Saturday, November 29, 2008
Power, in this case, being the electricity companies. On Thursday morning, news went out that the power companies were losing money and would receive nearly 20 billion yuan in subsidies to help them recover from the heavy damage caused by the snow storms and earthquake this year.
The first five comments on the story at Netease:
ip：59.32.*.*：
The […]
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
On Tuesday evening, Liu Xiaoyuan, who has acted as a lawyer for family of Yang Jia, announced on his blog that Yang will be executed within a week. Yang Jia’s mother told him that around 7pm, she was visited two officials from the Shanghai Higher People’s Court who notified her that the Supreme People’s Court […]
Monday, November 24, 2008
One evening, seven or eight years ago, I popped over to say hello to people working at the hostel where I stayed when I first arrived in Beijing. I was sitting at the bar, when the manageress came in, accompanied by a very large, very fierce and scary looking Finn. He turned out to be […]
Monday, November 24, 2008
Shanzhai, as defined by ChinaSMACK:
山寨 = shan1 zhai4 = literally “mountain stronghold” in reference to historical warlord holdouts that were outside of government control. A “shanzhai” edition product thus refers to products outside of government regulations that are widely reflected in the numerous fake and knockoff electronics/commodities made in China today. The term “shanzhai” can […]
Sunday, November 16, 2008
The leader came, heralded by shrubs.
The leader left. So did the shrubs.
Quick quiz for 50 points - fill in the blank space:
“Potted plants and trees for politburo members’ visits account for __% of China’s GDP.”
Monday, November 10, 2008
There’s more than one way to skin a cat. And there’s more than one way to report a story. For example, will dozens of Chinese-made passenger planes soon be winging their way through the skies of the United States? After this last week’s news, most readers and viewers here in China would probably say yes. […]
So, the prospect of Sarah Palin with nuclear weapons has been averted, at least for the next four years. There was a wailing and gnashing of teeth from the lunatic far right of America who are still terrified that a communist Islamist terrorist is going to take away their God-given right to shoot wild animals […]
How much is 1.9 million yuan? Just under US$280,000. Translated from today’s Southern Metropolis Daily:
Cell phone mysteriously “leaves the country”
3-day bill comes to 1.9 million yuan
Something weird happened to Mr Ding, a company manager in Shenzhen. He hadn’t left China, but his cell phone generated roaming fees in three countries. In just three days, the […]
Saturday, November 1, 2008
I can’t speak, read or write Welsh, so I haven’t got the slightest idea what gyfieithu means. Neither did Swansea council when they put up this bilingual road sign:
From the BBC:
When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.
Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council […]