Mid-Week Links: Official Iron Man 3 trailer (with Chinese elements), Agent Zero Gilbert Arenas close to signing with Guangdong, and Hu Jintao at knifepoint

Taihang Mountains in Linzhou, China
Via Daily Mail: “The 300ft spiral staircase has been installed on the wall of the Taihang Mountains in Linzhou to offer the thrill of mountaineering without the danger.” We’re very excited and proud to announce that starting tomorrow morning, Laowai Comics will be appearing on this site every Thursday. If you’re wondering whether you should... Read more »

An Expat Meltdown For The Ages: Dongguan Bar Owner Tees Off On The Nanfang After Tepid Review

One for the Road
Longtime China resident Cam MacMurchy, who ran the well-respected Zhongnanhai blog for several years before co-founding The Nanfang earlier this year, is nothing if not a reasonable and fair writer. We’ve watched from afar as The Nanfang, a community-driven website covering the Pearl River Delta, has steadily grown, expanding its listings every week while continuing to produce interesting... Read more »

iPhone Thief Says How ‘Bout Dem Apples!

Apple
This story made us chuckle. Via Global Times: According to a report on the Taiwan-based NOWnews website, the man surnamed Luo, 27, is an engineer in Hsinchu, and the woman surnamed Lin, 21, lives in New Taipei City. // Luo and Lin became acquainted in an Internet chat room at the end of last year. // In... Read more »

Child Abuse At Another Kindergarten: Teacher Slaps Three Children, Including A 5-Year-Old 70 Times

Child Abuse At Another Kindergarten Teacher Slaps Three Children, Including A 5-Year-Old 70 Times featured image
The sickening footage of child abuse in a Guangzhou kindergarten earlier this month has itself a sequel. On October 15, a teacher at Blue Sky Mentesuoli Kindergarten, an unlicensed school in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, lost her temper and struck three children, as caught on tape (above, and after the jump on 56.com for those in China). One... Read more »

Watch: Obama And Romney Talk China At Third Presidential Debate, Plus Analysis From Joseph Stiglitz

Obama And Romney Talk China At Third Presidential Debate, Plus Analysis From Joseph Stiglitz
At the third and final presidential debate on Monday, Governor Mitt Romney backed off claims he made in the previous debate to go hard on China. But as New Yorker's Evan Osnos notes, "But in China, to be frank, nobody takes it all that seriously. Romney’s tack toward the middle in his final debate (a theme that my colleague John Cassidy explores in his post today) seemed to foreshadow to a Chinese audience the kind of softening that is consistent with a pattern that has run through three decades of American foreign policy: candidates who rail against China on the stump rarely follow through if they win, because China stops being a convenient foil and becomes instead a complicated reality."

Of Course China Is Sending A Team To The World Pole Dance Competition

World Pole Dance
China’s fascination with the pole dance extends to competitive pole dancing as well: three females and one male are traveling to Zurich, Switzerland to compete in the World Pole Dance competition on November 10. The Chinese contestants are listed on World Pole Dance’s website as Cao Haijing, Meng Yifan, Song Xuemei, and Yan Shaoxuan, all of... Read more »

Weightlifter Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Who Won A Gold Medal For Kazakhstan, Repatriates To China

Zhao Changling
Much hubbub surrounded 19-year-old weightlifter Zulfiya Chinshanlo’s gold-medal win in London this summer, as it wasn’t exactly clear which country she was actually from, Kazakhstan or China. Both nations claimed her — “Chinshanlo’s Olympic page cites her birthplace as Almaty, Kazakhstan, and claims she speaks both Russian and Kazakh,” according to The Atlantic, while Xinhua stated (paraphrased by CNN)... Read more »