Via Cherwell.org I don’t normally read the Harvard Crimson, but I’m going to guess that newspaper just got its finest scoop of the year. Bo Guagua corresponded with staff writers Hana N. Rouse and Justin C. Worland (what’s with the middle initials? Must… suppress… prejudice), and wrote: Recently, there has been increasing attention from the... Read more »
On Sunday at the Beijing Motor Show, a press event was held to introduce Lamborghini's newest design, an SUV (!) known as the "LB736." It was a pretty big deal, for reasons that car aficionados know all too well. Lamborghini only produces two other models, the Gallardo and Aventador, and for its third model to be an SUV, it better make claims that the Urus is the world's most powerful and least polluting (it makes those claims, of course). And speaking of world, the model's global debut was in Beijing. Think about that. So the China auto market kind of matters, I think that's what we're illustrating here?
Taiwanese American heartthrob Leehom Wang performed "As Time Goes By" on Monday at the star-studded opening ceremony of the 2nd Beijing International Film Festival. All in all, Wang did a commendable job with Herman Hupfeld's song -- popularized by Dooley Wilson in Casablanca, of course -- but in front of a national audience -- the show was televised on CCTV-6 -- he flubbed the famous line, "You must remember this, / A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh" ("The fundamental things apply / As time goes by"). He said "a smile is just a sigh." Oops.
"What is it with people falling through the sidewalk in China?" asks Katie, who brought my attention to the above, which happened in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. Remember the woman in Beijing who was plunged into boiling water when the ground inexplicably gave out from under her feet? How can you not remember. Sidewalk. Walking. SUBMERGED BY SCALDING WATER. DISASTER. She would perish from her injuries, which we were told included her skin and flesh getting “almost separated.”
Posted two days ago to Youku (embedded after the jump for those in China), this video currently has 785,000 views. Tang Zhenping, according to the description, is a 55-year-old farmer from Beijing’s Tangzhou Wangji Yongle Town who spent 10,000 yuan to build an electric car that can travel 140 kilometers per charge. Apparently at high speeds, the fan attached to the front of the car begins generating electricity that powers the vehicle in addition to the generator in the back -- however unlikely, it must be said, this seems. Everything about the car is nonetheless impressive, and it reportedly only took three months to design and build.
By now, multiple angles of American David Potter traversing the Enshi Grand Canyon in Hubei province are online, but no matter how you look at it -- even knowing he successfully crossed the 40-meter canyon that's 1,800 meters above sea level without falling to his death (because he was wearing no safety harness or parachute) -- it's still harrowing. A slackline, for those who aren't familiar, is different from a tightrope in that there's more stretching, like "a long and narrow trampoline," says Wikipedia.
This video has absolutely no redeemable value. In fact, the Chinese woman chirping Harper’s middle name — Seven – in two languages isn’t even all that interesting. And Victoria Beckham herself? I can think of precisely nothing to say, except maybe the almost-kind-of-newsworthy fact that she was in Beijing over the weekend to promote her new... Read more »
I used to write the blog Heart of Beijing from behind the Great Firewall. Every sporadically, we’ll take a blast to the past. The following was first published on January 4, 2012. This latest from the New York Times is about President Hu Jintao’s comments regarding soft culture. Apparently China is losing the battle to the U.S.... Read more »
