Pipe Dream?

China's Baigong Pipes, natural or supernatural?

Locals, residing forty kilometers southeast of Qinghai's Delingha city, have known of the pipes for centuries. They credit aliens for their construction, and even have legends of extraterrestrial visitors to Mt. Baigong. Although the stories are met with predictable skepticism, they become harder to laugh off when one takes in the sixty-meter pyramid near the mountain's summit.

One of the comments suggests it's a giant water bong.

Foreign Object

Mysterious Swiss watch found in 400-year-old Chinese tomb.



Archeologists in China are baffled after finding a tiny Swiss watch in a 400-year-old tomb.

"When we tried to remove the soil wrapped around the coffin, a piece of rock suddenly dropped off and hit the ground with a metallic sound," said Jiang Yanyu, former curator of the Guangxi Autonomous Region Museum.

"We picked up the object, and found it was a ring. After removing the covering soil and examining it further, we were shocked to see it was a watch."

Local experts say they are confused as they believe the tomb had been undisturbed since it was created during the Ming dynasty 400 years ago.

Home Away from Home

Chinese investors buying up foreclosed US homes.

Reporting from Shanghai -- Caravans of cash-rich Chinese in Hummers and Lincoln Navigators have been weaving through American neighborhoods in recent months, looking for foreclosures and other bargain properties to buy.

With housing prices crashing in the U.S., home-buying trips to America are becoming one of the more popular tour group packages in China. New U.S. visa rules for Chinese tourists and a loosening of foreign investment policies by China have made it easier for people such as Zhao Hongjun of Beijing to go house hunting across the Pacific.

Stone Rose

"Stone flower" found in China attracts villagers.

No Stresspassing

China: the world's most stressful society?

Deadly Game

Murder/suicide on first day of Beijing Olympics.

There has been a murder-suicide at the the "dark drum" tower in Beijing, on the first day after the opening of the 2008 Olympics.

The American man was killed and his American woman companion wounded, on Saturday, August 9, 2008, by a Chinese man who then leapt to his own death, falling approximately 130 feet.

A Chinese tour guide, a woman, was also wounded in the attack, which happened at the historic Drum Tower monument, a popular tourist site, just after noon, around 12:20 pm (local time).

Beijing Bar Bullies

Black people & Mongolians being banned from Chinese bars?

China's All-Seeing Eye

China's setting up a high-tech police state with the help of US businesses.

Now, as China prepares to showcase its economic advances during the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, Shenzhen is once again serving as a laboratory, a testing ground for the next phase of this vast social experiment. Over the past two years, some 200,000 surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the city. Many are in public spaces, disguised as lampposts. The closed-circuit TV cameras will soon be connected to a single, nationwide network, an all-seeing system that will be capable of tracking and identifying anyone who comes within its range — a project driven in part by U.S. technology and investment. Over the next three years, Chinese security executives predict they will install as many as 2 million CCTVs in Shenzhen, which would make it the most watched city in the world.

Read more @ Rolling Stone

Hard Life

Coal miners in China

Man-Made Desert

What do you make of the Chinese Dust Bowl?

Stuck in China

The May issue of National Geographic is devoted to China, but some readers in China may find it a bit tough to read.

Marilyn sez, "There are some 5,000 copies of the English-language edition of National Geographic distributed in China every month, but readers of the May issue, which was dedicated to China, found some controversial pages were glued together. "

More here.

The Aftermath

Coverage on the environmental fallout after China's earthquake.