October 2, 2003
Beijing Lifts Accommodation Limits on Overseas Tourists, from China.org.cn:
Beijing police say that people from overseas may choose where to live in Beijing, including households in those old hutongs (lanes), a Mongolian name for streets with wells, where most traditional courtyards, popularly known as siheyuan or four-sided enclosed yards, still can be seen.
This act came into being earlier this year, and is only coming into effect now that a network system linking all of Beijing's computerized hotel registers is up-and-running
. It's too bad this is not a national policy, though another article writes that other locales have already passed similar legislation, including Shanghai, and provinces such as Guangdong, Yunnan, Hubei and Jiangxi
.
A national law that goes into effect today is the new marriage rules—or should we say, unrules. Couples no longer need a letter from their work unit certifiying their unmarried status, nor do they need a health test. Beginning October 1st, engaged couples will only need to show their national IDs and residency papers, and sign a document affirming that they are single (but not for long!). Government officials say the law was changed because it violated China's policy on freedom of marriage, but the tacitly unacknowledged causes are the rise of the private sector, ie people who don't belong to a work unit, and the greater mobility of employees in the "socialist" market economy.
Likewise, the law regarding divorce has been changed. In the past, a one-month waiting period has been required for the civil affairs department to provide mediation. Now, couples with the requisite documentation can divorce immediately. [ Link ]
Ziboy has a fresh batch of photos up for October, including National Day crowds, kowtowing petitioners, punk rockers and a mosh pit.
[ Archived ]
October 8, 2003
Will Taiwan become the PRC's Brighton Beach? Tibet is already monopolizing the Disney image.
But lately Brighton Beach is a tourist attraction for another group of people - more recent immigrants who have come to America from a transformed Russia, where Moscow sparkles with shopping options for the affluent, where malls have sprung up in suburbs, and where sushi bars are more popular than McDonald's. To them, Brighton Beach, in the eastern part of Brooklyn's Coney Island peninsula, is a place frozen in time - a Brezhnev-era closed world, one full of sour looks, suspicion, and hopelessly outdated fashion.
Even for fashion. At the present time, Taiwan is more hip, but I'm predicting that the mainland will overtake the renegade province someday.
The Michigan Daily had an article today about the South Korean embassy in Beijing closing down because they are sheltering too many North Korean refugees.
[ Archived ]
October 13, 2003
Via AgitProp, a story on Kim Jong Il's love life. It includes a very informative roster of all the major players in the North Korean royal family.
Until recently few had even known of Ko Yong-Hi's existence. She is not the 61-year-old dictator's "official wife". But clues gathered by North Korea watchers - including the fact that instructions have been issued to call her "the beloved mother" - lend weight to reports that her eldest son, Kim Jong Chul, 22, is in line to succeed Mr Kim. If the regime survives, that is.
No doubt the North Korean paparazzi are all over this one.
[ Archived ]
October 14, 2003
Blast Off!
Shenzhou V blasted off into space at 9:00:
China's first manned spaceship, the Shenzhou 5 (Divine Vessel V) blasted off into space at 9:00 AM Wednesday morning, with 38-year-old astronaut Yang Liwei, an air force pilot since 1983, sitting in the ship who is widely considered as "China's First Space Man".
[ Archived ]
October 16, 2003
Congratulations China:
YANG: So good — so good — I got you. Over.
MC: (taking off headset and yelling across room) General! He says he has someone up there!
GENERAL: He must mean one of the Three Represents.
[ Archived ]