Asia

Jun Ma is one of the more accurate economic forecasters following China (he’s a at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong). His latest monthly missive states flatly that the inflation scare in China is over, and that he’s now worried about a significant slow down in growth. He’s marked down his 2008 growth forecast from 10.8 per cent to 10.2, and …

As a complement to my previous post, see here for our piece in the dead tree edition on China’s magical capital.

Spot the empty lane

In reference to my post below (Rainy Beijing) in which I wondered about the effect vehicle controls on Beijing’s long suffering commuters, please see here for a Reuters story which describes how the capital’s main subway line ground to a halt because of the crush of passengers. Today is the first working day of …

Two buses exploded in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming during the morning rush hour today, state media reported. The blasts, which occurred about an hour apart, killed two and injured 14 in the Yunnan provincial capital. A police official told the AFP that according to preliminary investigations the cause of the blasts was …

The Beijing nail house mentioned here has been torn down. At the site earlier today there was nothing but workmen moving the last bits of rubble, planting flowers and painting the red wall behind where the Yu family store once stood. A person at a nearby store said the destruction work began at 3 a.m. on Friday. From an aesthetic …

Having just read Jurassic Park, I decided to mesh my interests in archaeology and China by penning a 20-page sci-fi adventure story about two American archaeologists poking around the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China’s first emperor, and the chaos that erupts when Qin’s vast terracotta army is disturbed from its slumber … …

Yao Ming, whose NBA season ended in February when he injured his left foot, returned to play last night at an Olympic warm-up game in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. The All Star center’s first official game since undergoing surgery for a stress …

As you can see from the picture below, it’s raining pretty heavily in Beijing. This may seem pretty commonplace but it is significant for a number of reasons.

One is that it has been a very rainy summer indeed by Beijing standards. Obviously that’s a worry for the Opening Ceremony where a rain-out would be a big loss of face. China …

Well, I finally saw Kung Fu Panda last night. Pretty good and quite funny, though with all the hype it couldn’t help but be a bit of a letdown. I did wonder what they spent the 130 million dollars on. All those stars’ voices might have something to do with it I suppose. But it also left me a little puzzled about some of the agonizing …

This is just a quick heads up to point out my piece on time.com today about the short-term measures the government is putting in place to ensure clean air for the Olympics. What I was hopping to convey was that it’s a bit silly (and yes, I’ve been guilty of it, too) to look out the window with a month to go before the Games, see the …

Beijing is full of patriotism these days. National flags adorn cars and “I [heart] China” t-shirts are in fashion. But it’s hard to match the display of one small store in central Beijing. A national flag flies high above its roof, next to a white Olympic flag. Below hang a pair of Communist …