News

Brain buzz that proves Chinese is harder to learn than English: It's official: Chinese is more difficult than English. The Chinese need both sides of the brain to grapple with challenges of Mandarin, but English speakers listen with only half their minds on the job.

China dismisses official for fathering seven children: The ruling Communist party has expelled a senior official of a township in north China's Hebei province for fathering seven children—a violation of the country's one child per family norm.

'Bigfoot' sighting in China: Chinese authorities are investigating several apparent sightings of a legendary 'ape-like' beast at a nature reserve in the central Hubei province.

Chinese Proverb

“A speck on a jade stone won't obscure its radiance.”

Chinese Pinyin: Xia2 bu4 yan3 yu4.

Meaning: A shortcoming will not write off one's merits.

[from Haiwang Yuan' s Welcome to China]

Featured Link

The Journey™ to China — A weblog of a couple adopting from China.

News

China's new bridge: Images of the world's longest steel arch bridge which has just opened in Shanghai.

Floods, landslides kill 32 in China: Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain have killed at least 32 people and left thousands homeless in China in the past week.

China Opposes US Report on Human Rights: China advises the United States to devote more attention to problems of its own, including the improvement of its human rights record, and to refrain from intervening in the domestic affairs of others under the pretext of human rights.

News

China admits sharp drug abuse rise: Quoting government statistics, the official Xinhua news agency said that there had been an 11% rise in the number of drug users since 2001.

Ancient wine found in China: State media said that when Chinese archaeologists unearthed a large bronze jar in the Western city of Xi'an they discovered about five litres of light green rice wine inside.

China — A chronology of key events

Foreigner's T-shirt Advice Raises Hackles

A foreigner in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, enraged local people for wearing a T-shirt that carried "10 admonishments to Chinese." Locals said their national self-esteem was hurt and asked the foreigner to remove the T-shirt and apologize.

The admonishments included "Do not stare at foreigners," "Do not say 'hello' or 'OK' (in English) to foreigners," "Allow foreigners to check in at inexpensive hotels," "Charge foreigners the same as Chinese" and "Do not change foreign currency from foreigners." [link]

Here is a link for some tips on Chinese ettiquette.

Big News!

Resumption of Normal Adoptive Formalities of Travelling to China: Seeing that the World Health Organization formally announced that it lifted its travel advice to China, and removed China from the list of areas with recent local transmission of SARS epidemic, the China Center of Adoption Affairs (the CCAA) decided to resume the normal adoptive formalities of travelling to China after giving a report to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and getting its approval.

News

China Bans Torture of Illegal Migrants: China has announced a ban on torture, extortion and beatings in holding centers used to detain illegal migrant workers. The government hopes the move will end abuses in a system designed to prevent rural migrants from flooding China's cities.

Hong Kong SARS-free, declares WHO: Hong Kong was removed from the WHO list of areas affected by SARS on Monday, drawing a line under the worst crisis faced by the territory since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Chinese Character Flashcards 888

This is an indispensable resource for learning Chinese characters. The flashcards are high quality and a perfect size that balances readability and portability. The front of the card contains the character in large font, and also the frequency of usage, character radical, traditional character equivalent (if different), and stroke order. The back of the card contains the pinyin pronunciation, the definition of the character, and a number of words that contain the character, along with each definition.

The flashcards have only one drawback. Because of a lack of space, the stroke orders are sometimes abbreviated, combining a few steps. It isn't always apparent which of the combined strokes should be written first. Stroke order aside, this is the best set of Chinese-language flashcards on the market.

 

Chinese Proverb

“A book holds a house of gold”

Chinese Pinyin: Shu1 zhong1 zi4 you3 qian1jin1 wu1.

Meaning: It is a motto adults use to encourage youngsters to study. If you study hard, you'll have a good job and a chance to make good money.

[from Haiwang Yuan's Welcome to China]

News

Goodbye to China: I believe however that the speed of change in China is now so fast that within the next decade the stereotypes will be shattered—on both sides. [Includes comments about abandoned children.]

Chinese Blacklist: With apologies to former staffers of the Beijing New Times, here are the seven most nauseating things about the Chinese government's recent crackdown on journalists and dissidents.

2,000-Year-Old Liquor: Archaeologists in western China discovered five earthenware jars of 2,000-year-old rice wine in an ancient tomb.

News

Encephalitis outbreak in China: An outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has killed 18 children and infected more than 200 others in southern China's Guangdong province.…Japanese encephalitis is a mosquito-borne disease which attacks the brain and the spinal cord, and is endemic to many parts of Asia.

Photos of the Three Gorges Dam

• China's dam project
• Three Gorges waters rise
• Three Gorges trials

News

Chinese Christians arrested: The authorities in China have arrested 12 members of an underground Christian church. At least eight of those arrested face imprisonment in a labour camp on charges of engaging in "feudalistic superstition". The arrests are part of a continuing crackdown on churches operating out of private homes in the country. Although Chinese law recognises religious freedom, the Communist authorities ban all religious activities which are not officially endorsed by the government.…A government official told the BBC that eight of the detainees had been sent for re-education through labour, effectively a prison sentence that under Chinese law requires no trial.

China scraps migrant law: A leading human rights group has praised the Chinese Government for scrapping a controversial rule which allowed extra-judicial detention of the country's huge floating population. The New York-based Human Rights in China group described the repeal of the regulation that let police round up peasants looking for jobs in cities as a step in the right direction.

Couple breathe easier after adoption venture: Bob Glise might deserve a little something extra this Father's Day, considering the lengths he went to for his new adopted daughter, Annie Li. Glise traveled halfway around the world to China—taking seven airline flights and risking exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome—and picked up 9-month-old Annie from the orphanage, completed the adoption process after a few bureaucratic scares, brought her home to Onalaska, and endured a self-imposed 10-day quarantine for just him and Annie.

Freedom of the press in China

Chinese journalists say that on June 2 editors relayed to them the first extensive list of banned topics issued since March's National People's Congress, when a new president and premier took office.

Among the taboo subjects: military doctor Jiang Yanyong, who blew the whistle on Sars; negative comparisons of China's medical system with those overseas; a revisionist historical television drama; prostitution among female university students in the city of Wuhan; the bribery case of a municipal party secretary in Heilongjiang province; and details of a submarine accident first reported by the Xinhua news agency on May 2.

In addition, the new instructions decree that natural disasters and accidents should be reported only by local media, not by the national media.

Chinese Treasure Trove

Crammed into a nondescript house in suburban Los Angeles were roughly 10,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain and pottery, some up to 2,000 years old, so densely packed that any movement threatened to send them crashing to the floor. Some were still encrusted with coral, evidence of their hidden life for centuries under the sea. [article]

The New York Times also has a short slideshow.

Computer [Great] Wallpaper

This is a photo a friend took. It makes an excellent background for your computer monitor.

PC Instructions: To determine what size you need, right click your desktop and select Properties >> Setting, and look at your screen resolution. Click the appropriate link below to load the image in your browser. Right click the image, and select "Set as Background."

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1280x960] [1600x1200]