue is delighted to be part of this ...

• IELTS and TOEFL – What They Are, What They Mean to You

  The IELTS and TOEFL exams are known and feared by English language students worldwide. Both exams are used by universities to assess the English language ability of applicants. IELTS is widely used in the UK and Australia and also recognised by most American and Canadian universities, including Harvard Business School; ...

• Wedding & Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, China

  Trainees from a makeup school put on makeup for model brides at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009. More than 100 companies in photographing, catering, wedding arrangements etc. participated in the expo to provide the ...

• 
  ChinaTechNews.com

• China's Ministry Of Culture Strives To Limit Online Game Deaths

  ChinaTechNews.com Editor

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:14 pm

  China's Ministry Of Culture has issued a notice, asking Chinese online game operators to enhance [...]

• Autodesk Signs Strategic Agreement With China's Guangdong Province

  ChinaTechNews.com Editor

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:12 pm

  International software designer Autodesk has signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Guangdong Economic and Information [...]

• Netease.com Posts Lackluster Internet Results For A Difficult Quarter In China

  ChinaTechNews.com Editor

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:50 pm

  In a quarter that saw its gaming aspirations come to a halt because of Chinese [...]

• Microsoft Sets Up Windows 7 Consulting Sites In Taiwan

  ChinaTechNews.com Editor

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:31 pm

  According to reports in Taiwanese local media, Microsoft has set up 100 Windows 7 consulting [...]

• Green Computing: Chinese Bamboo To Be Used In Dell's Global Packaging

  ChinaTechNews.com Editor

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm

  Bamboo from a forest in Jiangxi will soon be part of some of Dell's computer [...]

• 
  Hao Hao Report

• Cyberwarfare: The Issue China Won't Touch

  Stuart

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:11 pm

  Simon Elegant at Time.com raises the worrying issue of Chinese cyberwarfare efforts in the wake of recent talks: read more

• How China is Shaping North Carolina's Future Part II: Learning from our neighbors

  Damjan_D

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pm

  Within North Carolina’s industry centers and robust academic institutions, the state’s Chinese immigrants are poised for an epochal period of ascent to positions of strategic importance. Soon enough, they will start stealing newspaper headlines away from the political machinations of their eponymous country’s more publicized, internet-blocking technocrats.

• Microsoft ordered to halt Win XP sales in China due to intellectual property issues

  haoqide

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pm

  "Microsoft has been ordered to stop selling Windows XP in China after a court ruled that certain fonts in the operating system infringe on a Chinese firm's intellectual property." In other news, somebody in China actually recognizes the concept of intellectual property rights. Microsoft as the offender, +2 Irony.

• Why China Isn't Willing to Get Too Tough on Iran

  lossofmind

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:17 pm

  Being forced to choose between an expanding energy relationship with Iran and maintaining diplomatic accord with the U.S. is precisely the kind of dilemma that makes China's leadership assume the foreign policy equivalent of the fetal position.

• Instant Expert: Important People in Chinese History

  fredster

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

  Embarrassing to admit, but I almost never read non fiction, and there's a whole world of information out there that I would genuinely like to know about, but since it isn't covered in trashy mysteries or Steven Seagal movies, don't. These guides help me fake the funk and act like I know.

• 
  China Digital Times (CDT)

• Feng Zhenghu at Narita Airport

  Paulina Hartono

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:59 pm

  Oiwan Lam from Global Voices has translated updates from Feng Zhenghu, an activist who has been living in Japan’s Narita Airport for nearly three weeks after the Chinese government refused him re-entry. Feng has been updated his status via a Google document and Twitter. From a November 7th update: I was kidnapped to Japan airport in Nov 4. Today is Nov 7, I had not entered Japan. For 4 days and 3 nights, I lived in the immigration check in hall. At night I lied on the bench. I suffered from hunger. There are shops and auto selling machine in the exist hall, but there isn’t…

• Obama’s China Interview Mystery (Updated)

  Xiao Qiang

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm

  From the Wall Street Journal Blog: President Barack Obama’s first attempt to speak directly to China’s people during his trip this week was marred by Beijing’s failure to broadcast the remarks nationwide as promised. Now his parting words to the Chinese public are the subject of a mystery that has some observers scratching their heads and wondering whether the censors have been at work again. Southern Weekend, a Chinese newspaper based in the city of Guangzhou, on Thursday carried an exclusive interview with Obama that its editor-in-chief conducted a day earlier at the president’s…

• Vegetables Are Sick: Hunan Liuyang Cadmium Pollution

  Paulina Hartono

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pm

  Key from ChinaHush translates a Southern Metropolis Daily report on cadmium pollution in Hunan: July of this year my partner Yang Xiaohong and I went to Liuyang in Hunan province together to cover the incident of cadmium pollution. Centered at Xianghe chemical factory which was the source of the cadmium pollution, the fields within 1.5 kilo-meter radius were seriously polluted with cadmium. At the time, the amount of the cadmium content in majority of the villagers’ body seriously exceeded the standard level. Some of them were very young babies. Apart from this, large tracts of contaminated…

• Photo: Heilongjiang Colliery

  Paulina Hartono

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:52 pm

  A colliery in Jixi City, Heilongjiang. From tarboat. © Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• Zhang Zuhua and Jiang Qisheng: For Blue Skies, First Clear the Air on Human Rights

  Paulina Hartono

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm

  Zhang Zuhua and Jiang Qisheng, two of the original drafters of Charter 08, have written a response to what they think is the approach of the U.S. to China relations. The current administration is treading carefully on the subject of human rights, emphasizing first environmental issues. But Zhang and Jiang argue that progress on this front will happen once human rights are upheld in China. From the Washington Post: Obama also spoke eloquently of American respect for free expression, rule of law and other human rights, declaring these to be “universal” values. But at the same time,…

• 
  Zhongnanhai Blog

• Chinese are just like New Yorkers. They can't stop talking about real estate.

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Daniel Gross at Slate writes:In Shanghai, which is China's New York, locals and expats are doing their best to foist American-style consumerism onto China's rising masses—with mixed results. Starbucks has opened several hundred stores, even though China has no coffee-drinking culture to speak of. As it spreads into China, Toys "R" Us is trying to convince higher-income Chinese parents that toys are a part of a childhood, not a distraction from preparation for the all-important national college entrance exams. Dickie Yip, executive vice president at Bank of Communications, lamented that…

• The Nine Nations of China

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

  The Atlantic sats:This week, President Obama makes his first state visit to China. What kind of country will he find there? We tend to imagine China as a monolith: 1.3 billion people sharing the same language, history, and culture. The truth is far more interesting. China is a mosaic of several distinct regions, each with its own resources, dynamics, and historical character. As a traveler, teacher, and professional investor who has been exploring China since 1986, I’ve come to think of these regions as the Nine Nations of China (inspired, in part, by Joel Garreau’s Nine Nations…

• China's Weather Manipulation Brings Crippling Snowstorm to Beijing

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  Clay at Popsci.com writes:In The People's Republic of China, it's no secret that the Party controls just about everything. But as Beijing suffers through its second major snowstorm this season, residents are growing weary of their leadership's control-freak tendencies. After all, while the storm came as a surprise to residents, the government knew about it all along. In fact, the government caused it. China has long tinkered with Mother Nature's waterworks, even establishing a state organ -- the Beijing Weather Modification Office -- whose sole purpose is to meddle with the weather. The…

• Labor Shortages Growing (Again!) in China's Export Sector

  9 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

  The China Econonic Review reports: Who would believe it? Manufacturers in China's export heartlands are complaining that they cannot find enough workers. From the factory towns of Dongguan to the trestle tables of Wenzhou, bosses are moaning about labor shortages. Suzhou reported 150,000-200,000 job vacancies in September, while vacancies in Shenzhen rose from 23,000 in April to 120,000 in August. Back in the heady days of 30% export growth, labor shortages were an understandable phenomenon. Greedy US consumers, who couldn't wait to buy the latest Made-in-China clothes or gadgets, simply…

• With Chinese contracts, illegal Chinese workers stir up problems in India

  7 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am

  YaleGlobal Online says Chinese workers are creating problems in India:Across the country, several thousands of Chinese workers are at work on infrastructure projects bagged by Chinese contractors. But the arrangement is not without controversy—the hordes of unskilled/semi-skilled imports from China are taking jobs from the unemployed Indian. One estimate put their total number—skilled and unskilled together—at around 25,000. Things have come to a head of late—at least three instances of xenophobic violence have been reported between Indian and Chinese workers in less…

• 
  Sinosplice: Life

• Updates and Links

  John Pasden

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:39 pm

  Updates: Since my GFW Android Market rant, it looks like the Android Market may no longer be blocked. I’ve been able to access it again for the past few days on my HTC Hero here in Shanghai. Not sure if this will last, but it’s certainly a welcome development! Pleco for iPhone (beta) just went into Beta 4 testing. Michael Love says this will probably be the last round of testing (but wow, that team does an amazingly thorough job!), so that means it will likely be submitted to Apple for review very soon. Links: Google recently released a pinyin conversion tool on Google Translate,…

• Aspect, not Tense

  John Pasden

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:24 pm

  You often hear people saying that Chinese has simple grammar, and the most often cited reason is that “Chinese has no tenses.” It’s true that Chinese verbs do not have tenses, but Chinese grammar does have a formal system for marking aspect. What is aspect? Most English speakers don’t even know. I’ll quote from the Wikipedia entry on aspect: In linguistics, the grammatical aspect (sometimes called viewpoint aspect) of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. In English, for example, the present tense sentences “I…

• Thinking to Oneself Productively

  John Pasden

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:17 pm

  This is a follow-up to an older post of mine called Talking to Oneself Productively, and the advice this time comes from JP Villanueva. I recommend that you read the full post, but here’s the essence of it (emphasis mine): Some functional L2 speakers talk about switching languages like throwing a switch; when they hear a language, they start to ‘think’ in that language, sometimes at the detriment of the other languages. A lot of very highly functional L2 speakers, on the other hand, code switch between L1 and L2 when with peers; both for pragmatic reasons, but also for effect… and…

• China Ruined the Android Experience

  John Pasden

  11 Nov 2009 | 4:04 pm

  I was pretty excited when I first got my Android phone. Yeah, the Hero a bit sluggish, but that’s been fixed, and the Sense UI is even being updated to support the latest version of Android. So far, so good. Starting about a month ago, however, I could no longer download anything from the Android Market (Google’s version of the iPhone app store). I figured it was a network glitch that would clear up soon. No, it’s not going to clear up soon. China has blocked all downloads from the Android market. To be perfectly clear, then, this is what I lose out on, simply because…

• Hospitals and Train Stations

  John Pasden

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

  The past two weeks, I’ve had occasion to visit two different hospitals in Shanghai. Both were large, public hospitals that served a huge volume of patients every day. I came away from both feeling that Chinese train stations and Chinese hospitals are very similar. Both serve huge numbers of people Both contain a wide cross-section of society Both involve a lot of helpless waiting and nerve-wracking purchases Both offer VIP options which offer English-language services and a quieter, more private atmosphere Both leave you with a sense of wonder and hopelessness at the magnitude of the…

• 
  Managing The Dragon

• One Visit: Two Different Stories

  Jack

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:34 am

  It was very interesting to note the differences in Tuesday’s coverage of President Obama’s visit to Beijing by The Wall Street Journal and the China Daily. The lead story on Obama’s trip in The Wall Street Journal focused on the sharpest public critiques by Chinese officials towards U.S. policy that I have seen in some time. [...]

• Hu’s Messages From Singapore

  Jack

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pm

  Dressed in Asian garb and smiling for the cameras, the leaders of the 21 nations that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) looked as though they were at a love fest in Singapore this weekend. For those who cared to read between the lines, though, President Hu Jintao of China, the country whose importance [...]

• Low Expectations for Asia Trip

  Jack

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:36 am

  The Obama Administration has lowered its expectations for what the President may accomplish on his four-nation Asia trip, which begins today in Japan, and also includes visits to Singapore, China and South Korea. As reported in The Wall Street Journal: Administration officials say the President isn’t likely to bring along tangible concessions on hot-button issues, nor [...]

• A New World Order

  Jack

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:45 pm

  When past U.S. presidents have visited China, discussions with their Chinese counterparts have been largely limited to trade and human rights. This time around, when President Barack Obama comes to Beijing, it will be different. Never has the agenda between China and the United States been so broad. The list of items that President Obama [...]

• How Much Are China’s Railroads Worth?

  Jack

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:55 am

  The big news out of the United States this week was the $26.6 billion bid by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for the 77 percent of the stock of Burlington Northern Sante Fe Corp. that it doesn’t already own. Taking into account Burlington Northern’s debt of $10 billion, Buffett’s offer values the company at $44 billion. The [...]

• 
  China IWOM Blog- Making Sense of the Buzz

• IWOM watch September: We are the Chinese Youth Generation!

  CIC

  13 Nov 2009 | 2:32 am

  Chinese Youth are the first generation of Chinese “net natives”, this group is unique, creative, passionate, brave and care about their society. In this issue, CIC looks at what Chinese youth like and how they create IWOM based on recent events. Firstly, we found that they threw great patriotic passion into supporting the CCP’s 60th birthday by sharing the amazing rehearsal pictures/videos using their time honed BBS copy/paste skills, and then we see them spread and discover “grass-root beauties” across BBS’s. Secondly, we see the emergence of a new net…

• Speaking engagements for November

  Patrick

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:55 am

  In the next few weeks CIC’s Founder and Chairman, Sam Flemming will be attending and speaking at four different events in both Beijing and Shanghai. We have a discount code for all the events so if you’re interested in attending but still haven’t purchased a ticket, please feel free to email us and we will send you the codes. 1) ‘Find Your Voice on the Chinese Internet’ a Media & Marketing Event held by the European Union Chamber of Commerce and American Chamber of Commerce in China. Monday 16th Nov 2009 4:00pm -6.00pm Kerry Centre, Beijing A seminar where Sam Flemming, Jake…

• Meizu BBS Casestudy: How the M8 managed to beat the iPhone in terms of buzz

  Patrick

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:51 pm

  In 2008, when looking at which mobile products generate the most talk (or what we like to call buzz), the clear winner was the Apple iPhone 3G, which due to netizens recycling content from traditional media to forums and then back to traditional media, helped it to rise above the rest in terms of buzz. In 2009 Q1/Q2 however, despite Apple releasing the upgraded iPhone 3GS, due to stiff competition from HTC with the G1 & G2, Palm with the Pre and Meizu with the M8, the title of most talked about mobile is still far from clear cut. Now while we’d guess that most people have heard of the…

• Likemind Shanghai Friday 16th October

  Sam

  14 Oct 2009 | 7:37 pm

  Likemind Shanghai is back tomorrow from 8.30am – 10.30am at Amokka. For those who didn’t make it to the last one Likemind is a monthly global coffee date held in cities like Mumbai, Sao Paulo, New York, Melbourne and now Shanghai, and is a place where you can treat yourself to an Amokka breakfast, drink coffee and chat about the future of advertising, marketing and design in China with likeminded friends. Time: 8.30am – 10.30am, October 16th 2009 Where: Amokka, 201 Anfu lu near Wulumuqi lu Hosts: Patrick and Rand (Kindly standing in for Jenn) For more info about Likemind Shanghai…

• CCI and CIC’s New Youth Report: How IWOM goes beyond traditional market research

  Sam

  25 Sep 2009 | 3:34 am

  A few years ago, we launched a framework for understanding/approaching IWOM, something we called L-K-P (aka Listen-Know-Participate). Recently, I have been using an updated name for this framework: Content, Context and Implications. Content: This includes findings that are similar to what you would find in traditional market research. However, unlike traditional focus groups, a IWOM study like the one we conducted in our recently launched “Youth Report,” (see teaser slides here), offers brands a huge ‘focus group’ where hundreds of thousands of consumers are naturally…

• 
  China Esquire

• weil gotshal even more active in hong kong

  Thomas Chow

  27 Oct 2009 | 5:17 pm

  Just saw this article in Legal Week about Weil Gotshal poaching 2 corporate partners in Hong Kong. Seems like the perfect time to pick up some more partner level attorneys: when the economy is down, but supposedly getting better. Article after the jump. Weil Gotshal & Manges has boosted its Asia practice with a double hire from Simmons & Simmons in Hong Kong. Henry Ong has joined Weil’s Hong Kong office as a partner along with Jasson Han, who joins as a partner-level senior consultant, the same title he held at Simmons. Ong’s practice focuses on M&A and technology,…

• give2asia philippines disaster assistance call transcript

  Thomas Chow

  21 Oct 2009 | 11:16 am

  For all of you who weren’t able to attend the Give2Asia call about disaster response in the Philippines earlier this week, Give2Asia actually released a transcript of the conference call that I thought might be of interest. You can download a copy of it here. Enjoy!

• updated twitter feed username

  Thomas Chow

  19 Oct 2009 | 11:26 am

  Some quick updates for everyone. First, I decided to update my twitter account username. Chinaesq is shorter, but since my China Blog is China Esquire, I decided to go with the full name. Please let me know if you think its a bummer idea. http://twitter.com/ChinaEsq Please update accordingly.  Hopefully those following will get it updated automatically.  Second, I will be using twitter a lot more actively since I can still give my thoughts on a wider variety of matters than putting full posts together.  So if you follow the blog, I encourage you to follow the twitter too! UPDATE: I am…

• philippines disaster recovery call – 10/19

  Thomas Chow

  15 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm

  Was invited by Give2Asia to share this information with my readers:  Give2Asia is hosting a teleconference to brief donors, advisors and friends about relief and recovery needs and effective philanthropic strategies in response to the disaster in the Philippines on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 8:30 am PST/11:30 am EST.  More details after the jump. The call will be moderated by Mr. Joe Lumarda, Trustee of Give2Asia and SVP, Capital Group Companies. Based in Manila, Dr. Steven Rood, Philippines Country Representative at The Asia Foundation, is monitoring first hand the destruction caused by…

• the need for a moral compass

  Thomas Chow

  14 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pm

  I haven’t done too many posts responsive to other bloggers recently, but I really felt the need to emphasize something I read at Silicon Hutong today.  David published a post today entitled, “ Whose Moral Relativism?“  I found it definitely worth the read because there’s a lot of food for thought…  both for China, and just in general as well.  Yes, this post might sound sort of preachy and hit on moral values, but I think its useful to think about such issues because so much of business is predicated on this. Wolf writes: What I found most intriguing about…

• 
  BDL Media

• Webpage To Encourage NGO Workers, Volunteers

  BDL Media China

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:10 pm

  Original Article

• Renewed High Technology Certification In Beijing Gives BDL Media's China Business Better Services

  BDL Media China

  27 Aug 2009 | 12:30 pm

  After renewing its High & New Technology Enterprise Certification twice previously for a combined four years, BDL Media's wholly-owned foreign enterprise subsidiary in China has now renewed its HNTE certification under the new guidelines in China. Granted in Zhongguancun, the "Silicon Valley of China", the HTNE certification is this time approved for three years, until 2012. HNTE certification is only granted to those companies in China that provide the highest level of technology services, and the certification also grants generous tax breaks 50% lower than companies lacking HNTE…

• Greater Direct Marketing Reach With New Direct Mail License For BDL Media's China Subsidiary

  BDL Media China

  26 Aug 2009 | 9:01 am

  BDL Media, a leading provider of online visibility services to small and medium companies in China, has enhanced its ability to deliver marketing, advertising, and public relations products to clients in China with a new Direct Mail License for its Shanghai Boshiyuan Guanggao subsidiary. The DM License allows BDL Media's subsidiary to directly provide broadcasts of print direct mail sent throughout China. Partnering with China Post, Shanghai Boshiyuan Guanggao can provide segmented broadcasts to targeted databases of businesses and consumers in China. Shanghai Boshiyuan Guanggao is an…

• Internet Society of China Joins Hands To Fight Spam

  BDL Media China

  23 Jun 2009 | 7:12 pm

  Original article

• 51MICE.com Launches Search Directory To Give China's Booming Corporate Travel Market A Chance To Compare The Best Chinese Offerings

  BDL Media China

  26 Mar 2009 | 3:13 pm

  Aimed at China's US$2 billion corporate travel market, 51MICE.com (http://www.51MICE.com) has launched its new beta search website that combines thousands of China's top corporate travel, hotel destinations, and convention venues with the latest deals and offerings to businesses sending their staff on travels around China. MICE is a much-used acronym within the corporate travel industry that means "Meetings, Incentive travel, Conventions, and Exhibitions". Most hotels have MICE managers and MICE directors who assist businesses travelers, exhibition companies, and incentive travel junkets with…

• 
  China Environmental News Digest

• 20 Nov 2009 | 1:02 am

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:02 am

  November 19, 2009, 2:06 PM ET Via Wsj Blog How Much of China's Emissions Mess Is Really Ours? There's plenty of interesting stuff in the latest paper in Nature Geosciences about the growth in global greenhouse-gas emissions—that the growth is overwhelmingly concentrated in

• 17 Nov 2009 | 10:54 pm

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:54 pm

  Going Green in China, Case by Case By MICHAEL FORSYTHE Via Nytimes.com ORDOS REGION, CHINA — This region of Inner Mongolia, home to one of the biggest deserts in China, is being transformed into the site of a pine forest that will stretch across its low hills as far as the eye can see. The local government's tree-planting program is part of a plan to "assume our green

• 10 Nov 2009 | 10:08 pm

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:08 pm

  China Wants to Take "a Leadership Role" On Climate: An Interview with WWF's Yang Fuqiang, Part 2 by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 11. 9.09 When it comes to China's efforts to curtail greenhouse gases, Dr. Yang Fuqiang, director of global climate solutions at the World Wildlife Fund, has an optimal vantage point. He began his career as a researcher at the National Development and Reform

• 4 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm

  Hummer Is a 'Garbage Brand' China's top climate-change negotiator makes a case that his country is gearing up for the December summit in Copenhagen. By Melinda Liu | Newsweek Web Exclusive  Nov 3, 2009 In September at the United Nations, Chinese President Hu

• 28 Oct 2009 | 10:32 pm

  28 Oct 2009 | 10:32 pm

  Ma Jun: the call of rivers www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-28 18:14:28    By Gong Yidong     BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- When Ma Jun stood on the banks of the mighty and yet polluted Yangtze River in 1994, he had vague idea that one day he would devote himself to a Mission Impossible: saving China's dying rivers.     

• 
  The Peking Duck

• The peculiar persistence of Chinese communism

  Richard

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:09 pm

  China is not about to collapse, democracy is not arriving in the forseeable future, censorship will continue, the CCP isn’t going away and it may still be in power generations from now. Read this detailed and relatively balanced picture of why this is so. This may baffle and/or displease some of us, but it is reality so we had better get used to it and adapt to it as best we can. That doesn’t mean to kowtow before it and accept all it does with resignation and a sense of inevitability. But we do have to keep a clear head about how Chinese people view their government, and about…

• What should Obama do for China?

  Richard

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:25 pm

  Here’s your chance to tell him. I arrived in one piece. Was hoping maybe winter would be late this year. But no. It’s brutal out there.

• On my way to China

  Richard

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:34 pm

  I’ll be boarding my flight to Beijing in just a few hours. The trip will be part business, part meeting old friends and going back to the places I love the most. Apologies in advance if comments are held for moderation, especially first-time commenters. Please be patient, they’ll appear eventually. If any of you in Beijing, Shanghai or Hangzhou want to get together please let me know. I’ll probably get to Yunnan, too, especially if Beijing is really as cold as I hear. I can’t wait to arrive. But then, I never really left.

• 1989, a ripple effect from Tiananmen to Checkpoint Charlie?

  Richard

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

  Foreign Policy offers an interesting if somewhat debatable book excerpt on the role the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations played in influencing soon-to-follow demonstrations in Europe, where less than six months after the crackdown in Beijing the Berlin Wall would crack as well, realigning the world’s long-entrenched geo-political structures in ways that we still can’t completley comprehend even today. The dust of the ripped-down wall, like that of the World Trade Center, has yet to fully settle. In the eyes of the author, Chen Jian, the Michael J. Zak Chair of history for…

• What Chinese and US PR people can learn from each other

  Richard

  31 Oct 2009 | 8:43 pm

  My recent interview, over here.

• 
  China Hearsay

• My Teaching Days May Be Numbered

  Stan

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  At least 12,000 teachers in Hubei province feel cheated as the diplomas they gained from a local normal college are recognized only within the province, and not nationwide. Li Ping (not a real name), a teacher from Yichang, Central China’s Hubei province, got a teaching job in Shenzhen in May. But Li lost her position recently because the employer found that her bachelor’s degree could not be verified on www.chsi.com.cn, the sole website designated by the Ministry of Education[.] Uh oh. Is this some new standard or something? You actually need a degree to be a professor? If…

• That Offshore SPV May Not Be As Useful As You Think

  Stan

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:39 am

  China’s crack down on tax anti-avoidance took another major step forward with the release of a new Circular by the SAT which may severely restrict the ability of offshore holding companies to take advantage of tax treaty benefits. The SAT’s “Notice on Interpretation and Determination of Beneficial Owner under Tax Treaties” (Guoshuihan [2009] No. 601, or “Circular 601”), directs local tax authorities to investigate whether an applicant satisfies the requirements to qualify as a beneficial owner, which is a pre-requisite to enjoy the benefit of a reduced withholding tax on…

• IP as Loan Collateral: Another China Innovation Policy

  Stan

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:43 am

  This is from last week, but I do like me some innovation policy news, so for the record, here is the latest attempt at creating an innovation society/knowledge economy: China has launched a national pilot project to provide loans to companies that are eligible to put up their intellectual property rights (IPR) like patent as collateral. At Friday’s launching ceremony in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, six Chinese lenders, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank, signed agreements or intent worth 1.308 billion yuan ($186.86 million) in…

• The Myth of the China Expert

  Stan

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am

  I was just reading a very good writeup of the Obama visit on China Beat when I noticed an odd reference there to a speech by US Ambassador Huntsman. Following the link, I found this interesting passage: “Don’t mistake me for being an expert, because I’ve been here for three months,” Huntsman said. “And I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘China expert’ is kind of an oxymoron. And those who consider themselves to be China experts are kind of morons. So you take what you can, you learn what you can, and you begin to pull all the pieces together, and…

• Opening the Floodgates to Freaky, Misogynistic Chinese Litigation

  Stan

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am

  Since my last post was a bit too much on the bitchy/preachy side, here’s something slightly more amusing. In Common Law countries, judges are often asked to rule on new causes of action/points of law, sometimes referred to as matters of “first instance.” A Common Law judge has a lot of power in this regard and can have a major effect by recognizing new kinds of claims. One argument often made by defendants in these cases is that if the judge recognizes the claim or legal theory, this would open up “the floodgates” of litgation to all other similarly situated…

• 
  The China Sourcing Blog

• China Containerised Freight Index - November

  Alex

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:11 pm

  The following table illustrates the China Containerised Freight Index (CCFI) which reflects the China container transportation market. It shows that the latest CCFI is 980.11, 1.04% higher than in October. Of all the shipping lines, the index for the MEDITERRANEAN SERVICE is the highest (1577.16), increasing by 4.72% from October. The lowest is 524.42 for the KOREA SERVICE, and this dropped by 3.38% from October. The MEDITERRANEAN SERVICE has indicated the strongest growth, however, at 4.72%, while the growth of the SOUTH AFRICA/SOUTH AMERICA SERVICE was 2.26%, the lowest growth rate. The…

• 反倾销，老生常谈还是贸易战的开端? Anti-dumping: Old Story or the Trigger of a New Trade War?

  Kevin

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

  Building on the last post on this blog regarding protectionism, trade protectionism is now a big concern in China. Chinese GDP relied heavily on foreign trade before the financial crisis. As one of the three engines of China's GDP growth, the exporting sector has just started to recover in 2009, but it now faces the threat of protectionism. The ‘anti-dumping’ cases that some Chinese suppliers are confronting will probably not effect China’s economy and exporting sector too heavily in the big picture, but the protectionism message sent by US government from these cases is a serious…

• Shadows of Protectionism - Obama's Visit Not a Moment Too Soon

  Barry

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:46 am

  The European Union's trade commissioner, Catherine Ashton, claimed in a document released last week that despite 223 restrictive trade measures since October 2008, a protectionist worst-case scenario has been avoided, especially as the Group of 20 leaders made commitments to protect free trade. Yet a spokesman from China's Ministry of Commerce over the weekend proclaimed that China has suffered heavily from trade protectionism, which has been rising since the start of the financial crisis. And he gave some stats to back it up. In the first 9 months of the year, the spokesman said, 19…

• EVENTS: China Forge Fair 2009

  Mandy

  8 Nov 2009 | 6:54 pm

  China Forge Fair 2009Venue:         China International Exhibition Centre, BeijingDate:           17-19 November 2009Organisers:  Confederation of Chinese Metal Forming IndustryTel:              +86 (0)10 5233 8075Briefing:As one of the leading events in the stamping, fabricating and forging sector of China, CFF 2009 will display the latest products and technology such as forging products, forging equipment, forging tooling manufacturing…

• EVENTS: International Automobile Manufacturing & Production Facility Expo

  Mandy

  1 Nov 2009 | 8:08 pm

  China (Beijing) International Automobile Manufacturing and Production Facility ExpositionVenue:         China International Exhibition Centre, BeijingDate:           11-13 November 2009Organisers:  China Academy of Railway Sciences, MOR, China World Trade Centre Co. Ltd. Tel:              +86 (0)10 5233 8075Briefing:The objective of the event is to facilitate the development of China's automobile manufacturing industry and to promote fair…

• 
  Silk Road International Blog

• Before we just did business together, but now… now we’re friends!

  david

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  I spent one day this last week translating some new product negotiations for a client that is here visiting a factory that I’ve previously visited as 3PQ.  The boss and sales manager picked us up and we spent 2-3 hours in the factory talking about project specifics before heading out for the obligatory long lunch.  Both the client and I commented that we were pleased and surprised to actually get the business done and out of the way prior to the lunch. As we headed out the door to the restaurant the boss said to me, “you’ve been here two or three times, before we just did business…

• Read very very carefully

  david

  1 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Sometimes the details that really kill you are not in the printed text but in the white spaces–what’s not said.  Here are four examples of how careful reading gives a completely different story than what was originally reported. 1. Retail sales are NOT good in China. Unless, of course, you count food, services, gas and auto loans sales—which China does count and much of the rest of the world does NOT. ***Quick Monday Morning update.  The iPhone isn’t selling well (subscription required). Really?  No kidding?  Well let’s think about this for about 2 seconds.  1.

• “What you must do, what you should do and what would be nice to do.”

  david

  27 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  Do you know the difference? Johnny Sandhu of BV does and he presents a great PP on it at the Global Sources Trade Show Seminar, Buying from China: What new buyers need to know. First, what you must do includes anything that is mandated by either the Chinese government of the government of the country that you’re importing into.  If you don’t comply with these regulations you’ll be breaking the law and maybe get your goods either confiscated or stuck in port.  Part of this is also your necessary research into what expenses (duties, taxes) you’ll be paying to legally export and import…

• The City of *#$&ing Yes.

  david

  14 Oct 2009 | 11:10 pm

  Questions from Buyers at the Global Sources Electronics Show in Hong Kong this past week. 1. Buyer Question: So where do you live in Cina? My Answer: Shenzhen. Buyer Response: “Ah… the (beeping) city of  (beeping) ‘Yes.’  To bad I’ve never found a (beeping) factory that can actually do what they (beeping) say they can.”  (No exaggeration, he really said this.  Actually, I probably left out a couple of bleeps.) Following up on this—just this AM—in the office we’re talking about a shipping schedule that is later than we’d like due to the recent holiday.  The question in…

• Hangzhou, Hainan and Hong Kong

  david

  11 Oct 2009 | 7:47 pm

  I spent a week last month working with a factory in Hangzhou.  The factory was great but I’m sure that I lost a week of my life due to the pollution (lucky I didn’t lose my life due to the traffic).  Hangzhou was so polluted that it makes the PRD look clean and sunny.  Maybe it’s the recession that’s making the PRD look so nice lately… But back to Hangzhou, I’m really not sure which was worse, the traffic or the pollution.  I’ve lived over here for more 10 years and the traffic there was surprisingly awful but each night I could feel the grit on…

• 
  China Venture News

• Seen that? - Chinese Venture Capital Ushers in Thunder & Rainmakers

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Chinese Venture Capital Ushers in Thunder & Rainmakers at China Venture News A dramatic transformation is sweeping across the Pacific. For two decades, Asia watchers have proclaimed the dawning of a Pacific Century that is waking up the West like thunder out of ...

• The Trade War That Wasn't

  11 Nov 2009 | 10:18 am

  © kludgebox Remember the Obama Administration's new tariff on tires made in China? When it was announced back in September, analysts said it was going to be the start of a new trade war. In case no one noticed, that hasn't happened...China appears to have little inclination to escalate the dispute. Chinese officials spoke sharply against the safeguard decision when it was announced, calling it "a grave act of trade protectionism" that violates commitments the U.S. made against such moves earlier this year. But their direct ...

• Seen that? - Silicon Valley Bank Bridges Sandhill Road and Shanghai

  8 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Silicon Valley Bank Bridges Sandhill Road and Shanghai at China Venture News China remains red hot among venture capitalists from Silicon Valley and the Sandhill Road VCs favorite banker, Silicon Valley Bank has made it much easier for them with their announcement of ...

• China Business Myths

  29 Oct 2009 | 8:16 pm

  © Chi King Forbes ran an interesting piece on China this week. It looked at three myths that are widely believed to be true, but are, well, not quite as simple as people (and the media) tend to think... Myth number one: China's economy is led by exports. Myth number two: China's supply of cheap labor is (almost) endless. Myth number three: Your connections are everything. The examination of the number one myth is revealing (if you haven't been keeping up with China). While a few years ...

• Will an Innovation Shortage End China's Economic Growth?

  25 Oct 2009 | 6:09 pm

  © jiazi BusinessWeek ran a couple of articles this week (here and here) on China's economic growth and the expansion of the China economy into "sophisticated industries." Can the growth rate of 8% continue? There are skeptics. China has moved into auto and airplane manufacturing, solar power, and silicon chips (to name of few of the so called sophisticated industries). But much of the 8% growth rate is driven by infrastructure projects designed to stimulate the economy. Many analysts doubt that China can maintain the growth rate ...

• 
  Dan Washburn

• Attention

  Dan Washburn

  6 Oct 2018 | 10:28 pm

  I won't be updating this blog anymore. Please access my new blog (with all the same content) here.

• Temporary membership has its privileges.

  Dan Washburn

  9 Oct 2009 | 10:21 am

• $800,000 in five months? I really should have studied iTunes App development in high school.

  Dan Washburn

  14 Apr 2009 | 1:15 am

  http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/13/all-time-top-iphone-app-sales-figures-and-estimates/

• Brazilian President Blames White People For The Economic Crisis

  Dan Washburn

  27 Mar 2009 | 2:30 am

  Sorry, everyone. My bad. http://www.businessinsider.com/brazilian-president-blames-blue-eyed-white-people-for-the-crisis-2009-3

• Death link to too much red meat [BBC]

  Dan Washburn

  24 Mar 2009 | 12:30 am

  For the most part, I stopped eating meat early last year (except when I visit the Bloomsburg Fair). So I probably won't die. Ever. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7959128.stm

• 
  Responsible China

• How Did RespChi Represent on 350 Day of Climate Action?

  Erica Schlaikjer

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:36 pm

  Photo courtesy of Alex Pasternack. Our man Mark Hiew and friends John Romankiewicz (of China’s Green Beat) and Alex Pasternack (of Treehugger) called awareness to climate change on 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action on October 24 by rapping at the Roots & Shoots China Summit and Climate Action Carnival in Beijing. From Treehugger: …dropping green knowledge was legendary Beijing green rapper Sustainable John, of China’s Green Beat (see an old video here), accompanied by beatbox extraordinaire Huan Bao Panda (huan bao means environmental protection) and…

• Environmental Virtue: What Can We Learn From China?

  CC Huang

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:01 pm

  Lu Guang (??) from won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.” Image via ChinaHush.com. Previously, I’ve blogged about environmental justice as a framework of looking at environmental protection and why we should act. In the past few years, a new form of environmental ethics has been gaining momentum - environmental virtue ethics (EVE). Aristotle saw moral virtue as a reflection of a certain state of character, rather than our passions or our faculties and it is this kind of virtue - a consistent, repeated,…

• The Rise of Environmental NGOs

  CC Huang

  4 Aug 2009 | 8:41 pm

  Baihua Lake, China. Image via the International Wushu Federation. I’ve recently found two stories about environmental NGOs in China directly taking a stance against the government to improve environmental policy. The first is a landmark case in which a court accepted a lawsuit brought on by a charitable organization, The All-China Environment Federation. They are suing the government for allowing the construction of a ice cream workshop in Baihua Lake, a beautiful scenic area. This article is reported in both English and Chinese. Also, the China Environmental Law Blog has a good…

• Videos: “Advancing Sustainable Enterprise in China”

  Erica Schlaikjer

  14 Jul 2009 | 5:27 pm

  New Ventures, a program of the World Resources Institute, recently debuted a series of videos about sustainable enterprise in China. The six videos were produced in partnership with theWarehouse, a media program of the journalism school at Shantou University. They tell stories of Chinese entrepreneurs that have developed “innovative business solutions to China’s biggest environmental challenges.” Beijing Kingbo Biotech produces an organic pesticide line with ingredients sourced from a sustainably managed plantation in Inner Mongolia. Beijing Sinen En-Tech uses micro-filtration…

• International Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change

  Erica Schlaikjer

  3 Jul 2009 | 2:18 pm

  International Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change July 18, 2009 - July 19, 2009 Beijing, China Hosts: Tsinghua University Student Green Association Peking University CDM Club China Youth Climate Action Network To learn more, visit the official Web site: http://www.iysecc.org/en/index.html Executive Summary The International Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change (IYSECC) will bring together 300 Chinese and international students from over 35 universities around the world. It is the first international youth conference in the field of energy and climate change to be held in China. As…

• 
  ChinaCSR.com

• GE Signs Clean Technology Agreements In China

  editor

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:31 am

  GE has signed a series of "Company to Country" agreements aimed at promoting collaboration between GE and Chinese public and private sector aviation, energy, and transportation organizations on clean technologies. The announcements, which were made as part of GE's "Clean Technology Week in China" activities, included the formation of two joint ventures — in avionics [...]

• Chinese NGOs Publish Stance On Climate Change

  editor

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am

  Seven NGOs from China have jointly published a document in Beijing setting out their views and stance on climate change as well as their expectations for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held Copenhagen. The document, "Chinese Civil Society on Climate Change (2009)", has been published by seven NGOs — Friends of Nature, Global [...]

• SAIC Exposes 12 Illegal Advertisements

  editor

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  The State Administration for Industry and Commerce has exposed 12 of advertisements which were identified as illegal during a spot check conducted in the third quarter of 2009. The 12 advertisements included: an advertisement on Ganzhibao healthcare food which was reported as been published by Beijing Times on September 17 and containing unscientific claims for the [...]

• Top Universities Form Alliance For Low Carbon Energy

  editor

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am

  Tsinghua University, the University of Cambridge, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have joined forces to form the Low Carbon Energy University Alliance. The three universities, which are widely recognized as pioneers in the fields of global energy consumption and carbon emission technology, hope to develop new technology and policy options for the global low carbon [...]

• Standard Chartered Bank: Loss In China Due to Bribery

  editor

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:31 am

  Since 2008, Standard Chartered Bank has been receiving complaints from clients in China because of a loss in its overseas wealth management services which was reportedly caused by a bribery scandal involving one of its employees. According to China's Economic Observer Newspaper, SCB, which allegedly has launched the highest number of "qualified domestic institutional investors products" [...]

• 
  Global Voices Online » China

• China and Japan: Feng Zhenghu at Narita airport

  Oiwan Lam

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:07 pm

  Shanghai human rights activist Feng Zhenhu has been living and waiting in the hall of Japan's Narita airport since November 4 when he was barred from entering his own country by the Shanghai immigration the eighth times. Feng is an economist and a human rights activist. After the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, he openly criticized the repression and was under the CCP internal investigation for more than a year. In 1991, he went to Japan to study and in 1998 he returned back to China to do business but was detained by the Shanghai police and sentenced to 3 year imprisonment for illegal…

• China and U.S.A: Obama's letter to Southern Weekend

  Oiwan Lam

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:54 am

  Shizhao has posted Obama's letter to Southern Weekend during his visit in China. Many believe that this letter has something to do with the story about Southern Weekend's missing front page and blank advertisement.

• China and U.S.A: IPR Theft

  Oiwan Lam

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:27 am

  Angry Chinese blogger writes on an intellectual property right dispute case between a Beijing firm Zhongyi Electronic LTD and Microsoft.

• Bangladesh: Brahmaputra River Is Threatened

  Rezwan

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:22 am

  RealTime Bangladesh blog reports that a dam in Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) in China will divert 200 billion cubic meters of waters to the Yellow River. This will spell disaster for the Tibetan plateau and the lower riparian countries, India’s North East and Bangladesh as Brahmaputra river and its branches like Jamuna and Meghna of Bangladesh will be severely affected.

• China: Release Zhao Lianhai, the Father of the Kidney Stone Babies

  Oiwan Lam

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:10 pm

  C.A Yeung translated a petition signed by more than a hundred Chinese netizen demanding the Beijing police to release Zhao Lianhai, a famous rights activist and the founder of an organisation called the Home for the Kidney Stone Babies. Zhao was arrested and detained by the police since November 13.

• 
  Crossroads

• CSR in China

  Rich

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:33 pm

• A Rare Gift to the Young Persons You Know

  Rich

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  Hi  friends, Almost two years ago, I wrote a paper entitled “Everyone a Changemaker — Starting with Youth” (see attached file) for the HK Journal of Youth Studies, advocating the launch of some programs in HK similar to Youth Venture in other parts of the world (an Ashoka program). The most important idea behind Youth Venture is the society-wide redefinition of youth years as a time of leadership and positive social initiative. What the program is saying to the young people are: If you have an experience at a young age of taking initiative and leading an effort to…

• Deducting Charitable Donations from Chinese Tax

  Rich

  19 Sep 2009 | 8:40 am

  A recent post at China Briefing China Clarifies Tax Deduction for Charitable Donations highlighted a clarification announced in February of this year on deducting charitable donations from corporate and personal taxes. In short, for donations given to one of the sixty nine organizations listed (click here for list), corporations can deduct up to 12% of their yearly profit and persons can deduct 100% of the donation. While many will notice that all of the organizations listed are GONGOs (Government ORganized Non-Government Organizations), it should be noted that deductions can be taken if…

• Frog Celebrates 40 Years with China Events (Sept 24 - 27)

  Rich

  17 Sep 2009 | 2:10 am

  In the past 40 years, our work include: Apple Macintosh computer, Sony’s Trinitron television, Lufthansa’s brand and fleet image, Disney’s Cruise Lines and Consumer Electronics, and Louis Vuitton’s brand aesthetic etc.In honor of frog’s 40 year anniversary, we will host a series of programs in China to celebrate! In honor of frog’s 40 year anniversary, we will host a series of programs in China to celebrate! frog design mind event Date : Sept 24, 2009 5:00 to 6:00 pm Open ceremony and cocktail party 6:00 to 8:00 pm FDM event- Convergence of Business, Design and…

• A Pitch for Social Innvation

  Rich

  16 Sep 2009 | 8:57 pm

  As a social entreprensur, and managing 3 researchers studying social innovators, I found this video quite interesting… and motivating.

• 
  China Dialogue

• Putting innovation into reverse

  John Elkington

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:40 am

  Companies from the developed and the developing world face threats from growing “green” protectionism. John Elkington looks at how one corporation hopes to address the problem.The great American inventor Thomas Edison said: “Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress.” He added: “Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.” Now the company he founded, General Electric (GE) – the world’s largest manufacturers of clean-energy products – is far from satisfied. John Krenicki, the…

• A watershed moment

  Peter Bosshard

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:21 am

  The world’s largest hydropower project will soon reach its final dimensions. Peter Bosshard draws a number of conclusions from the experience of the Three Gorges.Later this year, the water level of the Three Gorges reservoir is scheduled to reach its final height of 175 metres. After 27 million cubic metres of cement have been poured, 39 cubic kilometres of water have been stored and 1.3 million people have been resettled, it is time to take stock. I have monitored the Three Gorges project ever since the Swiss government approved export credits for it in the mid-1990s. I have discussed…

• Can the US match China’s efforts?

  Hou Yanli

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:34 am

  Dialogue between the two countries has produced some positive examples of green collaboration, but Obama still needs to show leadership on climate. Hou Yanli explains how.US president Barack Obama’s first state visit to China and his joint announcement with Chinese president Hu Jintao have renewed hopes for international climate talks, as both countries reaffirmed their commitment to a successful outcome in Copenhagen. This is a welcome development as the talks had fallen into political pessimism following the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, when APEC leaders said they…

• China debates the downturn

  Leo Horn-Phathanothai

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Discussions about the path to economic recovery expose a rift between the advocates of “rebalancing” and those who argue job creation should override green concerns. Leo Horn-Phathanothai reports.Dreadful as their consequences are, economic downturns are not always all bad news. For one, they tend to be good for the environment, as economic bustle is strongly associated with energy consumption and environmental pollution (whether in one’s own backyard or someone else’s). And economic recessions give pause for thought, and cause for healthy self-questioning. They offer…

• Obama’s China moment

  Joshua Wickerham

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:22 am

  The US president can use his first China trip to find new ways for the two countries to jointly build a low-carbon economy, writes Joshua Wickerham, but only if he focuses on common opportunities.As US president Barack Obama visits China, he has the opportunity to appeal to both countries’ growing responsible business interests by issuing a green economy call to arms. China’s responsible business leaders are emerging with amazing speed. Foreign and local businesses in China – and Chinese businesses globally – are ramping up environmental stewardship and social…

• 
  China Economic Review - Daily Briefs

• OECD: China should slow credit growth to avoid bubbles

  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that China should rein in credit growth to minimize inflation and stem possible bubbles, Bloomberg reported. The OECD raised its predications

• US FDIC kills Minsheng's UBC acquisition

  Chinese bank Minsheng was thwarted by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve in its attempt to purchase failing California bank UCB, the Financial Times

• Suntech's 3Q earnings exceed expectations

  Shares of Chinese solar energy power company Suntech Power ended up 6% on Thursday on news of an increase in demand despite a drop in quarterly earnings,  AP reported. Suntech expects

• CIC will invest in two clean-energy companies

  China Investment Corporation (CIC), the nation's US$300 billion sovereign wealth fund, is going to invest US$1.121 billion in two clean-energy firms, the Wall Street Journal reported,

• Copyright group demands payment from Google

  The China Written Works Copyrights Society wants an apology and compensation for the authors it represents from Google, whom it accuses of illegally scanning and distributing works by thousands of prominent Chinese authors, the

• 
  Marc van der Chijs' Shanghaied Weblog

• A service for smokers at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport

  Marc van der Chijs

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am

  Except for an occasional cigar I am not a smoker. But I can imagine that it's frustrating that you have to hand in your lighter each time you board a plane. If you're a smoker and land at Shanghai Honqiao Airport you are lucky: At the exit of the terminal you can choose another one from the lighters they confiscated there from departing passengers.I noticed that many people took a lighter from the pile, I had to wait about a minute in order to take a picture without any passengers in it. I think this is a great idea, otherwise the airport would probably throw the lighters away or auction them…

• Excel where your competitors suck

  Marc van der Chijs

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:04 am

  A couple of days ago I read an excellent piece on Venturebeat in which serial entrepreneur Scott Olson talks about how easy companies can loose (and win) customers. When I read the article I recognized a lot of what he said, so I decided to use it as the basis for a blog post as well.Scott's point is that companies often loose clients because of minor annoyances. He gives an example of a bureaucratic procedure to deposit a check at his bank that ticks him off, a procedure other banks do not have. It would be a simple thing to change, but often companies don't realize that their customers are…

• Futuretainment

  Marc van der Chijs

  14 Nov 2009 | 11:05 pm

  On Friday Mike Walsh visited me at the Spil Games Asia office to catch up and to do another video interview (wanted to put link here to a documentary he made last year for which he also interviewed me, but cannot find it right now) . Mike is a key note speaker on the digital future and CEO of innovation research agency Tomorrow, and he seems to travel constantly all over the world (he arrived Friday in Shanghai and I just saw on his picture feed that he is now in New York already). And now he is also an author: his book Futuretainment will be published officially tomorrow (according to…

• Tomorrow: TEDxBeijing

  Marc van der Chijs

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:27 am

  Tomorrow TEDxBeijing will take place at CNEX. This is the second TEDx event in China, after TEDxShanghai that took place at M1NT in June this year.Never heard of TEDx? You probably have heard of TED (if not, check out their Wikipedia page), TEDx is an independently organized TED event. As the TEDxBeijing website describes it:In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx.TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is call TEDxBeijing, where x = independently organized TED event. At our…

• Macau could run out of water soon

  Marc van der Chijs

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am

  Because of severe drought in Southern China (the worst in decades), drinking water levels in Macau have fallen to dangerously low levels. The gambling enclave just south of Hong Kong could run out of water in a matter of weeks. Salinity levels in the water are going up already, and when they get too high the government may start a bottled water program for its inhabitants.With the Macau Grand Prix coming up in 10 days and the Macau Marathon in early December, this is not a good prospect for the city with more gaming revenues than Las Vegas. People who pay hundreds of US dollars in order to…

• 
  Cal Poly MBA Trip

• The Trend of Future Food Production: Genetically Modified (GM) Food and India

  Hemanth

  21 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pm

  As a scientist and avid supporter of environmental sustainability, the issue of genetically modified (GM) food is a hot-button topic for me. For this reason, I wanted to share some thoughts related to this issue and address some points of discussion in author Dr. Sujatha Byravan’s November 6, 2009 online article entitled, “Where is the science?” posted on the India Together website (Click here). GM crops have come under much scrutiny in the past five to ten years due to the shortage of third-party data on the safety of these crops for human consumption and the overwhelming amount of…

• A Different Kind of “Buzz” in India

  Hemanth

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

  Honey has been sought after in India for centuries. It was considered a gift from the gods; was the first sweet food found in the region; and was believed to give fertility to women, cattle, and crop harvests. Today, beekeeping in India can help rural and tribal families generate extra income, requiring only a few hours per week to maintain a few hives.Different bee species are used depending on the beekeeper’s location within India. To anyone familiar with apiculture, the mention of bees in India should instantly trigger two words: Apis dorsata, the world’s largest honeybee, sometimes…

• What about Kashmir? (and I don’t mean the sweater…)

  Hemanth

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:33 pm

  When my alarm went off on Tuesday morning, NPR was playing softly in the background. As I lay there listening, a story about India’s relations with Pakistan was on the air waves.  (Click here) As India emerges on the international stage as the most populated democracy in the world, there is always talk of the future. But there is one large aspect of the past that still may still play a large part of the future, the India’s relations with Pakistan and the conflict in Kashmir. In 1947, the British declared India an independent secular nation, and Pakistan a Muslim nation. The…

• Trends of Indian ETF’s in US Stock Market

  Chris Carr

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:32 pm

  There are four major Indian funds tradable in the United States: EPI, PIN, INP, and FNI. Each of the above fund trades just like a regular stock. EPI and PIN are the only two pure Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s). INP tracks the MSCI Total Return Index, while FNI invests in China as well as India. Each fund was started in February of 2008, just after the market peaked. The following chart shows the change in value of the funds from February 2008 to November 2009. As we can see, these funds track each other extremely closely. (Click here Consequently, my analysis of each of these funds will be…

• Where will all the people work?!

  Chris Carr

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:18 pm

  During my first visit to India nearly three years ago, I was staying in the city of Trivandrum near the southern most tip of the country.  One evening, I found myself at a local grocery store to buy some snacks.  When I walked into the store, I was greeted by one of the staff and another person handed me a basket.  Then as I wondered through the store, I noticed that there was a staff member in each isle there to help me find what I needed.  At first I thought this was great, but then, when I was ready to check out, a different employee took my basket of groceries and set it by the…

• 
  China Business Blog

• China Blog List (Of Lists)

  Administrator

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:06 pm

  There has been a fair bit of interest of late in China blogs, including one we posted on Twitter the other day, and another on the blog. A good time perhaps to make a list of lists… 50 Best Blogs to Learn All About China The 60 best blogs on china in english 100 Essential Resources for Doing Business in China China Law Blog’s Blogroll – Introduction Series China Business Blog: Our very own China Business Blog’s Blogroll – Live feeds on NetVibes And, of course, the very first, China Blog List. There is a lot of expertise, and a great community of bloggers out…

• Briefly…Top Ten Tweets (From Mistress, Stimulus & Other Problems, To Environmental Trillions, Power Players & Promises To Africa).

  Administrator

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:57 pm

  Here is our pick of the China business news from last week, via our Twitter feed, ChinaBlogTweets. Corruption in context RT @aimeenbarnes: “No Bars, No Mistresses, Chinese Officials Warned” AP http://tinyurl.com/ygr8c48 5:46 PM Nov 14th from Echofon RMB remains RT @TweetChina: China Rejects View PBOC Shifted on Yuan, Morgan Stanley Says http://tinyurl.com/yh26l7m 7:50 AM Nov 14th Stimulus RT @vshih2: My new blog post on China’s rising liabilities to finance the stimulus: http://bit.ly/3IApX7 7:42 AM Nov 12th from Echofon Power people RT @kaiserkuo: RT @gadyepstein: Hu Shuli…

• The Economy. Home & Away.

  Administrator

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:45 am

  As international expectations for China as an economic saviour continue, we continue to watch what is going on with the economy (in fact the many and varied regional, rural and urban economies…) in China. As the news below points out, the China bulls are running again, with GDP growth now estimated to exceed 10% in Q4. It is now clear that – the power of policy behind it – China will exceed its 8% growth target for the year. It is also clear that much of this growth is coming from the fiscal stimulus policy introduced last year – much of which is being fed by bank…

• China Blogs: That’s The way, Uh-Huh Uh-Huh…China Law Blog Likes It…

  Administrator

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:07 am

  We already mentioned it on Twitter, but (blogging being what it is) we thought this post from Dan Harris at the China Law Blog (CLB) warranted a mention (and a slightly re-worked headline) here… China Blogs: That’s The way, Uh-Huh Uh-Huh, We Like It… Part III. China Law Blog http://cli.gs/TWQh3 The post is part of a series explaining the thinking behind CLB’s excellent blogroll, and this time it kicks off with our very own blog… “China Business Blog. This blog is written by Jeremy Gordon, a true China veteran. Jeremy has been in the thick of China business…

• Briefly…Top Ten Tweets (From Smog, a Smattering of iPhone Sales, Electric Wealth & Broken Rules, to China in Africa & FDI in R&D)

  Administrator

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:53 am

  Another week, another top ten China news tweets…Please see our latest selection from the twittershpere (and our own ChinaBlogTweets) below. Read on RT @darnoc: Lots of info to peruse: Forum on China Africa Cooperation website – #FOCAC – meeting in Sharm… http://bit.ly/3yCS5M 1:40 PM Nov 7th RT @SirSteven: reading: Huge smog bank covers much of China today, http://is.gd/4PnyA (io9.com) w/ NASA satellite photo. 6:55 AM Nov 7th. [& people are watching and reporting…Interactive environment RT @ChinaRealTime: Blogger maps China’s pollution…

• 
  Smart China Sourcing

• How to use supplier audits to ensure effective China sourcing

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm

  By Mike Bellamy Among the biggest risks of outsourcing is ensuring that your supplier delivers according to your requirements. Overseas trading companies can disappear overnight or, after signing a contract with one factory, your goods may end up being produced at an unknown subcontractor. Fortunately, supplier audits can help to mitigate many of these problems. This week, Smart China Sourcing spoke with Mike Bellamy from PassageMaker (http://www.psschina.com) on the benefits of supplier audits in reducing risk in your global supply chain.

• Contacts of 'good factories'

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:37 pm

  By Renaud Anjoran in 'Quality Inspection Blog' These days I am exhibiting on a trade show (China Sourcing Fair (http://tradeshow.globalsources.com/TRADESHOW/HONGKONG-UNDERWEAR-SWIMWEAR.HTM) in Hong Kong).

• Corruption of quality inspectors

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:28 pm

  By Renaud Anjoran in 'Quality Inspection Blog' This week my company had a booth on a China Sourcing Fair (http://tradeshow.globalsources.com/TRADESHOW/HONGKONG-UNDERWEAR-SWIMWEAR.HTM). I noticed that some questions/remarks came back regularly. A few days ago I wrote about importers who ask us the contacts of good factories (http://www.qualityinspection.org/contacts-of-good-factories/). Another hot topic was how easily a supplier bribes an inspector.

• Using penalties effectively

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:05 pm

  By Renaud Anjoran in 'Quality Inspection Blog' Some importers can afford to conduct business in a friendly way with their Chinese suppliers. I am thinking of buyers who give regular orders to a few stable vendors, who don’t work under intense timing pressure, and who enjoy a large degree of flexibility (for example, they keep a safety stock in their warehouse).

• China Trademark Law. It's All Good.

  29 Oct 2009 | 1:28 am

  By Dan Harris in 'China Law Blog' The World Trademark Review, in its article, "Research reveals increased US confidence in China’s rights enforcement regime, (http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/detail.aspx?g=7585956b-12d5-42ee-a0a2-bf27139ca3f1&q=Dickinson#search=%22Dickinson%22)" [subscription required for full article] just came out with a story on a recent US-China Business Council (USCBC) survey finding that US brand owners are becoming less concerned with IP rights enforcement in China.

• 
  Top News

• US Senate votes to move health care reform bill forward

  The U.S. Senate voted on Saturday night to move an overhaul health care reform bill forward, removing the first procedural hurdle for the bill to be passed in the chamber.

• Express railway link on schedule

  A key express railway project linking Beijing to Shanghai took a major step forward yesterday when workers finished the steel structure of a railway station in west Shanghai's Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub.

• China's food industry to expand 16.7%

  Output value of China's food industry is expected to grow 16.7 percent year on year, according to China National Food Industry Association (CNFIA).

• Blast kills 87 in NE China colliery

  Death toll from the deadly coal mine blast in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has risen to 87 as of 7 a.m. Sunday, with another 21 still trapped.

• DPRK criticizes UN resolution on its human rights

  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday criticized a United Nations resolution on human rights in the country, saying it was a "political conspiracy by hostile forces led by the United States."

• 
  Wangjianshuo's blog

• Did you Observe the Decline of Blogging?

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  In November, I just feel some changes in the blogsphere. It seems to me that blogging activities are getting declining in the past month. I check my Google Reader few times a day in Oct, and every time I can get many updates, but recently, I check it daily and still didn't get too much update. I didn't change the feed source. It turned out that people blogged less. Did you observe the same decline in blogging? P.S. Me? Don't worry about me. It was just occasionally travel times, mixed with my passion for coding this week. Will be back to normal soon. Related Entries: Blogging Did you Observe…

• November Turbulance

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:42 am

  November 2009 is the month with most turbulance in blogging in the recent year. The frequent travel to Xiamen, to Chengdu made regular blogging harder than ever, and recenty, I was highly devoted in defactoring some of the code of the production environment. I found out code is really what my passion is at. I love to code any way, especially the design pattern, and defactoring. Hope I will have time to sit down at my computer to get videos, pictures of my trip out of my camera, and camcorder, and upload some of them to this blog. Please be patient for another few days. Related Entries: Out of…

• Back from OOB in Chengdu

  15 Nov 2009 | 2:35 am

  Sorry that I didn't post it earlier. I was out of blogging to Chengdu with the team in the last few days, and just got back to Shanghai. The continuous trip made blog posting hard, especially in a relaxed, and fun city like Chengdu. We had great fun, and return to hotel after 2:00 AM. I will make up some post to tell you more about Chengdu. Related Entries: Chengdu Back from OOB in Chengdu November 15, 2009 Chengdu Impression January 25, 2005 Hotels in Chengdu September 27, 2002 Packing for Chengdu September 22, 2002 Comments Hello, Lucky man, Chengdu is definitively my favorite city in…

• Xiamen Photo

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:32 am

  Let me put some photo I took during my Xiamen stay here. I do not remember how many times I went to Xiamen - this is the second time I visit Xiamen this year. 2009 - Young Leaders' Forum 2009 2009 - Baixing company outing 2008 - 3rd China Webmasters' Conference 2006 - 2nd China Webmaster‘s Conference 200x - Microsoft Channel Meeting 200x - Microsoft Company Outing Gulangyu: Xiamen island: Related Entries: Did you Observe the Decline of Blogging? November 20, 2009 November Turbulance November 19, 2009 Back from OOB in Chengdu November 15, 2009 Xiamen Photo November 12, 2009 Back from Xiamen…

• Back from Xiamen via Spring Airlines

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am

  I wrote about Spring Airlines three years ago. At that time, the low cost airline just celebrated its first anniversary. Now, it not only broke even, but also made decent profit, and grew very fast. I am a Spring Airlines fan. Let me tell you why. I Always Fly China Spring Recently, I really enjoyed flying with China Spring. Wendy, me and Yifan fly back to Zhengzhou via Spring Airlines, and fly to Xiamen and back via Spring. The 99 RMB flight ticket is very attractive. But there are more than that. As a business person, I appreciate what Spring Airlines did. Low Cost with Relatively Bad…

• 
  Lost Laowai China Blog

• Pandemic on the Streets! Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Start Loving the Vaccine

  Glen

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  I’m going to be honest.  I don’t really know how to write an introduction for this.  You all know the story by now.  H1N1 is going around and it is either a media creation or a harbinger of the apocalypse.  So I would like to apologize in advance if I am further flooding the blogosphere with this topic.  So I would like to warn you in advance.  This is a post about the H1N1 vaccine.  If you are tired of the topic please turn elsewhere.  I won’t be offended. Recently the Centre for Disease Control decided to offer the vaccine, which is in limited supply, to the…

• It’s a sickness

  Katie

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:16 am

  As an English teacher at a 6,000-strong middle school in the northwest of Hunan province, I come into contact with several hundred students a day.  My course load puts me in front of roughly 850 students a week.  In a school as cramped as mine, the students and staff are constantly breathing each other’s germs.  As such, when I started to get a deep-lung cough and run a mild fever, I should have known it was only a matter of time before the surgical-mask brigade descended on our school. Tuesday, October 26th, after about a week of classrooms full of hacking, coughing, sniffling…

• Photo: Farmers at the Gate

  Lost Laowai

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:54 pm

  Another great photo from Beijing-based photographer Zhao Hua Xi Shi, previously “Elephant on a Bicycle”. I encourage everyone to browse through this talented self-taught photographer’s photostream. The photos do an amazing job of telling intricate and intriguing stories that show the complex mosaic of modern China. Submit Your Photos Every week(ish) we’ll feature an interesting, funny, beautiful or otherwise noteworthy photo here. If you have a photo you think might make a good Photo of the Week, throw it in the pool at the Lost Laowai flickr Group and if you’ve…

• Tan’s Traffic Talk Show

  Ryan

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

  Ever wonder what happens when an edutaining Chengdu traffic cop runs square into China’s fēi zhǔliú culture? Well, wonder no longer. Thanks to the relatively new blog, Veggie Discourse, having subtitled this in English, we can all enjoy a gender-bending, hair-raising motorcycle safety video together: If you’re outside of China, or have a good VPN, be sure to check out the original blog post, where blogger “PH” breaks down some of the culturally unique (*) points noted in the subtitles. H/T to ToRiseFromAshes @ Hao Hao Report

• Two Links For Learning Chinese

  Matt

  1 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Now back to my regularly scheduled language beat, I’d like to share a couple of links with you that should help put the study of Chinese into perspective. First, Ben Ross debunks the myth that Chinese is the hardest language to learn in the world, even if it certainly seems like it at first. And from back in 2003, here’s a Brendan O’Kane post going through the basics of mastering our beloved 中文. Enjoy!

• 
  bezdomny ex patria

• across the Chaobai River

  wangbo

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:09 pm

  It’s nice to be told straight up I’ll never get a mortgage because I’m a foreigner. And for my wife to be told she’ll never get a mortgage because she married a foreigner. On Friday after work lzh met up with a friend. Her friend said, “Hey, there’s this real estate development out in Yanjiao (燕郊) that’s selling apartments cheap! You should come along and have a look!” And so they agreed to meet at the 930 bus stop at Dabeiyao (Guomao) at 11am. Yesterday morning dawned with me feeling tired and headachy and generally not wanting to do much…

• more swine flu news

  wangbo

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:26 pm

  Following on from my last post, 新京报/The Beijing News has an article today reporting several developments in Beijing’s preparation for the upcoming ‘flu peak season. The headline states that the city’s elderly will be able to get vaccinated against Influenza A H1N1 from next week. The article itself states: 据北京市疾控中心副主任庞星火介绍，60岁以上老人用的甲流疫苗正在向卫生局申请调配，预计下周内可在社区启动接种服务。 According to vice chairman of the Beijing Municipal Disease Control Centre Pang Xinghuo, an…

• good news for Beijingers

  wangbo

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:49 pm

  新京报/The Beijing News reports that Beijingers can get free vaccinations against Influenza A H1N1. Anybody over the age of 3 who is willing and gives their informed consent and who is a registered Beijing resident can get their free vaccination from any of 402 vaccination centres any time between November 16 and December 13. I take “registered Beijing resident” to mean that foreigners and Chinese whose residence is registered in a province, municipality or autonomous region other than Beijing still have to pay for vaccines. Unfortunately the 3.63 million doses of vaccine…

• 立冬

  wangbo

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

  And so today is 立冬, the start of winter. After a week of obssessively bleeding radiators to try and encourage hot water to come through the pipes, only for cold water to drip out, we seem to have some heat. Well, not so much “heat” as “not cold”. Still, it’s enough that the temperature inside our apartment climbed to 17 degrees last night, and 18 degrees by the time I got up this morning. It’s amazing how much of a difference those precious few degrees of warmth make. Waking up to 15 degrees was chilly, prompting me to crank up the aircon so we could…

• three

  wangbo

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:11 pm

  Three headlines grabbed my attention this morning: Beijing: CCTV building soon repaired. Actually, I don’t care too much about this, but that burnt-out shell has been sitting there for so long… If, as the article says the architect claims, the structure is basically sound and it is salvageable, then cool, salvage it. And in not-so-good news: 5.0 earthquake in Yunnan, 28 injured, Civil Affairs Bureau launches level 4 response. The quake hit Bingchuan, up near Dali, at 5:07am yesterday. No reports of deaths, at least not in that article, which is fortunate- and hopefully it stays…

• 
  China Post Online - Taiwan , News , Taiwan newspaper

• Strong Asia presence at Saint Laurent auction

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am

  (ChinaPost.com.tw) - Buyers from Asia purchased all but one of the top 10 priciest items at the sale of the last belongings of late couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, Christie's said Friday.

• ROAD PROJECT BEGINS

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am

  (ChinaPost.com.tw) - President Ma ying-jeou yesterday presided over a ground-breaking ceremony to kick off construction of a 40-kilometer elevated freeway at a total cost of NT$88.257 billion, a project designed to widen the section between Wugu of Taipei County and Yangmei of Taoyuan County on the Sun Yat-sen National Expressway, according to the National Expressway Engineering Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC).

• 17 arrests in soccer match-fixing probe: police

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am

  (ChinaPost.com.tw) - German prosecutors investigating corruption in football say 15 people in Germany and two in Switzerland have been arrested and that about 200 games in Europe ─ including Champions League ties ─ are involved in what an UEFA official called the biggest match-fixing scandal in Europe.

• China says 42 dead, 66 trapped in mine explosion

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am

  (ChinaPost.com.tw) - A gas explosion tore through a state-run coal mine in northern China on Saturday, killing 42 people and leaving 66 others trapped underground as rescuers worked hastily to save them.

• 
  3Q2U

• Them some funky dogs

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am

  Sitting on the high speed train in Taiwan, I looked down the aisle and spotted this guy's shoes. I thought to myself, "Damn, them some funky dogs." Then, other than wondering why I spoke to myself in English like Dexter Gordon, I asked myself why feet are called dogs, and could only find this reference on Yahoo Answers - Why are shoes called dogs?

• SMS tribute to hotties in raincoats

  9 Nov 2009 | 5:19 pm

  I received this tribute to hottie raincoats today from a friend who notices these things. "A moment of recognition is in order for the tiny hottie raincoat. Only in Asia would we find such a utility garment infused with such sexualence. I made up that word. Not satisfied with the tent like garments in the West our hotties have shrunk the raincoat down to micro levels, raised the hemline to accentuate the legs or boots and created such a fine piece of hottie wear that we should all be very very proud."

• The Buick Riviera concept car, conceived in Shanghai...

  31 Oct 2009 | 7:30 pm

  The first car I drove was my grandfather's 1963 Buick Riviera. That was one sweet ride. The 425 V-8 put out 360 horsepower. He took me to the cemetery, and told me to drive around. "You can't hurt anyone here," he said. I was about 12 or 13 then. As I got older I was allowed to park it, then after that I pretty much was the chauffeur. So I know a little bit about 1963 Rivieras. Today while it's snowing outside in Beijing I'm reading a NYT article about Buicks now being designed in China. This caught my eye since a few months ago I asked one of my friends out at GM to arrange a private factory…

• Don't Sleep Be Happy

  15 Oct 2009 | 10:28 pm

  I think these billboards surrounding a construction site on Gongtibeilu are a good example of what's happening to Beijing.

• White gogo boots in China

  26 Sep 2009 | 11:49 am

  I finally got around to putting my white gogo boots project online. Please check out www.whitegogobootsinchina.com As most of my friends know, my attention easily gets diverted while walking down the street, in meetings, at lunch, in an elevator, on an escalator, or at the grocery store as I try to snap a passing shot for my "art project." It all began last year when I just started noticing a lot of white gogo boots walking around. I found this fascinating, so began a chronicle. Some call it a fetish. I prefer project. Just the other day I saw this post at china.org.com when I realized my…

• 
  Thomas Crampton

• US Govt Polls Asian Journalists about Obama

  thomas@crampton.com (Thomas Crampton)

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:53 am

  Are you a journalist in Asia? Obama wants to hear from you! The US State Department has started looking for feedback from journalists in Asia about Obama’s speech tomorrow. (No pressure, Mr. Speechwriter!) Here’s the email that has been sent to local media in Hong Kong. What do you think?Seeking your reaction to President Obama’s speech Greetings from the American Consulate General in Hong Kong. As you may have heard, tomorrow morning (Saturday) from 9:00-9:45 AM, U.S. President Obama will give a speech that focuses on his Asia policy. CNN International and Hong Kong Cable…

• India’s Coming Urban Crisis

  thomas@crampton.com (Thomas Crampton)

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am

  Sitting today in Delhi traffic, you might say the crisis is already here, but based on population trends and urban immigration projections put together in a report by Booz & Co, more trouble is on the way. At the invitation of Booz & co, I spent a morning here in Delhi at the World Economic Forum’s India summit with a group that included economist CK Prahalad discussing the impact of India’s incredible population growth. Compared with 2005, additional 320 million people will enter India’s working age population by 2030… …and India is becoming more…

• Will India Become an Empire?

  thomas@crampton.com (Thomas Crampton)

  9 Nov 2009 | 11:20 pm

  Between attending great discussions on India, I had the opportunity to discuss whether India will become an empire with Aaron Pereira.

• Google Employees Earn US$302,314 (for the company)

  thomas@crampton.com (Thomas Crampton)

  31 Oct 2009 | 6:44 am

  Interesting chart from Silicon Alley Insider on how Google’s revenue per employee has hit a three year high, with a revenue per employee hitting US$302,314.

• ASEAN online advertising market

  thomas@crampton.com (Thomas Crampton)

  26 Oct 2009 | 3:49 am

  Online advertising numbers are notoriously difficult to estimate in Asia, with some claims of market size at multiples of estimates by others. This estimate for online adspend in ASEAN, released in December 2008, is the The Yahoo!-Nielsen “Online Industry Review” study. Here’s how they describe this study: While there have been some online advertising estimates put forward by different firms in the past, these are mostly ad-hoc, general or cover only specific markets in this region. The Yahoo!-Nielsen “Online Industry Review” study is the first-of-its-kind formal study of the…

• 
  Simpson's Paradox

• The Ancient Bracelet Of Detect Plot

  Meg

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:46 pm

  I stumbled onto this list of writers’ guidelines over at Clarkesworld Magazine, and I thought this list of sci-fi and fantasy cliches was so impressive I had to share. Though no particular setting, theme, or plot is anathema to us, the following are likely hard sells: * stories in which a milquetoast civilian government is depicted as the sole obstacle to either catching some depraved criminal or to an uncomplicated military victory * stories in which the words “thou” or “thine” appear * talking cats * talking swords * stories where the climax is dependent on the…

• Extreme Shopping

  Meg

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:50 am

  I’m reviewing Cooking Mama 3 for ThumbGods right now. I was expecting more of the chopping and frying fun of Cooking Mama 2, but a new shopping game has me hungry for melon popcorn, drinking yogurt and hawthorne strips. Cooking Mama 3’s shopping game is uncannily like shopping in a Chinese supermarket. Mama sends you out to find 4 pieces of unwrapped, unrefridgerated meat, but as you search the store to fill your reusable carrier bag, you’ve got to avoid oddly familiar  store characters — shouting shop assistants in pastel uniform aprons or a girl with a basket of …

• Slide Colors

  Meg

  15 Nov 2009 | 8:32 pm

  My latest review in Indie Game Mag. (Click for a larger version) Slide Colors, by Simpson’s Paradox From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:Slide Colors

• This Is Just To Say

  Meg

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:02 am

  Stick looked up from the fridge, disappointed. “Oh, are we all out of pears?” “Um. Yeah.” I said, “Well, there was only one left… were you saving it?” “Yes.” “Forgive me It was delicious so sweet and so cold.” “Better vocab through poetry class still going well, then?” From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:This Is Just To Say

• Still Lost In Blue

  Meg

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm

  The other day I was googling for “I’m stuck on an island with a total moron,” er, I mean, reading a bit about Lost in Blue 2, and I stumbled upon this Guide 2 Games review of Jack and Amy’s adventures. Sexual Content At one point, the two teens discover a hot spring, and there’s the option to have them bathe together. Amy responds to this by telling you she’s a little shy. However, both are shown with their clothes still on even in the water. Still, at first the implication is there that this was not the case, especially if you choose one of them to go in alone.

• 
  Absurdity, Allegory and China

• Takin’ a Break

  Jim Gourley

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:18 pm

  As you can see from the time between this post and the last – 5+ weeks – I have not been posting very much. For a variety of reasons I have been quiet. While there has been much to write about on the China front, I just have not had the time to contribute to the discussion. I did happen to see Obama’s Shanghai ‘Town Hall Meeting’ which I found to be maddeningly disappointing. Great dodge on the Taiwan weapons issue, Mr Prez. It felt more like a highly hyped English corner than a town hall meeting. Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap and Jeremiah at Jottings from the…

• Of Time, Trees and Pleasure Palaces

  Jim Gourley

  10 Oct 2009 | 11:08 pm

  The first time I walked down the tree-lined lane between Hujialou Xili and Nanli was in the late afternoon of March 24, 2008. The trees were all on the Nanli, the east side of the lane, though Nanli literally means “south neighborhood”. The short stretch of lane runs north from Chaoyang Lu. The first photo I took was of a young girl, 6-8 years old, who was riding in the back of three-wheeled bicycle pedaled by an older man who I assumed to be her grandfather. Grandparents often assume the duties of transporting students back and forth to/from school, since parents are, more often…

• More Chinese Drywall Info

  Jim Gourley

  5 Oct 2009 | 5:23 am

  I started following the U. S. tainted drywall story back in January (2009), since one of the main Chinese drywall manufacturers is located here in Tianjin: Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd. Since then the story has grown and is now making it’s way awkwardly through the U. S. courts. For those who end up here in their search for info concerning this issue I recommend that you head over to China Law Blog, where Dan Harris of Harris and Moure has a lot of very good information concerning the drywall cases and how this may likely play out in China. See his most recent post Chinese Drywall…

• When Art Hunts The Artist Down

  Jim Gourley

  4 Oct 2009 | 11:22 pm

  Coming clean: I have watched Chinatown more than I’ve watched any other film. I have—more often than I could or care to quantify—played Chinatown roulette: pop in the VHS (80’s – 90’s) / DVD, hit fast forward and stop it at random and watch five minutes for a guaranteed hit of really great art. The last time I pulled that trigger was three weeks ago, before Roman Polanski wandered into what a petition for “immediate release” is claiming to be an extraterritorial film festival. Or rather, what everyone who is not a peckerwood should clearly understand to be an event reeking of…

• Noise

  Jim Gourley

  2 Oct 2009 | 8:36 pm

  There are lots of congrats being passed around on China’s turning 60, though I must say I am not in a “pass around comps” mood right now. In the process of greasing the skids for the happy face of holiday, they’ve gutted access to the internet, and I have an uncomfortable sense of certainty that what has been stripped away for the grand celebration of making Mr. Hu the next TAM idol, will not be coming back this time. And though I could be wrong, this bold upshift of draconian control is more than just a shot across the bow. This has allowed the fixers the opportunity…

• 
  China Bystander

• Another Deadly Blast In A Chinese Coal Mine

  chinabystander

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:33 am

  Another deadly day in the world’s deadliest mining industry. At least 42 miners are dead and 66 trapped following an underground gas blast at the Xinxing colliery in Heilongjiang, 250 miles northeast of Harbin near the Russian border. Xinhua said more than 400 miners on shift had escaped and 29 were in hospital injured, six [...]

• The Slow But Sure Rise Of Western China

  chinabystander

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:44 am

  Western China’s economy is growing half as fast again as the economy as a whole. Xinhua reports a 12.5% growth in regional GDP in the first nine months of this year, with retail sales up 19%, also outstripping the national average. This Bystander has been wondering for a while whether there isn’t a slow but [...]

• Slow Going On Fighting Corruption

  chinabystander

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:15 pm

  China ranks 79th out of 180 on Transparency International’s latest annual rankings of how corrupt countries’ public sectors are perceived to be. Its score of 3.6 is equal to Burkino Faso, Swaziland and Trinidad and Tobago. Top ranked New Zealand scored 9.4; bottom-ranked Somalia scored 1.1. From the commentary on the rankings: China has launched a sustained [...]

• Heavy Snows Move South

  chinabystander

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:38 am

  Beijing’s earlier than usual snowfalls may be melting but across north China the heavy snows have left 32 dead, destroyed 7 billion yuan-worth of winter crops and caused 15,000 building to have collapsed, Xinhua reports. The death toll excludes deaths in traffic accidents caused by the severe weather. The snows are now moving south, with heavy [...]

• Tweedledum and Tweedledee

  chinabystander

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:13 am

  Not much to say about U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit, beyond low expectations met. And what was with the matching dark suits, red ties and white shirts at the two presidents’ closing photo op? Some unintentional symbolism of the two countries being a mirror image of each other?

• 
  Mutant Palm

• Happy China Internet Maintenance Day!

  中国网站维护日快乐! Truly, my new favorite Chinese holiday. The traditional way of celebrating offline involves umbrellas. It's as if they've been watching Simpsons reruns in ZNH. And they've probably seen it in the dorms of Beida, or the equivalent, but it just doesn't pack that same wallop it does for the overseas ...

• CIRC 2009

  I'll be speaking, listening and blogging the 7th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference in Philadelphia this Wednesday and Thursday (evenings in Beijing) over at the nested domains of http://2009.circ.asia/, which resolves to http://www.global.asc.upenn.edu/circ, where the blog is a wrapper around http://www.lokman.org/. In other words, you'll find me, Lokman, Weiyu, Anne ...

• Chinese Al Jazeera? No Chance.

  Reading David Bandurski's ever keen observations over at China Media Project in "As China shout its line on Tibet, is anybody listening?", I got struck by deja vu all over again. Three times. First, there's the endless drumbeat of the official line in Chinese media Bandurski illustrates thusly: In People’s Daily: “Treasuring ...

• Teacup Feet

  by otisarchives3 World War I era photo of Chinese woman's feet from the Otis Historical Archives at the National Museum of Health & Medicine in Washington, D.C.

• China Strange Maps: Cannibals, Frenchmen & Mu

  Cleaning out the aggregator. Here are several China-related maps from the Strange Maps blog. MAPS OF CHINA Populations of China Compared to Countries China as an Island (from "The Geopolitics of China" at Investors Insight) CHINA IN THE WORLD The Cannibal Map of the World (Tibetan literature apparently does talk about eating human body parts) The ...

• 
  China Economics Blog

• "China and the Manufacturing Terms-of-Trade of African Exporters"

  Economist

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  China's relationship with Africa is a subject that I am currently interested in. This recent paper in the Journal of African Economics is a decent place to start.When I indirectly considered this issue for China's Asian neighbour's China's increased exports more than compensated. This may not work for African countries as this paper shows. Interesting results.China and the Manufacturing Terms-of-Trade of African Exporters"Journal of African Economies, Vol. 18, Issue 5, pp. 781-823, 2009NELSON B. VILLORIA, Purdue UniversityChina's export expansion is commonly associated with lower global…

• Property: The bubble that keeps on inflating

  Economist

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

  In recent weeks I have read articles in the economist arguing that these is no bubble in Chinese property. I am not in that camp and believe that there is a bubble that is getting to dangerous proportions.At last the FT is taking this issue seriously. I will not repeat the reasons - some are covered below. Just think Japan in the late 1980's and Japan's subsequent growth rate ever since.The problem is a lack of alternative investments for the cash rich in China and loose lending by out of control banks.This article represents a useful introduction.Fears of China property bubble [FT]A large…

• 50 best blogs about China

  Economist

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:56 am

  Another one of those "50 best something or other lists".This one is on China and includes China Economics Blog.Some useful sites that might be worth checking out.50 Best Blogs to Learn All About China[Onlien Schools]Over the past few decades China has risen to be one of the world’s biggest economic and political powers. Yet even as it has gained increasing recognition on the world stage, many people know little about Chinese culture, day-to-day life and politics. For those who can’t afford to fly around the world to explore in person, these blogs offer a chance to learn more about this…

• Pictures of Pollution in China

  Economist

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:27 pm

  The blog post title says it all. These are great pictures that should be seen to be believed.Some make for very depressing viewing and are very far from the hotel in central Beijing that I recently stayed at.Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China [China Hush].

• Education in China - the long march

  Economist

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:14 am

  THES have a good overview of the Chinese education system. Having recently spent some time in different Chinese Universities I have my own views on this.China's University system is changing fast and the quality of the best students and best Universities is unrivalled. They are beginning to employ the best staff and paying good salaries.More Universities are needed but UK Universities need to be aware of how rapidly things are changing.My impression is the problems of red tape mentioned below are being overcome and that things are not quite as bad as they might first appear.The long march…

• 
  The Green Leap Forward 绿跃进

• The “how much” and “how to” of China’s goal to reduce carbon intensity

  Julian

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:55 pm

  In September, President Hu Jintao announced that China will seek to reduce its carbon emissions per unit of GDP, or carbon intensity, by a “noticeable margin” (see previous post “China’s Carbon Intensity Plans and its Impacts on Climate Progress“).  The world has been waiting with bated breath to learn just how noticeable this margin will be.  The China Council of International Cooperation on Environment and Development, or CCICED, an advisory body of 200 international experts formed in 1992 that provides environmental policy advice to the Chinese central…

• Obama and Hu announce comprehensive strategy for clean energy and climate change collaboration

  Julian

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

  As expected, the U.S.-China presidential summit in Beijing yielded an agreement on clean energy and climate change that focused on collaboration rather than emissions target setting (see my comments in Time.com and China Daily).  Here’s a run-down on what this cooperation entails, in a piece published simultaneously at Climate Progress with my colleague Andrew Light. “Very exciting day here in Beijing.  There’s enormous interest in both governments in working together to fight climate change.  The package announced today is far-reaching and can make a real difference in cutting…

• Energy Service Companies in China

  Julian

  27 Oct 2009 | 10:11 pm

  Guest blogger Tristan Edmondson (right), partner at Mint Research, a clean tech consultancy, describes China’s growing Energy Service Company (ESCO) industry. China has one of the worst ratios of energy use to GDP in the world, two and a half times the world average. This undoubtedly creates investment opportunities for a country that is awash in capital. But despite the huge potential of China’s ESCO industry, it has yet to approach the size of the ESCO industry in the US where it is an industry worth six billion dollars a year. What is an ESCO? Under an energy performance…

• Carbon trading, taxes and putting the cart before the horse

  Julian

  12 Oct 2009 | 10:11 pm

  There have been mixed messages lately about whether China will soon adopt a carbon emissions trading scheme.  On the eve of President Hu Jintao’s speech at the UN Climate Summit in New York last month, Times Online ran a sensationally misleading story suggesting that China would adopt a carbon emissions trading scheme that would “for the first time, place limits on the amount of greenhouse gases Chinese industries are allowed to emit.”  The article went on to say: A delegation from the China Beijing Environmental Exchange (CBEEX), a government-backed platform for trading…

• A Birthday Wishlist: China’s Climate Challenge and the Next 60 Years

  Julian

  30 Sep 2009 | 8:19 pm

  Originally published by the Center for American Progress and China Dialogue. The clean-energy float at the 60th Anniversary celebrations on October 1st in Beijing.  (Photo credit: Xinhua/Li Gang) This week [October 1st] marks the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. The first 30-year phase was one of revolution, marked by one bloody internal purge after another, but the next 30-year phase was one of pragmatism, which underpinned economic and social reform leading to unrivaled rates of economic growth. China now finds itself at a crossroads. As the country struggles to come…

• 
  China Environmental Law

• Thin Gruel

  cmcelwee

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:33 am

  I just finished reviewing the US-China Joint Clean Energy Agreements, and I barely have the motivation to type.  I know how much effort people of goodwill put into the work of securing substantive agreements in these areas.  The Chinese side while not positively obstructionist was, for the most part, not very interested in engaging in discussions.  This was a rational response; prior US-China joint ventures in the energy arena foisted on the Chinese have not, on the whole, yielded much progress.  Through sheer perseverance, however, groups like the US-China Clean Energy Forum (CEF) have…

• A day late, and a dollar short . . .

  cmcelwee

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:43 pm

  The climate portion of Obama’s China visit has come and gone.  In its wake it left several separate MOUs which are, quite frankly, a little flimsier than I had hoped, but represent progress nonetheless.  I’ll address them later.  For those who bothered to read to the end of the US-China Joint Statement, there was also section addressing “climate change, energy and environment.”  It is, for the most part, filled with the “time-honored talking points,” Todd Stern warned us about in headier days.  Only a pathological optimist would find much solace in…

• Coming Through Loud & Clear?

  cmcelwee

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:59 pm

  President Barack Obama has backed a plan by the host of next month’s climate change talks in Copenhagen to seek a political deal and leave legally binding decisions for later, a U.S. official said on Sunday. Obama backs two-step plan to reach climate deal, Reuters (Nov. 14). Obama says the goal at the Copenhagen meeting should be an agreement that has “immediate operational affect,” not just a political declaration. As the world’s two largest consumers and producers of energy, Obama says the United States and China must play a key role in negotiating an agreement.

• Poisoning the Pearl

  cmcelwee

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:15 pm

  Greenpeace issued a report several weeks ago, during my hiatus, that I have just had an opportunity to review.  Poisoning the Pearl is based on the results of wastewater samples conducted by Greenpeace investigators of several facilities operating in the Pearl River Delta.  The results were discouraging, but predictable. All the facilities sampled were found to be discharging wastewater containing chemicals with proven or suspected hazardous properties For three of the five facilities, samples of discharged wastewater contained concentrations of chemicals which exceeded the limits set by…

• 山非山, 水非水

  cmcelwee

  15 Nov 2009 | 7:31 pm

  This may be old news, but I just came across a site that has the artwork I saw featured in the Shanghai People’s Square metro station several weeks ago.  They were produced for the China Environmental Protection Foundation. They are definitely worth closer inspection, and made a tremendous impact when they were featured on the subway station’s huge backlit advertising screens normally reserved for Haibao and product roll-out campaigns.

• 
  www.web2asia.com Blog Feed

• Latest statistics on online SNS usage in China

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:58 am

  The Chinese Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) yesterday released its latest report (Chinese only) covering the usage of online social networks in the Middle Kingdom. Before highlighting some of the key findings its important to keep in mind several points:   The survey was conducted in July 2009 via telephone and does not recognize recent developments such as e.g. the block of Facebook in China (in the introduction for example, the report talks about Facebook launching a Chinese version and how this stresses the importance of Chinese users to them ..) The results are based on a…

• Interview Series: Kevin Li from Ku6

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:40 pm

  Here we go with another China interview from our Geeks on a Plane Tour participants Adrian Bye. Adrian runs MeetInnovators, which features interviews with founders and CEOs of web-based companies.   The full transcript and mp3 files of this interview can be downloaded on Adrians CEO interview ressource http://www.MeetInnovators.com here. Personal Info Hobbies and Interests: Travel, Books and Ping Pong Tennis. Favourite Books: Books by Lu You and Confucius. Favourite Entrepreneurs: Jack Welch, Robin Li from Baidu, Charles Zhang from Sohu. Personal blog:…

• Chinese game developers invading Japanese social networks

  25 Oct 2009 | 9:56 pm

  Asiajin has an interesting post on Chinese game developers infiltrating Japan's largest online social network Mixi. And yes: its farm games :-)   Mixi's no 1 ranked app currently is Sunshine Farm by Chinese developer Rekoo. The game reached two million users in less than two months since its launch. On no 3 is already the next China-developed game Everyone’s Farm with 500,000 users by Yicha.

• Interview Series: Nick Yang from KongZhong Corporation

  22 Oct 2009 | 4:41 pm

  After our Geeks on a Plane Tour, one of the participants Adrian Bye was so thrilled that he decided to stay in China for another 2 weeks to do some 1:1 interviews with Chinese entrepreneurs. Adrian runs MeetInnovators, where he publishes interviews with founders and CEOs of web-based companies. Today's interview is with serial entrepreneur Nick Yang. The full transcript and mp3 files of this interview can be downloaded on Adrians CEO interview ressource http://www.MeetInnovators.com here. Personal Info Hobbies and Interests: Art collecting, golf. Sports teams: Manchester United. Favourite…

• Lunch 2.0 Shanghai - Oct 23 @ ChinaNet Cloud

  21 Oct 2009 | 5:52 pm

  Oh no … we’ve been lazy announcing our Shanghai Lunch 2.0’s here recently since it all runs through our Facebook Group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13224258265. Anyways, here is this weeks event:   October Lunch 2.0 is on Friday!   For the month of October’s Lunch2.0 we’ll be going over to the China Net Cloud offices near Xujiahui. This month’s theme is Expo 2010. Is your company doing anything Expo related? What project/business ideas are out there to tap into Expo potential? Does the Expo even mean anything, particularly for…

• 
  Asia Sentinel: Alice Poon Blog

• Obama's Dilemma

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:06 pm

  Translation of a blog post by Lipuman (李普曼) entitled “Obama’s Q A Session - A Mythical Tale”.

• Culture and System

  9 Nov 2009 | 10:01 pm

  Translation of a blog post by Yang Hengjun (楊恒均) entitled “A Look at the Relationship between Culture and System from the Rise of Asia”.

• My First Encounter with Death

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:12 am

  To a five-year old, what does death mean? Some images that gave me a first taste of it just got forever stuck in my mind since that day when my adult relatives gathered in my (maternal) uncle’s home to mourn the death of my (maternal) grandmother.

• Stories of the Poor Lack Market

  26 Oct 2009 | 12:57 am

  I’ve stumbled upon an RTHK interview with Hong Kong social worker and grass roots activist, Ho Hei Wah (何喜華) on The Duke of Aberdeen blog and would like to share it here.

• Fret of the 4th Generation HKers

  18 Oct 2009 | 11:55 pm

  The story of the doctor/lawyer couple who phoned in a complaint to Donald Tsang at a radio talk show has stirred up a storm among young Hong Kongers.

• 
  Fool's Mountain: Blogging for China

• “Father’s Prairie, Mother’s River” – the feelings of one billion people on the move

  dewang

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:53 am

  Everyone knows China is going through an industrial revolution right now. In developed countries such as the U.S., this took place in the late 19th century. The ratio between the number of rural and urban residents basically swapped because industrialization freed the bulk of the population from having to work in the fields to produce food for all. This phenomenon is occurring in China right now with her massive GDP growth in the last three decades. Despite the hundreds of millions of people having moved to urban areas, the number of Chinese citizens residing in the rural areas is still…

• Hu and Obama meeting, which issues are “core interests?”

  dewang

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pm

  Both NPR and Xinhua covered the meeting of the U.S. President Obama and Chinese President Hu. I thought the coverage were actually decent in that the issues they list were basically identical. Obviously, NPR did not give equal weight to how the Chinese see the issues. Likewise, Xinhua did not give equal weight to how the U.S. see the issues. Naturally they both are biased. (A disappointment for me obviously is there are enough “free” media preferring to stupefy the “West”, as DJ’s prior article shows, even on an important occasion such as this. “Ah, that…

• Ah, that tricky Chinese propaganda machine, how devious it is to deceive the foreign media!

  DJ

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:26 pm

  It was practically a news story that wrote itself. Soon after president Obama made a roundabout endorsement of non-censorship, it was reported via twitter and then repeated by the China Digial Times that China pulled the coverage from news portal NetEase 27 minutes after the transcript appeared. The Associated Press went with a title “Chinese censors block Obama’s call to free the Web“. One prolific blogger who goes by the name of Hecaitou said that a transcript of the exchange posted on the portal Netease was taken down by censors after just 27 minutes. A full…

• Ou, bummer! Now we have a real dispute between China and U.S.

  DJ

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:52 am

  President Obama is currently visiting China and the very first dispute is shaping up between China and U.S., namely, what his name is and where he lives. The U.S. embassy is trying to standardize the way “Obama” is transliterated in Mandarin Chinese. Instead of the widely used “奥巴马”, which is read as àobāmǎ as in “Australia”, the U.S. officials prefer “欧巴马” because it has a phonically closer ōubāmǎ pronunciation. Additionally, the Obama administration is apparently troubled by the fact that the Chinese have always called the…

• Chinese Copyright Protection in the Age of Digital Books, Creative Commons, Remixes, and Mashups

  berlinf

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am

  This may sound like a Dilbert kind of approach, but some problems are solved if you wait long enough. Copyright protection is certainly a case in point. The United States has been a patient critic of Chinese copyright protection, but according to Wei Gu, columnist for Reuters, such calls for action has fallen on deaf ears (see: Copyright protection battle in China).   The hope is that Chinese government and individuals realize themselves the importance of protection for intellectual property. That day may come sooner than expected. There are at least two unexpected developments in this long…

• 
  旧书店

• 第19计　把柄计

  旧书店

  8 Nov 2009 | 11:16 am

  …

• 第18计　洞察计

  旧书店

  7 Nov 2009 | 8:48 pm

  …

• 第17计　恐吓计

  旧书店

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:31 pm

  …

• 第16计　双面计

  旧书店

  5 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

  …

• 第15计　观色计

  旧书店

  5 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

  …

• 
  Biz China Update - News, Reports

• Tesco extends reach in China

  14 Nov 2009 | 8:20 pm

  Tesco has launched the first in a series of joint ventures to develop shopping malls in China.

• Global Sources Q3 Net Revenue Reduced 18.6%

  14 Nov 2009 | 8:07 pm

  Global Sources Ltd. achieved net revenues of USD 30.6 million in the third quarter of 2009, reducing 18.6% compared with USD 37.6 million a year ago, the leading Chinese business-to-business media company announced in its unaudited financial report on November 12, 2009.

• US-funded companies urge trade protectionism

  14 Nov 2009 | 8:03 pm

  China's business hub Shanghai is among the first Chinese cities to do business with the United States. Its import and export volume with the world's largest economy, however, reached only 37 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months this year, shrinking more than 18 percent from the same period...

• Declining US Dollar Adds To Risk Says China Banking Regulator

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:55 pm

  China's chief banking regulator said Sunday that persistantly low US interest rates and a declining U.S. dollar are leading to new global economic risks.

• Editor Departs China Magazine-Caijing

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:52 pm

  The pioneering editor of the top Chinese business magazine has left her post with plans to start anew, after a tussle for control involving much the same mix of political and financial intrigue that she made her mark uncovering.

• 
  Silicon Dragon

• Silicon Dragon: Why 3 VC investors still love China

  13 Nov 2009 | 8:25 pm

  Silicon Dragon: Why VC investors still love China

• Why NEA, IDG and WI Harper still love China

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:43 pm

  Let me count the reasons why venture investors love China. Or better yet, hear it directly from Scott Sandell, David Lam and Hugo Shong. I caught up with them at AVCJ's annual forum. Here's Hugo Shong of IDG explaining why he's keen on the new RMB funds that are rapidly emerging in China. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXaAOEFzBC4And David Lam of WI Harper describing two of his firm's hot cleantech deals in the Mainland. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGv7emcakqUHere's Scott Sandell of NEA chatting about why he may move his family from Silicon Valley to Shanghai for a year or two. It's not…

• Silicon Dragon: Tell-tale signs of tough times

  10 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  Silicon Dragon: Tell-tale signs of tough times

• Tell-tale signs of tough times

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:10 pm

  Greying hair, balding heads, somber talk--it's been a tough year in the Asian private equity community, and it shows! The AVCJ awards dinner at the China Club was a time to celebrate those who survived and achieved against all odds. But the mood was not very uplighting. Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley Asia set the tone with a speech about how a V-shaped economic recovery will be hit by four headwinds: the remaining half of the toxic assets still to be written down, the breadth of the downturn globally, an inability of China and India to boost the global economy by making up for a slowdown in…

• Forbes: Beware Sand Hill Road

  8 Nov 2009 | 4:06 am

  In case you missed this, here's my debut Forbes commentary on tech. Here, I comment on how Sand Hill Road is losing its thunder to Chinese tech hotspots--and why. After more than 10 years covering emerging tech trends globally, I'm bound to have formed some opinions and viewpoints. So here goes. Click on http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/06/china-kaixin-baidu-intelligent-technology-fannin.htmlAs usual, turn to the Asian Venture Capital Journal, better known as AVCJ, www.avcj.com, for my regular news coverage of tech and venture (and some other topics too!). Happy reading! Rebecca

• 
  Lost Laowai China Blog

• Pandemic on the Streets! Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Start Loving the Vaccine

  Glen

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  I’m going to be honest.  I don’t really know how to write an introduction for this.  You all know the story by now.  H1N1 is going around and it is either a media creation or a harbinger of the apocalypse.  So I would like to apologize in advance if I am further flooding the blogosphere with this topic.  So I would like to warn you in advance.  This is a post about the H1N1 vaccine.  If you are tired of the topic please turn elsewhere.  I won’t be offended. Recently the Centre for Disease Control decided to offer the vaccine, which is in limited supply, to the…

• It’s a sickness

  Katie

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:16 am

  As an English teacher at a 6,000-strong middle school in the northwest of Hunan province, I come into contact with several hundred students a day.  My course load puts me in front of roughly 850 students a week.  In a school as cramped as mine, the students and staff are constantly breathing each other’s germs.  As such, when I started to get a deep-lung cough and run a mild fever, I should have known it was only a matter of time before the surgical-mask brigade descended on our school. Tuesday, October 26th, after about a week of classrooms full of hacking, coughing, sniffling…

• Photo: Farmers at the Gate

  Lost Laowai

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:54 pm

  Another great photo from Beijing-based photographer Zhao Hua Xi Shi, previously “Elephant on a Bicycle”. I encourage everyone to browse through this talented self-taught photographer’s photostream. The photos do an amazing job of telling intricate and intriguing stories that show the complex mosaic of modern China. Submit Your Photos Every week(ish) we’ll feature an interesting, funny, beautiful or otherwise noteworthy photo here. If you have a photo you think might make a good Photo of the Week, throw it in the pool at the Lost Laowai flickr Group and if you’ve…

• Tan’s Traffic Talk Show

  Ryan

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

  Ever wonder what happens when an edutaining Chengdu traffic cop runs square into China’s fēi zhǔliú culture? Well, wonder no longer. Thanks to the relatively new blog, Veggie Discourse, having subtitled this in English, we can all enjoy a gender-bending, hair-raising motorcycle safety video together: If you’re outside of China, or have a good VPN, be sure to check out the original blog post, where blogger “PH” breaks down some of the culturally unique (*) points noted in the subtitles. H/T to ToRiseFromAshes @ Hao Hao Report

• Two Links For Learning Chinese

  Matt

  1 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Now back to my regularly scheduled language beat, I’d like to share a couple of links with you that should help put the study of Chinese into perspective. First, Ben Ross debunks the myth that Chinese is the hardest language to learn in the world, even if it certainly seems like it at first. And from back in 2003, here’s a Brendan O’Kane post going through the basics of mastering our beloved 中文. Enjoy!

• 
  China Business Daily

• Qingdao Haier senior management changes

  Angulo Fu

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:42 pm

  November 12, the Haier senior management changes. Zhou Yunjie will serve as Executive Director and Li Huagang as COO.Haier announcement said Cao Chunhua due to changes in the workings of the Haier Group, has resigned from the executive director. The change has came into effect since November 12, 2009.Zhou Yunjie, the general manager of Haier Electronics Group was appointed as Executive Director.

• Microsoft bing published illegal medical advertisements in China

  Angulo Fu

  6 Aug 2009 | 8:36 pm

  China's Anti-Malicious Software Alliance announsed that many net users complaint illegal medical advertisements in Microsoft Bing. After the investigation, the China's Anti-Malicious Software Alliance says there are lots of advertisements violate the Standards for the Examination and Publication of Drug Advertisements, Regulations for the Implementation of Drug Administration Law of the People's

• China Unicom will introduce iPhone 3G and 3GS

  Angulo Fu

  6 Aug 2009 | 7:43 pm

  A deal between Apple and China Unicom, China's second largest mobile carrier, is so close that the first legal 3G iPhones could hit the Chinese market.Recently, a source close to both of the two sides are still negotiate on the details, but one thing is certain, China Unicom will introduce the iPhone both support 3G mobile phone: 3G and 3GS.Originally Posted: China Business DailyAuthor: Angulo Fu

• Pierre cardin sells part of business in China

  Angulo Fu

  29 Jun 2009 | 7:52 pm

  On the 29th, Pierre Cardin announced that it will sell its garments and clothing business in China to two Chinese companies, total 200 million euros.87-year-old Pierre Cardan said that in the past two months, the company has negotiated with Chinese companies on the sale of 32 kinds of authorized products. He pointed out that the sale contract will soon be signed.The spokesman of Pierre Cardin

• Shougang group set up logistics base

  Angulo Fu

  28 Jun 2009 | 11:17 pm

  Shougang Group decided to set up steel logistics base in the Foshan city. The project total investment is about 5 billion, the first phase of the project will start in September.The project includes a business center, three deep-processing production lines whose annual output reaching 150,000 tons. It is reported that the warehousing will reach two million tons per year. Within 2 or 3 years, the

• 
  chinaSMACK

• Shanghai Road Signs Cost 40,000 RMB Each

  jessie

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:51 am

  From NetEase:A National Highway centralized numbering and naming system is gradually being carried out, and Shanghai is one of the cities where this is currently happening. It is reported that Shanghai needs to replace about 5,000 signs, but the whole project will cost 200 million yuan.The huge cost lead to Han Han, who is a writer and race car driver, to question the plans. On October 15, Sichuan News Network reported Han Han’s sarcastic comment of “a sheet of iron costs 40,000 RMB”. Shanghai Highway Management Department responded that the number of street signs to be…

• 2012 Movie Insults China, Chinese Netizen Reactions

  Fauna

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am

  If you have not seen this movie, perhaps you should not continue reading.From Sina:2012 insults China, did Chinese people understand?The first one was when the main characters were on the snowy mountain and encountered the People’s Liberation Army. I didn’t expect that the PLA’s first words would be that only the people who had green cards could board the ark to be saved. And then the remaining people were abandoned ……..The second one was when the American official saw the Chinese-made arks and said, “This is something only the Chinese could build”…

• Funny Snowmen & Snow Sculptures From Northern China

  Fauna

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:25 am

  Winter is here and there is snow in many places of China, for example Beijing! Here is a funny post on Mop titled “Heavy snows can stop the city but it can’t stop the fun, the North China snowman collection”:Some comments on Mop:mg草拟哥哥:Fucking damn all this talented?! Chinese people aren’t bullshitting [are impressive].This will become popular.We can see that cao ni ma has deeply penetrated the hearts of the people!wzh0100:Northeasterners are geniuses!Niu people niu people niu people!!!stk_lj:Highlight… watergirl1985:The creativity of Chinese youth is…

• Thief Returns Stolen Wallet, Praised For Professionalism

  maxiewawa

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:14 pm

  From MopThank you Chengdu thieves! Your professional character is admirable and I salute you! I will learn from you!This morning was the first time I’ve had my wallet stolen, I just couldn’t believe it. But on the other hand what happened afterward made me both sad and moved!This is what happened: On the morning of November 15 2009, I got up and because it was the weekend decided to go to the market to buy some food to reward myself. But after I bought the meat and was just about to buy the vegetables, I felt for my wallet and found that it wasn’t there. I felt so stupid,…

• Dumping Girlfriend Because Her Breasts Are Too Small?

  Fauna

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:26 am

  From KDS:Girlfriend’s breasts too small, thinking of breaking up…My girlfriend’s breasts are sized A-cup, practically not much different from an airport. Every time we XXOO [have sex], I simply feel like I am touching a man, and now when we do it, I generally don’t take off her top. I’m truly thinking of breaking up.Are there any TF like me, with girlfriends who also have small bosoms…? It is not certain if the above photograph in his post is his real girlfriend or only a picture he added so more people would click on his post.Responses on KDS:A CUP is…

• 
  China Briefing News

• Notice to Local Online Game Companies in China, Less Violence Please

  China Briefing

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:45 am

  Nov. 20 – China’s Ministry of Culture has released a notice to local online game companies to lessen the amount of violence, erotic content and gambling found in their games. Online game operators were advised to change  the current gaming model that allows a player to advance only by killing non-player-controlled enemies reports Chinatechnews. The ministry [...]

• Ministry of Finance Clarifies Tax Exemptions for NGOs

  China Briefing

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:49 pm

  SHANGHAI, Nov. 20 -The Ministry of Finance has released two circulars clarifying the scope of tax-exempt income and tax-exemption identification for non-profit organizations (NGOs). On the circular on tax-exempt income, there are five types of income considered as tax-exempt income for NGOs including money donated by individuals, units, and government subsidies. In addition, companies that qualify [...]

• New Standard for China Tax Invoices Being Introduced

  China Briefing

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm

  Nov. 19 – China’s State Administration of Tax has issued Circular Guoshuifa (2009) #142 concerning the simplification and unification of general tax invoices. This has largely been issued to facilitate the introduction of computerized tax data. The circular states that tax invoices will be divided into three categories come January 1, 2011: the general computer generated [...]

• China Joint Ventures: Negotiating the Contract

  China Briefing

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:33 pm

  Part Five in our “Joint Ventures as a Strategic Investment” series By Chris Devonshire-Ellis and Richard Hoffmann Nov. 18 – Joint ventures by their very nature are intensely idiosyncratic creatures, differing so much depending on circumstances that the area of contractual negotiations is really best dealt with professionally on a case by case basis. They also attract [...]

• Microsoft Ordered to Stop Sale of Programs Guilty of IPR Violation

  China Briefing

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:47 pm

  BEIJING, Nov. 18 – U.S. software company Microsoft has been ordered by a Beijing court to stop the sale of all Windows programs found in violation of a Chinese company’s intellectual property rights. The Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of Beijing-based software company, Zhongyi Electronic, saying that Microsoft’s use of its two Chinese [...]

• 
  2point6billion.com - Foreign Direct Investment in Asia

• The Ten Marvelous Things You Can Get in China You Can’t Get in India

  2point6billion.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  By Seema Rani Bhende Nov. 20 – Following our articles on The Ten Things in India that You Can’t Get in China, The Ten Things in China that You Can’t Get in India and The Ten Marvelous Things You Can Get in India You Can’t Get in China we now look at the marvelous side of things from China’s perspective: Parks No one puts park space to better use than the Chinese. When visiting any city in China, every guidebook will point visitors to a number of beautiful parks within that locale. The Chinese place a high priority on Zen-like parks that are well maintained, clean and accessible to…

• Asian Stocks Drop for Fourth Straight Day; Experts Warn of Bubble

  2point6billion.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:28 am

  HONG KONG, Nov. 20 – Asian stocks fell for a fourth day, the longest losing streak since July, after tech companies including Dell and Sony posted lower-than-expected results, disappointing investors. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.5 percent to 116.95 in Tokyo, led by Sony and Advantest Corp., the world’s biggest maker of memory-chip testers. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd.’s Chairman Ronald Arculli believes the risk of new asset bubbles in global economies and markets is rising. The governor of China’s central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said that the country must remain…

• Study: India Falls Behind China in English Education

  2point6billion.com

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:31 pm

  Nov. 20 – According to a study made by the British Council, India is lagging behind other countries including China in terms of spreading the use of the English language. The report, “English Next India,” says the country’s larger education problems has led to a chronic shortage of teachers and quality schools despite a huge demand for proficient English skills to fuel its growth as a global software and IT center. Author David Gradoll told BBC News:”The rate of improvement in the English language skills of the Indian population is at present too slow to prevent…

• U.S. Experts: Pakistan Has More Nukes than India

  2point6billion.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:41 pm

  Nov. 19 – U.S. experts claim in a recent Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists report that Pakistan has more nuclear weapons than India and that both countries are engaging in a nuclear arms race, increasing their arsenals and deploying more weapons at more sites. Pakistan is estimated to possess 70 to 90 nuclear weapons, while India is believed to have 60 to 80 Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen stated in their latest article, “Nuclear Notebook: Worldwide deployments of nuclear weapons, 2009.” The article also stated that Beijing, Islamabad and New Delhi are “quantitatively and…

• Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline Deal Still Open

  2point6billion.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:03 pm

  Nov. 19 – The offer to join the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline still stands for India although Iran cannot wait indefinitely because the structure of the project could still change. Work on the massive project has already begun since Iran signed a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan. “We have a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan and the door is open for our Indian friends. That (IPI) will be a reality…but I am not sure about the future,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by The Financial Express during the Indian Council of World…

• 
  ChinaTravel.net Features

• Going green, staying green: Three eco guesthouses in China

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm

  American entrepreneur Chris Barclay has played a pioneering role in establishing ecotourism in China, founding two eco hotels in Yangshuo. Here, he writes about his Yangshuo eco hotels and Yunnan's remarkable Wenhai Ecolodge. >>>     Despite its dubious distinction as the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China has a handful of accommodation o ...

• Xinjiang motuoche diaries: Far west China by motorcycle

  27 Oct 2009 | 4:55 pm

  Josh Summers had been blogging his Xinjiang adventures for the past three years at Far West China when events overtook him, along with everyone else in the "Uyghur Autonomous Region." Since the Urumqi riots, his blog has been blocked, but it hasn't stopped him from exploring Xinjiang by motorcycle. We're pleased to present a bit of Josh's Xinjiang motorcycle diaries here on China Travel. ...

• Off road & out of bounds: Shangri-La's Xiao Zhongdian by motorcycle

  21 Oct 2009 | 4:13 pm

  Racing down Yunnan Highway 214 at 90 km/h with jowls flapping and eyes watering in a blast of cool mountain air beneath towering rocky peaks and past winding streams, I'm suddenly a believer: Shangri-La is paradise. After brief missteps in Kunming (too modern) and Lijiang (reduced to a crowded theme park version of Naxi culture), and a less-than-death-defying trek into Tiger Leaping Gorge (beau ...

• 44￠double-decker Shanghai bus tour: Any cheaper and you're walking

  16 Sep 2009 | 12:03 pm

  Shanghai's best budget tour? The open-air 3 RMB double-decker No. 1 bus cruises the heart of the city for the cost of a plate of dumplings. Shanghai is a steam bath from June through August, but by mid-September things begin to cool down, dry out and clear up. Fall is easily the best time to make the most of the city and its environs, whether that be a day trip to a nearby canal town like Zhou ...

• Suzhou bike tour: Sleuthing paradise on a pair of wheels

  14 Sep 2009 | 6:14 pm

  A skeptical cyclist tests Suzhou, finding charm in silkworms and Song Dynasty streets alike. Is the old line about "paradise" still true? When Marco Polo visited Suzhou in the 13th century he saw "no fewer than fifteen thousand vessels" on the canals and compared the city's intricate bridgework and architecture favorably to his hometown of Venice. Even through the mid-18 ...

• 
  China Expat - China Expat City Guide blogs

• From Kashgar to Taxkorgan : The Karakoram Highway

  CDE

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:23 am

       The horse section of Kashgar Market     ~ by Chris Devonshire Ellis     Quite simply, one of the most stunning journeys you can undertake in China. Incorporating the highest freshwater lake in the world, some of it's most spectacular mountains, deep valleys, crashing gorges, deserts, roads swept into the abyss and wild camels - and that's just on day one. The Karakoram Highway was built, mainly using Chinese labour, as a link into and with Pakistan, in China's farthest Western point. The ethnic tribes include Kazaks, Afghanis, Pakistanis,…

• Breaking Forecast

  Ernie

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:30 pm

   All in a few hours daubing...             Standing on his stepladder in proletarian garb, he was mistaken by most visitors for a workman doing a touch-up job. But in under two hours, with nothing but a Home Depot  brush and a bucket of common black paint, Qiu Zhijie turned out the classic waterfall scene you see above, on UCCA gallery's information wall.          Qiu Zhijie likes the waterfall concept, but has about as much interest in producing classic Chinese art as Wolfgang Puck has in making grilled cheese sandwiches. For that matter, he and his seven compatriots, the…

• Sanqingshan - Home of the Pure Ones

  Ernie

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:11 am

          There are more than a few mountains in China touted as the Daoist holy of holies. Not that it matters . To quote the sage Bruce Lee, "In order that the mind may function naturally and harmoniously it must be freed from all attachment to oppositional notions." That means a master will transcend whether he's on the peak of Huangshan or in the pits of downtown Detroit. For those of us trapped in duality, however, nice scenery inspires. And, if forced to make distinctions, China Expat points to Jiangxi's Sanqingshan as the Daoist mecca. Each of its…

• Goodbye to the River Goddess

  Ernie

  11 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

          If you feel any chagrin at the recent confirmed extinction of China's river dolphin, congratulations. You're in that blessed minority of mankind who can afford to believe that Homo Reclinus can co-exist with other creatures at the top of the food chain. We could if there were only a few of us, of course, but if everyone deserves a flat screen TV and dollar burgers, then other predators have to go, and the baijihas taken its cue. read more

• The Man Who Stayed Behind

  Ernie

  8 Nov 2009 | 10:52 pm

   Sidney Rittenberg with one of his commie buddies.       Why is it that a list of famous western communists reads like the roster of your local B'nai B'rith? Divisive conspiracy theories aside, Jews born in the West are aliens in their own homeland , unless it's New Yawk. Being automatically on the outside leads one to get inside the alternative. In Sidney Rittenberg's case, he got on the inside of the Chinese Communist Party like no Yank before or since, befriending Mao, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and other PRC all-stars. He did sixteen years in Chinese jail for his…

• 
  2point6billion.com - Foreign Direct Investment in Asia

• The Ten Marvelous Things You Can Get in China You Can’t Get in India

  2point6billion.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  By Seema Rani Bhende Nov. 20 – Following our articles on The Ten Things in India that You Can’t Get in China, The Ten Things in China that You Can’t Get in India and The Ten Marvelous Things You Can Get in India You Can’t Get in China we now look at the marvelous side of things from China’s perspective: Parks No one puts park space to better use than the Chinese. When visiting any city in China, every guidebook will point visitors to a number of beautiful parks within that locale. The Chinese place a high priority on Zen-like parks that are well maintained, clean and accessible to…

• Asian Stocks Drop for Fourth Straight Day; Experts Warn of Bubble

  2point6billion.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:28 am

  HONG KONG, Nov. 20 – Asian stocks fell for a fourth day, the longest losing streak since July, after tech companies including Dell and Sony posted lower-than-expected results, disappointing investors. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.5 percent to 116.95 in Tokyo, led by Sony and Advantest Corp., the world’s biggest maker of memory-chip testers. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd.’s Chairman Ronald Arculli believes the risk of new asset bubbles in global economies and markets is rising. The governor of China’s central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said that the country must remain…

• Study: India Falls Behind China in English Education

  2point6billion.com

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:31 pm

  Nov. 20 – According to a study made by the British Council, India is lagging behind other countries including China in terms of spreading the use of the English language. The report, “English Next India,” says the country’s larger education problems has led to a chronic shortage of teachers and quality schools despite a huge demand for proficient English skills to fuel its growth as a global software and IT center. Author David Gradoll told BBC News:”The rate of improvement in the English language skills of the Indian population is at present too slow to prevent…

• U.S. Experts: Pakistan Has More Nukes than India

  2point6billion.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:41 pm

  Nov. 19 – U.S. experts claim in a recent Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists report that Pakistan has more nuclear weapons than India and that both countries are engaging in a nuclear arms race, increasing their arsenals and deploying more weapons at more sites. Pakistan is estimated to possess 70 to 90 nuclear weapons, while India is believed to have 60 to 80 Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen stated in their latest article, “Nuclear Notebook: Worldwide deployments of nuclear weapons, 2009.” The article also stated that Beijing, Islamabad and New Delhi are “quantitatively and…

• Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline Deal Still Open

  2point6billion.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:03 pm

  Nov. 19 – The offer to join the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline still stands for India although Iran cannot wait indefinitely because the structure of the project could still change. Work on the massive project has already begun since Iran signed a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan. “We have a bilateral arrangement with Pakistan and the door is open for our Indian friends. That (IPI) will be a reality…but I am not sure about the future,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by The Financial Express during the Indian Council of World…

• 
  Xinjiang: Far West China

• Picture of the Week: Karakoram Rest Stop

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  A Rest Stop along the famous Karakoram Highway A trip along the Karakoram Highway is a treat in itself but if along the way you happen to need some real food, the ever-present police stops usually come with some small vendors ready to sell you some potato chips and a Pepsi.  I can't imagine how the people who man these shops can earn a living but the rickety shacks they put up don't indicate a huge initial investment. The incredible mountain peaks that surround the entire length of the highway from Kashgar to the Pakistan border offer endless opportunities for beautiful photographs, not…

• H1N1 in Xinjiang: Suspected and Confirmed

  15 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pm

  It’s now official – I am required to wear a mask to work for the remainder of the semester and I have to state for the record that it is next to impossible to teach a language without the free use of one’s mouth. It’s like trying to play soccer in a gunny sack – and doubtless about as comfortable, too. This new rule is quite understandable, I guess, following a month in which over half the elementary and high schools in our city have cancelled classes and the hospitals are overflowing with feverish children.   To date, H1N1 has claimed the lives of two individuals in Xinjiang…

• Picture of the Week: Turpan's Emin Minaret

  11 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Turpan’s Emin Minaret (Sugong Ta 苏公塔) This beautiful structure, completed in 1778 (see note below), was built by Suleiman in honor of his father Emin Khoja, the ruler of Turpan during that time. This is hardly the only mosque in Xinjiang (check out Kashgar's Id Kah mosque), but what sets this one apart from all the others is the intricate minaret that stands attached to the building. A closer look reveals a layered design of artistic brickwork borrowed from early middle-eastern architecture. The tower stands 37 meters high but sadly the spiral staircase leading to its top has been…

• Xinjiang Railroads Lead to...Nowhere

  8 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  If anyone ever doubted the strategic importance China places on northern Xinjiang, this last week ended the debate. The provincial government recently announced (here in English) the completion of four new rail lines stretching a total of 1,400km, a project that cost 1.68 billion yuan ($243 million USD). Unlike the Urumqi-Kashgar line opened a decade ago, however, most tourists (including me) aren’t likely to care much about traveling these new routes that basically lead to nowhere. In Xinjiang, the railroad generally isn’t geared toward the traveler. As a case in point, the new train…

• Picture of the Week: Karakul Lake

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  A Beautiful Day at Karakul Lake Along the Karakoram Highway which begins in Kashgar and leads to the town of Tashkurgan on the China-Pakistan border, there is a small lake surrounded by the gorgeous Pamir mountain peaks. It’s very difficult to capture the beauty of Karakul Lake within the frame of a single photo and I wish I could say I have done so here. The water in this lake, which appears to change to a different shade of translucent blue every hour of the day, becomes a crystal-clear mirror when calm. Pretty much the only thing more breath-taking than the majestic daytime scenery at…

• 
  Gruvr.com: China Concerts

• Map of China Club Paris concerts

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:43 pm

  Click for map of all China Club Paris shows or on individual concert maps to set email reminders.

• Saturday 28th: Boat Beam Hanoi at Festival de las Culturas Europeas

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:40 pm

  Festival de las Culturas Europeas Hanoi

• Sunday December 6th: Immaculate Machine Guilin at Cat & Rabbit Club

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:37 pm

  Cat & Rabbit Club Guilin

• Thursday December 17th: las Buenas Ondas YEAH !!!!!!! at AND MANY MORE TO BE COMFIRM !!!!

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:33 pm

  AND MANY MORE TO BE COMFIRM !!!! YEAH !!!!!!!

• Thursday January 7th: DEASTRO The Great Dark Spot at Neptune The Solar System Skyfest

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:30 pm

  Neptune The Solar System Skyfest 999 Galle Rd. The Great Dark Spot 8888888888

• 
  The China Observer

• Xunbao: Searching for Treasure in Taipei – Mobile Photo Hunt Urban Gaming

  Joel

  15 Nov 2009 | 5:11 am

  The advertisements start chasing me from the second I step into my apartment elevator in the morning. Posters along each wall surround me coercing me to use their medicine to cure my cold or drink their soy milk to make my skin whiter. On the subway ride to work flat panel screens flash advertisements for Oil of Olay beauty cream. While I wait for the lift at work LCD panels replay the latest Motorola mobile phone handset commercial. Even when I log into my computer MSN pop-up ads try to convince me to buy something else I don’t want. Advertisements can be intrusive and an annoyance, but…

• China’s Tencent Publishes Financial Report For Q3 2009

  Joel

  15 Nov 2009 | 3:14 am

  ChinaTechNews: Chinese online game and instant messaging company Tencent has published its unaudited financial report for the third quarter of 2009. According to the report, Tencent’s revenue during the third quarter was CNY3.369 billion, a year-on-year increase of 66.4% and an increase of 17% over the previous quarter; and its net profit was CNY1.42 billion, a year-on-year increase of 92.6% and an increase of 19.1% compared with the second quarter of 2009. READ MORE

• Reverse Innovation: Made in China - For China

  Joel

  9 Nov 2009 | 3:47 am

  A few years back I remember hearing about Sara Bongiorni’s book entitled “A Year Without “Made in China”: One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy.” As the title implies, Bongiorni convinced her family to spend a year without purchasing any products with a “Made in China” stamp/label. But in reality it’s no longer simply about “Made in China.” Emerging markets like China can no longer be leveraged solely as manufacturing bases - China is where innovation needs to happen, with products designed specifically for Chinese consumers. Once perfected, these…

• Thank You China Law Blog

  Joel

  4 Nov 2009 | 5:32 am

  Special thank you to the China Law Blog for this recent post: “China Retail/I Heart Qingdao” I am fascinated with China as a consumer market. It has 1.3 billion people and if one reaches just one percent of the market….. Joel Backaler over at China Observer blog just came out with a post assessing McKinsey’s newest report on China’s consumer market. The post is entitled, “One Country, Many Markets – McKinsey’s Alternative Method of Analyzing Chinese Consumers,” and it describes McKinsey’s newest innovation of dividing China’s…

• One Country, Many Markets – McKinsey’s Alternative Method of Analyzing Chinese Consumers

  Joel

  1 Nov 2009 | 3:51 am

  (http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/7/28/1248782959908/Shopping-Crowd-in-Hangzho-013.jpg) Back when I first started studying Chinese and traveling to China, my friends and colleagues thought I was crazy. While they were impressed that I was able to gain fluency in a language so different from English, but to them it just seemed more logical to study a “practical” language like Spanish or French. Around the same time as I was learning to differentiate the four tones of Mandarin and cramping my hand writing characters over and over, Western multinationals grew…

• 
  Tai Shan

• No Progress

  sbryant

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:40 am

  It looks like my plan to tackle my “to the end” project didn’t go so well on my most recent stay in Shanghai.  I was kept pretty busy with the dark ’til dawn series, and didn’t get as much time to go exploring as I might have liked. Anyway, it’s not all bad.  Gives me something fun to look forward to when I return to Shanghai in the spring!

• dark ’til dawn – video catalog

  sbryant

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am

  OK, this will be the last bit on dark ’til dawn for a while, then I promise I’ll move on to something else!

• dark ’til dawn — PDF catalog

  sbryant

  15 Nov 2009 | 1:43 am

  dark ‘til dawn poetry lamps View the PDF file of the dark ’til dawn catalog.  (In order to save space, this is a reduced quality image file.) Lamps sold (listed by first line of the haiku) • each night dark ’til dawn • compelled by her hues • rays over the coast • eye-catching glitter • northward he gazes • tomorrow-ward bound • embossed flinty forms • wispy branches hang • quiet rustling • hidden from light’s touch If you are interested in purchasing one of the remaining lamps in the series, drop me an email at shellybryant (at) yahoo (dot) com  and…

• dark ’til dawn — Launch Day 2

  sbryant

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  dark ‘til dawn poetry lamps November 8, 2009 Shanghai decollection launches its first line of designer art pieces, the dark ’til dawn series of collectible lamps — pictures from the second day of the launch If you are wondering why the choice to use haiku in this project, you can read about that here.

• dark ’til dawn — Launch Day 1

  sbryant

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:59 am

  dark ‘til dawn poetry lamps November 7, 2009 Shanghai decollection launches its first line of designer art pieces, the dark ’til dawn series of collectible lamps the conception The dark ‘til dawn poetry lamp series was conceived as a meeting point for the art of American poet Shelly Bryant and Chinese artist Peter Zhou ().  By bringing together two distinctive art forms from two different cultures, a unique new work has been forged.  Each collectible piece began with a haiku written by Bryant.  Zhou’s paintings and lamp designs were built to give visual impact to the imagery…

• 
  Middle Kingdom Life

• How Hard Do Foreign English Teachers in China Actually Work?

  While foreign teachers employed by Chinese colleges and universities do work the fewest number of hours, the average number of base contract hours was reported as 17.33, SD = 5.2, suggesting that the days of receiving university contracts requiring only 12 to 14 class periods per week of work are rapidly coming to an end. Related, teachers working at private English language schools reported working an average of 26.91 hours per week, SD = 9.93, which is also in excess of what used to commonly be the 16- to 22-hour workweek required by the majority of private English language schools in…

• Pros and Cons of Being Married to a Chinese Woman

  Although my wife is an associate professor of English in a vocational school and her English is far superior to that of most Chinese teachers, she occasionally has trouble grasping the more subtle qualities of our language. Also, I have a pretty large vocabulary but I can't use it to its fullest because otherwise she would simply not understand me.

• Analysis of the Statistical Differences between StatCounter and Google Analytics

  This article examines the quantitative differences between StatCounter and Google Analytics across two statistics, page views and visits, for one website over a two month period.

• Western Woman Dating a Chinese Man

  The main difference is the way we open our relationship to others. For example, as soon as we started dating I told my family and friends back home, and they all were very happy to hear the news. My boyfriend, however, only started to tell his friends quite recently, one by one, and that's about it. He has never told his family and doesn't really have plans to do so for the moment.

• Guangzhou To Require Standardized Teaching Certificate

  According to a brief report posted on the website Life of Guangzhou, the city of Guangzhou “is to introduce an international training courses (sic) and examination system to those who are interested in teaching English in China.” This appears to be a response to the absence of any accrediting body for the monitoring and [...]

• 
  CHINAYOUREN

• Chinese is the Most Difficult Language

  Uln

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:20 pm

  There comes a point in the life of every student of mandarin when he feels the call to write about the difficulty of the language. The time has finally come for me, and I will follow the path of the masters. In fact, I intend to go even further. I am set out to prove that Chinese is the most difficult language in the World. I know I am treading on dangerous ground, and the sect of the Japanese learners is sure to fall on me with all the weight of their declensions. To make this a fair game, I will define first what I understand by difficulty: the time needed by one average person without…

• Grandpa Wen found in my Inbox!

  Uln

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:57 am

  I just received an email that reminded me of this funny post on the China Hearsay blog. In the blog, he says of Wen: This guy never ceases to amaze me. When he retires from politics, he should really start his own PR firm. The “everyman” stuff is handled perfectly. The only folks who have surpassed Grandpa Wen’s staff are the people that convinced the American public in 1988 that George HW Bush, a rich dude from Connecticut that went to all the top schools, was an average cracker from Texas. The mail I received today says: Have you seen the cute face of our PM? Do you like it? And it…

• Han Han and the Big Misunderstanding

  Uln

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:13 am

  I saw on ESWN this Time magazine interview of Han Han, and since I have written before about him, I think it is worth a comment. It is also interesting because it illustrates the scary misunderstandings between East and West that Kaiser Kuo warned against recently. This is, in my opinion, the key passage: …despite his youthful bravado, Han, who has published 14 books and anthologies, generally stays away from sensitive issues such as democracy and human rights. His calculated rebelliousness, says Lydia Liu, a professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at Columbia University,…

• I too have swine flu: Perspective on virus politics

  Uln

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:12 pm

  Do not miss this story by A. Galbraith of the China Economic Review. In the long debate of China’s reaction to virus, this is the most reasonable opinion I’ve seen in a long time, and also the best informed. The story reminds me of what my friend, a doctor back in Spain, told me when I went home last Summer: “We are all going to catch it in the hospital, and chances are you’ll catch it too. Get done with it as soon as possible and you’ll be fine for the season”. That pretty much summarized the feeling in her hospital. These last months, the H1N1 and the swine flu have been used as…

• Low on the EQ side: the New Philosophy of China

  Uln

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am

  There are some beliefs that, although not originally from China, were embraced so thoroughly by the Chinese that they became part of the local culture. One example is Buddhism, imported from India in ancient times. Another one, I have found out, is the teaching of the modern management gurus, imported from the USA. It is interesting how analysts of China continue to explain all the  social phenomena with the Confucian tradition, when it seems to me that the Johnsonian and Golemanian thought must be at least as influential nowadays. Walk into any Chinese bookshop or check out the local…

• 
  ChinaBizGov

• As the World Turns: Geely and Volvo

  G. E. Anderson ---

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:54 pm

  Plenty of ink has been spilled and pixels lighted covering the potential purchase of Volvo from Ford by Geely. A quick Google search will turn up more than enough material about this merger that simply refuses to be consummated, so I won't even attempt to link them.Today, however, there was finally a fresh piece of news on this story in the Wall Street Journal's "China Real Time Report". WSJ's China auto journalist, Norihiko Shirouzu reports that a "knowledgeable person" close to Geely is expressing doubts that the merger will ever happen -- at least not in the way it has been presented over…

• Plenty of Lithium Outside China

  G. E. Anderson ---

  29 Oct 2009 | 6:10 pm

  Following up on yesterday's post about electric cars in China, an astute observer pointed out the possibility that China may have already cornered the market on the rare earth metals necessary for hybrid and battery technology. (See comments below this post.)I just happened across this short photo essay at ForeignPolicy.com about Bolivia's supplies of lithium which are estimated to be 50 to 70 percent of the world's known reserves (a figure that surprised even me!). Lithium is, of course, a major component of the lithium-ion batteries used in mobile phones, laptops and most of the electric…

• What is a "Preferred Bidder"?

  G. E. Anderson ---

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:39 pm

  News outlets are reporting today that Geely, a HK-listed, "private" Chinese automaker, is the "preferred bidder" for Ford's Volvo unit. (Stories at Bloomberg and WSJ.)I'm a little confused by this announcement. What exactly is a preferred bidder? What is it about the bidder that would lead Ford to approve Geely over another?Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you're trying to unload a money-losing asset while taking as small a loss as possible, wouldn't you be more focused on the bid than the bidder?If I were a Ford shareholder (and I probably am through mutual funds), that's where my concern…

• Electric Vehicles: China can do no Wrong. Right?

  G. E. Anderson ---

  28 Oct 2009 | 5:54 pm

  Think Again.This past week, columnists Anil Gupta and Haiyan Wang published an opinion piece in Business Week that dares to go against the flow. While the rest of the world seems ready to declare China the winner in electric vehicle technology, Gupta and Wang explain why China has no real advantage -- a position with which I agree. They make two important points that are worth highlighting:Despite the apparent importance of battery technology for cars in the future, batteries are merely one component among many others. The apparent early success of China's BYD in battery technology (which is…

• Mr. Hu, tear down this wall!

  G. E. Anderson ---

  13 Oct 2009 | 2:31 am

  On a day in which China has taken further steps to block social networking applications, I think it appropriate to explain why I use Twitter, and why China is doing itself a disservice by blocking these applications.Twitter is one of those applications that people either love or simply don't understand. I've found few people who remain on the fence about Twitter for long. When I first tried it, I did so because Business Week was raving about it, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. After playing with it for a few minutes, I failed to get the point and didn't touch it again for…

• 
  Asian Ramblings

• Swan Song

  Stevo

  3 Nov 2009 | 3:12 am

  Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Hamlet, William Shakespeare For the Love of Money is The Root of All Evil Timothy 6:10 Let be be finale of seem. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. The Emperor of Ice Cream, Wallace Stevens From a fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty “Hi-yo Silver,” I say Peace Out.

• A bit ‘o’ travel and meeting the Infamous Paddy

  Stevo

  26 Oct 2009 | 3:44 pm

  I’m back in China. Okay, Hong Kong is China so I never really left. If that’s the case why is there that pesky border? Three days in the city I love to hate. Some times I think that Hong Kong is the city where bitter expats go to die, like an elephant graveyard. It used to be the city that Brits who completely f*cked up fled to the start over. Now? Not so much. The “visa run” is a trip many expats are well acquainted with. Luckily, Shenzhen, China (my home base) is right beside Hong Kong. It’s a very quick trip to one of the world’s financial centers (and…

• China Photo: Shopping and Walking

  Stevo

  21 Oct 2009 | 2:55 pm

  Shopping and walking in China Shopping is a pastime enjoyed by many of China’s foreign residents. Clothing, electronics, assorted kitsch items: It’s all affordable. I shot this image last weekend as Mrs. Stevo and I were taking a break from shopping. What attracted me was the lovely and long 4 pm shadows. I bought a shirt and a headband for my torturous adventures in the local gym. Mrs. Stevo purchased a shirt, a yellow number that proclaims “Superstar” or some such statement to the world. Ah, shopping. I hate it yet love it.

• A day on Sanmenkou Island, Shenzhen

  Stevo

  19 Oct 2009 | 2:42 pm

  As I was saying, Shenzhen, China is a sprawling city, it’s hard to believe that places like Sanmenkou Island co-exist with monolithic concrete creations. The airport and the Shenzhen’s beaches are separated by 50 km. I’ve been to the beach twice in my almost five years in China. I like the beach, I don’t like public transportation. Luckily, on our October holiday excursion, a friend had a car. Dongchong beach was our destination. From there it was tickets on a small and scary boat across the water to Sanmenkou Island. The boat’s pilot, a Kejia man, has skin the…

• A Day at the Beach: A Teaser

  Stevo

  18 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

  Beach at Sanmenkou Island, Shezhen, China It’s easy to forget that Shenzhen is more than just concrete. It’s a sprawling city, the east on the South China Sea. Tomorrow: My day at the beach.  Stay tuned.

• 
  Digital China Guide

• China’s Digital Ecosystem is Booming!

  The Sina news portal has a headline news story reporting that the total number of internet users in China has reached 338 million, and that the total number of people in China who access the internet by means of their mobile phones has reached 155 million. “At 13:30 in the afternoon on ...

• China’s Mobile Internet Update

  This post was spurred by a question about the state of the mobile ad market in China. The short answer is I couldn't find any reliable, vendor independent statistics relating to total marketing spend on m0bile in China, nor any reliable data relating to % spend by mobile marketing activity. If ...

• China Mobile Internet is Heating Up!

  China's 3G Rollout Fuelling a Globally Retracting Market. The mobile space is going to heat up this year in China with the rollout of 3G services. According to Digitimes.com This rollout is actually the main motor fueling growth in an otherwise global market which showed 9% revenue contractions. China Telecom Focus China Telecom's ...

• Sorry for the break …

  Hi: Just a quick update to appologise for the lack of posts lately. I have started a new role at Starcom and have been quite busy however I will  start posting again this weekend!!! Thanks for your patience and support ;) cheers /tim

• Latest Report on Internet Development in China

  I have just finished reading the latest report from CNNIC titled 23rd Statistical Report on the Internet Development in China [pdf]. Here's a quick summary of the salient points as released by CNNIC. Internet Penetration Rate in China Surpassed the Global Average Level for the First Time According to the report, by the ...

• 
  Digital China Guide

• China’s Digital Ecosystem is Booming!

  The Sina news portal has a headline news story reporting that the total number of internet users in China has reached 338 million, and that the total number of people in China who access the internet by means of their mobile phones has reached 155 million. “At 13:30 in the afternoon on ...

• China’s Mobile Internet Update

  This post was spurred by a question about the state of the mobile ad market in China. The short answer is I couldn't find any reliable, vendor independent statistics relating to total marketing spend on m0bile in China, nor any reliable data relating to % spend by mobile marketing activity. If ...

• China Mobile Internet is Heating Up!

  China's 3G Rollout Fuelling a Globally Retracting Market. The mobile space is going to heat up this year in China with the rollout of 3G services. According to Digitimes.com This rollout is actually the main motor fueling growth in an otherwise global market which showed 9% revenue contractions. China Telecom Focus China Telecom's ...

• Sorry for the break …

  Hi: Just a quick update to appologise for the lack of posts lately. I have started a new role at Starcom and have been quite busy however I will  start posting again this weekend!!! Thanks for your patience and support ;) cheers /tim

• Latest Report on Internet Development in China

  I have just finished reading the latest report from CNNIC titled 23rd Statistical Report on the Internet Development in China [pdf]. Here's a quick summary of the salient points as released by CNNIC. Internet Penetration Rate in China Surpassed the Global Average Level for the First Time According to the report, by the ...

• 
  China Private Equity

• The Billion-Dollar Product In Search of an Inventor

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:02 am

  Too many inventive minds over too many years have focused on trying to solve environmental problems that may be insoluble: like a internal-combustion engine that gets +100mpg, or a new fuel that will burn cleaner and cost less than gasoline. Of course, a solution to either of these would earn its inventor a multi-billion fortune. That’s a very powerful motivator. But, let’s face it. Some of these bigger problems may be beyond the wit of man and the realms of molecular science. There are so many smaller, more manageable problems to be solved that will both lower pollution and earn its…

• Why Is China Booming? Surprise, It’s Not the Stimulus

  admin

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am

  Launched amid much worldwide rejoicing when the financial crisis struck last year, China’s Rmb 4 trillion ($585 billion) stimulus package is given much of the credit for China’s continued strong economic performance this year. China’s GDP growth is likely to exceed 8%, and the domestic stock market is up by over 70% since the start of the year.  A Keynesian miracle? To read a lot of the financial commentary on China, you might well conclude this is so, that government spending has single-handedly kept the economy jaunty, while both firms and consumers sank into a deep funk. It’s a…

• Private Equity in China: Blackstone & Others May Grab the Money But Miss the Best Opportunities

  admin

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:05 pm

  Blackstone, the giant American PE firm, is now trying to raise its first renminbi fund. Its stated goal is to provide growth capital for China’s fast-growing companies. Blackstone isn’t the only international private equity firm seeking to raise renminbi to invest in China.  In fact, many of the world’s largest private equity firms, including those already investing in China using dollars, are looking to tap domestic Chinese sources for investment capital. Dollar-based investors are increasingly at a serious disadvantage in China’s private equity industry: investing is more…

• Shenzhen’s Place in China’s Long History Mixing Sex and Commerce

  admin

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:39 am

  Shenzhen is such a relentless modern city that it’s often hard to discern the influence of 3,000 years of Chinese history and culture. The skyline is so futuristic that it often resembles the home planet of a higher civilization.(See photo above, of the City Center and buildings near CFC’s office).  But, of course, this is still a part of China, with all its embedded messages and references to a history longer and richer than any other. It just takes a little wisdom to perceive it. I can’t lay claim to any such wisdom. Luckily, though, I have a friend here who has both the historical…

• The Closing of the American Mind: Seeing China As It Was, Not As It Is

  admin

  26 Oct 2009 | 5:51 am

  I recently returned from a two-week stay in the US. I was very busy seeing friends and business colleagues, which means I was also very busy answering questions about China.  China occupies a very special place in the minds of many Americans, including many who’ve never been. The level of curiosity in America about China is enormous. This contrasts notably with the indifference with which many Americans view the world abroad. For example, during the 14 years I spent in London, I never found my American friends to be very interested in what life was like in England. Not so China.  But,…

• 
  Konaxis: Business and Industry News in China

• BYD To Spend 1.5b Yuan On Vehicle Testing Center

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

  China's battery and electric car producer BYD Co said Monday that it would invest 1.5 billion yuan ($219.71 million) to build China's largest vehicle testing center, in a bid to strengthen its research and development capability as well as to enhance the quality of its offerings, reported China Daily.

• China's Sina Eyes Robust Q4, Open To Spin-offs

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:05 am

  Sina Corp, China's largest Web portal, gave an optimistic outlook for advertising growth for 2010 and said it will look at potential spin-offs of some of its specialised portals, reported Reuters.

• China Sets Land Use Limits On Residential Housing And Coal Mine

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

  China’s land ministry said it is imposing limits on how much land can be used for residential development, government offices and some industrial projects to support economic policy and curb overcapacity, reported Bloomberg.

• China Power Plants Sign Long-Term Coal Supply Deals

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am

  Chinese power plants have turned to individual long-term agreements with coal producers to secure supplies after an annual meeting between coal buyers and sellers failed to take place on time, reported Bloomberg, quoting China Business News.

• China's Caution On Yuan Signals No Early Move

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:46 am

  Investors betting on a yuan rise early next year will be disappointed as China is likely to keep the currency on a tight leash at least until the middle of 2010 to cement the country's economic recovery, reported Reuters.

• 
  Jing Daily

• Guangzhou Auto Show: Will Chinese Luxury Cars Have Their Coming-Out Party?

  Avery Booker

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:21 pm

  The Guangzhou Auto Show, Set To Take Place From Nov. 24-30, To Showcase Dozens Of New Domestic and Foreign Models Auto Guangzhou has become one of China's most popular annual auto shows, rivaling Beijing and Shanghai The shift in auto industry momentum towards China and other emerging markets will be very much on display next week, as the 7th annual Guangzhou Auto Show kicks off in South China’s trade and commerce hub. With approximately 50 foreign and domestic automakers taking part in the show, and high-profile debuts like the Rolls-Royce Ghost, Roewe 350, Renault Laguna Coupe and…

• Video: Edward Dolman Discusses The Auction Market’s Eastward Shift

  Avery Booker

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:08 am

  The Financial Times has posted an interview with Edward Dolman, Christie’s International chief executive, in which Dolman explains the eastward shift in the auction industry. As emerging auction markets like China, Russia, and the Middle East heat up, auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have intensified their outreach and localization strategies, leading both to greater success particularly in places like Hong Kong. With the continuing strength of the New Chinese Collector, it is expected that this eastward shift will continue for the near future, particularly as…

• Yao Ming: China’s Newest Arts Ambassador?

  Avery Booker

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm

  Yao Ming Foundation Plans To Raise Funds For Arts Collaboration With Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston Yao Ming's new project is aimed at exposing Houston residents to China's evolving arts culture Over the past few years, “art diplomacy” has become one of the most potent forms of Chinese soft power. From the Mainland lending ancient imperial works for display in Taipei to Hong Kong joining with the UK to promote more cultural exchange, Chinese art is fast becoming one of its most popular forms of “portable culture.” While Chinese art is becoming easier to find all…

• Luxury Travel Retailer Dufry Seals Deal With Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport

  Avery Booker

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am

  Lucrative Deal Allows Company To Operate 20 Duty-Paid Shops At Shanghai’s Bustling Hongqiao International Airport Dufry Group's deal with Hongqiao Aiport will help the company tap in to travelers headed to the Shanghai World Expo next year A short but newsworthy item today about travel retailer Dufry Group signing a lucrative, seven-year concession agreement with Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to open and operate 20 duty-paid shops in the airport’s West terminal, which is set to open in March 2010 in time for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. As DFNI notes, this deal…

• National Museum of Chinese Writing Opens In Henan Province

  Avery Booker

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:16 am

  Museum’s Collection Includes Shang Dynasty Oracle Bones, Archaeological Relics, And Samples Of Ethnic Minority Scripts The Museum of Chinese Writing is located in Anyang city, Henan Province China’s museum infrastructure has gotten a boost in the last few decades, with museums dedicated to modern literature, Confucius, ethnic minority culture, ancient carvings, and dinosaurs springing up all over the country, and a maturing but still underdeveloped modern and contemporary Chinese art museum system taking root in cultural centers like Beijing and Shanghai. Although arts education…

• 
  China Internet Watch

• China Mobile Internet User Behavior Study 2009

  Rocky Fu

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:50 am

  Do you know that 82.2% of China mobile Internet users are male? At least, it is true at the moment. It’s a cool thing for guys to surf Internet by mobile phones. Not many ladies have enjoyed mobile Internet yet. Age. Overall China mobile phone Internet users are very young, with over 50.7% between age 18 and 24. 75.1% of China mobile Internet users are between the age of 18 and 30. Education. Mobile Internet users are mainly distributed in high schools and below, together accounting for 61.3% of total mobile Internet users. Over 20% mobile Internet users own bachelor’s degree and…

• China social networking sites statistics 2009 (updated)

  Rocky Fu

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:29 am

  Everything valuable in China seems so competitive, and there’s no exception to social media.  CNNIC recently released a report on China social networking sites (SNS) and I’m here to share some key findings: By the end of 2009, the number of Chinese online social media users is about to reach 124 million. Every social media user owns on average 2.78 social media accounts. Top 5 social networking sites (SNS): QQ alumni (50%), Renren (37%), Sina Space (36.6%), 51.com (27.1%), and Kaixin001 (26.4%). The male to female ratio in SNS users is 52.9:47.1. Majority of SNS users are youth…

• Be A Baidu Wikipedia “Authority Editor” for Branding and SEO Benefit

  Rocky Fu

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:46 am

  Baidu has launched an “authority partners” program for Baidu Wikipedia. 12 companies and organizations have joined this program to edit and certify Baidu Wikipedia entries including travel search engine Qunar and China Mobile. Should You Join Baidu Wikipedia Authority Program? I recommend companies join this program as it will be very helpful to branding. Baidu Wikipedia ranks very high in both Google and Baidu natural search results on many generic terms. Here is one example: Google Search Results on "Fa Hua Temple" Fa Hua Temple is a popular tourist spot and you can…

• Google China Music Integrated Windows Live, Yahoo, and RenRen IDs

  Rocky Fu

  10 Nov 2009 | 7:38 pm

  From today on, Chinese netizens can manage their music playlists on Google Music Player with Windows Live ID, Yahoo ID, or Renren ID. Google China Music has added share feature which enables users to share their instantly updated playlists with their friends. Currently, Chinese netizens can download high quality legal songs and there are over 700,000 to choose. Related Posts:Baidu Music SearchChina Search Engine Market Report 2009Facebook Clone Xiaonei Being Repositioned as Renren

• Brief Guide on China Online BBS Community

  Rocky Fu

  10 Nov 2009 | 1:49 am

  The biggest China BBS software provider Comsenz and online advertising research company iResearch released a report on China’s online community (mostly BBS sites, which are huge in China) this September, based on which and my own experience I’ll share some knowledge about one of the biggest Chinese online community – BBS forums. By the end of June 2009, China BBS online community sites have reached on average 43.806 million unique visitors, having increased 63.8% compared to the same period in 2008. Daily Average Time Spent on BBS Sites Above 8 hours: 13.8% 7-8 hours: 5% 6-7…

• 
  China Hope Live

• Slogans from the demolition zone

  Joel

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:14 am

  Went back recently to Tianjin’s old Nanshi hutongs to see what (if anything) was left, and found some slogans. A few months before the 2008 Olympics everyone was moved out and the partially demolished city blocks wrapped in high, long walls of billboards. The walls are still there, but inside it’s mostly flat and barren. “Establish a sanitary city district, construct a beautiful homeland” 创建卫生城区 建设美好家园 chuàng​jiàn​ wèi​shēng​ chéng​qū​, jiàn​shè​ měi​hǎo​ jiā​yuán​ “A safe community is everyone’s…

• Neglect and Discrimination of China’s Migrant Children

  Joel

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:46 pm

  China is literally being built by the millions of “migrant workers” who have left their rural villages and rural workload for a semi-legal existence as unskilled labourers in the cities. They are the ones filling the factories and raising the office buildings. Their children not only face routine prejudice from urban Chinese residents but also legal restrictions that either hinder their education or cause them to live separate from their parents: Neglect and Discrimination are Often the Fate of Migrant Children. ©2009 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved..

• “Aobama”, China, and Racism

  Joel

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:46 pm

  From the Washington Post: “Racial rethinking as Obama visits: Increasing diversity, born out of boom, forces Chinese to confront old prejudices.” ©2009 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved..

• Religious (Re)Awakening and Chinese Society

  Joel

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:46 pm

  A seminar paper from Dr. Carol Lee Hamrin on the current state and trajectory of religion in Chinese society (audio file included). ©2009 China Hope Live. All Rights Reserved..

• Happy Burn-Things-in-the-Road-to-Your-Ancestors Day

  Joel

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:37 pm

  Last night was “send cold clothes” (送寒衣 sòng hán yī), the day in the lunar calendar when millions of Chinese go out to the intersections to send burnt offerings to their ancestors. Here’s the sidewalk outside our apartment complex this morning: Drawing circles around the pile is part of the tradition, it apparently helps the stuff intended for your ancestor not get mixed with anybody elses’ or stolen: For better photos and a fuller explanation, see: There’s hell to pay Sending Winter Clothes to the Dead in Tianjin Passed some street vendors selling paper…

• 
  ChinaHush

• Vegetables are sick – Hunan Liuyang cadmium pollution

  Key

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am

  (picture: A polluted eggplant) [Southern Metropolis Daily] In July and August of this year, the Hunan Liuyang cadmium pollution incident caused nationwide concerns. It has been three to months since the incident, chemical plant was permanently closed, the relevant officials were suspended from their positions and affected farmers also received a certain amount of compensation. Recently the photographer went back to Liuyang, to some of the affected areas and shot a set of portraits for the crops. These terminally ill fruits and vegetables tell us the disaster has not yet ended. Vegetables are…

• Picture of Obama with the waitress at the welcome banquet sparks comical skit

  Key

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:01 am

  President Obama’s China visit has ended on Nov 18th, but he left the Chinese people with this funny picture taken during his welcome banquet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this picture perhaps it is Obama’s expression that is worth a thousand words. This picture supposedly was posted on the front page of the “Culture Report” newspaper (新文化报) on Nov 18. (But the front page picture on the electronic version was already changed) Immediately, this photo, spreading through the Chinese BBS sparked many netizens…

• The Blank Slate of Sexual Education in the Chinese Countryside

  CC

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:50 am

  As Chinese youth are exposed to more and more sex via the Internet in China’s rapidly expanding economy, the education system still has to catch up to their newfound curiosity. Even many schools in Beijing have only recently started true sex education classes, and these only usually begin in high school. There is an inconsistency in the way that China is becoming increasingly liberalized in some ways, but not quickly enough in some important ways and the problem of sexual education illuminates this (you can see the progression of abortion rates here). A number of horrific incidents have…

• “Shanzhai Chiang Kai-shek” begging for peace in Shenzhen

  Key

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:46 am

  [NetEase] The afternoon of Novmber 14, in Shenzhen Huaqiang North downtown area, a man wearing a gown looked exactly like Chiang Kai-shek appeared at Huaqiang Norton Commercial Street. He sat on the floor in front of him a cap and some words about begging for peace, begging for creativity, begging for number of clicks, begging for ideas…” attracted numerous curious onlookers to take pictures of him. I interviewed him right there and was informed that the man was an artist named XXX from Shenzhen (Bao’an) International Creative Cultural Festival (12/2 – 12/22) F518 Idea Land. He said…

• President Obama took questions from fake Chinese students at town hall meeting

  Key

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:55 pm

  President Obama spoke with several hundred students at the museum of science and technology in Shanghai today where he answered students’ questions in a Town Hall Meeting. However according to this post, some of the “students” who asked the questions were not exactly current students? These fake students were actually university officials? Original post on Cat898 (in case it gets deleted) 豆瓣上看来的，转过来博大家一笑: 第一位提问女“学生”程熙，共青团复旦大学委员会研究室常务副主任…

• 
  Quality Wars

• Product Recall of the Week – “Bobby Chupete” Pacifiers by Grand World Inc.

  This massive recall of over 600,000 pacifiers is a good example of a product that was poorly designed and could easily result in the a baby's death.  This importer could have avoided such a situation by having the product first reviewed by a 3rd party testing laboratory, who ...

• How to Find a Good Factory in China

  I've been identifying and evaluating factories in China for US brands and retailers for over 9 years.  In that time I can truly say I have seen the best and the worst of what manufacturing in China has to offer.  Here are some surefire steps to ensuring that you only ...

• CPSIA Litigation Was Meant for Chinese Factories

  A lot has been written recently about CPSIA litigation that is killing small toy makers and workshops in the USA.  This is truly an unfortunate consequence of the CPSIA act which was introduced recently and whose main function was to prevent against irrisponsible Chinese factories and US importers who were ...

• From Wharton School of Business: Raising the Bar – Can China Meet the Quality Challenge?

  Article LINK:  Raising the Bar - Can China Meet the Quality Challenge? Excellent reading from Wharton on Quality and China.  True experts on doing business here explain recent quality lapses and product recalls.   I highly agree with the portrayal of the China quality issue as one that needs serious attention from ...

• Pantone Color Checking, Color Verification and QC in China

  [caption id="attachment_1074" align="alignleft" width="344" caption="Pantone comparison - Faded book on right"] When working with Chinese suppliers every detail matters; carton size, barcodes and of course...colors!  As a buyer or importer it's crucial that you designate clearly and later verify the colors that are used in your products' packaging, materials, product ...

• 
  World Bank - China Blog

• New Google feature lets users quickly search World Bank development data

  James I Davison

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:24 am

  If you haven’t already taken the time to do some development-related Googling after last week’s announcement that World Bank statistics are now available through the ubiquitous search engine’s public data tool, I’d suggest exploring the exciting new feature. Now, anyone can easily access 17 World Development Indicators by searching for them in Google. Give it a try by searching for the GDP of China or CO2 emissions of Indonesia or exports of Thailand – or another country and any of these indicators. When you click on the search result, an interactive chart page…

• China's engagement in Africa increases – and so does the debate around it

  Philip Karp

  10 Nov 2009 | 1:24 pm

  The issue of China-Africa engagement has been in the headlines this week as leaders from China and from across the African continent gathered in Egypt for the Fourth Heads of State Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) where Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced China’s latest round of pledges of development support to Africa, including US$10 billion in concessional loans over the next three years. This latest round of pledges will no doubt further accelerate China’s growing importance as a source of trade, investment, and aid to African countries. The magnitude…

• Experts give urgent call to save wild tigers

  Tony Whitten

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pm

  There is a great deal of passion surrounding the subject of tiger conservation, and there was a great deal of energy at the recent Global Tiger Workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal. (Photo courtesy of catlovers under a Creative Commons license.) I’m writing this in Kathmandu, Nepal, at the end of the Global Tiger Workshop, the latest event leading up to the Tiger Summit expected to be held late next year in Vladivostok. This process all began with the major launch of the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) in Washington, DC, in June 2008, and direct engagement with the tiger range countries on the…

• In Thailand, finding the way back into growth: Step 1, switch the supply chains back on

  Frederico Gil Sander

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:35 am

  As part of its regular monitoring of the corporate sector in Southeast Asia, the World Bank economic team I am part of in Thailand has been working on a short case study of supply chains of Japanese multinational companies (MNCs) in the electrical and electronics (E&E) industry. We wanted to hear directly from firms about how the crisis affected them, how they were able to adjust so quickly to the drop in demand, what the rebound looked like, and what were the prospects going forward to upgrade along the value chain. I have learned a great deal from these interviews, and have become…

• China: Robust growth in sight provides room for shift in policy focus

  Louis Kuijs

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:11 pm

  The economic data for the third quarter of 2009, released almost two weeks ago, confirmed an impressive recovery in China’s economy, supported by very large fiscal and monetary stimulus. Real GDP growth rose to 8.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter. This is clearly good news, for China and many other countries whose economies are benefiting at the moment from strong demand from China. As the World Bank economic team for China (which I'm part of) argues in more detail in the new China Quarterly Update, it also means that it is time to consider a less expansionary macroeconomic…

• 
  GoChengdoo

• China blogs: Aliens, a pregnant teen, 2012, and, of course, Obamarama

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:40 pm

  Do you believe there are UFOs or aliens living among us? You're not alone! GoKunming interviews Zhang Yifang, founder and former director of the Kunming UFO Research Association and the organizer of the 2009 International Astronomy Year and Extraterrestrial Life Forum about extraterrestrial activity in China. The dismal state of sex education in China is illustrated by this post on China Hush about the reaction of a small town to a 14-year-old girl who managed to keep her pregnancy secret until she gave birth to the baby in her dorm room. The disaster movie 2012 has been under the spotlight…

• Beauty Olympics to be held in Chengdu

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:55 am

  The "Olympics of Beauty," otherwise known as the Miss International Beauty Pageant (国际小姐世界大会) will be held in Chengdu next Saturday. The 66 contestants, each representing a different country, arrived yesterday afternoon, some with bare legs and others in skimpy dresses and sandals. Given that the temperature dropped to the lowest it's been in a decade for this time of year recently, we can't believe our eyes. Apparently neither could spectators who gathered around to watch the arrivals. The women were paraded to the hotel, where they were all presented with--what…

• The most furry trash collector

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:45 am

  If you've been to Jinli recently, you might have noticed a Golden Retriever toting a basket around. youku The three-year-old dog, named Niuniu, was trained by its owner, a retired Chengdu citizen who lives near Jinli, to pick up litter and deposit in the basket it carries in its mouth. Once Niuniu appeared on the 'net, Chengdu netizens voted the dog "Most Environmentally Friendly Dog." See more photos of Niuniu in action here. Chengdu Commercial Daily

• Week in review: November snow, long sausage, counterfeit bills

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:40 am

  We can't believe we're saying this, but let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Melty snowdrops were spotted (and felt by some) Tuesday in Chengdu, marking the first time in a decade that the temperature has dipped so low at this time of year. In the mountainous regions of Sichuan, including Pingwu, Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong, Mount Gonga, E'mei Mountain, Bazhong, and Ya'an all received their first snowfalls of the season starting Sunday. Chengdu Commercial Daily and more here, here, here, and here The start of the cold season means it's time to start making sausage, and Chengduers made a…

• Man kills driver, attempts to steal taxi for girlfriend's birthday

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  From Chengdu Commercial Daily: With the the birthday of his girlfriend of one year quickly approaching, he wanted to give his beloved a special birthday present. Roses? Too ordinary. Jewelry? Too expensive. He needed something unique, something stunning, something nobody else would be able to give her. So Zhang Dawei, 22, came up with a plan: steal a taxi. For over a month, he investigated online, and sketched out a very detailed plan for how to commit his intended crime. And on the afternoon of October 13, he hid a knife in his coat and set off toward Wenjiachang, a suburb just west of…

• 
  the China Lightroom blog

• 毛阿敏 (Mao AMin), 渴望 (”Yearning”), yearning for a better future

  dewang

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:20 pm

  For the last two centuries, the Chinese psyche has been defined in large part by the humiliations and sufferings brought about by foreigners (see the Opium War, the Second Opium War, and the Nanjing Massacre). After the founding of the current Peoples Republic of China, it was the disastrous policies of the Cultural Revolution [...]

• “Father’s Prairie, Mother’s River” – the feelings of one billion people on the move

  dewang

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:33 am

  Everyone knows China is going through an industrial revolution right now. In developed countries such as the U.S., this took place in the late 19th century. The ratio between the number of rural and urban residents basically swapped because industrialization freed the bulk of the population from having to work in the fields [...]

• ཨ་ཅག 阿佳 Ajia: དགའ་གླུ 情歌 Happy Song

  dewang

  14 Nov 2009 | 3:10 am

  阿佳 Ajia is an upcoming group in China. (http://you.video.sina.com.cn/ajia) The cinematography in this video is pretty amazing given the modest locale and likely low budget video equipment used. In Tibetan, this song sounds really good. Share/Save

• [风华国乐] 东方不败 – 冯晓泉 [笛子] 曾格格 [竹笛] 武术表演 Martial Arts – 冯晓泉 [作曲]

  dewang

  14 Nov 2009 | 1:47 am

  Share/Save

• Tibetan Chinese Singer 索朗旺姆 (Soinam Wangmo): “天路” (”Heavenly Road”)

  dewang

  13 Nov 2009 | 11:57 pm

  CCTV-9’s Center Stage program carried a performance by Tibetan Chinese singer, 索朗旺姆 (Soinam Wangmo): “天路” (”Heavenly Road”). The song itself is about the 青藏铁路 (Qingzang railway) linking the high altitude Tibetan plateu with the rest of China. Soinam Wangmo was the 10th CCTV Youth Singing Contest gold medal winner in 2008. She [...]

• 
  Unique China Tours

• Beijing History

  Beijing

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:03 am

  A Brief History of Beijing Time Events 930–1122 A provincial town roughly on the site of modern Beijing becomes the southern capital of the Khitan Mongol Liao dynasty. 1122–1215 The city is taken over by the Jurchen Tartar Jin dynasty. 1215 Mongol emperor Genghis Khan descends into the capital and razes everything in sight. 1267–93 1267–93 Under Kublai Khan’s (Genghis’ grandson) rule, the capital Khanbalik (Khan’s town) is constructed. It’s known as Da Du (Great Capital) in Mandarin; Cambulac in Marco Polo’s account of the city. 1271 Kublai Khan formally adopts the new…

• Beijing Shopping Index

  Beijing

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  There are plenty of Mega-malls, shopping streets, and the remaining open-air markets in Beijing makes shopping more esiaer than it used to be. You will find some selected shopping scenes below. ANTIQUES Name of the Place Area Speciality Address, Contact Guang Han Tang CHAOYANG Tibetan trunks, antique carpets, and rosewood furniture Caochangdi 010-84567943. www.guanghantang.com Panjiayuan Jiuhuo Shichang CHAOYANG antiques, second hand items ART, CONTEMPORARY Name of the Place Area Speciality Address, Contact Chinese Contemporary CHAOYANG features the works of China’s most prominent…

• Bashang Grassland - Unique China Pictures

  Ztours

  15 Oct 2009 | 11:57 am

  Bashang Grasslands, the nearest prairie destination from Beijing, have long been one of the ideal sites to escape the city’s summer heat. Bashang Grasslands is located approximately 240 kilometers north of Beijing and covers an area of 350 square kilometers. These are selected pictures of Bashang grassland another favorite destination for photographing tour in China.

• Dongchuan Red Soil - Unique China Pictures

  Ztours

  4 Oct 2009 | 12:09 pm

  Dongchuan, a rural place in the Wumeng Mountainous area, about 180km north of Kunming  (Yunnan Province), is one of the most attractive destination for Chinese photographers for its red soil. Although discovered in the mid 1990s, the exact location is kept secret among few Chinese photographers who scooped award-winning photos here. Beside, the place is to small to named on the web, therefore it is not mentioned in even well known travel guides like LonelyPlanet and Rough Guides until recently. The brilliant red soil, the yellow buckwheats and the dramatic skies make the region around…

• Guilin Rice Terrace - Unique China Pictures

  Ztours

  30 Sep 2009 | 2:55 pm

  Located in the south of China,not far from Vietnam, Guilin is one of top ten destinations for both local Chinese and foreign tourist. Its unique scenery, the subject of thousands of paintings in China and has been eulogized in countless literary works. One of the Most popular attraction is the rice terraces in Longji which is The terraces look like great chains or ribbons as they wind from the foot to the top of the hill. This ingenious construction makes best use of the scare arable land and water resources in the mountainous area. If you come at the right time of the year, when the paddy…

• 
  Quality Inspection Blog

• Preventing parallel supply chains

  Renaud Anjoran

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:01 am

  In my last post I wrote about what I call “parallel supply chains” from China to Western countries: stock lots left in factories, and copies of brand name products. My clients usually don’t buy stock lots, and they never buy any brandname knockoff. I am sure most importers see parallel circuits as a threat to their business. What problems do parallels channels create for importers? If they order a shipment that is found not to comply with quality/safety requirements, the production will be rejected. What will the factory do with the resulting stock? They will look for…

• Stock lots and brandname copies

  Renaud Anjoran

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:56 am

  Earlier this week, I had opportunities to discover two “non-standard” or “parallel” types of export businesses, right here in South China. I was happy to learn more about them, and I thought it might also be of interest to some readers. Stock lots I accompanied a client to visit a trading company that specializes in stock lots, in Shenzhen. They had a showroom full of garments. For each sample, there is a bunch of products sitting somewhere. Most are still in a factory (in various stages of labeling and packing), some are in free trade zones because the supplier cleared…

• China production: what sort of hammer do you use?

  Renaud Anjoran

  15 Nov 2009 | 2:16 am

  A post on Seth Godin’s blog (Hammer Time) got me thinking about China sourcing. So, if it’s true that to a person with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, the really useful question is, “what sort of hammer do you have?” One study found that when confronted with a patient with back pain, surgeons prescribed surgery, physical therapists thought that therapy was indicated and yes, acupuncturists were sure needles were the answer. Across the entire universe of patients, the single largest indicator of treatment wasn’t symptoms or patient background, it was…

• Chinese makers and complacency

  Renaud Anjoran

  13 Nov 2009 | 11:31 pm

  Last week I met with an importer who complained that her long-time suppliers don’t make efforts any more. They assume they are doing a “good enough” job, since they have gotten orders so regularly for so long. The problem is that the importer’s own customers are raising the bar in terms of quality standard–by being very tough and by regularly refusing shipments—and that, on the other hand, the Chinese suppliers don’t do anything to increase their quality level. If anything, their reliability is going down. Causes of complacency in Chinese manufacturing Complacency is a natural…

• What is YOUR opinion about these products?

  Renaud Anjoran

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:43 am

  QC inspections often fail. Actually, most of the time there is at least a discrepancy and/or too many defects. When my Chinese inspectors announce that the inspection is failed, the supplier usually focuses on the points that triggered the failure. But when I am the inspector, or the lead inspector, some clever suppliers ask me this question: Okay, if you follow the procedure it is failed. But what is YOUR opinion about the products? Do you think they can be sold? You know the export market, and you must have a precise opinion about this. Do I have an opinion? Most the time, I do. The problem…

• 
  Joop.in

• In San Francisco bay area

  I’m together with Silvia Man in San Francisco bay area for the week (My hotel is right in city center), I will be updating this post from time to time and share my experiences. Driving our rented Nissan from San Francisco to San Jose, we’re crashing dinner parties, conferences and visiting companies. oh, jolly good [...]

• Halloween 2009

  Americans celebrate Halloween. I don’t understand what it is about, or what one is supposed to do. Being an outsider, I was surprised to learn that the spooky American tradition is known and celebrated throughout the International community in Shanghai as well. It’s bit different as: Ringing the doors of our Chinese neighbors for trick-or-treating probably [...]

• Long Shanghai summers, Ultracapacitors and picnics

  A few things that come to mind regarding pollution, climate and China: I’ve received an email telling that Chinese smog is threatening economy and health in Hong Kong, which is a terrible thing. After living in clean, clean Sweden, I do notice the effects that smog can have. At the time of writing, it’s really [...]

• Boat trip, Leifeng Pagoda and Yakitori in Hangzhou, China

  This weekend we made a small trip of 180km out of Shanghai to see the West lake in Hangzhou China, with 6.5 million people not a small town, but due to the beautiful scenery of the lake and the hillside, it’s a favorite destination for many Shanghainese. For me, it was a trip down memory [...]

• Special visitor from Netherlands

  I’ve got a special vistior from the Netherlands over this week. Giel Talsma is a former neighbor of mine and we’ve known each other for over ten years. I ran into him when I was in Holland during the summer and I invited him to China, he was excited immediately. After picking him up at the [...]

• 
  MyBrownBaby

• On the MyBrownBaby Table: Candied Yam Sticky Buns

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:32 pm

  By SHELLEY CHAPMANIn addition to November being my birthday month, I have many reasons to love this time of year—particularly because of all the goodies I get to create and consume. Between Halloween treats, birthday dinners, Thanksgiving feasts, Christmas gatherings and New Year's Eve galas, I often find myself in culinary heaven. In past years, my offerings have been confined to my friends and

• Come Check Out the ATL Screening Of "Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage."

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:10 pm

  It's no secret I stan hard for Lamar and Ronnie Tyler, the dynamic duo behind the fab, award-winning site BlackandMarriedWithKids.com; they're eloquent, smart, and an incredible example of the beauty that is black love. Indeed, the couple is so passionate about the need for African American men and women to figure out the love thing that they made a movie about it—a ground-breaking documentary

• Wordless Wednesday: How Not To Talk About Africa

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm

  I just adore this video, a satire piece by Binyavanga Wainaina of Kenya—and not just because it stars the absolutely delicious Djimon Hounsou. Wainaina uses this thought-provoking, at times comical commentary to point out the more ignorant attitudes that find their way into Western literature and other written stories about Africa. Personally, I think we could sub in pretty much any group—black

• Styling a Black Girl's Hair Is No Job For Daddies!

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm

  By MOCHA DADMy daughter, Nee, has absolutely no confidence in my ability to do her hair. Whenever I attempt to style it, she becomes more obnoxious than Rush Limbaugh.Recently, my wife, KayEm, had to run an errand and I thought I would surprise her by combing and styling Nee’s hair (even though, Nee prefers KayEm to do her hair, it’s not a pleasant experience for either party. If you’ve ever

• Black Moms ARE Different—and That's OK.

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm

  So, after yet another white mom stomped onto MyBrownBaby accusing me of "segregating" myself for writing about issues affecting black moms, my homegirl Akilah over at the fabulous Execumama told me that I should "never freakin' explain again" why I do what I do. She's right, you know; if people bothered to look around and read the actual content on MyBrownBaby, they wouldn't get hung up on the