Discounting a little drizzle, projected doomsday rains missed most of Beijing proper last night, though other parts of northeast China were not so lucky. Tianjin, which I tend to think of as Beijing's unkempt armpit about 100 kilometers to the southeast, was hit hard yesterday, and the aftermath on one unfortunate stretch of road is visible above.
The Jordan brand is producing a series of mini-documentaries about basketball around the world, with the inspirational hashtag #RISEABOVE. Of course they had to go to China, and of course they had to borrow the narrative from Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: lone traveler finds himself in remote part of the world; traveler is injured, healed by "shaman"; traveler returns to isolated village to build something Western -- a basketball court, in this case. But don't let the fact that this is essentially an infomercial to sell shoes discourage you too much. It's a nicely produced video, and check out the moves on some of these kids.
BJC contributor Alicia found this just now, and it's one of those stunning works of art that makes you want to hug the Internet. It's a man atop a cow singing Justin Bieber's "Baby."
The original video, titled "I am legendary, art dream," is the only work that appears under Youku user w451119777’s page. Apparently it was published two months ago and viewed 1,830 times, a relatively small amount for such a heroic effort.
Our favorite government mouthpiece has flubbed again with the headline on its latest story (four-plus hours after its posting, it has yet to be changed). Ostensibly about a new round of rainstorms scheduled to hit this afternoon, Xinhua inadvertently draws our attention to the waves of negative reaction to the municipal government’s disaster response, a sampling... Read more »
Eh. Could’ve been worse. Wasn’t exactly a bus wreck. Bayern Munich vs. Beijing Guo’an, 6-0 7′ Zhang Junzhe (own goal) 10′ Arjen Robben 43′ Claudio Pizarro 74′ Thomas Muller 78′ Mario Mandzukic 80′ Mario Gomez Youku video for those in China after the jump.
YouTube user Cassetteboy has posted a hilarious cut-up of Boris Johnson -- who we last saw on this blog trying (and failing) to operate a Sina Weibo account -- welcoming people to London for the Olympics (opening ceremony is Friday, in case you've forgotten). Some of our favorite parts:
We're not sure how this truck flipped over on a bridge in Gansu recently, but the driver was thrown from the cab and would have plummeted 10 meters to serious injury if not for his right leg being pinned underneath the truck. The rescue operation required three cranes and lots of ropes and harnesses. The man was successfully untangled after three hours, and everyone involved deserves a pat on the back.
Remember the advice that Nanjing motorist -- who, even after suffering a split lip at the hands of a bully on the road, refused to fight back -- gave last week? About the importance of keeping your cool, especially during "summertime," and how "a gentleman uses his mouth, not his fist"? There were some people in Tangshan, Hebei province recently who heeded none of it.
