I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noted before how beautiful Beijing is when it's not, um, foggy.
Yesterday evening, before the rains came once more, we were treated to this sight:
Authorities are searching for a suspect they believe caused a bus fire in Xiamen, Fujian province during evening rush hour on Friday, killing 47 people and injuring 34."Some witnesses said they heard explosions about ten minutes after the fire broke out," reports Xinhua.
Fifteen students who had just completed tests were on the bus, according to a press conference held earlier today.
This is first-class: on a plane stuck on the Beijing airport tarmac for three hours yesterday, a quartet of musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestras took out their instruments, gathered in the aisle, and serenaded passengers. The music starts at the 1:11 mark in the above.
A 22-year-old man jumped out of a moving bus on a Sichuan province freeway and died, reports Chengdu Business Daily via Global Times. Why did he jump?
"He asked me to park the bus because he needed to pee," said the bus driver, Liu Renzi, who was en route to Ziyang from Chengdu that day. "I asked him to wait because it's not safe to park on the freeway. I told him that there was a restroom at Shiqiao service zone, which would take about 10 minutes to reach."
The Economist has a bizarre regional cover this week. Never mind that it’s tasteless and will surely be interpreted as homophobic by many of its critics. NEVER MIND THAT. Let me isolate the cover-line jokes for you, see if you find them funny:
He Stole His Heart
(And Then His Intellectual Property)
Hmm.
Beijing will host the World Sudoku Championship, reports China Daily. "The Eighth World Sudoku Championship will be an eight-day battle of wits" starting October 12.
This will be China's first time holding this prestigious event, which will feature more than 300 competitors from 30 countries and regions, apparently.
Unless you did. In which case, sorry. I'm sure there's a Western equivalent that's as traumatic and possibly intellectually growth-stunting as the Chinese college entrance exam process. Binge drinking? Drugs? I don't know what the equivalent is.
Gaokao, of course, commences today, as does national mourning for the country's youth. To a childhood dying young -- eyes the shady test has shut.
