Today in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, a big hole appeared on the intersection of Bingzhou Road and Bingzhou East Road, leaving an impression of two gigantic buttcheeks. Assphalt, if you will.
The Oregonian has this tale of a letter from China -- written in English -- folded into eighths and planted inside the box of a Kmart "graveyard kit."
This "message in a bottle" traveled more than 5,000 miles to the home of Julie Keith in Portland, who purchased the Halloween kit but left it unopened for a year. When she finally opened the contents, she found this chilling letter:
Dina Manfredini of Iowa died on Monday at 115, passing on the mantle of "world's oldest person" to Jiroemon Kimura of Tokyo, who was born on April 19, 1897 -- 15 days after Manfredini -- the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed yesterday.
But not so fast, says Xinhua. In a story published two hours ago, it reports that the world's real oldest person is actually Chinese, and apparently 127 years old:
Andrei Lankov, professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University and one of the world’s foremost North Korea experts (he blogs in Russian), has some chilling words about what the new year might bring for Korean relations. As quoted in The Globe and Mail: “The North Koreans will want to test [Ms. Park], maybe an overland intrusion, an artillery... Read more »
State media is reporting that state media aired a documentary on Tibetan self-immolations on Sunday. Here are the opening paragraphs of Xinhua’s story about China Central Television: National broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has released a documentary on self-immolation in the country’s Tibetan-inhabited areas.
Lan Gui, 50, a vagabond artist who's been traveling from city to city for more than 20 years, is probably best known for his street Mona Lisas. It's not perfect, but for a chalk etching on a random sidewalk, no one's complaining.
On Monday, a father upset over a court’s decision to not give the death sentence to four men who murdered his daughter took his anger out on middle school students on lunch break. Yin Tiejun, 48, drove a car laden with firecrackers into Fengning No. 1 Middle School in Fengning, Hebei province around noon. Xinhua has the... Read more »
Unless you’re Michael Fischer, who strung together these pictures of Beijing men exposing their round bellies to the heat. It’s the video we’ve all thought of making at some point in time – our cartoonist Torval has been talking about a similar “Babes of Beijing” calendar for a year now. Obviously this video would’ve been more... Read more »
It's still Christmas in some parts of the world. BJC's "An Expat Christmas" series continues, in which foreigners in China write about the holiday experience from their respective cities. Here, Justin Mitchell recalls one fretful Christmas in Shenzhen, and the people who made it all better.
BJC’s “An Expat Christmas” series continues, as Jocelyn Eikenburg shares her experience of gift-giving — and receiving — from one Christmas in Shanghai. By Jocelyn Eikenburg When you spend Christmas in China as an expat, it’s easy to feel a little forgotten by the holiday season.
