Planet China « Week In China

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Planet China

The strangest stories from the Middle Kingdom...

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1 2 3 4 5... 36

Proof of wife
Jul 21, 2017 (WiC 375)

No one wants to take delivery of a ransom note and it was no different for a Mrs Li in Sichuan last week. This being modern China, it was sent via WeChat. At 11pm she received the threatening message alongside a photo of her husband tied to a ...

Wild spirits
Jul 14, 2017 (WiC 374)

Student booze-ups aren’t normally newsworthy. A graduation party in Jinan province has grabbed headlines because the participants were so young (13 years-old), with one of the party-goers binge drinking on very hard liquor indeed. Qilu ...

The golden generation
Jul 7, 2017 (WiC 373)

A superstitious passenger caused chaos for one of China’s airlines last week. The problems started, reports the South China Morning Post, prior to a China Southern flight between Shanghai and Guangzhou. It was carrying an 80 year-old woman who ...

Virtual verse
Jun 30, 2017 (WiC 372)

Think of US tech giant Microsoft and poetry does not immediately spring to mind. But as China Daily pointed out this week, an artificial intelligence chatbot that the US firm has developed has been penning Chinese verse for a while. In fact, the ...

Nanjing’s robotics drive
Jun 23, 2017 (WiC 371)

Last week a single car parking space in a high-end apartment building in Hong Kong sold for HK$5.18 million ($664,000). That topped a record set last year of $615,000. But across the border in mainland China another story about a car park had a ...

Chain reaction
Jun 16, 2017 (WiC 370)

Bike sharing schemes have been rolled out in many Chinese cities. They were welcomed by local policymakers in the hope that they would contribute to a greener environment. But as Southern Weekend reported last week, there is growing alarm in some ...

The road to hell
Jun 9, 2017 (WiC 369)

Spaghetti Junction was the name given by British journalist Roy Smith to the Gravelly Hill Interchange on the M6 motorway in Birmingham. From above, the jumble of roads looked like a plate of the Italian pasta and the name stuck. Over in ...

Two at a time
Jun 2, 2017 (WiC 368)

WiC has lost count of the number of times this column has mentioned toilets in China, but once again the web has been wowed by a local lavatory. This time the story involves the ladies loo at an Intime shopping mall on Yan’an Road in ...

No hugs, please, we’re Chinese
May 26, 2017 (WiC 367)

Binzhou University earned an unwanted reputation last week as China’s most puritanical educator after an embracing couple were chastised by a ‘self-discipline committee’ and ordered to hand in their student IDs. The incident happened on ...

Put out to pasture
May 19, 2017 (WiC 366)

The author Daniel Bell told the Financial Times recently how the Chinese authorities have combated drink driving. “Alarmed by data that showed 20% of serious road accidents were alcohol related, the Chinese government decided to crack down,” ...

Older »

1 2 3 4 5... 36

Week in China

Planet China

The strangest stories from the Middle Kingdom...

Proof of wife Jul 21, 2017 (WiC 375) No one wants to take delivery of a ransom note and it was no different for a Mrs Li in Sichuan last week. This being modern China, it was sent via WeChat. At 11pm she received the threatening message alongside a photo of her husband tied to a ...

Wild spirits Jul 14, 2017 (WiC 374) Student booze-ups aren’t normally newsworthy. A graduation party in Jinan province has grabbed headlines because the participants were so young (13 years-old), with one of the party-goers binge drinking on very hard liquor indeed. Qilu ...

The golden generation Jul 7, 2017 (WiC 373) A superstitious passenger caused chaos for one of China’s airlines last week. The problems started, reports the South China Morning Post, prior to a China Southern flight between Shanghai and Guangzhou. It was carrying an 80 year-old woman who ...

Virtual verse Jun 30, 2017 (WiC 372) Think of US tech giant Microsoft and poetry does not immediately spring to mind. But as China Daily pointed out this week, an artificial intelligence chatbot that the US firm has developed has been penning Chinese verse for a while. In fact, the ...

Nanjing’s robotics drive Jun 23, 2017 (WiC 371) Last week a single car parking space in a high-end apartment building in Hong Kong sold for HK$5.18 million ($664,000). That topped a record set last year of $615,000. But across the border in mainland China another story about a car park had a ...

Chain reaction Jun 16, 2017 (WiC 370) Bike sharing schemes have been rolled out in many Chinese cities. They were welcomed by local policymakers in the hope that they would contribute to a greener environment. But as Southern Weekend reported last week, there is growing alarm in some ...

The road to hell Jun 9, 2017 (WiC 369) Spaghetti Junction was the name given by British journalist Roy Smith to the Gravelly Hill Interchange on the M6 motorway in Birmingham. From above, the jumble of roads looked like a plate of the Italian pasta and the name stuck. Over in ...

Two at a time Jun 2, 2017 (WiC 368) WiC has lost count of the number of times this column has mentioned toilets in China, but once again the web has been wowed by a local lavatory. This time the story involves the ladies loo at an Intime shopping mall on Yan’an Road in ...

Put out to pasture May 19, 2017 (WiC 366) The author Daniel Bell told the Financial Times recently how the Chinese authorities have combated drink driving. “Alarmed by data that showed 20% of serious road accidents were alcohol related, the Chinese government decided to crack down,” ...