A report by Oxford Economics has revealed that the largest nation of tourists in the world today are the Chinese. Not only do the highest numbers travel from China around the globe but Chinese visitors also spend the most money whilst away on their holidays – overtaking USA tourists expenditure last year. The study predicts that by 2023 there will …
Apple wins iPad name reprieve in China
At least for the time being, Apple can continue to sell iPads in Shanghai after a court ruling over naming rights was suspended until a bigger case is heard.
Nobel no show
China, not surprisingly, and 18 other countries have apparently stated they will not be attending Friday’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, with Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran among those refusing to attend.
Beijing to Shanghai in just five hours is the target
A Chinese passenger train now holds the World Speed Record for an unmodified conventional commercial train after reaching a speed of 486 kilometres per hour (302 mph) on a section of track between Beijing and Shanghai.
Unusual catch
A rather surprised Chinese fisherman caught this strange creature, an alligator snapping turtle, in a lake in southern China. The creature is not native to China and is thought to have been a pet which was subsequently set free. It is only native to the USA….Alligator snapping turtle.
Cuddly cubs
Giant pandas always look so cute and cuddly and here we have mother Lou Sheng with her new twin cubs. Lou Sheng gave birth to the twins on August 18th at the Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Breeding and Research Centre in Zhouzhi County, in north-west China. Despite being a peaceful, bamboo eating animal, there are only about 1,590 pandas in the …
Freedom of speech
It would appear that Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Live.com, Hotmail.com, Blogspot, YouTube and a number of proxy sites are all currently unavailable in China in the run-up to the anniversary of ‘Nothing happened in Tiananmen Square’.
Is there anything the Chinese won’t counterfeit?
There was uproar in Iran the other day when Israeli oranges were found to be on sale in the country despite a ban on commercial dealings between the two states. One irate official even apparently went so far as to accuse the opposition of a ‘citrus plot’. However, it now turns out that the offending citrus fruit, marketed as ‘Jaffa …
Oasis considered ‘unsuitable’ by the Chinese
Oasis concerts planned in China, the first visit by the group, have been cancelled by the authorities who deem the band ‘unsuitable’. Concerts in Shanghai and Beijing have been cancelled and ticket holders have been refunded after the authorities discovered that Oasis once appeared at a ‘Free Tibet’ concert in the USA in 1997.
Mission accomplished
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is in China and has been meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. The pair apparently spent half an hour heaping praise upon each other before José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero emerged with the implicit support of China to attend the summit meeting in Washington on November 15th. Only last week, Prime Minister Zapatero stated …