China representin’
Jie Zhang and Na Li have become the first two Chinese women to make it to the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Month: January 2010
China’s disappearing middle class
China Newsweek’s last issue focused on China’s “disappearing” middle class. Leave it to China to mis-characterize or misinterpret a particularly strange phenomenon — the rise in the cost of living in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The gist of it goes like this: The middle class — which includes small business owners, business/financial people, […]
I’m a CouchSurfer!
In preparation for an upcoming trip, I’ve joined CouchSurfing.org, a project that puts travelers in touch with local hosts for a free place to crash or just a friendly meet-up. Call it a grassroots diplomacy. Hoping some valuable experiences and unforgettable people will come out of this.
Quote of the day
“I believe that Chinese peacekeepers will win the glory for the motherland with their own strenuous efforts and successfully implement rescue and peacekeeping missions in Haiti.” Hu Yunwang, director of the 5th anti-riot police force in Haiti in 2007, to Sina.com. He is being deployed there again to help with peacekeeping efforts in the earthquake […]
Google and spending in China
Two things of interest today: There’s a Google-CCP battle brewing. Google will no longer censor itself to appease the Chinese government after discovering hackers from somewhere in China accessed the Gmail accounts of some human rights activists. It’s good to see a major company giving the finger to China. Working together is great and all, […]
More on snow
Last week, I was wondering where the snow was. Shortly after I posted, the snow cometh. And it didn’t stop coming for almost an entire day. And then I learned how awful snow is. Consider: My birthday, last Monday, was probably one of the coldest day on record for Beijing — it was definitely the […]
Things that must not be said
It’s rather obvious, but should you see a sentence with vague implications like this one Environmental protection measures will surely have some impacts on the province’s GDP growth. it means it’s something bad. In this case, the “impact” that environmental protection will have is slowing the GDP growth, but no one in China will (or […]
Where is the snow?!??
It’s not snowing! It’s supposed to be. Weather.com says it’s snowing. And the Central Meteorological Station says we’re supposed to see heavy snow or a whole blizzard. It is NOT white outside my window AT ALL. But it snowed while I was out last night =D Less than a millimeter, but it was enough to […]