Beautiful China

News

Charity Begins at Home: China is one of the most popular countries for Westerners looking to adopt children. But today more Chinese than ever are doing the same thing themselves—adopting or providing foster care to thousands of orphans and abandoned kids, almost all of whom are girls.

China more popular than U.S. overseas: The United States’ image is so tattered overseas two years after the Iraq invasion that China, which is ruled by a communist dictatorship, is viewed more favorably than the U.S. in many countries, an international poll found.

A Watchful Eye on China's Blogosphere: China may have some of the world's most active Internet police, who make sure its citizens don't get out of line while they're online. But Hu Zhiguang is out to prove that the blogosphere is nonetheless alive and thriving in China.

US places curbs on Chinese bras: The US has introduced further quotas on Chinese-made clothing exports, intensifying an already fierce trade dispute between the two countries.

Local Story

Special Needs Orphans Get Help: The China Center for Adoption Affairs initiated a humanitarian project to raise money for corrective surgery for orphans in the organization's care. The Tomorrow Plan for Rehabilitation of Handicapped Orphans through Operations began last year and is a three-year effort to raise millions of dollars to help 30,000 orphans.

Beer Can Art

Beer tins-turned-artwork highlighted at Chinese Folk Art Fair: Photos taken on August 30, 2005 during the ongoing Third Chinese Folk Art Fair held in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province. You Shouyi, a famous local artist, has reincarnated some 50,000 empty beer tins into thousand-plus artworks since 1987.

News

Huge Ancient Porcelain Pit Discovered: About 1 million scraps of broken porcelain, some of which may be up to 800 years old, were unearthed recently from an enormous pit in downtown Beijing, the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau announced yesterday.

Media Executives Court China, but Still Run Into Obstacles: Viacom, like many other American media companies, is already active in China. Its MTV network is carried in 10 million homes in Guangdong Province. Two-hour blocks of Nickelodeon programming like "CatDog" and "Wild Thornberries" are beamed on the government-run CCTV to more than 120 million homes.

Confucius's Hometown Renovated: Qufu, the birthplace of China's preeminent philosopher Confucius, plans to restore its ancient city walls and streets ahead of the philosopher's 2556th birthday anniversary, which falls on September 28.

Revolt in Chinese village reflects rising tide of discontent: A telltale scent of insurrection wafts across parts of rural China, and it's filling the air of this industrialized Pearl River Delta village.

Renminbi

New print of RMB in use: 100-yuan bill of the new print of the fifth version of the Renminbi.The People's Bank of China declared at the press conference in Beijing on August 30 that the new print of fifth version of Renminbi (1999 version), in 100 yuan, 50 yuan, 20 yuan, 10 yuan and five yuan notes and one jiao coins, will be in circulation as of August 31.

Lady Bug Sleeping Bag

TJ Maxx has lady bug sleeping bags on sale.

Your little ladybug is certain to love this yellow, ladybug patterned sleeping bag. Cozy and warm sleeping bag comes with a convenient vinyl drawstring bag.

(Thanks Christine from APC!)

Book Review

Ten Thousand Miles Without A Cloud, by Sun Shuyun.

In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang completed one of history's most extraordinary journeys, on pack animals and on foot, through present-day Kirgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, arriving finally in India, the birthplace of Buddhism. He returned almost two decades later with a vast body of Buddhist works in Sanskrit, translations of which revived Buddhism in China and helped its spread through Asia. Almost as soon as Xuanzang returned to China in 645 A.D., his exploits began to inspire books and stories. Now, the latest to follow in his footsteps down the Silk Road is the Chinese-born Sun Shuyun, author of Ten Thousand Miles Without A Cloud.

News

China grapples with legacy of its 'missing girls': China is asking where all the girls have gone. And the sobering answer is that this vast nation, now the world's fastest-growing economy, is confronting a self-perpetuated demographic disaster that some experts describe as "gendercide" -- the phenomenom caused by millions of families resorting to abortion and infanticide to make sure their one child was a boy.

One Billion Couch Potatoes: Chairman Mao's portrait still decorates many households in Yaoli, a former communist guerilla base in China's Jiangxi province. But what mesmerizes the people these days is television.

Females Suicides Happen Most Often in Villages: Gu Xiulian, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and chairperson of the All-China Women's Federation, said this morning that both the Chinese government and ordinary people consider the issue of females suicide to be extremely important and governments have instituted a series of measures.

Shanghai Divorce Rate Goes Up: According to reports of Shanghai's media, a survey of the city's 19 district marriage registration bureaus revealed that last year, 27,374 couples registered for divorces, averaging 75 couples per day, up 38.9 percent over the previous year.

China Related TV

China Sprout posts a much-appreciated weekly guide for China Related TV listings.