Featured Flickr Photo

River of Green


(Courtesy of Rob Millenaar)

Meg Ryan

Meg Ryan Adopts Baby Girl From China: Meg Ryan is set to join Hollywood's elite adoptive mothers. Reports are that Meg had spent a long time trying to adopt and heard that she had been approved late last year.

Meg Ryan To Adopt Chinese Baby?: Meg Ryan is set to join Hollywood's adoptive mothers after reportedly signing up to play mother to a Chinese baby.

Chinese Cartography

Last Monday, I linked to an article about a map suggesting the Chinese had discovered the Americas before Columbus. You can read more about it at this article in the Economist.

The detail on the copy of the map is remarkable. The outlines of Africa, Europe and the Americas are instantly recognisable. It shows the Nile with two sources. The north-west passage appears to be free of ice. But the inaccuracies, also, are glaring. California is shown as an island; the British Isles do not appear at all. The distance from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean is ten times greater than it ought to be. Australia is in the wrong place (though cartographers no longer doubt that Australia and New Zealand were discovered by Chinese seamen centuries before Captain Cook arrived on the scene).

Hogs in the Middle Country

Harley-Davidson going to China: For Ray Ma, freedom on the open road means riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle behind two police cars through the Chinese countryside.

Featured Flickr Photo

Guilin mountains


(Courtesy of fuzheado)

News

China says has new human death from bird flu: A Chinese woman in southwest China has died from bird flu, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, in what would be the country's six human death from the virus if was confirmed.

Guangdong Embattled by Prolonged Drought: South China’s Guangdong Province has been suffering the effects of a drought for the last three months. The provincial meteorological bureau said on Tuesday that the drought might take a turn for the worse.

NPR -- Tackling HIV and AIDS in China

Tackling HIV and AIDS in China: By the end of 2004, an estimated 78 million people worldwide were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. China is not immune to the epidemic. According to 2003 statistics compiled by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, as many as 1.5 million Chinese were thought to be infected with HIV. UNAIDS says China has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world.

News

Bird flu conference opens in China amid pandemic warnings: A two-day international donors' meeting that aims to raise 1.5 billion dollars to help fight bird flu opened in Beijing amid warnings of a "great risk" of a global pandemic.

How hard is it to learn Chinese?: An independent school has become the first in the UK to make Mandarin Chinese compulsory for pupils, reflecting the growing importance of China on the world stage. But it's not an easy language to master.

NPR -- China Moves Against Unsafe Coal Mines

China Moves Against Unsafe Coal Mines: China's government is closing thousands of coal mines in a bid to clean up the world's most dangerous mining industry. China punished more than 100 officials last year for coal mining accidents that killed nearly 6,000 miners. But thousands of unsafe mines remain in business in China, often protected by corrupt officials. Anthony Kuhn reports.

Kim at White Swan?

China hotel battens down amid Kim visit rumors: Tight security around a five-star hotel in southern China on Friday fed speculation North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting as diplomatic efforts to restart talks on the North's nuclear program gathered pace. Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police swarmed in and around the opulent White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, putting up road blocks leading to the hotel. Passers-by and bystanders were turned away.

It was also rumored that Kim was able to get a Coming Home Barbie after considerable negotiation . . .