Summary: Recently, a photograph became famous on Weibo. In the photo, a police car bearing a Fujian province Nanping city license plate was stopped at the side of a Zhejiang province Quzhou city road. A foot was sticking out of the police car and a middle-aged female shoe polisher sat in front of the open door with her head down polishing the shoe. Netizens condemned this police officer for being “too pompous”, while the Nanping Public Security Bureau Weibo account stated that it is currently verifying this matter.

Comments from NetEase:

.网易黑龙江省哈尔滨市网友:

Definitely a temporary worker. I’m just waiting [for it to be declared]…

网易广东省深圳市网友:

I humbly speculate that this time it won’t be blamed on weather, subordinates, temporary workers but instead should be blamed on fake plates.

网易重庆市巴南区网友:

What’s the big deal? The police officer is offering a means of survival for the laid-off migrant worker. The laid-off migrant worker can’t thank him enough!

网易四川省网友 [hjg666666]:

First, he paid money. Second, it wasn’t forced. I don’t know what there is to talk about, [some of you] truly have nothing better to do.

网易北京市手机网友:

What’s the big deal?! This is no longer strange. There are many more things you don’t see!

stone8250 [网易河北省保定市网友]:

If he was driving his own private car and sat in his car to get his shoe polished, no one would criticize him, at most saying this person is of poor character. But since he’s driving a car, using gas, and earning a salary paid for by taxpayers sticking his lousy leg out to have a taxpayer polish his shoe while he should be working, this we have reason to complain about. Let me conclude with one statement here, may the wumao and American running dogs who make internet posts/comments for money all die without descendents. Please compare and contrast and make comments conscientiously.

网易广西南宁市手机网友 [韦东升]:

Disgusting netizens acting self-righteous here. Shameless writer making a big deal out of thing, so anyone who drives a police car can’t get his shoe polished? So public servants can’t go to the market? If they can go to the market, then why can’t they get their shoe polished? Unless he was using coercion, not paying for his shoe to be polished, as long as he is giving money and someone is willing to engage in this transaction, what fucking business it it of yours?

网易江西省网友 [良民证拿来]:

Could such a photograph be found in any other country in the entire world?

网易河南省郑州市网友:

I once went to have my shoe polished and my wife said: Don’t go showing off your wealth by letting others polish your shoes. I asked: They depend on polishing shoes to make money for a living. If you really want to help them then you go let them have work to do. What does this have to do with whether or not one has money?

网易浙江省宁波市手机网友:

After reading so many replies, you all haven’t reached the most important point so let me tell you all what it is: Black leather shoes with flowery socks, extremely tasteless!!!

Comments from Mop:

铁血1983:

Actually there’s nothing really wrong, the main thing is just that their positions in societies are too sensitive, that’s all.

放开那阿妞:

Sigh, this society has completely gone bad, not even knowing basic respect.

全截小森:

Yet another police officer is going to become famous.

solid008:

Even if the impression is bad, what’s wrong with getting his shoes polished, it isn’t as if he isn’t giving money. He’s even providing for her livelihood.

暮紫日橙:

What’s the big deal? Do pol.ice shoes not get dirty and not need polishing?

Source: ChinaSmack.com via NetEase

Abhair póg dom, táim Éireannach!

St. Patricks Day is here and Xiamen Wave has learned of the following events.

The Londoner:

Xiameners,

Those of you who came will remember what a great time St Patricks was at The Londoner last year.
It will be much the same this year.

Anyone dressed as a Leprechaun Will get a free pint of the Black Stuff!
Anyone dressed in green gets either a small Guinness or a Qingdao!!

There will be Homemade Irish Stew!!
Beef and Guinness Pies!!!

Lots of Irish “diddley” music on the jukebox!!!

The Pint ‘O’ Guinness speed competition will be back and I am sure the reigning champion will make an appearance!!
Join the fun!!

Get down to Xiamen’s favourite pub this Thursday.

Coyote Cafe:

St. Patrick’s Day at Coyote!

80 rmb SET DINNER SPECIAL:

Home-made Corned Beef, Potatoes, Cabbage and Carrots & Homemade Bread

Starts at 5:30, and we will serve it until it is GONE!

Thursday – March 17, 2011

DRINK SPECIALS:

All green Drinks ½ off!

Guinness Beer – Buy 1 get 1 free!

The Sports Cafe will also be serving green beer and other specials.

China Central Television news (CCTV) is suspected of having substituted images of a report on its news broadcast (Xinwen lianbo) covering air force training exercises with fighter jet scenes from the Tom Cruise movie, Top Gun.

The reader will do well to remember that old adage about a picture being worth a thousand words. Consider these images below, which on the left feature screen shots of CCTV News and on the right screen shots from the movie.


The air force training exercise, which the newscast reported to have occurred on January 23, reveals a target struck by the air-to-air missile fired by a J-10 fighter aircraft and exploded. There’s no mistaking the similarity to the cinematic scene as depicted below.


Even the flame, smoke and the manner in which the splinters fly look the same. The Chinese Internet buzzed with sharp-eyed users, one of whom noted that the jet used in the broadcast hit was an F-5, which is an American fighter jet and an alien entity in Chinese air force training.

Pointing a finger of blame is difficult, as it is likely that the culprit was someone working alone, chuckling as he (or she) meshed reality and art into one giant embarrassing gaffe.

Users have basked in CCTV’s embarrassment as censors are very strict in China and this showdown opens a box that can never again be closed.

Source: Weird China News

The historic port city of Xiamen – situated in China’s southern Fujian province – has this week been declared the country’s most popular internal destination for the Chinese New Year period and second only to Hong Kong in terms of travel both inside and outside the country.

According to a report released by the China Tourism Academy (http://eng.ctaweb.org) on Wednesday, Xiamen has risen to number two from being the fourth-ranked city for the past two New Year periods.

While Hong Kong is most certainly a Chinese city, its status as a “Special Administrative Region” since reverting to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 means it is still considered “overseas” in terms of such reports and surveys.

Hong Kong expects 650,000 Chinese visitors over the February 3-6 New Year period – a rise of 15 percent – but its tourism chiefs will be looking north with some concern, considering Xiamen has just come off a 20 percent rise in all tourist arrivals in 2010.

Thirty million people took in the city’s sites over the past year, generating an impressive 38.3 billion yuan (4.2 billion euros), with the fact that Xiamen from last April opened its bullet train service – linking the city to major centers such as Fuzhou and Shanghai – being given as one of the reasons for the upsurge.

Xiamen’s tourism chiefs are also putting the rise in numbers down to increased promotion of the city’s attractions, which include its beaches (which look out towards Taiwan), cultural heritage sights such as ancient temples – and the famous Chinese white dolphin.

China’s rapid development over the past 30 years has been blamed for a significant decrease in the numbers of the dolphins – known locally as “giant panda in the sea” – but under state protection since 1988.

A Chinese white dolphin reserve of 5,500 hectares was set up in Xiamen in 1997 and officials say they are only just now seeing the benefits.

“In December, more than 30 dolphins appeared in one group in the Wuyuan Bay of Xiamen,” Chen Bingyu, from the Xiamen Precious and Rare Marine Species Reserve Management Office, told the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. “It’s the first time in more than 20 years.”

According to CTA, China’s 10 most popular New Year destinations in 2011 are:

1) Hong Kong
2) Xiamen
3) Beijing
4) Shanghai
5) Sanya
6) Hangzhou
7) Guangzhou
Shenzhen
9) Chengdu
10) Harbin

For more details on Xiamen and what it has to offer, log onto http://english.xm.gov.cn

About 230 million people are expected to take the train during the official travel period between late January and February 27, railway officials say. Around 30 million travelers will take the plane, and millions more will go by bus.

It’s an annual scrum for tickets to get home.

Zhou Jie is among the luckier ones. Two weeks ago, the 45-year-old migrant managed to snap two train tickets through a scalper, so that she and her husband could return to their home in central Anhui province for the holiday.

“We paid more to get hard-seat tickets,” she tells me by phone from her rural home. “But it’s okay because we’re happy to be together with our children.” She and her husband work as migrant workers in Beijing, while their two adult children remain in their hometown.

For many Chinese, the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is the only time they visit home during the year. “It’s important for us to get together, however briefly,” Zhou says.

Chinese families remain strongly influenced by tradition in the ways they celebrate the holidays.

The most important part of the festival is the nianye fan, or “reunion dinner,” which family members attend in the hours leading to the New Year’s eve.

While eating a feast of traditional food like noodles, fish and dumplings, they gather around the TV set watching the “Spring Festival Eve Gala,” featuring performances by entertainers and celebrities. For over 20 years, the marathon TV extravaganza has been China’s most watched variety show, raking in huge advertising revenues and catapulting artists to stardom.

Setting off fireworks is another enduring tradition.

At the height of Chairman Mao’s rule in the 1970s, Beijing prohibited fireworks, ostensibly because they were “bourgeois” and a “waste of money.”

Years after Mao’s death, the practice returned with a vengeance after authorities lifted the ban. Two years ago, fireworks set off a huge fire that gutted a brand-new hotel in central Beijing, briefly prompting calls for a return of the ban.

Days earlier police advised Beijing residents to “set off fireworks in a civilized way,” but that caution fell on deaf ears. The stroke of midnight into February 3 brought a flurry of fireworks that turned parts of Beijing into virtual war zones. According to local folklore, fireworks drive away monsters and evil spirits.

What does the New Year offer?

2011 is the Year of the Metal Rabbit.

Once upon a time, according to local folklore, the Jade Emperor thought he would assign an animal to each year so people could more easily remember the Zodiac cycle. So he called for a meeting with all the animals and decided he would choose 12 of them to be the Zodiac animals, depending on the sequence of their arrival.

Nimble and lucky, the Rabbit was fourth.

Conventional wisdom says the Rabbit traveled through an arduous path in order to reach its goal to meet the Emperor. Every time the rabbit hops forward, it looks back to see if it’s going the right way.

That could be an apt metaphor for the way China is moving. As China struggles to curb its overheated real estate market and its high inflation rate, the Year of the Rabbit may be an opportune time for Beijing’s leaders to take a step back to review its progress and plot its next steps. Top Chinese leaders underscore the need to maintain social stability and harmony. A week before the Spring Festival, Premier Wen Jiabao led a group of senior officials to hear complaints from farmers and migrant workers who trekked to Beijing seeking redress. Typically, their grievances would include cases of land grabs, unpaid wages and official malfeasance.

It was the first time a Chinese premier had met with petitioners. “Respect the opinions of farmers, give them reasonable compensation and protect their rights,” Premier Wen urged the officials

Will the Year of the Rabbit be a good year?

Chinese astrologer Alvin Ang of Bazi Destiny foresees “the global situation may be affected by serious political change and global calamities.”

Hong Kong-based feng shui master Joseph Wong gives a different take. “This coming year everything will be better than last year,” he told CNN’s Pauline Chiou. “They will see business go upwards mostly, but take care with the shares and stocks. There will be some fluctuations in August and September.”

That does not directly concern me because I do not play the stock market, but I was curious to hear what Master Wong said of people born in the Year of the Rabbit. I am a “Rabbit.”

Rabbits tend to be cunning and creative, he said, and get along well with people born in the Dog, Pig and Sheep years.

What is Wong’s advice on prosperous feng shui?

The luckiest direction this year, he reckoned, is the northwest. To bring harmony in one’s home, he counsels placing the bed in the northwest part of the bedroom. For good fortune, he says one’s desk must be in the northwest part of the office.

Whether we take this seriously or with a pinch of salt, the Year of the Rabbit could turn out to be full of twists and turns.

Article: Jaime FlorCruz
Source: CNN

But whoever would have thought that fake laundry soap, (Tide detergent, to be specific) would be a big seller anywhere?

Last September in Seattle, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized 5,000 boxes of the counterfeit laundry detergent from a ship that had arrived from China. It is estimated that shipment would have generated a $4,000 profit, which may not seem like a lot for pirated goods, but ever little piece of booty is ill-gotten and adds up.

“A detergent does seem a little weird, but you have to understand that it’s 300 or 400 percent profit. The fakes could have ended up in mom-and-pop groceries or maybe some outdoor market…the counterfeit detergents were found because the technicians saw something in the import manifest on their computers that caught their attention,” says Judy Staudt, supervisory import specialist with the CBP.

The CBP now is the largest law enforcement agency in the country, with about 58,000 employees. Nationwide, 95 percent of overseas cargo moves through Seattle’s ports and it comes in a million 40-foot metal containers, all of which have to be inspected.

Counterfeiting costs American businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually, according to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition and oddly enough, the same techniques employed to search for terrorist weapons after 9/11 (detecting radiation through transported containers via a portal monitor) also detect counterfeit detergent.

When a sampling of the detergent boxes was opened, agents noticed that all the boxes had the label “Made in USA”. Each box also listed the weight in kilograms, not pounds, using a comma as in “3,6 kg,” which is how weights are listed in many countries. In America, however, it would read “3.6.” From a distance, the color printing looks much like the original, but a closer look reveals a fuzziness, such as that which occurs when one takes a picture of a picture, which is exactly what happened in this case.

The boxes of detergent are now stored in a warehouse and will remain there until the investigation is finished. The shipment may well end up in a landfill.

China has more school children wearing eye-glasses than any other nation in the world. The national educational emphasis on rote learning enforces a strict regimen where pupils spend at least eight hours every week day sitting in class, reading and writing. In some boarding schools, the children start school at 7am and finish at 9pm, five days out of every week.

It shouldn’t be and yet it has been a surprise to educators that this kind of schooling has taken its toll on young bodies. The tired children naturally seek some respite by laying their heads on their desks and viewing the reading material from a distance.

This is the source of the problem and the government in Qingdao has finally addressed it, albeit not the teaching methods. The local education bureau has distributed, free of charge, 10,000 anti-myopia devices. The device is a fixed vertical bar that prevents the children from stooping forward.

It is surprising that China has not advanced in its educational techniques considering how progressive the culture is in so many other ways.

Such an anti-myopic device is no more than a band-aid on a system that is failing its children, if not in the essentials of reading mastery then in their general health and vision as adults.

Source:Weird China News

The Xiamen Typhoons are looking forward to getting 2011 underway on a positive note before their tour to Tainan the following weekend.
It promises to be an excellent way to spend Saturday afternoon and
refreshments, as always, will be supplied by The Londoner bar and the
Xiamen Typhoons grill.

Kick off is at 2pm and entry is free.

So make sure you get down to Gulangyu this Saturday and while you are enjoying the game be sure to grab a few cold ones from the Londoner tent and some hot eats from the nourishment tent. This is destined to be a classic match and definitely one you can’t bloody afford to miss!

For more info, check out these official flyers:

The police in China know they have a severe problem on their hands (or more correctly, on their roads) and they are doing their best to combat it.

The terrible truth, however, is that just as in other parts of the world, people in China drink and drive every day of the week.

Last month, while working on Haicang Bridge, several construction workers were killed in two separate traffic accidents, both of which involved drivers who were behind the wheel and intoxicated.

For the law-abiding citizens of Xiamen taking care of business and doing their best to follow safety rules, driving around town can have lethal repercussions.

People are understandably scared as their nation has slowly but surely gained the reputation of having the highest number of motor vehicle crashes and deaths in the world.

Traffic police have promised the public that they will crack down on drunk driving cases as the Chinese New Year draws near. The police plan to take drunk drivers into custody for longer periods of time and insure that their driving licenses will be suspended if they refuse to comply with regulations.

World wake up, or as Benjamin Franklin once said:

“We will all hang together or most assuredly, we will all hang separately.”

Source: Weird China News