National News: The Torch Arrive

Official arrival of the flame ignites Olympic fever in China
On Monday, March 31, the Olympic flame makes its China debut, exactly 130 days before the Opening Ceremony. Beijing will party for a day, with all the action broadcast live by CCTV, before the torch boards a plane and heads for Almaty to kick off its world tour. The torch will circle the globe, hitting 23 major cities on all continents (except Antarctica). Sure, it's not as hot a ticket as Celine Dion's “Taking Chances” tour, but, then again, Celine wasn't invited to play Pyongyang! The torch makes landfall on the Chinese mainland on May 4 in Sanya. Over the next three months it will plane, train and automobile its way across the nation until the final lap in the Bird's Nest on August 8. The signature event during the final China-leg is carrying the torch to the top of Mount Everest. The Olympic Committee plans to pull off this unprecedented feat by lighting a second Olympic torch (actually a “lantern” in the official parlance) which will be carried to the summit by a team of climbers in May when climactic conditions are ideal. When the flame reaches the top, the main relay will stop momentarily. Despite recent reports that the Chinese side of Everest has been closed to climbing this season, BOCOG is pushing ahead with its Everest plan.

The Net: Get Connected
How much would you pay for the same speedy, stable Internet service that you get back in your home country totally devoid of those pesky “connection reset” problems? A thousand U.S. dollars per year? Try US$40. That's how much a virtual private network (or, VPN) costs and, according to Atlantic journalist James Fallows, it's what every foreign business in China uses to keep the communication lines open and flowing. Fallows recently wrote about VPNs (www.theatlantic.com) and it blew us away. No more Google crashes? Every episode of Lost at your fingertips in real-time? That's about the size of it. Fallows uses WiTopia, but if that's too complex, here's a tip: connect from “https://” and watch your gmail experience miraculously improve.

CHINA VS. WORLD

China Says:
MLB Games Educate, Exhilarate China Daily
"Fans were great-I saw guys dancing between innings," said Padres second baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

Chinese Premier Underscores Emancipation of Mind, Particularly by Leaders Xinhua
“We have to free the minds of everyone, particularly of leaders, so that everyone can have independent thought, critical thinking and innovation capabilities.”

UN Urges Better Coordinated Fight against AIDS Xinhua
"We are at the crossroads in this epidemic.”

In a Flash, Old Woman Becomes Monkey China Daily
Yu Jian, 79, a white-haired old woman in Yinchuan, is able to perfectly mimic the motions of a monkey.

The World Says
Playing in China, Chipping at a Wall New York Times
“I had no idea what the players were doing, but it was fun to come here anyway.”

Chinese Net Nanny on Rampage Danwei.org
“This is going to be quite a spring time in Beijing.”

AIDS Kebabs liuzhou.blog-city.com
“China Mobile informed me yesterday that there is a plot to spread HIV and AIDS through Xinjiang barbecue and that it is dangerous to eat it!”

DIGITS

➜ 224,130
How much in RMB an athlete will reportedly be paid by the Chinese government for earning a gold medal at the 2008 Games.
➜ 4,800
Beginning in February, the amount of monthly income expats can earn before accruing taxes. For locals, the amount was raised to 2,000.
➜ 40
While the Bohai Sea only accounts for 2.6 percent of China's territorial waters, the country empties 40 percent of its untreated waste into this northeastern sea, otherwise known as the Yellow Sea.