It’s time for another round-up of the latest news from around the capital. Read on to find out about the latest weird, wonderful, good and bad happenings in Beijing.

1) TV Star Caught Drunk Driving

A portly pop star and guest judge on China’s Got Talent has been caught drunk driving. Gao Xiaosong, who is best known for his cheesy ballads and appearances on Chinese talent shows, was arrested after causing a three car pile-up on Tuesday night (10th May) on Dongzhimen street, and was found to have imbibed over three times the legal amount of alcohol. The news comes as Beijing has introduced harsher penalties for drink driving offences.

2) Intro Electronic Music Festival Change of Venue

The electronic festival has returned for a third year, but organizers have changed the venue from Tongzhou Canal Park to D-Park in Beijing’s 798 Art District. Over the weekend of 21-22 May, the festival will feature three stages with international and domestic DJs and enough funky beats for you to groove all weekend to. Organisers are expecting the event to sell out, so you can buy day/weekend tickets online in advance: 150/220 RMB.

3) Smoking Ban Effectiveness Questioned

The smoking ban that was introduced to China on May 1st is having limited success: skeptics are questioning how effective it will be. Many shop and restaurant owners feel that the guidelines set by the government are too vague, and the penalties for being caught unclear. The World Health Organization estimates that China has over 300 million smokers, and that tobacco related deaths total more than 1.2 million each year. In order to uphold the new ban, Beijing Municipal Government is planning on deploying a team of 100 to go out and enforce the ban, although in a city of over 19 million people, they might just get lost in the smoke…

4) Police Catch Palace Museum Thief

Crack police teams in the capital have hunted down and caught the thief who stole seven art pieces from the Palace Museum on May 8th. The pieces, worth around 10 million RMB, were jewel-encrusted gold dressing cases, currently on loan from the Hong Kong-based Liangyi Museum. On the evening of May 11th, police caught the suspect in an internet café in Fengtai District (probably trying to sell the stuff on Taobao!) Some of the jewelry has since been returned.

5）Poor Beijing Resident Builds ‘Eggloo’ Home Shelter

Unable to afford proper housing, engineering graduate Dai Haifei, 24, has managed to find a nifty solution to the problem: he built his own home! After graduating from University in his home province of Hunan, Dai came to Beijing to intern at an architectural design company, but found rent too high. After borrowing 6,400 for materials from a cousin, he built the egg-shaped cabin out of bamboo, waterproof insulating film, and sacks filled with seeds (“In the spring, grass can grow from within”). Electricity comes from a solar panel installed on the roof. “Even without paying rent, I still don’t have much money left at the end of the month… but now my living standard has been clearly elevated,” he says.

6) Kama Love Music Festival (爱音乐节)

Another weekend, another music festival in the capital. This time the theme is succinctly trite (‘Love’), but straw-haired nostalgia-seekers yearning for another Woodstock ’69 should hold fire. A bunch of international bands will be making the journey, including Eels, Cowboy Junkies and Lisa Ono, as well as a smattering of domestic acts. Musically, expect a bit of rock, a bit of jazz, a bit of folk, a bit of electro… hell, a bit of everything! It’s happening on June 5th and 6th at the Olympic Sports Centre in Chaoyang District; doors open from 17:30.

7) ‘Underground’ Churches Appeal for Right to Worship

Leaders from 17 unregistered Christian churches in China have appealed to the government for protection of their right to worship freely. Although Christianity is broadly tolerated in China, it is thought that around 50 million of China’s 70 million Christians worship in ‘underground churches’ (as opposed to government-approved churches). One such institution, Shouwang in Beijing, is thought to be home to around 1,000 Christian Chinese, and recently came under scrutiny from China’s Foreign Ministry for gathering en-masse in a public place to worship.

8) Peking University Students Winning Mentally but Failing Physically.

Over 11,000 male and female students from prestigious Peking University have taken part in a health test determining overall fitness, and the results were not good: over a quarter of the male students were found to be obese, while around 10% were overweight. Around 40% of female students were underweight. Experts blame overly-heavy study burdens and bad diets for the poor fitness of students. Similar health tests were carried out in senior middle schools in the region, and the results were just as dismal, with a third of all students overweight.

9) US Rodeo Comes to National Stadium

Budding cowboys (and cowgirls) will get a chance to saddle up and whoop around like flailing maniacs for China’s first ever Rodeo event, held at the Bird’s Nest this summer. The eight-day event, which will be televised globally, will feature more than 150 riders and cow-hands, and over 200 assorted horses, bulls and other twitchy livestock. Event organizer Carrie Tucker, who has been doing business in China since the 1980s, says “We have to fully understand each other’s culture if we want to implement further cooperation.” We’re not sure if anybody understands why you’d want to be bucked off an angry bull. Profits from the show will help enable students from Furman University in South Carolina visit China for cultural exchange programmes.

10) Beijing Homes Receive Free Vegetable Seeds

Over 5,000 Beijing households are to receive free seeds, in an attempt to encourage more people to learn about and follow sustainable lifestyles. Experts from Beijing University of Agriculture will be on hand to provide information and tips about growing the seeds, which include pumpkin, green pepper and cherry tomato seeds. Last year a similar scheme was introduced, and over 3,600 homes took part. The charity plan was proposed by the Sino-Ocean Charity Foundation, whose aim is to reduce the carbon footprint of people travelling to supermarkets, and ultimately get people “closer to nature.”
 

Related links
Beijing Watchdog News Roundup: Foot & Mouth, New Apps, and More…
Beijing Music Festival Guide: Get Readyto Rock!
TV Bans, Art Sex and French Shopping: Selected News from Around China

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Keywords: Beijing watchdog May weird news Beijing news round-up Beijing