An empty glass bottle labeled with beatific or encouraging words, sold in ’spiritual stores,’ has become a favorite among white-collar workers in Beijing.

The ’spiritual containers’ have been given light, wish-inspiring names, such as ‘everyday is Sunday’ and ‘Beijing’s blue sky’ and range in price from RMB15 to 35.

The owner of one such underground shop in Beijing, a man in his early twenties, told the Beijing Evening News that the empty bottles are produced in Hangzhou, and labeled in Beijing.

The most coveted bottles in his shop are those with the motto ‘away from the keyboards’, which are priced at RMB35.

He said his store has many regular customers, as the bottles are thought to be a form of psychotherapy.

Lu Qibin, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said the emergence of spiritual commodities reflects the spiritual crises faced by people in modern society.
Or, an alternative theory, someone has thought of an easy way to make money.
Source: China.org.cn

A Chongqing municipality man who went on a sightseeing trip with some 30 friends was nearly thrown out of his home by his wife after she discovered a note in his bag which she thought was referring to ’street girls’.

The characters for xiaojie (street girl) and xiaozu (group) are similar when written in Chinese.

The 40-year-old man, surnamed Chen, protested his innocence and called on 15 of his friends to confirm his story.

Chen’s wife said, ‘I found a notebook in his bag saying six street girls cost 600 yuan. I felt so angry. How could he do that?” She admitted that she had been considering divorce.

Fortunately for Chen his friends convinced his wife that the ’street girls’ referred to the six groups of his party.
Source: China Daily News

This is not a news story but it has not been widely publicized and is totally touching.

Over 50 years ago, Liu, a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu. At the time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman.

To avoid the market gossips, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing area. In the beginning, they had nothing.

During the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began, and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.

Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, ‘My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she doesn’t go down the mountain that much.’

In 2006, their story had became one of the top 10 love stories from China, collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the ‘love ladder’ and the place they lived as a museum.

One of the attractions of writing a post like this that the news may be quirky but it may not always be true. One would be deeply suspicious of the following:

Xiang Chen, from Hunan province, can write amazing calligraphy with his eye. He can hold paint brushes, some as big as 4.4 pounds, under his eyelid and literally write and paint with his eye.

34 year-old Chen discovered his eyes were different from other people when he was 16. He came home one day, from his construction work, and surprised to see that both of his eyes were full of sand and yet he didn’t feel any discomfort or pain.

Chen even tried poking sticks into his eyes but all he felt was a minor itchy sensation and it actually felt relaxing and good to him. Outside of just painting and writing, Chen can also hold a stick in his eye and play the piano.

Doctors have checked Chen out and say that his eyes are no different than anyone else’s.

There used to be a column called ‘Believe it or not’. Perhaps we should change the title of this column.
Source: Weird News Asia

Shanghai subway authorities apologized to a Chinese couple videotaped hugging and kissing on a subway platform and dismissed an employee involved in uploading the video which drew thousands of hits.

The company found three staff were responsible for taking and uploading the video. Two had already left the company and the other was dismissed after the incident caused ‘public uproar’.

Shanghai Metro said, ‘We have wrapped up an internal investigation and found the videotape was uploaded by people who had worked for Shanghai metro.We made formal apologies and are negotiating with the couple over compensation.’

The three-minute footage was uploaded online earlier this week, attracting thousands of hits on sites such as YouTube and sina.com. It is a security camera shot, not the least sexy and does not compare with our illustration.
Source: Reuters

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee has agreed to let an 81-year-old man in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province, carry the Olympic torch.

Wu Renbao, party secretary of Huaxi Village in Jiangyin, co-signed a letter with the local sports bureau saying he is qualified to serve as a torch bearer.

Wu, who is in good health, says he can run at least 1,000 m. Each day, he walks more than 5 km.
Source: China Daily

A plague of rats has been threatening many families living in the skyscrapers of Changsha, capital of Hunan province.

Many rats have been found in the apartments above the 15th story. Local experts said the rats have adapted to life in the clouds.

Getting rid of the rats has become a full-time job for some residents, who have deployed mousetraps, squirrel cages and rat poison. But the rats keep coming back.

What they need is a Pied Piper of Changsha. It is not a job that is readily filled.
Source: China Daily

Traditional Chinese roast duck chain Quanjude, which has already upset purists by changing its English name to “Quanjude Peking Roast Duck — Since 1864″, now intends to use electric ovens instead of wood.

The China Youth Daily reports the shocking news that the new method applies German-developed computer technology to roast Peking Duck instead of the age-old method of chefs turning the ducks on a spit in a firewood oven,

Han Xiaofen was quoted by the newspaper as saying, ‘We commoners not only eat Quanjude duck for its flavor, but also for the hundreds of years of tradition and culture that our ancestors left to us.’

This is serious stuff. 3,066 people were surveyed and 77% were opposed to using electric roasters, and 63% were worried that the move would popularize the brand as a fast-food chain.

Quanjude, whose history dates back to the Qing Dynasty in 1864, raised RMB388 million on the Shenzhen bourse in November when it became the first Chinese food and beverage company to go public. The company which sells more than three million ducks a year at its nine restaurants and 61 franchised outlets.

This writer is not the person to comment. He has tried the stuff and dislikes it. He prefers his mother’s Sunday roast and she was a lousy cook making up for it by being a good writer.
Source: Yahoo

This story dates back to October last year in its original Chinese version in Sina but this is the first English translation I have seen.

A five storey ‘haunted’ building in the Guangxi province of China scared off most potential owners.

Anyone who lived in the house, heard horrible sounds coming from somewhere in the house.

In ten years, the house has been sold to four different owners, and soon after each moved in, they moved out because of the haunting.

The building was originally valued at about $34,000, but with the haunting no one wanted to buy it. In the end two brothers got it for $6,500.

After several nights of searching, they figured out the noise sounded like something flapping in the water and it came from the bathroom pipe on the first floor.

The decided to break the pipe open. Inside about ten catfish were found swimming in the sewer. Two were about 10 pounds and the rest were about 5 pounds each.

Now that the ghost is gone, the price tag of the house has moved up over $133,000.
Source: Sina.com

A Chinese middle school has ordered children to feed pigs three times a day.

Parents have complained it is denying their children a proper education.

According to the Beijing News, Chunchang Nanlu Middle School on the southern holiday resort island of Hainan had used RMB10,000 ($1,400) in poverty alleviation funds to buy 36 piglets.

The newspaper said, ‘Besides raising pigs, the students must also grow vegetables as part of a compulsory class.’

One parent said, ‘Each pig can be sold for RMB1,600 ($220) with each class splitting the profit of RMB1,000 ($130), so of course it is advantageous for the school to continue raising pigs.’ One would have thought it would be excellent training for the students in making money from simple projects.

Many of the parents think otherwise although the school maintains the class is good for students’ education.

This is not the only pig story current.

In Chongqing, Su Yanshan, a livestock slaughterer, kept pigs on the enclosed balcony of his second-floor home. His wife told the Chongqing Evening News they sold the 100 kg pigs for the Lunar New Year holiday when pork is in peak demand for dumplings, sausage and other traditional dishes.
Source: Reuters