Today is the 88th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It’s kind of a big deal because Chinese people love the number 8. (Last year the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics started at 8 p.m. Aug. 8 – 8-8-8.) I was lucky enough to experience how one place is celebrating, but not lucky enough to get any good sources. The gallery (Old Summer Palace Lotus Festival) has more pics.

Along the same lines, Hong Kong was returned to China 12 years ago today. The annual protest will  go on as planned as Beijing watches but will likely lack a unified cause.

It was also to be the official launch date of Green Dam; the Chinese government had been pressing computer makers to start shipping all their products with the software installed or on a disk. But yesterday afternoon officials announced that they will push the date back to some unspecified time, despite refusing to budge before.

UPDATE July 4 12:34 a.m.: The Opening Ceremony actually started at 8:08 p.m. Thanks, Tina.