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Kooky Cathay: Forteana From China

I´ve been in Sweden for three years and nobody ever told me about this city. Dammit. I guess I´ll just have to console myself with living in a city with 20% young, hot female students. :lol:
 
Xanatic_ said:
...20% young, hot female students. :lol:

Is the 20% above or below the waist?

Perhaps just one leg...
 
20% of the population naturally, it´s a university town.
 
The Daily Mash has done a spoof of the story:

COME AND SEE OUR HOT LESBIANS, SAYS SWINDON

SWINDON is a hotbed of unbridled lesbian sex, the town's borough council claimed last night.


The Wiltshire town has unveiled a multi-million campaign to establish itself as Britain's answer to Chako Paul City, the mythical Swedish town filled with 25,000 beautiful lesbians that men say simply has to exist.

A council spokesman said: "Our lesbians are totally uninhibited and can't resist stripping off and caressing each other's taut bodies in the street.

"Just a minute ago I saw a pair of them going at it on the bench outside Poundstretcher, soon attracting a dozen or so more who arrived clutching cans of whipped cream and a big bag of courgettes.

"Many of our local lesbians wear school or nurse uniforms, while others prefer to dress as 80s-style warrior princesses with chainmail bikinis and massive rubber swords. I'm thinking Beastmaster or maybe Red Sonja with Brigitte Neilsen."

He added: "And while the lesbian sexual debauchery never ends in Swindon, the town also boasts an excellent railway history museum, a Debenhams and one of Europe's largest roundabouts."

But some local residents insist the promotional leaflets, which feature the slogan 'Lez go to Swindon' and cut-out images of the actresses from Young Emmanuelle superimposed over an aerial shot of Swindon's burgeoning industrial park, are misleading.

Bill McKay, a retired policeman, said: "It's nonsense, there's never been any lesbians in Swindon, apart from that quiet librarian who wore flat shoes, but she moved away after some kids set fire to her shed."

Despite the controversy, several other UK boroughs have been quick to follow suit with similar campaigns, including 'Winchester - One Massive Orgy' and 'Luton: The Town Where Breasts are Made'.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... 910092125/
 
Three suns in the sky or UFOs?

"Look! UFOs are coming!" With that cry, citizens of Leshan City saw a peculiar sight in the sky around 10 p.m. on July 26, reported by Sichuan Online.

Three round illuminated discs shined in the sky, lasting for more than 10 minutes before disappearing.

Professor Wang Sichao, from Purple Mountain Observatory of Chinese Academy of Science, said the identity of those discs still can't be determined before comprehensive analysis.

Wang explained that formation of a mock sun could be influenced by many respects, including directions of ice crystals in sky, the number of ice crystals and the number of cirrus clouds. Those ice crystals are just like prisms that could cause sunshine to bend and form a circle around the sun. However, the situation was not adequate enough in Leshan to form this phenomenon, according to Wang.

P201008041704382312415147.jpg


P201008041704442684435741.jpg


http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001 ... 93223.html
 
tonyblair11 said:
Hanging light from over the table reflected in the window.

Reported by many people over a 10 minute time period and then disappearing?

Don't think so.
 
There is a touch of the Ed Walters, Gulf Breeze photos, about them.
 
feen, you're right... and as much as i loved those Gulf Breeze photos as a young'un, looking back at them now, to my eye they just don't look 'right' and nor do these China photos.

That 'three suns' one sure does look like a nice indoor hanging light feature :p
 
Both pictures seem to show pillars of light above two of the suns, which look very much like a lampshade. Would be more convincing if there where more photographs taken from different angles.
 
China censors want to consign time travel dramas to past
State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, denounces 'frivolous' approach to history by programme-makers
Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 April 2011 08.52 BST

China's censors have long been known for their stringent approach to television, but now they are taking on an unexpected small screen menace – the inappropriate use of time travel. :shock:

Fans fear the heyday of the popular genre is over after Li Jingsheng, of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft), denounced such dramas' "frivolous" approach to history.
"Time travel dramas are becoming a hot theme for television and films. But the content and exaggerated performance style are questionable," Li, who heads the television drama management division, told a conference.
"Many stories are totally made up and are made to strain for an effect of novelty. The producers and writers are treating serious history in a frivolous way, which should by no means be encouraged any longer," he said.

A statement on the Sarft website warns companies to avoid "incorrect" shows, attacking time travel dramas for their "bizarre" plots and reinvention of myths and even for spreading feudal superstition.

The Xinmin Evening News, which first reported the story, said the administration was outlawing the genre. But experts said the new guidelines – although they already appear to have reined in producers – were not a ban as such.
"A warning – it is not an official ban – from Sarft is already strong enough," Professor Nie Wei, of the School of Movie and Television Drama Studies, at Shanghai University, said.
"The producers of the Palace, the recent popular time travel drama, are changing their scripts [for the next series],.

"Some of the time travel dramas nowadays are made in a very shoddy way and are irresponsible in not respecting history – but overall, it is more complicated [than Li suggests].
"I think whether there is time travel or not is not important. What matters is whether it is a good piece of work or not."

While western examples of the genre, such as Life on Mars or Quantum Leap, have often focused on the recent past, the Chinese programmes fuse a modern mindset with the country's passion for costume drama.

Last year's hits included the Myth, in which a teenager travels back 2,000 years and becomes an army general. The Palace was about a modern girl who finds herself in the much more recent Qing dynasty, where she is torn between two rival princes.

The Sarft director has found at least some backers among television viewers. "History is history; history is not entertainment. This [sort of thing] would confuse young people's minds," one internet user wrote in an online discussion.

But another asked: "Who would watch a television drama as if it was a textbook? Why should it be taken so seriously?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ap ... vel-dramas

"Many stories are totally made up" - whatever next! ;)
 
Probably a better job than Russell T. Davies...
 
Farmers in eastern China have been left perplexed after their watermelons began to explode one by one.

An investigation by state media found farms in Jiangsu province were losing acres of fruit because of the problem.

The overuse of a chemical that helps fruit grow faster was blamed in one report by China Central Television.

But agriculture experts were unable to explain why chemical-free melons were exploding. They cited the weather and abnormal size of the melon as factors.

China Central Television said farmers were overspraying their crops with the growth promoter, hoping they could get their fruit to market ahead of the peak season and increase their profits.

Chemical-free

According to the Xinhua news agency, 20 farmers in a village in Jiangsu province planted imported seeds from Japan, with 10 households saying their watermelons began exploding last month.

Farmer Liu Mingsuo told Xinhua that more than two-thirds of his crop had blown up.

He said he had used chemicals to boost their growth on 6 May, and the following day more than 180 melons exploded. Mr Liu was reported to be the only farmer from the 10 households who used chemicals.

Wang Dehong, who has been farming watermelons for 20 years, couldn't understand why his fruit also exploded as he had not used any chemicals.

Agricultural experts investigating the incident were unable to offer an explanation.

China has approved the usage of the growth chemical under certain quotas. So far, tests show the chemical is safe, Xinhua reported.

However, as the public is increasingly concerned about food safety, experts say a quality tracking system should be introduced, detailing every stage along the food chain, to inform the public fully, and ensure food safety.

BBC Source
 
Yes, we dont want melons exploding in the fruit basket, do we?

I think there may be a market for this
 
In a book of bizarre English-language signs --

"Sign in a Beijing hotel lobby:
'Good Appearance Please. No Watermelon Please.' "

Definitely something dodgy about those Chinese watermelons...
 
Exploding watermelons, poisonous cucumbers, what next?
 
I rather suspect this story is rather garbled.

Its not unknown for a marrow to grow so fast it splits and falls apart.

I suspect this is a similar phenomena
 
You really have to see the photos that accompany these capsule tales.

Superdog.jpg

spiike-head.jpg

Pig-two-legs.jpg

Lamb.jpg

Fingertummy.jpg


Here are the highlights; stories accompany and - to some extent - explain them here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... lery&ino=1

Big baby

A three-year-old toddler from China already tips the scales at 60kg (132lbs), making him five times the size of a normal child his age. When Lu Hao was born he weighed just 2.6kg (5.7 lbs.); however, from the time he was three months old he began to gain weight rapidly.
"His appetite is so good that for a meal he can eat 3 big bowls of rice, even larger than I and his mother," said Hao's father Lu Yuncheng. Since Hao was one-year-old his parents have tried to keep a careful eye on his diet.
However, Hao's mother Chen Yuan comments: "We have to let him be as if we don't feed him he will cry nonstop". No matter how hard the family restricts Hao's diet and pushes him to move more the toddler has still managed to put on 10kg (22 lbs) in the past year.

Yith: it gets weirder as it goes on. Twenty-one more chunks of strangeness.
 
Hahah'a.

Sorry. I feel bad, especially for the lamb. But there's just something so funny about the unlikeliness of a 2 legged lamb getting along well on it's own. Looks about as awkward as a cow on roller-blades.
 
Chinese farmer Zheng Yanliang, who amputated his own leg because he could not afford to pay for hospital ...
The Chinese farmer who amputated his own leg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25211346
By Sally Abrahams
BBC News

Chinese farmer Zheng Yanliang, who amputated his own leg because he could not afford to pay for hospital

Mr Zheng sawed off his own leg in 2012 because he could not afford to pay for hospital costs

A Chinese farmer who sawed off his diseased leg because he could not afford hospital treatment bills has shone a spotlight on gaps in the health care system.

Zheng Yanliang, who is from Hebei province in north China, developed an infection in his leg last year and the blood circulation to it began to fail. That made the problem worse and gangrene set in.

By the time he went to the doctor, Mr Zheng, 47, was told he would need an operation and could lose his leg. It was then that Mr Zheng realised he was in big trouble.

"I asked how much it would cost to do this operation," he said.

"The doctor said an operation on one leg would cost more than 300,000 yuan ($49,000, £30,000) and it would cost more than a million yuan if I had operations on both legs. I can't afford it. I only had 20,000 yuan."

Mr Zheng's case, although extreme, has highlighted the flaws in China's health care system, particularly for those living in the countryside.

He was covered for some medical treatment under the government's rural health insurance scheme. But he had to pay the costs upfront and could only claim back some of them.

'Leg turned black'
Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

I told my wife that I would saw it off. She wasn't happy about it”

Zheng Yanliang
Without enough money to pay for treatment or surgery, Mr Zheng felt he had no choice but to return to his home in Dongzang village in Qingyuan county, where he endured months of extreme pain.

"I lay in bed for more than three months. My leg turned black. The skin and the flesh were all black," he said.

"There were maggots in the flesh. I could see the bone in my right leg. I felt sick when I saw it."

Finally, Mr Zheng could not bear to suffer any more and decided to take drastic action.

"I told my wife that I would saw it off. She wasn't happy about it. We had an argument and she went out," he said.

"I found a hacksaw under the bed and a small knife, and I just sawed it off. It took about 20 minutes. I was sweating like a pig."

Mr Zheng remained conscious throughout, biting on a stick wrapped in a towel to try to alleviate the immense pain.

The DIY surgery, which Mr Zheng performed in April 2012, has only recently been reported in the Chinese media. It has prompted a debate about the inequalities in China's health care system, especially for low-income families.

Many ordinary Chinese people have been so moved by Mr Zheng's story that they have donated more than 300,000 yuan to his cause. He has also been offered free medical treatment - at least for now. But Mr Zheng is worried about the future.

"I don't have income. I hope the government or the hospital will look after me. What if I get sick?" he said.

File photo: Farm in China
Rural areas are at a disadvantage because most health care services in China are focused on cities
'A lot of burden'
It is a reasonable question. Like Mr Zheng, almost half of China's 1.3 billion people live in rural areas. Despite government progress in reforming the healthcare sector, around 80% of health and medical services are concentrated in cities.

More money for health care is spent per capita on the urban population. Those in the countryside are at a significant disadvantage, says Professor John Cai, director of the Centre of Healthcare Management and Policy at the China Europe International Business School.

Farmer Zheng Yanliang
Zheng Yanliang works as a farmer in northern China
"We still lack a huge number of good, qualified physicians so most of the good doctors concentrate in the cities, in the big teaching hospitals," he said.

"So it really adds a lot of burden to this farmer if he cannot receive good care in his local area. He has to travel to the big cities, with added transport and hotel costs. That really make things worse."

Mr Zheng has since had an operation on his other leg, which was amputated above the knee after also becoming infected. The surgery was done at the provincial hospital in Baoding.

But he knows he will need more medical treatment and does not know how he will afford it.

China's government is well aware of the problems facing people like Mr Zheng.

It has promised to make the country's health care system more accessible and affordable. It wants hospitals to cut the price of expensive drugs, treatments and diagnostic tests which can bankrupt the poorest households.

Beijing's goal is to provide universal health care to the entire population, both urban and rural, by 2020.

But achieving that aim will be costly: health care spending is projected to triple by 2020, to one trillion dollars. And China must find the money to cover those costs.
 
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I suppose this a bit of a Fortean touch.

China man in balloon bound for disputed islands crashes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25572890

A hot-air balloon drifting in the East China Sea near the disputed isles known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in a photo released 2 January 2014

The man launched the balloon from China's Fujian province in an attempt to land on one of the islands

A Chinese man flying a hot air balloon to a group of disputed islands had to be rescued after his balloon crashed, Japan's Coast Guard has said.

The man, who said he was a cook, was heading to an East China Sea island chain controlled by Japan, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

The man had been handed to a Chinese patrol ship, the coast guard said.

The islands are close to potential oil and gas reserves, and are a source of tension between the two countries.

The Japanese Coast Guard said they received a request to search for a missing person on Wednesday afternoon.

They found the man and the hot air balloon around 20km (12 miles) from the islands. The man was not hurt, reports said.

The 35-year-old launched the hot air balloon from Fujian province in an attempt to land on one of the disputed islands, officials said.

They said the man was in Japanese territorial waters, but decided against pursuing charges as they could not determine the exact place he had landed, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

One of the disputed islands, in an image released by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force on 15 September 2010
The islands are close to shipping lanes and potential oil and gas reserves
The islands have been a source of tension between China and Japan for decades.

In 2012, the Japanese government bought three of the islands from their Japanese owner, sparking mass protests in Chinese cities.

Since then, Chinese ships have repeatedly sailed in and out of what Japan says are its territorial waters.

In August 2012, Japanese police arrested 14 pro-China activists who sailed from Hong Kong to the islands, with some setting foot on one of the islands.

Sino-Japanese tensions have also been strained by China's newly-declared air-defence identification zone - which covers an area of the East China Sea, including the islands - and by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit in December to a shrine that honours war dead including convicted war criminals.
 
I lived in Stockholm for a few months with a Swedish girl friend and I can believe that story. Swedish women love to fight with men. What is funny about the Swedes is the men are quite calm and intellectual while the women love to fight, after all they are the Vikings and I did love to here the fat lady sing. She was great.
 

Elsupremo was responding to this post by Vard, link seems to have died.

Chinese media tempted by fantasy of women-only Swedish town

A mythical Swedish town where men are barred from entering and women turn to homosexuality has piqued the interest of several Chinese media outlets.

* Outrage over drunken Swedish pastor's funeral service (2 Oct 09)
* Woman refuses 'Sweden's smallest benefit payment' (1 Oct 09)
* Hand gel faulted for fouling up Swedish bus service (1 Oct 09)

The town, supposedly founded in 1820 in the northern Swedish woods by a wealthy widow, boasts 25,000 residents and a medieval castle, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

A pair of blonde female sentries stand guard at the unnamed town, referred to in reports as “Chako Paul City”, and men wishing to enter risk being “beaten half to death” by police. ..
 
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