China

As if tensions between Uyghur and Han people in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region aren't complicated enough, an enormous amount of gold has been found in the province. [ more › ]

A slight graze on a car during a motorway crash led to an intensely drawn-out haggling session over as little as five yuan, the People's Daily reports. [ more › ]

Two of the six foreigners who were photographed pissing on one of our splendid, pristine Shanghai roads, have been fined 100 yuan by authorities, according to the Shanghai Daily. [ more › ]

According to the “Qianjiang Wanbao” newspaper 700 years ago, the famous traveler Marco Polo came to Hangzhou and was then called the “most beautiful and elegant city in the world.” Today, 700 years later, Hangzhou launched a global advertising campaign to recruit a new “Marco Polo”, offering an annual salary of 40,000 euros (about 323,000 yuan). On March 11, the city officially began recruiting. The “Marco Polo” today will be selected in April of next year only among foreigners. The winner does not need to choose routes or spend money. He must simply share travel experiences in Hangzhou. The main task is the following: the No.1 role play “doctor Hangzhou” in the film publicity on tourism in Hangzhou; stand counselor Hangzhou tourism marketing abroad and share their stories and life on foreign web sites. Copyright © 2013 Mysterious China Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@www.mysteriouschina.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana

The launch of the new candy will be first time Hershey has launched a new product outside of the US in its 120 year history. [ more › ]

Not only did this driver manage to bump into two men, but he actually ran both over and refused to stop. Watch the horrifying CCTV footage above. [ more › ]

For eight years already now, a small workers’ residential community in Jingzhou, Hubei province has “quietly” been living a revolution. In 2005, errant fireworks caused a fire on a balcony in this community, and drawing the (painfully obvious yet in China excruciatingly absent) conclusion that fireworks on the whole just isn’t worth it, decided to ban the stuff altogether. As the front page of the Jingzhou Evening News reports today, for the last eight years Beiling has been living in a near nirvana-like state of calm and serenity. So can we all Learn from Beiling? For eight now already, the small community of Beiling (????) in the district of Shashi (???) in Jingzhou (??), Hubei province, has been fireworks-free, and the residents have not at all missed the noisy traditional accoutrements of every Spring Festival, wedding or funeral in China. In the estimation of its residents, Beiling has never been cleaner or more peaceful. A reporter from Jingzhou Evening News (????) yesterday ventured into the community of around 700 workers to get the lay of the land of this fireworks-free zone, and found the air nice and clean. At the main entrance of the community the reporter interviewed a few of the older residents who sat playing chess, and these informed him that eight years ago during the Spring Festival holiday, someone in Beiling was careless when shooting some fireworks and caused a fire on an apartment balcony. Fortunately no-one was injured, but at the time some of the residents were dismayed by the incessant cacophony from the crack of dawn to the middle of the night, and the “red carpet” of debris that would be left strewn everywhere every day. So the community decided to henceforth ban all fireworks. And what was the result? A more peaceful environment, cleaner streets, less noise and ruckus, a greater sense of calm and security, and cleaner air. And not only this, as the residents informed the reporter, now during Spring Festival holidays people can leave their windows open and can freely engage with each other in all kinds of hearty activities without being disturbed. All the residents were in agreement that their community is so much better now. The head of Beiling’s neighborhood committee put it succinctly: fireworks waste resources, pollute the environment, disturb everyone’s peace and are potentially dangerous – so why on earth would you have them? So in the spirit of Learn from Daqing and Learn from Dazhai, it’s now time for China to Learn from Beiling. Links and sources Jingzhou Evening News (????): ????8??????

Xi Jinping paid a surprise visit to the earthquake-stricken region of Lushan in Sichuan province on Tuesday. [ more › ]

Numerous residents in China's capital have been receiving strange 'ghostly' calls after midnight, according to the Beijing News. [ more › ]

Netizens were outraged at the erection of a “crude and blasphemous” statue of two buddhas engaging in sexual intercourse. [ more › ]