Pickpocket Artist Gets Caught, Clobbered By Students

Pickpocket beaten featured image
Pickpocketing is a tough profession. It doesn’t pay much, for one. The legal risks are high. And if you get caught — at a university dorm, for instance — your existence will pretty much be disavowed by everyone you care about, and whatever happens, happens.

Watch: Chengdu Passenger Ignites Firecrackers On Moving Bus

Chengdu bus firecrackers
In Chengdu on Friday at around 8 pm, a man surnamed Cai, 37, suddenly stood up and ignited a string of firecrackers in his bag, reason unknown. The driver, surnamed Huang, stopped the bus and let everyone out, but closed the door on Cai. Other passengers can be seen restraining him until the cops arrived.

Cancelled (An Expat Christmas No. 7)

BJC Christmas
BJC's An Expat Christmas series will roll on through the week. In a place where Christmas is an "event" and not part of the culture, it can be cancelled as easily as it is arranged, as Chris Clayman recently found out at his school in Lincang, Yunnan province.

Mid-Week Links: New Year’s Eve party guide, another official undone by his mistress, and today is Mao Zedong’s 119th birthday

Shanghai skyline
Chongqing has a pretty amazing subway station, via Sina I think we know the “real you” well enough, sir. “The deputy secretary-general of Zhanjiang City in Guangdong Province has been removed from his post after local Party discipline watchdog confirmed online allegations about his having a mistress and a second child in violation of China’s one-child policy.... Read more »