Today in China

Well, in fact… the guys from ChinesePod made this video in Shanghai but it also apply to the cabs in Beijing. This is a nice introduction to useful sentences when you’re in a taxi. Zou guai! You guai!!! Kuai dian ba!

And this is the 4th one, I missed the first 3 episodes. Check the links to get them!
Enjoy!

Links
Blog entry on ChinesePod
The PDF with the vocabulary and characters used in this video
Episode 3: Revenge of the Reservation
Episode 2: The Restaurant
Episode 1: Inaugural video

The Website of Beer Mania is online!
This is a first version and we are open to any comments and suggestions to improve it!

For those who don’t know the Beer Mania - probably the visitors connecting to the Internet from the Moon - this is one of the nicest bars in Beijing! You’ll get a wider choice of Belgian Beers than in any other place around the city and people overthere are so nice!!!

Way to go Marc!!! Keep me a few Westmalle Triple in your fridge for when I come back from vacation!

This morning, Beijing was all yellow/brown under a nice layer of sand and dust. I’m glad my scooter was parked inside the building…

I suppose we were hit by the rest of the deadly sandstorm which started in Xinjiang Province (新疆, Xīnjiāng) with powerful winds reaching 183 km/h. The storm was so strong overthere that it smashed cars’ windscreen and killed at least one person. Trains and busses were cancelled in the touristic cities of Turfan (吐魯番, Tǔlǔfán) and Hami (哈密, Hāmì).

And then, I arrived in my office this morning to notice that the windows ARE OPEN!!!! grrrr!!!

Source
Shanghai Daily - 2006 04 12

Here is the first post of a serie of funny video from China. This one shows a plane landing in some unknown airport in China. Amazing!!! At the same time funny and a little bit scary…

And I have to go back to Belgium - by plane, of course - next Tuesday…. Ouch!

Links
New Videos Category

At the Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai, inmates get their sentences reduced if they invent a new technology. For example, a car thief saw his life term reduced to 12 years after inventing an anti-theft device for cars. So far, no less than 132 projects proposed by prisonners have won prizes in different technology competitions.

“I am so grateful to the prison who set up the platform for us to show our gifts,” said an inmate surnamed Zhang. “I was granted a sentence reduction twice and will be released next April.” Zhang, 42, was a post graduate majoring in architecture at one of the city’s top universities when he was sentenced to 10 years for taking bribes in 2001.

A quick search about this Tilanqiao Prison returned some interesting findings. Back in 2004, they conducted the first hearing in a Chinese Prison, seaking the opinion of thousands of inmates about the prison’s management. Since then, the prisonners may get married during their sentences and supermarkets as well as psychological hospitals have been opened in the prison’s walls.

The possibility of reducing a prisonner’s term by contributing to the scientific effort of the country seems another good way to prepare the reinsertion of the prisonners.

Source
Shanghai Daily - 2006 04 08

Here the TOP 50 list of touristic attraction according to a survey made by Beijing-based Global Travel Newspaper and 31 metropolitan newspapers. The proposed list consisted of 170 sites in 31 provinces. The survey results are based on 2 million online responses, 28,000 paper votes and 213,000 test messages.

While people may argue on the list of proposed sites - Potala Palace in Tibet Autonomous Region, Lijiang Historical City in Yunnan Province and West Lake in Zhejiang Province are missing - it still provides an interesting list to prepare your vacations around China!

So, where will you go for your May vacations?

North China
. Great Wall
. Forbidden City in Beijing
. Badan Jara Desert
. A’er Mountain in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
. Ancient City of Ping Yao
. Yao Temple in Shanxi Province
Northeast China
. Arctic Village in Heilongjiang Province
. Mukden Palace and Qing-Tombs in Liaoning Province
Northwest China
. Huashan Mountain
. Terracotta Warriors and Horses
. Forest of Stone Tablets Museum
. Huaqing Pool in Shanxi Province
. Rock Painting of Helan Mountain
. Zhongwei Sand Dunes in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
. Qinghai Lake in Qinghai Province
. Mogao Grottoes
. Kongtong Mountain in Gansu Province
. Hanasi Lake
. Kashi
. Urho Ghost City in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
East China
. Yellow Mountain
. Jiuhua Mountain
. Ancient Villages of Xidi and Hongcun in Anhui Province
. Flower and Fruit Mountain
. Waterside Village of Zhou Zhuang in Jiangsu Province
. Mount Tai in Shandong Province
. Zhujiajiao in Shanghai
. Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang Province
. Lushan Mountain
. Jingdezhen
. Dragon and Tiger Mountain in Jiangxi Province
. Gulangyu Island(Nite Lily Guest House)
. Taining National Geopark in Fujian
. Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan Province
Central China
. Shenlongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei Province
. Tianmen Mountain
. Hengshan Mountain in Hunan Province
Southwest China
. Jiuzhai Valley
. Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province
. Shuanghe Cave in Guizhou Province
. Wild Elephant Valley - Xishuangbanna
. Meili Snow Mountain
. Shilin National Geopark in Yunnan Province
. Qomolangma (Mount Everest)
. Namtso Lake in Tibet
South China
. Kaiping Watchtowers in Guangdong Province
. Wuzhizhou Island in Hainan Province
. Yangshuo
. Ancient Village of Huangyao in the Guanxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
. Hong Kong Special Administration Region
Feel free to comment if you have any site you travelled to that is missing from this list! If you have any suggestion or question!
Source
China Daily - 2006 04 10

Links

As told in a previous post, visitors from China may access Wikipedia using Gollum Browser.

It seems that 2006 will be the Year of the Blog in Beijing! Well… As most of you know already, I will be in Belgium from the 18th of April till the 9th of May and therefore… bouhouhouuuuuu… will miss the party. But I’m sure you’ll manage to get some fun even without me!
And by the way, if you want to start a new blog related to China, don’t forget that we have some free hosting for Personal Blogs on Today in China!

Happy blogging!

Chers amis,

Je suis heureux de vous annoncer que nous voyons le bout du projet lancé en octobre dernier ! Notre troupe le Théâtre des Lanternes donnera en mai deux représentations du DINER DE CONNES au Théâtre Cherry Lane à 20 H 00, et on promet de faire passer un très bon moment à tous ceux qui viennent nous voir ! Je vous envoie l’affiche en exclusivité, elle a été créée bénévolement par les designers de Parishine.

De plus, tous les fonds collectés à travers le sponsoring et la vente des billets seront intégralement reversés à l’association DATONG : alors vous voyez, n’hésitez plus, réservez vos places, et faites passer le mot ! Surtout qu’il n’y en a que 150 par soir. Si vous pensez venir, répondez a ce mail, je vous contacterai a mon retour de vacances (le 10 avril).

Nous vous tiendrons au courant quand les billets seront mis en vente, mais en attendant, allez vous inscrire à la liste de diffusion par email de notre page web (page d’accueil), comme cela vous êtes surs de recevoir les infos !
http://theatre.todayinchina.com
Toutes les infos, plan d’accès etc, y sont.

A bientôt alors !
Thierry

Pour info, nous avons dédoublé certains rôles :
Le vendredi 19, pour la Première, joueront Alice Rouzé et Cécile Deodato
Le Samedi 20, pour la soirée de Gala (présence des sponsors, remise du chèque à Datong Lifetime) Laurence Petit et Emilie Annarella.

Sinon vous pourrez voir les 2 soirs le reste de la troupe: Karine de Fretellière, Valérye Lacroix-Tam, Évelyne Macera, Perrine Pautre, Ye Yiqing, Thierry De Dobbeleer, Matthieu Masquelier, Patrick Miller, Jean-Jacques Morris, Christophe Vivier

English summary…

As some of you may know, we started to work on a free adaptation from “The Diner Game” by Francis Weber a few month ago and now… we have the official poster for the play! The play will be performed on the 19th and 20th of May, but only in French.

Our objective is to refund a maximum amount of money to Datong Lifeline, by limiting the expenses to the minimum. I’ll keep you up-to-date on how much money we will finally give them!

In the French version of this post, you may find some more details about who is playing and when:
Friday 19th: Alice Rouzé and Cécile Deodato
Saturday 20th: Laurence Petit et Emilie Annarella
And on both days: Karine de Fretellière, Valérye Lacroix-Tam, Évelyne Macera, Perrine Pautre, Ye Yiqing, Thierry De Dobbeleer, Matthieu Masquelier, Patrick Miller, Jean-Jacques Morris and Christophe Vivier

So, if you are interested, leave us a message on our official Website!!!

Links
Le Theatre des Lanternes

Couleurs de Chine, already mentioned in a previous post, is arranging sponsorships for children of ethnic minorities, mainly girls, from the Great Miao Mountains (in the North of Guangxi province and South-East of Guizhou province) In 2006, 3930 children have been able to start school or continue their studies thanks to the sponsors who have agreed to help them throughout their school careers.

In addition, Couleurs de Chine ensures the building and the rehabilitation of schools and dormitories. The association also tries to help the village in case of emergency. And such a case of emergency occurred last Monday when the village of Gulou near Danian burnt in just a few hours, leaving 170 families or 1050 people helpless without houses. The government will ensure the food supply but they will need other financial help in order to rebuild the village.

If you want to help them you may contact Couleurs de Chine by sending an email to cdcbeijing@yahoo.com.

Links
Couleurs de Chine