Harmonious News

Chengdu celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China with a day full of events last Thursday. Thousands of people gathered in Tianfu Square in the morning to watch the flag-raising ceremony. During the daytime, singing and dancing performances were held at the city's main parks, including People's Park, Xinhua Park, and Tazishan Park. And finally, at night, a large-scale fireworks show featuring over 6,000 fireworks was set off over the Chengdu Stadium.
China News and China Daily

The Sichuan float at Beijing's military parade last Thursday was allegedly one of the most popular for tourists to have their photos taken with.

The "Chengdu Today Photo Exhibition Dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of New China" (今日成都——新中国成立60周年图片展) was held at the Sichuan Science and Technology Museum Sept. 24 to Oct. 5. Highlighting the city's achievements in regard to three milestones--1978, when the country adopted "reform and open" policies; 2003, when urban and rural development was coordinated; and 2008, when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan--the exhibit featured over 300 photos from private collections and work units. Over the 12 days it was up, the exhibit received around 10,000 visitors. If you weren't among those 10,000, you can still see the photos here.
China Daily

Among the photos at the exhibition was this one of Renmin Nan Lu in the 1960s, now the site of Tianfu Square.

Chengdu's "National Day baby" was born early on the morning of Oct. 1, at the Sichuan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital. The baby received a Schein Century Rainbow Insurance policy worth RMB21,000 upon birth. Talk about being born in the right place at the right time.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Culture and Society

With the Tuesday opening of a "virtual press-conference hall" on the Sichuan provincial government website, the local government appears to be taking preliminary steps to interact with citizens. The China Daily touts the website feature as allowing Internet surfers to "join government press conferences like reporters" and gushes that the page is "exactly like the press conference hall of the Sichuan provincial government." Selected reporters will be able to participate in press conferences online, and the questions and answers will be broadcast via the site. Also, said an official, the public will be able to interact in the press conferences "in the future."
China Daily

Visitors to the Sichuan provincial government website have overwhelmingly voted "city planning" as their most closely followed issue--over construction speed, disaster relief, and other issues. With streams of cars like this one now a regular occurrence, it's not surprising why.

After a year of post-quake reconstruction work, Huanglongxi Ancient Town reopened on Wednesday and staged a Mid-Autumn Festival fire dragon show on Monday.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Monday's Dragon dance in Huanglongxi.

Chengdu-based fans of Supergirl runner-up Jane Zhang set a new record on the Chengdu Commercial Daily tickets-booking site: 10,000 replies in 20 minutes. Why? The site was giving away tickets to Zhang's "I love this city" concert held on Tuesday. By the end of the promotion period, there were a total of 300,000 replies on the page.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Chengdu's Sixth China International Food and Tour Festival encompasses three sites and spans half a dozen cuisines, including German, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, and South Korean. It runs until October 20 at Happy Valley and other sites and is touted as the country's largest and longest-running food festival. On a related note, Chengdu, which boasts more than 60,000 dining establishments employing over 250,000 people, has reportedly put in a bid for the title "City of Food" from UNESCO.
See the full text at China Daily

Odd News

A Suining bridegroom who donned women's underwear on top of his clothes and skipped down the road announcing that he'd just gotten married turned lots of heads Monday. His picture quickly went online and earned him the nickname of "Superman Bridegroom" since he'd chosen red briefs.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A power outage occurred last Tuesday morning in the Shuikang Compound, Chenghua District. The outage was allegedly caused by a thief trying to steal the high-voltage cable.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A five-student school that opened just last month in a private residence near Dufu's Thatched Cottage is already drawing critics. The school teaches Chinese and English classical sayings and nothing else. Headmaster Xia Sheng, formerly an engineer, believes the students--all from well-to-do families who advocate this alternative education style--should be able to recite the sayings using 200,000 Chinese characters. For their English studies, students read the Bible, tell short stories, and play games with a native English speaker. While the Chengdu Education Bureau's chief claims the school's curriculum violates the country's education law, other education professionals spoke favorably of it for bringing diversity to China's education.
See the full text at China Daily

And, in case you didn't get enough of the National Day festivities, here's a video clip about the Sichuan float (in Mandarin and Sichuan dialect).

—Researched by Marvin Tan

Did you know Chengdu is surrounded by snow-capped mountains? You might know it to be true, but you might have never seen it with your own eyes. And seeing is believing, or so they say.

Chengdu resident and GoChengdoo reader David DuByne sent in this photograph along with the following text:


As we noted on Monday, 68,000 people left Chengdu via long-distance passenger bus Sunday alone. That figure paled in comparison to the estimated 500,000 Chengdu city residents who went out of town on Thursday, according to figures from Chengdu's transportation department.

On Saturday night, Chengdu residents were also treated to a rare clear view of a very bright full moon, just in time for the Mid-Autumn (or "moon-viewing") festival.

If you've caught something special with your camera that you'd like to share with GoChengdoo readers, send it to us!

China Hush and ESWN both translate an article about Chengdu-based amateur animator Jokelate and the three years he spent holed up in his mum's apartment working on a 16-minute anti-war animation "See Through" that's been called "the most awesome animated short film."

The New Yorker's Letter from China blog hosts a Q & A with Pacific and Asian history professor Geremie R. Barmé about the significance of military parades in China and their historical context.

Imagethief (and a ton of other sites) link to photographer Dan Chung's superb timelapse/slow motion (and tilt-shift?) video of the parade for The Guardian, touted as the only footage of it you need to see. Which stands in contrast to netizens' reactions to the CCTV coverage, as translated by ChinaSmack.

And if you haven't had enough of National Day parade-related posts, Jeremiah at Jottings from the Granite Studio shares his irreverent take on the celebrations, interspersed with quotes from the movie "The Hangover."

Having problems accessing certain sites even when you're using a go-between? Rconversation looks at what's been happening to the Internet behind the Great Firewall these past few weeks (a post that also serves as a good survey of some of the wall-jumping options out there). Not so coincidentally, you'll need a proxy to view it.

China Hush also compiles a list of keywords for each of the 60 years of the PRC, good for those wanting to brush up on some of the major events of the past six decades.

And China Digital Times links to pieces on the fortunes of two communes still going strong despite the changes of the past thirty years. Also requires a proxy.

Fran likes surfing the China blogosphere, and every Sunday she shares her picks of the week with GoChengdoo readers.

Three people were arrested and detained after being caught smoking in two downtown open markets.

From Chengdu Commercial Daily (in translation):

Can smoking in a market be such a great offense? Will you actually be punished for it? If you think all that will happen is that the market's security staff will give you a warning, or, at the worst, impose a small fine, well, you're wrong and your thinking is very "dangerous." The day before yesterday [Sept. 22], three people were smoking inside the market when they were arrested and detained by police and fire-safety law-enforcement officials. It was reported that since the implementation of a new law banning smoking in public places, these are the first arrests made by the Jinjiang District police.

At 9:55 on the morning of Sept. 22, the Jinjiang District fire squad and the Renmin Dong Lu local police were conducting a fire-safety check in the Xin Zhongxing Square market. When they arrived at shop 211 on the first floor, they found two young female customers sitting inside a shop chatting and smoking. In the past when police had approached, they never paid any attention. Only when an officer pulled out a camera to document the evidence did the two start to realize they were in trouble and started to leave. "Don't tell me smoking a cigarette is against the law?" the women allegedly said while being taken to the police station. At 4 p.m. the same day, the Chunxi Lu division police arrested another smoker during an inspection of the Shangmeicheng Mall at the west section of Chunxi Lu. When the police informed him he was being detained for smoking in the market, the man was flabbergasted.

The three underwent investigation at the police station and it wasn't until they were told to sign their names on the detainment forms that they finally became aware that by smoking in the markets they had broken the law.

Jinjiang District Fire Squadron vice captain Chen Fugui stated that the three arrestees were in violation of line 63 of the new "Fire Ordinance" which stipulates: It is in violation of the law to smoke or use a flame [such as that of a lighter] in any public location where there is risk of flammability, fire, or explosion. In the case of such a violation, the suspect will be detained for a maximum of five days.

The women each received five days' detainment while the man received three.

"Mainly to scare and warn the smokers" replied vice captain Chen in response to why such a severe penalty is being imposed. Previously when law-enforcement officials came across smokers in public places usually they would issue a warning or at the worst fine the offending party, which proved to be ineffective. The decision to implement uniform penalties came into effect August 20.

During the National Holiday period, management offices of all public shopping centers and markets will be required to post "No Smoking" signs.

The reporter conducted a brief survey of passersby near the Xin Zhongxing Plaza last Tuesday afternoon. At the shop in which the two female customers were arrested for smoking, the shopowner said that when the police came she too had not paid any attention. But when she stepped out of the shop, she didn't see the two customers who had just been sitting there. And when she heard they had been detained for smoking she was shocked.

At Shangmeicheng Mall, the reporter found the nephew of the man who had been arrested. He said that at the time of his uncle's arrest, the man had no idea that smoking was grounds for arrest.

The reporter then interviewed about a dozen smokers at Chunxi Lu. Nearly all of them said that they were not aware that smoking in a market is against the law, or that it was a serious enough offense to warrant arrest and detainment. "A warning or small fine is enough, five days of detainment seems a little heavy," said city resident Mr. Wang. But city resident Mr. Linghu said that the penalty for smoking in a public place should be the same as that for driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, detainment of 15 days in order to "better teach a lesson to those who don't value life!"

The first two cases of people being detained for smoking illegally occurred in September 2007, when two men were found smoking in the Chengdu Fuhe Qiao Wood Market in the Jinniu district.

Headlines

Today marks the annual World Carfree Day. Chengdu, which hosted the country's first observance of the event in 2001, put into place traffic controls in certain areas, including around Tianfu Square. But in direct opposition to that was the Friday opening of Chengdu's 12th International Motor Show, displaying over 500 models of domestic and international luxury vehicles. Chengdu's auto market has grown by 20 percent annually, and with now over 2 million private vehicles on its streets, the city sits behind only Beijing and Shanghai in terms of automobile-ownership rates.
China News and China Daily

Nine were killed, four seriously injured, and another 91 hospitalized after a bombing Tuesday night in residential area in Yibin's Cuiping District. No reports have been made of arrests, and investigators are looking into the exact cause of the explosion.
Sichuan Online

And also in Yibin, four children were injured when a grenade they were playing with exploded on Wednesday in Guanghui Village, Pingshan County. Three of the four sustained serious injuries, and the last was lightly wounded. The police are investigating this case.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake hit the border of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces Saturday afternoon at 4:54 p.m. In Sichuan, Qingchuan County was rocked. So far there have been no reports of casualties.
China Daily

A 13-year-old boy in Huisuo Gardens in Chengdu's Wuhou District was injured Thursday morning after the elevator he was in fell from the 11th to the 10th floor. The patient underwent a splenectomy as a result. He stated that a power failure might have caused the accident.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Ramp-up to National Day
Luzhou gymnast and three-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Kai (邹凯) won Sichuan's first medal of 11th National Games of China Sunday night. Zou received the medal for his performance in the individual floor exercise. Since then, Sichuan has pulled in another 22 medals, 9 of which are gold, bringing the province into the eighth position in the medal counts.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Foreigners will be banned from traveling to Tibet, starting September 24 and effective through October 8, according to various travel agencies.
AFP

You might have noticed national flags waving from nearly every building throughout the city. The decorating started this week, and everyone's getting into the spirit, including the owner of a historic, 1970s-era Hongqi which made an attention-grabbing appearance on Thursday so that its owner could buy it some flags. Hongqi (红旗) is the luxury-car series of China's First Automobile Works Group, Co.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Construction and Development
Southwest China's first high-speed trains (Hexiehao 和谐号) will make their inaugural run on Monday. Traveling up to 200 kilometers per hour, they will cut the trip between Chengdu and Chongqing to a mere 119 minutes. Seven trains will depart daily from each location between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; tickets start at 98 RMB.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

With next year's planned makeover of the North Railway Station, Renmin Bei Lu will be extended past the Third Ring Road to Beixin Gandao (北新干道). The new kilometer-length section of Renmin Bei Lu will dip underground from the First Ring Road through the current North Railway Station.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Yulin Xi Jie is undergoing renovation. By the end of the month, it will have new granite tiling and will be lined with flower boxes and benches.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Society and Culture
Want to win 10,000 RMB? From next month, diners and other customers in Chengdu will receive a new kind of receipt that offers them the chance to win cash prizes. Customers are urged to request receipts for all transactions to help encourage accurate financial reporting among local businesses.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Across the nation, a record 410,000 future lawyers and judges sat for the two-day national judicial exam last weekend. In Chengdu, the exam was held at the Vocational and Technical College, where administrators utilized electric sensors to ensure takers did not use electronic assistance on the exam.
China Daily

Five Jiange county officials have been removed from their posts for gambling—by playing mahjong—while on duty. They were caught at a teahouse on September 9 with more than RMB120,000 at stake. Officials are expressly prohibited from playing mahjong while on duty or gambling with it in public. Nonetheless, a handful of Sichuanese officials have been fired for the offense over the past few years.
China Daily

Provincewide, 17 government officials—among them, party and public security chiefs—have been found to have ties to criminal gangs since 2006. In Le Shan a pair of officials took a total of 472,000 RMB in bribes to cover up a criminal gang's murder. And in Yuanyang town, another pair took bribes to protect illegal gold miners. The latter pair have been sentenced to prison. Sichuan police launched a crackdown on gang activity in 2006 and have since caught 832 individuals and confiscated 150 million RMB.
China Daily

Did you hear the sirens on Friday afternoon? Every September 19, Chengdu joins other cities across the nation in sounding air-raid alarms in observance of the anniversary of the pre-World War II Mukden Incident, in which the Japanese invaded Manchuria and began their occupation of China. The sounding of the sirens also serves as an exercise of the Air Defense Warning System.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

On Friday, Jianyang citizen Huang Renyi (黄仁义), who has crossed China three times by bike, made a 500-kilometer cycling journey in 22 hours and 54 minutes, successfully breaking his previous record of 24 hours.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Chengdu artist Xu Liaoyuan's furniture exhibition opened Sunday at his private gallery, the XLY MOMA in San Shengxiang. The luxury furniture will be sold during the exhibition, with one piece costing as much as 2 million RMB.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Since the launch of this year's "09 'Ice' Breaker" operation, authorities have discovered 2429 cases of people manufacturing, selling, or in possession of so-called "new drugs," including 155 kg of methamphetamines, .36 kg of ecstasy, and 72.92 kg of ketamine. To date, drug use has been reported in each of Sichuan's 21 cities and prefectures, and 36 manufacturing sites have been shut down, and 797.2 kg of raw materials seized.
Sichuan Online

Odd news
Road workers in Baoxiang spotted a young panda trapped on a hill last Saturday and lent the national treasure a helping hand. One worker was injured during the rescue, but told media, "I don't care much for the injury. It's worth saving a panda."
China Daily

Since last Monday, thousands of fishing enthusiasts in Langzhong's Nanbu County have been rushing to the Jialing River after 50,000 kilograms of catfish escaped from their cages. And Nanbu County's entire stock of bait has reportedly been sold out.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

Residents of Huahaoyuan Compound block 5 near Shuangxing Dadao heard a loud bang early Friday morning. It turned out the noise was caused by an exploding toilet. (Yum.) The shock damaged washrooms in several flats, and investigators determined the explosion was due to one of the residents' illegal storage of chemicals in the building.
Chengdu Commercial Daily

—Researched by Marvin Tan

The Plateau Music Project uploads three "endangered" love songs (with lyrics) from the Tibetan plateau as part of their efforts to record and preserve local music heritage. It's not just the pandas that are worth saving.

China Digital Times links to a high-quality interactive web video called Journey to the End of Coal, in which you are an investigative reporter, delving into the dirty world of coal in Shanxi province.

China News Wrap translates an article on Sohu that about increasingly unmet demand for migrant workers in China's southern cities--suggesting that factories might have to improve labor conditions in order to attract workers.

China Media Project looks at how state media are dealing with their "shackles" while writing about the 60th anniversary of the PRC.

More scary stuff from Chinahush: namely, 40,000 fake condoms.

And in an update for those of you interested in the "Shanghainese black girl" Lou Jing controversy, Chinahush posts a video of and translates the transcript of a long interview with Lou Jing about her experiences growing up black in China and her feelings on all the attention she's been receiving. And CNReviews chimes in with, All you foreigners are just as racist as the Chinese you're accusing!

One more from CNReviews: A look at the bias implied in the blogosphere fuss over Thomas Friedman's editorial in the New York Times, which points out some advantages of autocracy (China) vs. democracy (U.S.).

Fran likes surfing the China blogosphere, and every Sunday she shares her picks of the week with GoChengdoo readers.

Police in Jintang County (northwest of Chengdu proper) staged a practice drill in preparation for National Day security last Friday. The drill involved a fake explosive that was planted at the local middle school. And to be sure the drill was as authentic as possible, neither the students of the school nor their families were notified that it was just a drill.

The scene:

On Friday morning, a suspicious red bag was found on a second-floor bathroom of the Jintang County Middle School.

At 10:30 a.m., the area was cordoned off, and six fire engines, an ambulance, and 100 police had arrived at the scene. At 10:47, county PSB head Gang Xiao commanded over the school's loudspeakers, "All students on the first floor, evacuate immediately to the playground," and so on until, by 10:55, all of the school's nearly 6,400 students and teachers had been evacuated.

Those ironic caption writers at Sichuan News captioned this photo of terrified students understandably running for their lives "Students evacuate from the building in an orderly manner."

Curious onlookers flocked to see what was going on, but they were immediately turned away by police patrolling the area.

At 10:59, a group of seven explosives experts examined the bag and pronounced, "This thing will not explode."

From Sichuan Online:



Finally, after the drill was completed, the police announced to the crowd that it was only a drill, which evidently prompted a big public sigh of relief. Almost like an April Fool's Day prank half a year early. Wasn't there some fable about a boy and a wolf?

Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering, the Chengdu Police have officially announced that no large-scale assemblies will be tolerated in the days leading up to the National Day. So don't even think about it.

Images: Sichuan News

IKEA Chengdu by Michal Pachniewski.

Nearly every other China blog has linked to this amusing piece (so we will too) in the L.A. Times, because, I suspect, it's kind of feel-good in its own way, letting us feel smug in knowing that huge multinationals aren't immune to culture shock either. ... Though I don't see the logic in going to a superstore to tuck myself up in bed and enjoy a good book. Is Chengdu's Ikea the same these hot sticky days?

According to this selective survey of Chinese women's gripes with their husbands, translated on Chinasmack, Chinese men are lazy, maintain questionable hygiene standards, and hog the computer for hours ... much like men elsewhere, then.

China Newswrap translates a People's Daily op-ed that argues that Japan, Korea, and China should stop mocking each other's failures and gives South Korea a few good kicks along the way.

China Digital Times translates Chinese tweets about upcoming National Day from those stubbornly Twittering away despite the block.

From Danwei, a translated piece looking at recent changes to the traditional formula of CCTV's evening news. Need proxy to view link.

And, finally, Chinayouren blogs about being on the receiving end of unasked-for, subversive phone calls.

Fran likes surfing the China blogosphere, and every Sunday she shares her picks of the week with GoChengdoo readers.