China Hope Live » China web debris

China’s earliest Great Wall ruins found (photos)

Joel — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:57:48 +0000

China’s earliest Great Wall ruins have been found in Henan province, dating to the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC to 476 BC). See here and here for some photos.

China’s zombie growth

Joel — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:17:28 +0000

If you stop to take a second look, it’s quite obvious that much of Tianjin’s glittering new (and expensive) apartment and office complexes are empty. Yet the building continues. This is happening all over China:
“China continues to build despite an excess of empty commercial real estate.

“Last year, approximately one out of every four square feet of commercial office space in Beijing were empty – about 100 million square feet of zombie space. All over town are dark buildings…

“It looks like growth. But it is zombie growth. People build bridges to nowhere rather than working for profit-making enterprises. Concrete is used to put up cities where no one lives.”

The contents of the greatest tomb in archeological history

Joel — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:47:50 +0000

From What’s Inside Qin Shi Huang’s Tomb?

“Qin Shi Huang … ruled the largest unified kingdom the Far East had ever witnessed to that date – the very basis of Imperial China. In military power, economic strength and technical innovation, the Qin … were all powerful.
[...]
“Possessing a grossly swollen ego to match his achievements and status, Shi Huang ordered the construction of a staggeringly large and ornate tomb for himself outside the Qin capital of Xi’an, one that is said to have required hundreds of thousands of labourers to build.

“The tomb … has not yet been explored – and perhaps may never be. If legend about what’s inside is true – and, incredibly, all evidence to date suggests it is – then the First Emperor’s mausoleum contains a wealth of treasures and adornments perhaps greater than any other in ancient history.”

“They hate you. But you are useful to them.”

Joel — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:24:55 +0000

In What Do They Really Think of Us Laowai?, a delegation member from a foreign NGO that has a longstanding good relationship with the Chinese gov. gets a staight answer.

Happy Leifeng Day!

Joel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:02:18 +0000

In today’s urban China, “yuppie”/”petty bourgeoisie” is not necessarily a bad thing

Joel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:36:38 +0000

An interesting post titled “Are you or your Chinese friends 小资 (xiaozi)?” explores the current China-specific meanings of 小资 (xiǎozī), a shortened form of 小资产阶级 (xiǎo zīchǎnjiējí) (“petty bourgeoisie”). No longer an entirely negative term, this is a nation where people increasingly and unapologetically embrace their inner yuppie:

…today’s xiaozi are not defined about how they make money, but how the spend it. The term, once used to mark those on the wrong side of the revolution, has now been co-opted by popular culture to mean something entirely different and not entirely negative.