The Wall Street Journal revealed on Friday that China's airports are the world's worst for flight delays. "According to FlightStats, which tracks airport statistics, Beijing’s airport ranks dead last among the world’s top 35, with fully 82% of flights failing to leave on time," WSJ reported. "Second worst was Shanghai, at 71%." Numbers, numbers. We could link to a string of posts from our archives with picture and video evidence, but none of it will feel as real as our memories -- after all, we've all experienced the particular nightmare of flying in China.
Flight delays are frustrating, and if you, in the midst of a four-hour delay, have never allowed yourself to think barbarous, shamefully uncivilized and cruel thoughts, it doesn't make you a better person: you're just that smug asshole everyone always wants to punch.
But no one actually does punch you, and have you ever wondered why?
Tang Hui, the mother of an 11-year-old kidnapping, rape, and forced prostitution victim, was sent to a reeducation through labor camp last August for daring to raise her voice to say her daugther's rapists got off easy. The decision sparked outrage, and though Tang only served one week of her 18-month sentence, her case may have been the impetus behind proposed reforms to dissolve forced labor camps.
Citing "extremely bad influences," the police bureau in Tangshan, Hebei province has fired two traffic wardens who were caught on video fighting in an intersection, completely neglecting their job.
Hundreds of residents staged a not-in-my-backyard protest in Jiangmen, Guangdong province on Friday to oppose plans to build a uranium processing plant. SCMP reports that the protest, a restrained and civil affair, was largely organized via social media. The uranium complex, featuring three 30-hectare plants, would have been the nation's biggest, reports NY Times.
Lionel Messi endorses WeChat, i.e. Weixin, i.e. the next Sina Weibo, as some people have called it on account of its functionality and interstellar growth. You can send texts for free (pending Internet connection), start group chats, and deliver photos and voice messages. And as Messi demonstrates in the above 30-second ad, you can communicate via video, too -- Instagram, Sina Weibo, and Vine all in one.
In Xuzhou, Jiangsu, a woman in the waiting hall of the high-speed rail station used one swift punch to take down a thief trying to escape his pursuers. He never saw it coming.
A woman in Guangzhou who saw a neighbor's pooch mounting her purebred is calling it rape and demanding 100,000 yuan in compensation. She's also threatened to "castrate" her neighbor's dog, in Global Times's words, which brings up the all-important question: what the hell does that mean? Is she planning on slicing off the dog's dick with a box cutter? Perform sorcery on it like the sadistic wizard did to Varys? Like Fulbert did to Abélard, whereupon the neutered mutt enters a canine monastery?
On Wednesday, AFP reported that Manchester United, the storied 135-year-old football club, finally joined Twitter and Sina Weibo. It has 446,714 followers on Twitter as of this moment and a modest-by-comparison 171,510 followers on Weibo, but realize this: Arsenal, which has had a Sina Weibo account for at least a year and has posted 7,238 messages compared to Man U's 46, has only 88,815 followers. Even in the realm of Chinese social media, the Red Devils reign supreme.
