From the strange and mystifying to the downright disturbing, here is a round-up of the weirdest news items in China during 2010.

1) Nine-year-old Mom
At noon on January 27th, a nine-year-old girl gave birth to a healthy baby by Caesarean section in Changchun, Jilin Province. Due to the taboo surrounding such a young mother, little is known of the details of the girl’s pregnancy, but it’s thought that the parents are seeking legal advice. Sex with a girl under the age of 14 carries an immediate rape penalty. As horrifying as the news of a pregnant nine-year-old is, sadly it’s not so unusual. Disturbingly, statistics from a Shanghai hospital state that 30% of surgical abortions sought by young girls in China are performed on children still in school.

2) Record-breaking Bikinis
May 9th saw the slashing of an unusual world record. To advertize the Asian Games in Guangzhou, 1,940 women posed for a photo shoot dressed only in bikinis - the highest number ever recorded. The scantily-clad ladies gathered at a waterpark, and were arranged into the Chinese characters for Guangzhou.

3) So Horny…
A 100-year-old woman from Henan Province was photographed with a horn measuring six centimeters growing from her forehead. Zhang Ruifang said that the protrusion started to appear the previous year. Scientists say that the horn is cutaneous, i.e. made from the same keratin as fingernails and hair. Such growths are often found in elderly people with facial sun damage, but such a long horn is quite unheard of.

4) (Painted) Hair of the Dog
The practice of decorating dogs is nothing new in China, but the media only caught onto it over the summer of 2010. A panoply of photos cropped up featuring pooches in various guises. The best was a poodle trimmed and painted to look like Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Seriously. Other fun transformations included a chow-chow blacked up as a panda, and a Labrador that looked like a tiger.

5) No Spitting
The month of June saw the e-commerce giant Taobao.com ban the sale of “pretty girl saliva” on its website. Advertized as a health-promoting tonic by its seller, the saliva was on offer at 20 RMB for a small bottle. However, before the nation could take advantage of this panacea, the seller was banned from Taobao.

6) Two-legged animals
In August, a lamb born with two legs came to China’s attention. Shandong farmer Cui Jinxiu took pity on a deformed sheep and decided not to slaughter it when it struggled to stand, despite its lack of limbs. Now able to walk confidently and follow its mother around Cui’s farm, the two-legger is something of a local celebrity. A couple of months later, reports came through of a two-legged pig named Zhu Jianqiang (strong-willed pig) who similarly defied expectations by overcoming its disability. Amazing.

7) The Michelin Baby
Ten-month-old Liu Liu from Hunan Province takes the expression “bonnie baby” to extremes. Photos of this jumbo tot surfaced in August when he was taken into hospital for tests. Weighing in at 3.1 stone (20 kilograms), Liu Liu was a normal weight at birth. His mother Cheng Qingyu blames his insatiable appetite for his colossal dimensions. However, Liu Liu isn’t the heaviest baby in the world. That accolade goes to Karan Singh from India, who weighed 3.7 stone at the same age.

8) Nanjing vending machines offer hairy crabs
Talk about a crab idea… Vending machines in a Nanjing metro station swapped overpriced green tea and soda bottles for live hairy crabs. As crab season reached its peak in November, enterprising vending machine owners decided to cash in by offering single crabs packaged into pods, for the princely sum of 50 RMB each. To ensure that the creatures stayed alive, the vending machines were chilled to force them into hibernation. Unlucky purchasers who ended up with a dead crab were guaranteed three live ones to replace it.

9) Soup Saga
If you thought the ground underneath Xi’an had only Terracotta Warriors to offer, think again. Members of the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeology Institute announced an unusual find in November. A vessel dating from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) was unearthed, containing remnants of 2,400-year-old bone soup. Excavations were underway for the new construction phase at Xi’an’s Xianyang International Airport. 

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