Robert in China

Two battery-driven tricycles have begun serving tourists dying for a leak in Beijing's Shichahai scenic area. With such first ever toilet usher service, rushing tourists won't have to spend an extra penny whenever they visit this downtown scenic spot in the Chinese capital.

With signboards saying "Help you find a nearest toilet!" attached to their front and back, two friendly tricycles, run by two sanitary employees, will take their "guests" to the desired destination within 30 seconds for free!

The number of religious believers in China could be three times higher than official estimates, according to a survey reported by state media.


A poll of 4,500 people by Shanghai university professors found 31.4% of people above the age of 16 considered themselves as religious.
This suggests 300 million people nationwide could be religious, compared to the official figure of 100 million.

Some ten thousand people go to Beijing West Railway Station to buy train tickets as the country enters its peak travel season leading up to Chinese New Year when about 500 million people will travel to their family home Chinese New Year falls on February 18.

Ticket prices for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be much lower than at previous Games and affordable for most people, organizers said Wednesday while releasing a "people-oriented" plan. Affordability was a key factor in setting prices, according to officials of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
There will be 7 million tickets for sale and Chinese spectators will have access to at least half of them, a ratio higher than in recent Games.

This is a 100% bamboo bicycle. Building these bicycles is art. It is not something you just do. Every bamboo must be selected and fitted into the frame according to size and quality. The secret lies in treating and handling the material the right way. Learning that takes times and the maintenance takes time as well.

This is the latest model that is coming straight out of China. I think Sony is having some problems financially and is cutting back on R&D.

The Chinese capital Beijing could have 561 kilometres (349 miles) of subway by 2010 and would supplant London as having the world's longest transit system, the China Daily reported on Monday

The network, which would stretch to 19 lines, will reach every major corner of the city, though the plans are still subject to government approval, the newspaper said.
 Cities around China are spending billions of dollars building new subways or upgrading existing systems to try to beat the often chronic traffic jams that have come with years of booming economic growth.

Beijing considers car-free days
Beijing may expand a campaign to urge people take public transport to work and could introduce totally car-free days ahead of the 2008 Olympics, an official said on Monday.

A voluntary effort over the China-Africa summit at the weekend to encourage people not to drive was successful, cutting down on traffic and clearing away pollution, said Du Shaozhong, deputy head of Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau.

(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-11-07 09:06
  Burglar-proof doors have been installed for the newly-built top-level toilets in Deyang, Sichuan Province.
The doors are designed to prevent things like the fancy toilets' sofas from being stolen.
Locals, however, are frustrated by the new toilets, which are kept locked in the early morning.

SHANGHAI: Urbanization is speeding up throughout China, with half the 1.3 billion Chinese or one tenth of the world's population expected to live in cities in 2010.
Every year, about 13 million rural people flood into China's cities, equivalent to the current population of Beijing, Vice-Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing told the Fudan University International Ur ban Forum over the weekend.