peasant

It is said that power and money are the best aphrodisiac and it appears to be true, at least to those Party and government officials who lost grace for embezzlement. Almost without exception, these officials have been shown to possess “er-nai”, a new addition to the Chinese expressions that means second wife, mistress or concubine. From central politburo standing commit member Chen Xitong, to Beijing vice mayors Wang Baoshen, Liu Zhihua, to Shanghai Party boss Chen Liangyu and more recently, State Data and Statistics Bureau chief Qiu Xiaohua, they all have one thing in common. In addition to the huge amount of money they steal, they all have these extra marital er-nais. And some of them have out of wedlock kids too.

Internet users in China recently organized a sort of competition for those officials and granted some quite nice sounding titles to those winners. They voted nine awards and some of them are:

The Award of Quantity goes to Xu Qiyao, the Provincial Construction Department head of Jiangsu for having 146 mistresses. The award cited his devotion for womanizing without caring too much about ages and looks.

The Awards of Quality goes to Zhang Zonghai, the Provincial Party Propaganda chief in Chongqing for hoarding 17 college girls in 5-star hotels.

The Awards of Academic Achievement goes to Hainan Provincial Textile Bureau chief Li Qingshan for meticulously recording his rendezvous with various women over many years. His diaries filled 95 journal notebooks. The award also cited his peculiar hobby of collecting 236 pieces of memorabilia, such as women’s pubic hair.

Yang Feng, the Party Boss of Xuancheng City in Anhui, won the Award of Management for using the knowledge he was learning from his MBA courses he was taking to manage his seven lovers. But his practice of his knowledge didn’t work well. The conflicts between his head mistress and others eventually led to his downfall.

The Award of Stamina goes to Zeng Guohua, the provincial Communications Department head in Hunan. He promised to his 5 mistresses that he would have sex with each of them no fewer than 3 times a week before he reaches 60.

These awards are of course jokes but the problem must be very rampant. In fact, people are taking it for granted and they no longer feel much about news on this matter. It is said in some areas, officials would feel shame if they don’t have some mistresses. The central government has a new policy that would take effect on June 1st that any governmental officials who are found to have mistress would be stripped off their power or fired. Would this really stop the seemingly common practice? Probably not since, for example, embezzlement is never legal but it appears getting worse and worse, even with all kinds of punishment in place for offenders.

The direct passenger train from Shanghai to Lhasa, Tibet is making its debut run today. Then like in Guangzhou, the train runs every the other day. The whole distance is 4,373 kilometers (2,733 miles). The journey takes 51 hours and 39 minutes with 9 stopovers. It leaves Shanghai at 4.11pm and gets to Lhasa at 7.50 pm the third day. The considerations were taken so that in both ways, the train is running the scenic areas from Golmu to Lhasa during the daytime.

The ticket for the so-called “hard sleeper” is 821 yuan for the middle bunker bed. For the “soft sleeper” bed, it is 1,314 yuan for the lower bed and 1266 yuan for the upper one. There are 4 beds in a compartment that has a door to keep some privacy for the soft sleepers.

Officially, foreigners still need to get the travel permit to travel to Tibet. And it appears that they only issue permit to group tours, according to the official Tibetan Tourism Bureau (TTB ) http://www.tibettour.org/chinatibettoursite/moban/e_jzxz.asp An approval letter from TTB, or Tibetan Foreign Affairs Office or the Department of Commerce in Tibet will all do according to a recent announcement. Alternatively, a letter from a local Provincial Department that contacted the aforementioned departments in Tibet and got their approval will also allow you to buy the train ticket to Lhasa. (Shanghai is at the same level as a province, so a municipal department letter should be fine)

Early this week, a foreigner was caught taking video pictures under a young lady’s skirt on Nanjing Road, Shanghai. I still can’t imagine how that could be done. The guy seemed to be in an awkward position with a big crowd watching. The situation appeared to be tense with other people holding his hand or pointing fingers at him. It was reported that people asked him to give out the tape before they let him go which he did. The outcome could be worse for him.

Unrelated with this, an art professor in a college near Nanjing made headlines in the Chinese media and web forums by taking off all his clothes when giving lectures on body art, then holding an online conversation in a well-known web portal in China. It was reported that he was telling his students that human emotions can be expressed by the muscle movement in the body and then he began to take off his clothes. He sounded a bit narcissistic too by praising his own body shape. He said he is 56 now and still has “the back of a tiger and the waist of a bear”, a Chinese saying to describe someone being strong. He said that resulted from his generation when working and natural beauty were emphasized.

Stop here please if it is inappropriate for you to see naked pictures. Furthermore, pictures on the dog slaughtering in the next page might be disturbing to you too.

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Look at the picture and could you see anything unusual?

Yes, there is a living soldier in the terra cotta army. A young man from Germany, dressed in the terra soldier attire he made himself, jumped into the pit to pose as one of those terra warriors. It is the first in the 27 years since those soldiers opened to the public that anyone jumped into the pit without permission. In fact, few had the chance to get too close to those soldiers. In mid 90s, President Clinton and his family had a chance to get into the pit. But later, many complained about the exception they made to the Clintons. I don’t think any foreigners since Clinton got the chance to get into the pit. (China was desperate at the time to mend its relations with the USA after the government crackdown on the student movement and the sanctions imposed by the west for the crackdown).

He was identified as Pablo, 26, a student studying “behavior art” in a college in Hangzhou. He said it took him a whole week to make his “army uniform”. But apparently he did a very good job, so good that when the head police was informed the event and rushed to the scene, he didn’t immediately recognize the “fake solider”.

He got away without being punished. I guess the fact he is a foreigner might have helped him. The PSB there said he didn’t cause any real damage. But if a local did the same, I am not sure he would get away as easily as him. It was reported that he was “criticized and educated” and then let go. Pablo might have helped himself by playing a dumb laowai. He told the police there that he had long been fascinated by the terra-cotta warriors, that is something the locals like to hear. Then he said he was just so excited when he saw them that he lost control of his excitement. But the fact was when the police and the staff there asked him to leave, he continued to pose and totally ignored them. In fact, he was “carried’ away by force since he refused to leave by himself. “now I don’t know what to do. I was too stupid”, he said. But stupid not, he seems.

being "criticized and educated"

[Thousands of pictures of him were taken by tourists. The two here were taken by a German tourist identified as "A.W". Not sure they were together.]

Quite a while ago, I posted some pictures showing a girl getting mugged by several young men during daytime in Dongguan, Guangdong. Here are some new ones. I got from a Chinese forum where people posted their pictures without claiming copyright. didn't see where the pictures were taken but judging from the plants and trees in the pictures, the venue should be in the south, with sub-tropic climate.

It is still shocking to see a girl being robbed by several men, literally helpless, during the daytime in the presence of quite a few other people. people were passing, looking or taking pictures but not helping. I even didn't see anyone calling police from the pictures.

The pictures are in poor quality probably due to the fences that prevented proper focusing.

(click "peasant" on the left column for another "skin" to see full pictures if you can't see here)

[it appears the guy is trying to strangle the girl while the third accomplice is joining in.]

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China is considering amending its laws on passport regulations, according to a Hongkong newspaper, to have ways to penalize those Chinese tourists going abroad whose “uncivilized” behaviors bring the shame and embarrassment to the country.

The newspaper grouped those behaviors in six categories. Speaking too loud, spitting and littering are among them. The proposed amendment of the Passport Law would suspend the passports of those outrageous violators, though I can’t see how they can practically implement that.

South Korea has similar rules for those serious offenders such as being caught sponsoring prostitution while visiting foreign countries.

According to World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), by 2020, China would be number one tourist destination and ranks 4th in term of tourists going to other countries. Last year, 31 million overseas trips were made by the Chinese people. Some bad habits seen here seem finding their way going out with some of those tourists. It was reported in some places where many Chinese tourists are going to, they put out signs in Chinese saying “no spitting”.

[Chinese tourists outside New York Stock Exchanges on Wall Street by By Richard Drew, AP]

Very recently, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) issued two documents regarding the issue. One is a proposal for being polite and civilized tourists and the measures that should be taken to educate tourists. The 20 measures include making a short video that will broadcast on airplanes, trains and tourist destinations that tells Dos and Don’ts, and publishing country-specific brochures for people to pick up at the airports that explains rules and etiquettes in that particular country. The other document listed unacceptable behaviors as tourists that has two parts, for domestic travelers and overseas ones. Though staring at foreigners is not on either list but to have pictures taken with “foreign guests” against their wills is on both list. Not tipping when the services are rendered is also on the list for those going abroad.

An American teacher moved millions of Chinese to tears when he appeared in a TV talk show a few years ago. He came to China to teach in the mid 90s. Not knowing too much about China at the time, he started teaching in a more developed area along the coast. When he found many Chinese teachers from China’s west came to the coast to look for jobs, he went to the west and found a teaching position in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. He insisted getting paid with the local salary and his devotion to the teaching won him great respect and love. Especially when he was asked to take all his belongings in a backpack to a very popular TV show, his simple life style, his care for the students and his honest interactions with the show host and audience touched many people. (I wrote something about him and posted in this forum in early 2004. I will attach that story at the end of this post).

At the time I wrote about his appearance on TV, I didn’t know his name. I said judging from his Chinese name, he could be either Dave or David. Now we know more about him and his name is David Deems.

David Deems-Ding Dawei

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