Charity can takes many forms. In this picture school students sit around hundreds of thousands of coins, which are piled up in the shape of a heart although not all of it has fitted into the picture, during a campaign in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, to call on children to help to impoverished students in rural areas.

The organizers have collected nearly RMB300,000 from students in cities around Zhejiang.

It is probably an unacceptable thought but one hopes there are automatic machines that will count all that money.

There was this movie Snakes on a Plane which, as it happens, grew out of an idea on the Internet, and became relatively successful and a bit of a frightener. Now comes the possibility of a Pixar version which will be called Mice on a Plane. It will be a case of life imitating art.

U.S. Reuters reports a Chinese government emergency team being rushed onto a United Airlines jet in Beijing, after the crew notified air traffic control Sunday they found evidence of mice on board the plane.

For two days, inspectors set traps and eventually found eight mice, some dead. The live ones were sent out for lab analysis.

The good news: none of the mice tested positive for bubonic plague antigens or parasites, and airline officials say there was no damage to the plane’s wiring by nibbling mice.

United spokesperson Robin Urbanski said, ‘Our customers on this flight were always safe and unaware of the situation.’ One trusts that Robin is not stretching the truth here.

Some of the mice were found hiding in pillows. And the passengers did not notice?

For the Olympics a special effort must be made. Something out of the ordinary. Something you do not see every day. So take 28,000 fake nails, make sure they are all the appropriate color and assemble with care into a painting 3.7 meters in length and 3.1 meters in width, to welcome the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Amazing stuff.

Artistic yet unusual.

All done by Jin Yu, a nail beautician, Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province. There is no news as what she will do when the Olympics are over. Probably have it framed in her salon as a talking point.
Source: China View

You could say this was a great worry or that it showed the good sense of the average Chinese netizen.

The names of three banks and the word ’stocks’ beat ’sex’ to become four of the most Googled words in China last year.

China Merchants Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank ranked second, third and sixth, according to a list supplied by Google China on its website,

The China Daily said, ‘On the Chinese mainland, it was money and technology that took the honors last year. It pointed out, perhaps a little smugly, that ’sex’ was the most popular keyword for Google users in some other countries.

In China at number 1 was ‘QQ,’ both a Chinese instant message service and a brand of car.

Fourth on the list was ’stock,’ which is not surprising with Shanghai shares having risen 97% last year.

China’s Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and Banking Regulatory Commission ranked first, third and fifth in the ‘Most Popular Departments’ list.

In another list named ‘qiu zhi,’ or ’seeking knowledge,’ ‘what is a blue chip’ and ‘how to invest in the stock market’ were the most searched questions on Google in China.

Globally it was ‘what is love’ and ‘how to kiss’ leading the charge.

China keeps a tight rein on Internet content and has launched several campaigns to remove online pornography. Which is perhaps one reason why ’sex’ did not score so well.
Source: Reuters

Do not travel on rollercoasters. You can get enough fun dodging the traffic. Take the poor 18 passengers who went for a ride on the ‘Fireball’ attraction at the Wuhu Fangte Amusement Park in the eastern province of Anhui. (No, that is not it in the illustration but it gives the idea.)

When it got to the top of the loop it added an extra dimension to the thrill by stalling and leaving 18 passengers stranded upside down, their legs pointed towards the sky.

They were left hanging for half an hour before the problem could be solved. Six had to go to hospital to be treated for dizziness.

On the other hand they had a FANTASTIC view and some really thrilling stories to tell when they got home.

Investigations showed a strong headwind had triggered a mechanical fault.

That really is encouraging.

Only ride our roller coaster in a dead calm or when there is a slight breeze. A better idea would be not to go on the damn thing in the first place.
Source: Courier-Mail

Scientists in China may use a police dog to teach pandas to fight after the first artificially bred panda released into the wild was apparently killed after a battle with other animals, local media reports.

The Wolong giant panda breeding center plans to have four pandas raised in captivity live with a specially trained police dog or other animals, the Chengdu Daily quoted reserve officials as saying.

The pandas would learn how to protect themselves by observing the dog, increasing their chances of survival when they are eventually released into the mountainous wilds of Sichuan.
Source: The China Post

The ban, recently issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), also prohibits directors and leading actors from taking part in such any awards.

According to the ordinance: ‘The heaviest punishment for such violation would lead to a five-year ban of perpetrators from the movie industry.’

The SARFT asked nationwide studios not to produce films with footage of hardcore activities, rape, whoring, obscene sex exposing human genitals, or sex freaks, the newspaper said. Vulgar conversations, nasty songs and sound effects with sexual connotation were also restricted.

The SARFT warned all major studios and local regulators to ‘bear their own responsibility in correcting the wrong deeds of producing erotic movies. Violating studios might face the harshest punishment of revoking permits for shooting films’, the newspaper said. Our illustration is of a suitably doctored still from Ecstacy made in 1934 and which starred Hedy Lamarr who was, among other things, the inventor of the technology which allowed us the mobile phone.
Source: Xinhuanet

A marital dispute captured on video and posted to YouTube interrupted the renaming of China Central Television’s sports channel — CCTV5 — the Olympics Channel.

Hu Ziwei, the wife of top CCTV5 announcer and sports news department head Zhang Bin suddenly appeared onstage and grabbed the microphone.

Zhang’s wife, Hu Ziwei, is also a well-known sports anchor on the regional Beijing TV station.

She said that two hours before she had discovered Zhang had been having ‘an improper relationship with another woman’.

She said, ‘Today is a special day for The Olympics Channel, and it’s a special day for Zhang Bin, and it’s a special day for me too.

’A French foreign diplomat said: until China is able to start exporting its values, it won’t be able to become a great power.

‘Yet Zhang Bin can’t even face up to his own hurt wife. I think China, to succeed as a great power… Don’t any of you have any conscience? Let go of me! We’re very far from being a great country.’

This was, of course, a prerecorded program and it would all have been quietened down. But the whole episode was captured by a studio guest’s cell phone camera, and the video was posted on YouTube and its homegrown Chinese counterpart, Tudou.com. It was quickly removed from Tudou but is still on YouTube.
Sources: Hollywood Reporter and Daily Telegraph

Young men are now practicing belly dancing — we stress this is a solo performance — under the guidance of a trainer in a fitness club in Chongqing, a city in southwestern China.

Belly dancing has become a new fashion among boys in the southwestern China’s metropolis of Chongqing, as a means of body maintenance and of keeping a flat stomach.

Normally the belly dance is performed by girls (many with bellies of a largish size) and is based on one of the oldest social dances in world history, native to North Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

To give an official description to belly dancing: It consists of movements initiated by the feet and executed throughout the body. The focus of the dance is the pelvic area. It is, fundamentally, a solo improvisational dance with its own unique dance vocabulary integrated with the music’s rhythm.

Well, yes, that is true. But does not explain why the female performers always leave their bellies bare. Probably something to do with getting a flat stomach.
Source: China Daily

Chinese nurses are wearing dresses made of condoms to promote safe sex. The two nurses, from a hospital in Xiamen city, showed off their condom outfits at a public health promotion.

People’s Daily reports more than 5,000 condoms and two weeks’ work went into making the two dresses.

The two nurses handed out booklets and condoms to onlookers at the event which was held to mark World Aids Day.

A hospital senior employee said, ‘They’re a visual shock, and good to remind people of the importance of safe sex.’
The hospital used another 10,000 condoms to make a banner, reading ‘Combating AIDS, Implementing Commitments’, for the event.