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From the BBC: Stephen Sackur talks to Liu Mingkang, Chairman, China Banking Regulatory Commission. Will China escape the downturn in the American economy?
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 Jonathan Watts, the China correspondent for The Guardian, has recently put in his year so far article about the internet here. It covers a lot of familiar ground and quotes Zonaeuropa and Danwei.org, among others, as sources. One of the most quoted facts in these kinds of articles is the world’s most read blog being “Lao Xu”. Lao Xu is the Sina.com blog of actress/writer/director Xu Jing Lei 徐静雷.
So what’s going on at the world’s most popular blog? This is what we found in her latest post: 今日闲散，到VERGELEGEN的葡萄酒庄园参观，品酒，好多好多小葡萄，像小黑珍珠，一趟水洗过去，乌黑发亮，像黑人兄弟的皮肤一样健康漂亮。也顺便品了品刚摘下来的葡萄，专为醸葡萄酒种的那种，很甜很甜。
…Today was a day of leisure … I checked out a vineyard at Vergelegen, and tasted some of the wines there … there were so many little grapes , like black pearls …after cleaning with water they were as shiny and beautiful as the skin of our African brothers …ate freshy picked fruit, so sweet …[Translation by Shanghaiist.]
Danwei readers might have seen that she is currently touring South Africa. Chinese language readers will notice we’ve been kind. At least she’s trying.
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 As the Financial Times reported, April 1 was the day that China Mobile started trials of its homegrown 3G wireless technology in eight major cities, with about 60,000 customers.
A more recent Chinese reports suggests that the trials may only involve 20,000 people.
Another Chinese media report says that China Mobile offers three very attractive discount packages to people testing out 3G. For one, the regular voice telephone charges are less than what we 2G folks are paying now, and they get a 50% discount on top of that. At the same time, they are also offering 100-200 yuan off the price of certain 3G phones. One of the packages, for example, is 50 RMB per month, the basic rate for local calls is .4 RMB per minute, free to receive calls, and roaming costs .6 RMB if you call and .4 RMB per minute if you receive calls. Long-distance calls — and this is confusing, or perhaps some typo – 7 cents for 6 seconds? That would mean .7 RMB per minute, we think. As you can tell, these prices are basically the same as the GSM prices.
We're not quite sure if it's open to the public yet. Some reports mentioned something about being invited or just getting picked.
But the whole point of 3G is to bring video and web to your mobile devices, so here are some of those prices: Local video-calling will cost .6 RMB per minute if you call, and free if you receive. Roaming: .9 RMB per minute for outgoing calls, .6 RMB per minute for incoming calls. Long-distance within China costs .1 RMB for six seconds.
Some other plans include 28 RMB per month for 150 minutes of call-time, or 58 RMB for 350 minutes of call time, and another for 88 RMB which gets you 600 minutes of call-time, including caller ID, Olympics mobile news, 10 MB of data transfer and cool ring tones!
There are two places in Shanghai where they have 3G exhibition booths; one of them is at 48 Zhangwu Lu near Siping Lu (彰武路48号近四平路) and the other is 998 Renmin Lu (人民路998号). But you can only apply for 3G at the former, and not the latter.
What about 3G enabled phones? There are six you can choose from. For the trials in Shanghai China Mobile provided about 10,000 phones and 3000 wireless cards. The phones came from various manufacturers, with the cheapest being one from Lenovo, costing 1800 RMB, while the most expensive was one from Zhongxing, which cost 3800 RMB. The wireless cards were as folllows: Zhongxing — 700 RMB, Datang — 800 RMB, and TD at ... 20 RMB? Huh?
We are pretty excited about taking these cards out for a spin. Back in the day we had flirted with the idea of getting a 2G card, which was based on the CDMAone standards or whatever China's version of that is, but weren't convinced that it would work well on Apple computers (they actually do, in fact). However, the promise of 3G's speed has us revisiting the idea. For those of you that prefer to surf on your iPhone, you might be out of luck — even though 3G iPhones are coming out in May, that is, one month from now – it stands to reason that if they are being developed by Apple and AT&T for release in the USA that they won't be compliant with China's homegrown 3G network, TD-SCDMA. A lot of this depends on what happens between Apple and China Mobile – and although the news has waffled between the king is dead and long live the king, Apple Insider points out that might be some reason to believe that there are still hopes for a "legit" iPhone in China, because Apple is not married to any particular business-model, meaning that yeah, they made a killing with the exclusive agreements they have with AT&T in the US, Orange in France, T-Mobile in Germany, O2 in the UK, but hey, they're flexible and might change the rules of the game if that means that China Mobile will at least agree to play the game.
So you can't quite rule out the possibility that there will be a Chinese 3G-enabled iPhone sometime in the near future.
Photo from craig1black
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 A China visa agency in Hong Kong has just put up the following notice on its website:
We are informed by the China visa office that effective from 28 March 2008-17 Oct 2008 there will be no more multi entry (F) visas available. For those who still need visas can only apply single or double entry visas instead (Duration of each stay is 30 days). All this will last till the Olympic games finished.
Shanghaiist reader Gregory Prudhommeaux who sent us the above tip also had this to say: "Working as a consultant, I had a client who faced this situation in Paris last Saturday, and another one this morning in Hong Kong."
Our housemate is now in Hong Kong on a visa run (good luck Vainui!), so watch this space for an update when she returns.
Previously on Shanghaiist
China tightening F visa applications?
Photo from Heidi D
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From Al-Jazeera: The UN has said that emerging economies face challenge in achieving growth without damaging the environment.
Tony Cheng reports on Chinese factory workers in Henan province, paying a high price for the country's push to go green.
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 We know that this sounds like an April fool, but China could be facing a rice shortage. No, seriously. We told you a few days ago about KFC upping their prices; now the cost of the other staple in Shanghaiist's diet, rice, could be facing a hike due to fears over supply. For the moment, the government has frozen the price of rice — as well as that of other goods such as cooking oil — in an effort to curb food costs following their 23% leap in February, but has not ruled out price rises in the near future. They have also announced that farmers will receive increased prices for both rice and wheat as China attempts to avoid the rice production problems currently engulfing some other Asian states.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the rice price rise in the region has seen the crop's value double since the start of the year, provoking Vietnam to dramatically cut its rice exports, India and Cambodia to effectively ban rice from leaving the country, and Pakistan to deploy troops to guard trucks carrying rice, wheat, and flour.
The recent spate of bad weather across the region, together with the rapid development of China and India is being blamed for the international shortage of rice — a staple for just under half the world's population.
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BBC: "Protests in the Nepalese capital Kathamndu turned violent as police made arrests outside the Chinese embassy."
AP: "Greek officials handed over the Olympic flame to organizers of the Beijing Games on Sunday amid small protests by a pro-Tibetan group. The ceremony was held where the first modern Olympics were staged in 1896. (March 30)"
AP: "Eight giant pandas from a breeding center in southern China are set to travel to Beijing for the Olympic Games after being picked in an online vote."
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 The following update from Beijing-based AIDS activist Wan Yanhai (万延海) is currently being circulated among gay and other AIDS-related online groups (proxy/VPN required) on the mainland:
Account of police raids targeted at LGBT in Beijing
Wan Yanhai
First instance: in the second half of January 2008, the police in Chaoyang District visited the residence of a LGBT activist. They enquired about her ex-roommate residence permit, asked for her picture, and enquired about the nature of her job. The police made an appointment with the landlord and acted as if they were investigating the residence. They enquired about issues not exclusively related to her residence permit. At the same time, another LGBT activist received a phone call regarding a matter related to his residence permit. In the afternoon of 21 March 2008, the day after releasing the news about the signature exhibition of supporting homosexual marriage , the police paid another visit to this residence and enquired about the nature of her job, a LGBT website etc.
Second instance: on 9 March 2008, a popular LGBT night club in Beijing, called Destination, was visited by the police. The police said the club was too crowded. As a result, people's access to the club was restricted and the music stopped. The club was shut down and resumed business only a few days after.
Third instance: in the afternoon of 17 March 2008, a number of police officers visited Dongdan Park, in the East District of Beijing. Public security officers and armed police carried out the interrogation at the park, taking away the gay people in park to the police station inside
the park£¬where more than 40 people were waiting to be enquired. The people taken away by the police were all requested to show their ID, and their details were checked on the computer. They were all requested to write their name on a white paper, and hold the paper with their
names before their chest to be photographed. Some people refused to be photographed and released without being photographed. Some others, as a result of refusing to be photographed, and because their details were not found in the computer records, were taken to the police station for further interrogation. A gay volunteer of Aizhixing Institute was taken to the police station because police said that his name was not found in the computer records, and released after the lawyer of Aizhixing showed up at the police station. When the individuals were taken away, the police reported that a person was killed inside the park a day before, and everyone had to cooperate in the investigation. But after being walked to the police station, the individuals were not asked any question related to a criminal case.
In the following days, many people in the park were asked to show their ID. Every evening after 7, a police car drove into the park to inspect the surroundings. For a small imprudence, people would be taken away by the police. Later in the evening, the police would clear out the park.
In the afternoon of 22 March, 2 young people were taken away by police officers as soon as they walked into the park.
Fourth instance: in the afternoon of 20 March 2008, more than 10 police cars visited "Oasis" club, the most popular gay bath house in Beijing. More than 70 people, including all the members of staff and clients were taken away. After more than 30 hours, in the early morning of 22 March, the clients of the house were released. But the members of staff were kept detained. In the early morning of 21 March, the police visited another Oasis bath house near Dongsishitiao Bridge, and took away all members of staff, but not the clients. At present, these two bath houses have been shut down. It was reported that at the same time, in another part of the city, another gay bath house was also shut down.
Fifth instance: one evening around mid March 2008, in one of the alleys of a gay park in Haidian District, the police conducted an interrogation among people strolling in the area.
Sixth instance: according to information from Beijing Tongzhi (LGBT) chat rooms, the police have detained over 80 male sex workers via those chat rooms in Beijing. A chat room announcement reads as follows: "these days, Beijjing is clearing out the city and carrying out a
crackdown on sex work, the police has currently detained more than 80 sex workers, this website does not welcome people with illegal intentions, and hopes everyone works together to fight illegal behavior, thanks for your cooperation!"
Finally, in recent days, a gay bath house in Shanghai has been shut down. Evidence shows that this time, crackdowns are being carried out at national level.
We have also been told that the police "visit" to Destination in Beijing happened on the same evening that PinkHome in Shanghai was "visited". In PinkHome's case, several guys were arrested, but on what charges we don't know.
Such a huge crackdown on gay-frequented establishments/spaces executed within such a short period of time has been unheard of in China, and therefore it is raising alarm bells with good reason. Gay life in China has been enjoying pretter much unfettered development over the last decade, so it could be that we're at a point in time when the authorities see the need to rein in the unbridled growth. Are the crackdowns being executed as part of a larger "spring cleaning exercise" ahead of the Olympics so China would be able to project to the world its best image, whatever that means to the powers that be? Only time will tell.
Wan Yanhai is the founder of the Aizhixing Institute, and is one of the most outspoken AIDS activists in China. He was jailed in 2002 for a month on charges of leaking an internal government report on the blood-selling schemes in Henan Province which led to a huge spread of the disease. His latest detention was in 2006 after he accused government officials of "falling asleep" as the disease continues to spread and was forced to cancel an AIDS conference that would be attended by delegates from around the world. His fellow activist Hu Jia (胡嘉) was recently charged with subverting state authority, while his wife continues to be under house arrest.
Photo from cies.org
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Snooker is often billed as a gentleman's sport and, as we all know, two crucial characteristics for being a gentleman include being gracious in defeat and showing impeccable manners. Or so we thought. Apparently Shanghaiist's interpretation of gentlemanly behaviour differs somewhat from that of China's Today Morning Express, after they reported that Ronnie O'Sullivan, during a post-match press conference at Beijing's China Open snooker tournament this week, "kept his gentlemanly manners". Having watched the above video (following a tip from Shanghaiist reader Rob), where the Essex-born potter repeatedly makes lewd references and compares his microphone to his penis, we're not sure we entirely agree with the Express' assessment.
While O'Sullivan's inappropriate comments and suggestive handling of the microphone might have gone unnoticed and unreported by the Chinese press, his behaviour has landed him in trouble with Snooker's governing body and has been widely reported in the British papers who, let's face it, love this sort of thing. Chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Sir Rodney Walker, didn't find O'Sullivan's attitude quite so amusing however and moved swiftly to condemn the player's behaviour:
"The matter has been referred to the disciplinary committee and is under review. On behalf of World Snooker, I have apologised in person today to the promoter of the China Open. I would also like to send my apologies to the people of China for any offence that may have been caused."
O'Sullivan, who once stated that he didn't like playing in China because "they don't speak English", was (reluctantly) answering questions via a translator following his 5-4 defeat to Marco Fu in the first round of the China Open. Despite claiming that he "tried very hard", this is not the first time that 'The Rocket' has crashed out in the first round in China following a lacklustre performance and he was not the only big name who seemed happy to collect their appearance fee and leave — Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis joining Graeme Dott in exiting early on as well.
Maintaining a good image in China is seen as crucial to snooker's governing body having steadily built the sport's popularity in the country on the back of homegrown star Ding Junhui. While the Beijing fans will be happy with a Chinese player winning the tournament, the apparent lack of interest from some of the sport's star attractions has already been causing headaches for the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and it's fair to say that O'Sullivan's comments will have done little to help matters. It might not be a scandal of Edison Chen proportions, but it's probably as close as snooker will get for a while.
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Two recent stories from the Shanghai subway system might be worth your notice: - A score of news reports are heralding new measures to alleviate passenger load on Line 2 trains on the Pudong side, where Zhangjiang High-Tech Park station has become one of the metro system's highest trafficked stations due to what the Xinmin Evening Post calls “白领客流”, the "white-collar passenger flow". More trains are being added to both the morning and afternoon rush hours, and morning hours at Zhangjiang are being extended to match Zhongshan Park's early hours with a first train at 5:55 in the morning. The changes are already reflected on the Shanghai Metro company's website. Also, Zhangjiang Station has begun to use both platforms to send passengers off to Puxi and now has the option of restricting passenger access to the station during overly crowded periods.
- Just like last year's Trojan ads, a new but more risqué Durex ad featuring a woman in hot pants and a construction worker that is being shown on subway and office building LCDs has offended passengers and white-collar workers, and is on its way to being banned within the next week for not passing inspection by the State Food and Drug Administration as an ad for a medical product. A popular editorial titled "Sex Ed is not going to fall from the sky" by SHEN Ruoyu opposes the possible ban and argues that the ostrich approach to sex is not appropriate in this day and age.
Cross-posted to the Shanghai Public Transportation weblog.
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Beijing's tightly scripted, carefully choreographed tour for a select group of 26 foreign journalists from 19 media organisations including the Associated Press, the U.K.’s Financial Times, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao and Taiwan’s Central News Agency, was upstaged by 30 young Tibetan monks, some clearly emotional and weeping, who pushed their way into a news briefing at the J*kh*ng Temple.
This is what they managed to tell journalists in the 15 minute outburst before media minders tugged at the journalists telling them it was "time to go": "They have destroyed the way we are seen by the people," one monk said. "We are like prisoners here," said another.
As the monks blurted out a stream of complaints, one cried: "The government is always telling lies, it's all lies."
"They killed many people. They killed many people," a monk said.
Later, a monk speaking in Chinese said the death toll was far higher than the government was saying. "The cadres and the army killed more than 100 Tibetans. They arrested more than a thousand."
"Tibetans have no freedom," a monk said after some of them switched to Chinese. "We want the Dalai Lama to come back," said another, adding that they were certain they would be detained when the reporters left.
"They want us to curse the Dalai Lama and that is not right," a monk added.
Xinhua was by no means silent on the incident. It also assured: These monks are not to be punished, said Baema Chilain, vice chairman of the regional government at a press conference to domestic and overseas media on Thursday evening.
"But what they said is not true. They were attempting to mislead the world's opinion," said the official. "The facts shouldn't be distorted."
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From yesterday until April 29th, this is the list of airlines which will use the new Terminal 2 at Pudong:
- FM Shanghai Airlines
- BA British Airways
- VS Virgin (UK)
- NW North Western (USA)
- 5J Cebu (Philippines)
- GA Garuda (Indonesia)
- QF Qantas (Australia)
- AI Air India
- AZ Alitalia (Italy)
- MH Malaysia Airlines
- PR Philippine Airlines
- QR Qatar Airways
- RA Royal Nepal
- UN Transaero (Russia)
- VV Aerosvit (Ukraine)
N.B Even though your ticket might say one airline, the actual flight could be being run by another airline. So it's still worth checking your ticket and the boards at the airport.
Happy Trails Hans!
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- The trial of Chen Liangyu (陈良宇), Shanghai's former Communist Party chief and the highest party official to be ousted in more than a decade for corruption, has just begun in Tianjin.
- Vegetable prices in Shanghai have plummeted by as much as 20 percent as a vast amount of produce from neighboring provinces flows into the city
- Shanghai's Metro Line 2 will dispatch its first train at 5:55am from today, half an hour earlier than before, said Shanghai Metro Operation Company officials yesterday.
- Tongji University has developed an automated greenhouse which protects plants from snow and frost while saving energy.
Photo by nocas.
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Like we told you, the new Terminal at Pudong Airport opened smoothly* yesterday morning, bringing relief to crowded Terminal 1 and a whole stack of new shopping and eating options to those flying from the new building.
Not quite a twin, but definitely in the same family as the old airport, Terminal 2 does feel a little calmer and brighter with a warm light from the wooden roof. How much of the calmness is due to their being a trickle of flights right now isn't clear- but the shopping and eating is a definite improvement in the new building.
Perched above the sweep of check-in desks is a mezzanine level Shanghai Ren Jia and Ajisen Ramen have the best spots to eat. Below that on the third floor departures area is a good sized bookstore split over two levels which. There are plenty of magazines in French and German but still an odd lack of English languge titles other than the ones you already find in T1.
At the far right of the second floor, attached to the Maglev station is the American corner with (as promised!) Burger King and a sports bar called “Champions” Serving up Potato skins, Ribs, Buffalo Wings and other western crowd pleasers.
The first floor pretty much just deals with the task of shipping the domestic and international passengers from door to taxi with the minimum of fuss, although there is a smart looking Asian food court.
The number of daily flights from T2 will increase from the current 100 or so over the coming months, and will be split according to airlines (Shanghai Airlines is the new T2 daddy, and we'll have a full list of airlines in the new spot to follow).
If you do end up at the wrong building, transfer to the other one by heading towards the Maglev station, and carrying on in the same direction. Allow 20 minutes walk for a mildly annoyed walk / 10 minutes for a panicked sprint to get between the two.
More images from Wang Jianshuo here and here.
[*Thank ***, I worked on the project! JC]
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