Google search goes blank in China

Web users in China unable to get search results from Google after company makes changes to its site resulting in technical glitch



Internet users across China reported today that they were unable to get search results from Google, after the company made changes to its site that fell foul of the country’s “Great Firewall”.


The US company closed its China-based site last week, carrying out its pledge to stop censoring its search engine due to alleged cyber-attacks coming from inside the country. Instead, users from the mainland are now redirected to Google’s Hong Kong site.


Yesterday, in cities across China, internet users said they were able to reach the homepage but any searches beyond that brought up a blank page and error messages. Even innocuous words such as “Manchester United”, “Sandra Bullock” or “Beijing Olympics” were crashing pages since 5pm today.


Google said that the problems were due to a technical glitch on its part. In the past 24 hours, the letters "gs_rfai" started appearing in Google’s search parameters worldwide. A Google spokeman said: “because this parameter contained the letters rfa the great firewall was associating these searches with Radio Free Asia, a service that has been inaccessible in China for a long time - hence the blockage. We are currently looking at how to resolve this issue."


Google said it is looking at how to resolve the problem. Separately, it also said its mobile services in China were partly blocked on Sunday and Monday. Three days ago, Google’s mobile search function was partially blocked in China by authorities, leaving mobile phone users unable to use the Google search function.


In an interview last week, Google co-founder Sergey Brin implied that the move to the Hong Kong based site had been discussed with Chinese authorities and indirectly approved by them.


Under the “one country, two systems” slogan championed by by Deng Xiaoping, China’s former leader, Hong Kong retains the freedom of speech and British law left behind after the UK ceded the territory to China in 1997.


In January, the search firm said it was no longer willing to self-censor searches blaming increasing internet censorship and Chinese hackers attempts to infiltrate the data of human rights activists in the country.Beijing said Google’s closure of its mainland site was “totally wrong”, and argued that governments worldwide controlled internet content. It has consistently denied internet hacking, which is illegal in China.


The Times. Mar 30, 2010.

Beijing Deploys Giant Deodorant Cannons to Freshen Up City Landfill

Link to video.

High-pressure fragrance sprays will be installed at Asuwei dump, one of several hundred overflowing landfill sites that are the focus of growing public concern



Beijing is to install 100 deodorant guns at a stinking landfill site on the edge of the city in a bid to dampen complaints about the capital's rubbish crisis.

The giant fragrance sprays will be put in place by May at the Asuwei dump site, one of several hundred tips that are the focus of growing public concerns about sanitation, environmental health and a runaway consumer culture.

Municipal authorities say they will also apply more plastic layers to cover the site in response to furious protests by local residents who have to put up with the stench when the wind blows in their direction.

The high-pressure guns, which can spray dozens of litres of fragrance per minute over a distance of up to 50m, are produced by several Chinese firms and based on German and Italian technology. They are already in use at several landfill sites, but they are merely a temporary fix.

Beijing's waste problem - and China's - is expanding as fast as its economy, at about 8% each year. With millions more people now able to afford Starbucks, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and other elements of a western, throwaway lifestyle, the landfill sites and illegal tips that ring the capital are close to overflowing.

According to the local government, the city of 17m people generates 18,000 tonnes of waste every day - 7,000 tonnes more than the capacity of municipal disposal plants.

"All landfill and treatment sites in Beijing will be full in four years. That's how long it takes to build a treatment plant. So we need to act right now to resolve the issue," said Wang Weiping, a waste expert in the city government. "It's necessary to restructure the current disposal system. We cannot rely on landfill anymore. It's a waste of space."

Less than 4% of Beijing's rubbish is recycled – the UK recycles 35% – but is still near the bottom of the EU recycling league. Two per cent of Beijing's rubbish is burned but the rest is dumped in landfill sites, which cover an area of 333,000 sq m. Cities throughout the country face a similar problem.

There are more than 200 legal and illegal sites around Beijing, according to Wang Jiuliang, a photographer who has spent the past year recording and plotting the wastelands using GPS systems and Google Earth.

Together, they form what he calls "Beijing's seventh ring", where the city meets the countryside with smart new ring roads, expensive housing complexes and the detritus of consumer culture.

"People are forced to use these places for dumps and landfills. There is no better place," he says. "China has become a consumer society over the past 10 or 20 years. The authorities are working hard to solve the garbage problem, but it has emerged too quickly."

Environment authorities in cities throughout the country are struggling to keep pace with this burgeoning problem. According to the government, about 20m tonnes of urban garbage went unhandled in 2008.

They want to deal with the waste by burning it. But government plans to build 82 incinerators between 2006 and 2010 have encountered an increasingly hostile "not-in-my-backyard" movement.

According to Chinese media reports, at least six incinerator projects have been put on hold due to public opposition, including Panyu in Guangdong province, Jiangqiao in Shanghai, and Liulitun and Asuwei in Beijing.

The number of rubbish-related public complaints in Beijing increased by 57% last year, according to the Municipal Petition Office. Many residents have safety fears about incineration facilities despite reassurances by the government.

In an attempt to win public confidence, the managers of a new 800m yuan incinerator in Gao'antun set up a giant display screen earlier this month that contains real-time data on emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

But it continues to raise concerns because there are no figures for dioxins - the toxins released during the burning of plastic and other synthetic materials. The plant has had to scale back operations in the face of public opposition.

In the longer term, the government plans massive investment and new legislation to double the capacity of waste disposal facilities, increase the incineration rate to 40% and to cut the growth in the volume of rubbish to zero by 2015 through recycling.

There is a long way to go. Currently, even when waste is separated by schools and companies, it is often just crammed back together by refuse collectors. A Beijing News report last month noted that distribution and disposal plants are not designed to deal with separated waste.

"We just compress, pack and then bury everything directly," said staff from Mentougou district waste transfer station.

Efforts to promote recycling have a long way to go. Public litter bins offer two options - marked recyclable and non-recyclable - but few people are aware of the distinction because there has not been an adequate public education campaign.

"I am willing to take time and money to separate and recycle my rubbish, but there's just no such system here," said Beijing resident Cui Zheng.

The Guardian. Mar 26, 2010.

Handsome Chinese vagrant draws fans of 'homeless chic'

Identity of 'Brother Sharp' - dubbed China's coolest man - remains a mystery


The photograph shows a starkly handsome Chinese man walking with a model's measured gait, and wearing a rag-tag but well co-ordinated overcoat on top of a leather jacket. His eyes peer into the middle distance, in what one fan described as "a deep and penetrating way", and he strides confidently forward.

But this is no catwalk model. This is a homeless man in the city of Ningbo. And now a band of web followers are calling him the coolest man in China.

His good looks and bohemian dress sense have won him thousands of online fans after a resident of Ningbo posted a picture online. Web users in China have called him the "Beggar Prince", the "Handsome Vagabond", and, most often, "Brother Sharp".

He is 5ft 8in, around 35 years old, and always has a cigarette between his fingers. He also appears to have a fondness for women's clothes, which has only served to fuel his status as a fashion icon. His good looks are reminiscent of popular Asian actors like Takeshi Kaneshiro or the Oscar- nominated Ken Watanabe.

One particularly striking picture juxtaposes Brother Sharp's with a model showing the latest Dolce & Gabbana collection. "Look at him wrinkle his brow... nothing needs to be said... sexy...", ran one comment on the Tianyu site.

Another wrote: "He doesn't really look like a beggar, more like a vagabond. The quality of this person's tops are all not bad, a down jacket, cotton jacket, even a leather jacket inside, and though they're a bit dirty, they're all in good condition, not the kind that beggars find from the trash."

The suggestion that homelessness can be cool chimes with a fashion trend that many have considered tasteless: in January, the designer Vivienne Westwood presented a "homeless chic" show in which models were styled to look like rough sleepers, a move prefigured by Ben Stiller's satirical film Zoolander, which featured a similar show called Derelicte. Two years ago the supermodel Erin Wasson revealed the homeless were her fashion inspiration, saying: "When I... see the homeless, like, I'm like, 'Oh my God, they're pulling out, like, crazy looks and they, like, pull shit out of like garbage cans.'"

But anyone with similar designs on Brother Sharp's sartorial tips is out of luck. His identity remains a secret, and social workers in Ningbo say they want to keep it that way. "Homeless people are vulnerable. It is incorrect to use them for entertainment purposes," said one worker at a homeless centre in Ningbo. Brother Sharp is said to appear mentally disturbed when approached on the street.

In China, begging is technically illegal, as the Communist Party-run state provides all a citizen could need. In reality, the rapid development of the Chinese economy in the last 30 years has marginalised many.

The rumours surrounding Brother Sharp's true identity persist. Some say he is a university graduate who lost his mind after his girlfriend left him. Others have blogged about how they sought him out and tried to help him find work or to go back to his family, but that he appeared frightened and cried out without speaking.

The local government in Ningbo said it had a policy of looking after the homeless, and that it would extend the same treatment to Mr Sharp.

The Independent. Mar 4, 2010.

Chinese schools collapse in snow

In China, heavy snowfall has led to the deaths of 38 people in road accidents and collapsed buildings, state-run media have reported.

The deaths included four pupils in schools that collapsed, Xinhua news agency quoted officials as saying.

Nineteen people were killed in traffic accidents that also stranded thousands of motorists, the officials said.

The deaths of thousands of pupils in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake has already raised questions of school safety.

The government promised to improve the quality of school buildings after the earthquake.

Canteens collapse

The heaviest snowfall in northern China for decades snarled road traffic across the region and forced delays or the cancellation of hundreds of flights from airports in several cities, including Beijing.

In Hebei province, two primary school girls and a boy died after heavy snow caused the roof of their canteen to collapse.

Another 28 were injured and were being treated in a local hospital. Schools in the provincial capital Shijiazhuang have been ordered to close.

Another child died in neighbouring Henan province and seven were injured, again when the roof the school canteen collapsed. Three of the students are in a critical condition.

Local media said the storms were tapering off on Friday with road, rail and air traffic beginning to return to normal.

Corruption blamed

School buildings in China are often poorly built, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing.

In the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, thousands of children died when their schools collapsed.

Surrounding buildings remained standing and parents blamed local corruption.

China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao promised a full and open investigation, but the details were never made public.

Following these latest deaths, one Chinese state newspaper has asked why school safety is still a problem, and demands that China's children be offered better protection.

BBC News.  Nov 13, 2009.

Liu returns with bang to delight home crowd

Hurdles hero Liu Xiang thrilled a hometown crowd last night with a photo finish in his much-anticipated comeback after his Olympic withdrawal, vowing he would soon bring glory home to China again.
The stadium erupted as Liu and American Terrence Trammell, the world number two, both registered a 110m hurdles time of 13.15 seconds. Trammell was placed first.

Liu, 26, exploded out of the starting blocks at the Grand Prix, racing for the first time since he limped out of the Bird's Nest Stadium last year. "His result is beyond our expectations," Liu's coach, Sun Haiping, said. "He was inspired by the crowd."

The 2004 Olympic gold medallist vowed before the race that he would soon be "ready to bring home the glory for China once again".

"Being back on the track today is a pivotal step for me. I didn't expect I could run so fast ... but once I stepped on the track I could not hold back," said Liu, who thumped his chest and collapsed on the track after the finish. "I felt like I had been infused by an enthusiastic spirit."

"I'm confident and optimistic that I will soon make a full recovery and be ready to win again. I need to be patient and not expect too much, too quickly."

Liu had an operation in the United States in December to repair his Achilles tendon and has been training in secret in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, Carmelita Jeter ran the second fastest women's 100m in history at 10.64 seconds as Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva tried unsuccessfully to top her own record. She won the woman's pole vault but failed on a third attempt to clear 5.07m. She cleared 4.85m ahead of Poland's Anna Rogowska at 4.60m.

With her 100m time, Jeter - the bronze medallist at the world championships in Berlin last month - became the second fastest woman in history. Only compatriot, the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, who set the world record of 10.49 seconds, has run faster.

American Tyson Gay beat Jamaican former world record holder Asafa Powell in the 100m with 9.69 seconds, equalling the second fastest time ever for the distance.

Next year Shanghai will be included in the 14-meet "Diamond League", which replaces the current schedule of six Golden League meets and other Grand Prix meetings.

SCMP.  Sep 21, 2009.