Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

Interesting to read that a management change in one of the more progressive Chinese newspapers, the Beijing News, isn’t going as smoothly as planned.

From the BBC

About 100 journalists from one of China’s most progressive newspapers, the Beijing News, have walked out to protest against their editor’s sacking.

There was no mention of the walk-out in China’s newspapers, but word of it spread rapidly via internet blogs and bulletin boards, which Communist officials are less able to control.

The power of the web seems to still be there.

For the whole story:

BBC
or in case you suffer Nanninitis
BBC unblocked

Beijng a lawyer for the weak and poor in China is no picnic. Some excerpts from the daily life of lawyer Gao.

I went out this early this morning to exercise in the park. Several plainclothesmen were around me. Compared to before, the scale of the surveillance has clearly gone up.

Wherever I went, the cars would surround me and a group of about twenty strong men would run up. I don’t know if President Bush gets this kind of luxurious treatment, but things are definitely different from few days ago.

There is a lot more here Source & Translations Zonaeuropa.

If you have need for a transplant and you’re living in China, chances are some prisoner is your happy, voluntarily donor.

An article from Nov 28, 2005 issue of the Caijing Magazine:

The Chinese government has admitted that most human organs used for transplants in China are those of executed prisoners, and has promised to expedite new legislation that would regulate the market for those organs.

It will come not a moment too soon, as the number of organ transplants in China has soared over the last decade. China is now second only to the US, with approximately 60,000 kidney transplants, 6,000 liver transplants and 250 heart transplants since 1993.

Found through the interesting new blog “Non-Violent Resistence” , written by a young Chinese journalist.

Is it panic slowly creeping in? I don’t know but slowly I am getting the feeling that Bird Flu might become a bigger problem than I at first envisioned.

Sure, the media don’t really help when now it’s daily in the headlines. It also isn’t very comforting to live in a country where bird flu is likely coming from. (see article Newsweek: The flimsy wall of China

Tamiflu is almost everywhere sold out eventhough it’s not even certain it will actually help that much. You apparently should only take it when you get the flu symptoms which is always hard to know.

When do you take an aspirin for instance, when you have a starting headache or when it keeps on bugging you for some time.

According to Reuters a 12-year-old girl has died suffering flu-like symptoms in a village in central China where the mainland’s third outbreak of bird flu in a week has been reported. It isn’t yet confirmed that it’s a bird flu mutation gone crazy but chances are it is.

I bought my first face/flu mask yesterday. It probably won’t help that much but at least it is still available.

It’s one of those ordinary days. Typhoon Khanun (Jackfruit in Thai) passed by here in Shanghai last night but seems to be gone as construction workers outside are working again. It’s not the first as Matsa also paid a visit before.

Maybe all this wind and rain has cleared some minds.

China will no longer regard the death toll in natural disasters as a state secret, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, as part of government efforts to improve transparency.

Whether this transparency will also be retrospectively be applied is not clear yet though

source: Reuters – China says disaster tolls no more a state secret

Traffic is hot here. New subway lines are being build while cars are doing their best to clog up every road there is. I remember being on my way to the airport a few weeks ago and actually being stopped from entering the ring road. Road closed, too many cars was the message.

It will get safer on the new line 4 (opens in the end of the year) in Shanghai as all stations get safety partitions. (source: Xinhua)

There is supposed to be a new Shanghai traffic website where you can find the best route of the day. In good Chinese tradition the mentioned website (probably using Chinese language), operational since yesterday, is inactive at the moment. Too many traffic jams I guess but in case they will be able to revive it, here is the address.

Interestingly enough the domain was registered many years ago, 1999 to be exact so they were thinking long term at the time. If they would have done the same with the real highways it would have been even better.

(source: Shanghai Daily)

Update: It’s weekend and the website is reachable. I guess less traffic helped (Site is only in Chinese by the way)