China

Car Models on the Rise

At auto shows in China, more people come to view the models than the sky-high prices of the luxury cars. The leggy showgirls have quickly become an indispensable part of Chinese car exhibitions, which are beginning to exhibit more living beauties than automobiles. “I’m here to see beautiful girls. It would be dull and unattractive if they didn't have models,” said a visitor at the Qingdao auto show. The work often proves to be quite lucrative for the models; as in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing they can earn up to ¥3,000 per day. Car models in smaller cities, however, earn fewer than ¥1,000 daily.

Sichuan

Edible Art

Visitors to Sichuan’s Pixian are in for a treat. China’s first ever Sichuan cuisine-themed museum opened last month and features a rich collection of bronze pottery, porcelain and wood cookers spanning a 2,000 year time period. Numerous fans are flocking to the museum where Pixian’s famous chili bean paste seasoning is put to use on site by the astonishing kitchen skills of renowned Sichuan chefs. Surely, this is not your ordinary museum where voices are kept to a whisper.

Beijing

Dream Garden

Come October, Beijing’s Huairou District will be home to “Grand View Garden”—the shooting base for the TV series “The Dream of the Red Mansion.” Located beside the lake resort of Yanqi, the new garden will closely follow descriptions from the novel. There is plenty of spending room—total investment in the construction is to reach ¥1 billion. Construction and decoration will begin this month and are expected to be finished by September. The garden will be open to tourists after filming.

Zhejiang

The New Life Preserver

Thanks to an umbrella, a teenage girl in Zhejiang’s Jingning survived a six-story fall. Zhang Haijin was using an umbrella to ward off wind while hanging clothes on her roof when a sudden gust caused her to lose her balance. Medical reports show that the girl escaped with only a couple of bone fractures in her chest and she is now in stable condition. The umbrella, which served as a parachute, undoubtedly saved the girl’s life, doctors say.

Shanghai

Guinness Pinwheels

Primary and secondary school students in Shanghai made a total of 81,863 pinwheels for a citywide charity campaign to raise money for needy and migrant children. Haha TV, a children’s channel operated by Shanghai Media Group, donated ¥1 to the Shanghai Charity Foundation for each completed pinwheel. In addition, the colorful paper exhibit at Century Park in Shanghai Pudong set a Guinness world record for a display with the largest number of pinwheels.

Pixian

Invincible Man

One hundred-year-old Zhang Shuqing from Sichuan reveals that smoking every day and drinking hard liquor after every meal are his secrets to longevity. He estimates that in his lifetime he has consumed 15 tons of liquor and more than a ton of tobacco. The centenarian is in good health and does not plan to ever change his hard living ways.

Fujian

To Bee or not to Bee

Huang Yuannong, a bee-keeper in Quanzhou, Fujian, accom-plished the amazing feat of having 120,000 bees crawl over his body. The first person in the province to successfully achieve this, Huang planned this activity immediately after last year’s success when he allowed 20,000 bees to settle on his face. The beekeeper intended to make a Guinness record, but fell short by about 80,000 bees. Better luck next year, Huang!

China

Crack Down on Porn

Zhang Meimei, director of the research center on sex education at Capital Normal University, is appealing for the introduction of a rating system to purify the Internet. Zhang claims that the 370 million sexually explicit websites are putting the country’s 20 million users under the age of 18 at risk. Departments in law enforcement around China have since launched a campaign to clean up the Internet and have deleted over 60,000 posts and ordered the closure of more than 2,000 sites.

Shanghai

Couch Potato Families

The love of the Internet and watching TV has replaced the desire for physical activities in many Shanghai homes. Citing a recent survey by two government-backed organizations, the Youth Daily reported that more than half of the 1,084 surveyed families, with a child aged between 3 and 6, prefer to spend their leisure time with stationary entertainment, such as electronic games and DVDs. Pressures from work and family were the main excuses provided by the parents who no longer engage in sports; children from only 271 families responded that they follow their parents in doing exercises.