Welcome to the new gold mines

(The Guardian) – Being paid to play games all day long sounds like a dream job – but for thousands of Chinese “gold farmers,” the virtual reality is sheer hard work.
Li Hua makes a living playing computer games. Working from a cramped office in the heart of Changsha, Hunan Province, he slays dragons and loots [...]

Fashion takes the stage at annual meeting

(Reuters) – For some delegates, China’s annual meeting of parliament is often as much about making a fashion statement as it is debating affairs of stateThe most colorful of the group are the ethnic minorities, who regularly get surrounded by reporters as keen to photograph them as to have pictures taken with them.
There are also [...]

Police hot-wire sleepy drivers with chili

(Reuters) – Police in the southwest are spicing up drivers with raw chili in  bid to stop them falling asleep at the wheel, a newspaper said Wednesday.
Police in the Chongqing region have started serving drivers chili peppers at highway service stations, holding to the traditional Chinese belief that people often feel more sleepy in the [...]

Zhang plans film on Communist’s founding

(AFP) – Movie director Zhang Yimou, who masterminded the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, is planning a film to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Communist China, Chinese press said.
A script for the movie that will commemorate the 1949 founding of new China is currently being worked out, Zhang told Xinhua news agency on [...]

No booze, less food at banquets

(AFP) – China will no longer wine and dine visiting heads of state at sumptuous banquets, cutting back the fare to just one soup, three dishes and no liquor, a senior official said Wednesday.
The scaled-down menu comes as the country implements government savings and encourages thriftiness in the face of the global financial crisis, said [...]

World media eyes on gov’s two sessions

Overseas media are closely watching the two annual sessions of the country’s top legislative body and top political advisory body.The US-based Associated Press (AP) said the two sessions are “the first for China since the worldwide financial meltdown started last year.　”Both are widely expected to yield further measures to stimulate the economy,” AP saidThe British [...]

Economy to dominate Congress agenda

“We must remain sober-minded, increase our awareness of peril, and lean toward taking a more pessimistic view of trends,” Premier Wen Jiabao said in his opening address to the Nation People’s Congress (NPC).
The Chinese Parliament began its annual legislative session yesterday and topping the agenda were concerns about how the country would cope with the [...]