Guangdong

Job Cops

Things are getting a little tougher for foreigners looking for work all over China. First it was a period of heightened enforcement in Beijing as police checked foreigners’ work permits, especially those working under H visas. Now Guangdong has drafted new regulations banning foreigners from certain types of jobs and larding restrictions on other types. According to government officials, the move is intended to cut crime among the growing number of foreigners illegally residing and working in Guangdong. The report estimated there are 10,000 foreigners living in Guangdong, many of them financially insecure and involved in crime, such as drug trafficking, fraud and theft. Bad foreigners!

U.S.

Duck Flies East

The United States government has confirmed that Dubya, lame duck prez that he is, will definitely be in attendance at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Where is he staying? Where will he party? Will he participate in our Day in the Life column? We wait with breath bated.

Beijing

Party Congress Wrap Report

The big show that was the 17th Party Congress wrapped up last month in Beijing. The big winners? Hu Jintao, who was cemented in as PRC president for another term, Shanghai party chief Xi Jinping and Liaoning party chief Li Keqiang, who as expected both ascended to the elite nine of the Standing Committee (the highest decision making body in the land), and finally the people of Beijing, who enjoyed a solid week of blue skies and record low air pollution. Would that they had one every couple of months!

Amsterdam

Docu-drama

Contrary to popular belief, Chinese cinema is far from dead. Aside from the recent art house offerings of Ang Lee and Jiang Wen, there are a couple new documentaries scheduled to go wide in 2007. Storm under the Sun is a political documentary of China in the 1950’s, turning on the dramatic fall of writer and intellectual Hu Feng and those who went down with him. It premieres at the International Documentary Film festival in Amsterdam this November. The second concerns favorite rock son, Cui Jian, tracing out his rise from rebellious rocker to political untouchable to folk rock hero-dom.

Shaanxi

Rare Tiger Spotted

An extremely rare South China tiger was recently photographed in the wild according to Xinhua, the first such documented sighting since 1964. Experts believe that fewer than 30 South China tigers, the world’s smallest tiger subspecies, still live in the wild, down from thousands in the 1950's when they were declared “pests.” We wonder what the South China tiger was doing in northern Shaanxi province? Lost perhaps?

Xinjiang

Park Life

Government authorities in Xinjiang are planning on integrating the Kanas Lake geological park and the surrounding areas into a national park, in the process creating the largest park in the world encompassing some 10,000 sq. kilometers. When completed, the granddaddy of national parks, Yellowstone in the United States, will be relegated to second place.

Three Gorges

Dam Troubles

State and foreign media are reporting that an additional three to four million people will be relocated from the shores of the massive lake that was once the Yangtze River. Explanations range from concerns over unexpected pollution to unexpected landslides. The New York Times reported that these landslides are causing 50 meter megawaves in the lake behind the dam which, in turn, cause more landslides. Surf’s up, dude!

Hong Kong

Art Attack

The top price arms race in Chinese contemporary art took a dramatic leap forward as Yue Minjun's oil painting “Execution” changed hands for 2.9 million pounds at a Sotheby's auction last month. The 1995 painting depicts several of Yue’s trademark big-mouthed laughing figures in Tiananman Square.