Shanghai

To Hawk or Not to Hawk

Street vendors now can feel at ease to cry their wares on Shanghai's hustling and bustling avenues as the municipality has recently given them the green light, reported the Beijing News in March. Street vendors have not been regarded as legitimate businessmen in China for decades, and authorities of many big cities slap a ban on it for fear that hawkers roaming around downtown areas may stain the metropolis' glamorous image. However, the ban has come under heavy criticism recently with locals saying it deprives the street vendors of their right to make a living. "Local authorities should not sacrifice employment opportunities for saving face," Zheng Gongcheng, deputy to the National People's Congress, told the media. According to a report by Xinhua News agency, there are more than 50,000 street stalls without pitch licenses in Shanghai, and those stalls are supporting tens of thousands of families there.

Guangzhou

To the Salon

Reportedly more than 100 female students of Guangzhou Hengfu Senior Middle School made their way to a local beauty salon to trim their hair after they were prohibited from attending classes on the first day of the new school term. The headmaster said the long-haired students violated the school's new regulation aiming to further standardize the students' behavior and encourage them to concentrate more on their studies. A regulation fingernail length may be next.

Shaanxi

Food Safety

KFC is in hot water, err, oil again. After reports that KFC was using the harmful additive Sudan 1 to color food, recent reports accuse the fast food chain of using the same frying oil for as many as 10 days in a row. In Shaanxi province, reports have surfaced that KFC branches are allegedly putting powder purifier into the oil to absorb odor and reduce acidity. Health authorities in Xianyang, Yulin and Xi'an, have inspected KFC outlets and reported the case to the Health Ministry for further investigation. The KFC Corp China argues that their food is in compliance with China's food safety standards. This is the third time KFC has been called into question over food quality in China.

Jiangxi

Evel Farmer Knievel

A 37-year-old farmer in Jiangxi, surnamed Liu, has been practicing one motorcycle stunt for six hours a day since 2001 in an attempt to establish a world record. Farmer Liu will apply for a Guinness world record entry to document his extraordinary motor racing abilities which also include standing, lying down and sleeping on a motorcycle running at high speeds. After driving a motorcycle for six kilometers while standing on it, Liu gained notice from locals. So far, however, there is no record that farmer Liu can successfully parallel park his ride.

Nanjing

Mobile Obsession

Zhang Yi, a senior at a Nanjing university, has owned about 500 mobile phones in the span of nine years; however, he has yet to find his favorite. Zhang's first phone, costing more than ¥8,000, was a gift from his father that inspired Zhang's crazy obsession for buying whatever new style debuted in the phone market. The phone enthusiast usually owns a mobile phone for less than a month, sometimes less than half a day, before imparting it to a friend or selling it at a second-hand market. Zhang can be heard on the street at any given time of the day saying, “Can you hear me now?”

National

Gong on Garbage

Actress Gong Li is less interested in talking about her latest flick, “Hannibal Rising,” and more inclined to discuss the plight of our planet: "Things will become really terrible if we don't take environmental protection more seriously," said Gong. She has submitted a proposal on environmental protection to China's top political advisory body every year since being elected a member in 1998. In this year's proposal, Gong has reminded people of the importance and urgency to process garbage, sewage and excess gas. “Garbage hills are terrible and dangerous. If I had the time, I would take pictures of those garbage heaps to make people aware of the dangers they pose," said Gong.