I saw this in a museum in beijing. You could do it yourself, and it would knock a few over to demonstrate the reality, then a simulation behind made it appear as though it was knocking over a huge high rise. Pretty good.

A delivery service in Beijing uses fortune cookies; they even put discount coupons on the fortune!

About a month ago, a buddy and I were in Beijing going to a bar on a Saturday evening. In the subway station, we spotted a middle/upper class couple get into a heated argument. All of a sudden, the boyfriend (with significant height and weight advantage over the girl, a typical petite chinese girl) started violently laying hard punches on the girl. I mean, the type of punches you would only expect to lay on a guy. It was disgusting to watch.

My friend was so enraged, she started yelling at the guy and calling him trash. For a minute, I thought I was going to have to fight that night. But when she threatened to call the police, the couple left.

So yeah, I guess you have to watch what types of people/cultures you hang around. Even though this was a picturesque chinese couple; and the girl obviously knew the guy. And you have to watch what neighborhoods you walk through. Even though we were in a wealthy part of town.

Thanks for the lessons @chilaxe.

edit: If your friend comes to videosift to see your educational video, make sure she searches for "punch girl" and "cunt punch" so she can take notes on who to avoid.

I live between Beijing and Cupertino, CA.

I grew up in the deep South of the US. I went to schools up and down the east coast.

I have traveled to every continent but Antarctica.

I love living in Asia.

>> ^longde:

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a mall in Beijing, I walked into a little cafe off the food court, and there were lots of young folks playing the game. Some of them were probably over 18. They didn't strike me as dorkish either.
When I was in my late teens/early 20s, I played. I was pretty thin back then.>> ^Payback:
Is there anyone under 250lbs yet over 18 that has ever played Magic the Gathering?



Speaking as a nerd who just got back from a weekend convention where people were playing M:tG, absolutely agreed. One thing I do always notice is how unfit people at cons generally are, but that stereotype is broken quite frequently too- there is no shortage of people who are a healthy weight or even athletic, just a total surplus of unfit, overweight people. Mind you, that was at the con as a whole, I didn't survey the M:tG players on their own or anything. Nerds really live up to or embody negative stereotypes more often than I can sometimes believe, but there really are a bunch out there who you might not even know are nerds unless you specifically bring the topic up, and others that manage to not fall into not fall into the negative behaviors or traits associated with nerdity.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a mall in Beijing, I walked into a little cafe off the food court, and there were lots of young folks playing the game. Some of them were probably over 18. They didn't strike me as dorkish either.

When I was in my late teens/early 20s, I played. I was pretty thin back then.>> ^Payback:

Is there anyone under 250lbs yet over 18 that has ever played Magic the Gathering?

A good friend of mine recently got all of her credit cards and ID stolen in Beijing. She had her windows open and her purse on the passenger seat.
While one guy asked for directions on the driver's side, another guy snatched the purse on the passenger side.

To add anecdotal evidence. Chinese love american cars. You can see them all over Beijing being driven by the well-to-do. Some women lose their minds over them (in the end of the vid, you can hear the guy give in ("I'll buy it!!") and hand the guy his credit card to stop his girlfriend's tantrum): >> ^blackoreb:

You are out of date with your stereotypes - it has been a while since American cars have sucked. Quality has improved dramatically of late. And improved quality is a contributing factor in the slow-down of the industry. Americans replace their cars less frequently than in the past (a trend that predates 2008).
GM consistently outsells Ford, so your vote-with-our-wallets argument does not work.
Ford would have gone bankrupt in 2006 if it hadn't gotten a $23.5 billion government loan. Since it was a loan Ford now has more debt than its peers. Ford was not in a position financially to "grow to fill the gap".
The domestic automotive business accounts for nearly a million jobs, concentrated in just 3 states. Losing those jobs, even for a year or two while the economy adapted, would have sucked so so bad.

>> ^xxovercastxx:
...But I still would have preferred we let these companies fail, or they pick themselves up and turn things around like Ford did.
American cars have sucked for 20+ years now. They couldn't compete on a level playing field so we put tariffs on foreign cars to artificially raise their prices. On a slanted playing field, American cars still can't compete. Why? Because, overall, they're garbage; that's why.
We already voted to let them go out of business by not buying their cars...

I'll have to check when I get back to Beijing, but I don't think it would be too hard to "baidu" (the chinese equivalent of google; hardly anyone uses google in china) tianamen square. After all, it is a major tourist destination, maybe the most visited place in the country! While many foriegners get a VPN to view content like youtube and facebook, I don't use them, so I'm guessing I see what everyone else sees on the internet (not that chinese couldn't get a VPN).

I can access the NYT, and wikipedia, linkedin, and other popular sites. I have never looked up democracy, or liberty or Tianamen square, though. I can access videosift, but I can only see liveleak or comedy central videos.

However, even if the internet isn't blocked, to really buy access to the internet (via a SIM card or cable access) one has to register with the government. It's part of the service application process, but it's still there. So, you know even if you have access, someone is watching. Even internet cafe monitoring has been enhanced recently.

I talked to a friend about knowledge of TS. She pointed out that even US history books don't chronicle recent history (the last 40 or 50 years) that thoroughly. I'm in my late 30s, and mine certainly didn't. She also said, even if it came up, older people would be reluctant to discuss such a topic.>> ^shoany:

Speaking of "google-ing Tienanmen Square", isn't there a giant, nationwide block against those keywords, as well as a billion others? I thought I read something to that effect a while ago, wherein the average Chinese internet user had extremely limited access to anything that might possibly be deemed anti-government or pro-free speech.
If that's the case, it wouldn't be so simple to Google Tienanmen Square. I imagine the story gets passed on, but probably in hushed voices and hidden books, as it's certainly not a publicly welcome topic of discussion.

I just spent new years week in China, and the fireworks across the city (Beijing) were fantastic. Everyone tries to get the most extravagant, loudest, most powerful fireworks, and enough to set off all week late into the night. The cleanup outside my flat every morning is insane. Red paper everywhere.

Gates always struck me as the more ruthless businessman, but not a genuine asshole.

MS exists in China, and has popular products here, but obviously has had to adopt a widely different approach to piracy than Apple. While they're not so open, MS is not so restrictive either.

Also, their products don't tend to bring out the worst in people(check out the photos): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/iphone-4s-beijing-apple-store_n_1203661.html>> ^NetRunner:

Two things I never would've imagined 15 years ago:

1. Bill Gates retires and becomes a widely philanthropic figure helping the needy, leaving behind an open, responsive Microsoft.
   
2. Steve Jobs dies relatively young, leaving behind an Apple that has become a monopolistic juggernaut fueled by a Faustian fusion of genuine innovation and Chinese slave labor.
   

The $5.5-billion Enbridge pipeline project is all about sending Alberta bitumen in huge oil tankers to China. Beijing’s own state enterprises are among the project’s major backers, and Beijing has been buying up Alberta’s oilpatch at such a dizzying pace lately it’s hard to keep up. In the spring of 2010, China’s state-owned Sinopec Corp. took a $4.65-billion piece of Syncrude. Then the China Investment Corporation, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party, took possession of a $1.25-billon share of Penn West Petroleum. Last summer, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation gobbled up Opti Canada for $2.34 billion. And so on.

Then, last month, Sinopec spent $2.2-billion to take over Daylight Energy Ltd., and last week, Petro-China, with the final push of $1.9 billion, became the owner and manager of the MacKay River oilsands project. This is what Ottawa doesn’t want you noticing.

----

It turns out that two can play this sort of game. B.C.’s environmentalists are now making great sport of it, pointing out that Ottawa’s “ethical oil” branding exercise was begun by Conservative party gadfly Ezra Levant, who was succeeded at the Ethical Oil institute by none other than the otherwise intelligent Alykhan Velshi, who parked himself there between his term with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and his new job in Stephen Harper’s office. Bonus points: Ethical Oil dial-a-quote Kathryn Marshall is married to Hamish Marshall, Harper’s former strategic planning manager.

While it’s all good fun to play Spot the Freemason, something very serious is going on here. Last summer, John Bruk, the Asia Pacific Foundation’s founding president, warned that Ottawa was ignoring the rapid emergence of Chinese government interests “in sheep’s clothing” taking over Canada’s natural resource industries. Bruk told B.C. Business magazine: “Are we jeopardizing prosperity for our children and grandchildren while putting at risk our economic independence? In my view, this is exactly what is happening.”

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=5981230&sponsor

>> ^SuperChikan:

>> ^SlipperyPete:
Having taken the Trans-Siberian, I was loving the memories that Part 2 evoked: cabin fever, vodka, and random locals wanting to drink with you. Contrary to their experience, everyone I met on the train was amazing, although the drudgery of days and days of unchanging landscape does make the journey less romantic than you might think.
As always with VICE, this is a fantastic documentary.

I always wanted to ride the Trans-Siberian, and even with the monotony and the drunks the experience looked not at all unpleasant.


Time of year is a big factor - Summers are hot, buggy, but the days are quite long; I arrived in St. Petersburg on or about Nov 15 and had made it to Beijing about Dec 15. Near-Winter in Siberia wasn't too fun, but I imagine early Autumn would be ideal (late Sept, early Oct).

It was definitely an amazing experience, and by far the cheapest way to travel per kilometer on the planet.

I just dug out a CDR of pics - will post one or two later as part of my trip down memory lane.

I suspect alot of the iphones I see in Beijing are sciphones.

Chinese and other emerging market consumers can get quite alot out of a regular phone; that has always amazed me.

>> ^Diogenes:

heh heh, nice vid...
here in china, the iphone is all the rage - but like the vid implies, people here buy it mostly for the name recognition and 'prestige' ... even when the features don't match up to the latest devices by samsung, htc, etc
although most of these phones and/or their components are made right here, the masses seem less tech savvy than westerners
case in point, i'll be sitting around with chinese friends and everybody's got their smartphones at hand... i'll start doing a comparison of the various handsets, and they'll just stare blankly... go silent for a minute or so, and then blurt out, 'but this is an iphone!' hahaha
right now they're all excited about the iphone 4s, and especially siri - i haven't yet had the heart to tell them that siri doesn't support chinese (in fact, most people don't seem to be aware that siri was available over a year ago, but apple snapped up the company, reworked the app, and launched it with the 4s as something new and revolutionary)
anyway, it's all funny - i'm pleased as pie with my htc... with better camera, vid resolution, memory, processor, screen size, and gps -- zero problems and more fun and free apps than i have time for... as well, my provider gave it to me for free (~us$700) after 10+ years of customer loyalty
only possible gripe would be battery life, but between the recharges i get while driving, sitting at the comp, or even with my portable recharger (us$28), it's never really been much of an issue

Crazy.

Compare that - http://www.pizzahut.com.cn/phdi/index.aspx#!handler/content.ashx?&tagid=32&proid=426

To our fine delicatessen selection - http://www.pizzahut.com.au/pizza-hut-menu/>> ^steroidg:

I went to Beijing for about 6 weeks this year and I don't think I've ever seen any home delivery for Chinese restaurants. Pizza hut claim to home deliver though, but I've never got their web page working.
Interestingly, the menu in the Chinese pizza hut has an awesome selection compare to the Aussie ones. You can get stakes, ribs, chicken wings and even alcohol: Chinese pizza hut menu.
>> ^Peroxide:
Anywhere else in the world? What about in China?