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China will become the biggest driver of global economic activity this year for the first time, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday as it raised its already bullish forecasts for growth.

China is the world’s fourth-largest economy, but accounts for only 5 per cent of the global economy on market-exchange rate terms.

However, it is projected to grow by a blistering 11.2 per cent this year, far above the predicted 2 per cent expansion of the US economy. It will make the largest contribution to the world’s growth rate of any country, the IMF said.

The forecast was set out in an update to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook first published in April. The IMF raised its forecast for international growth in both 2007 and 2008 to 5.2 per cent, from 4.9 per cent, and said that more than half of growth was now coming from emerging markets.

China would provide a quarter of the annual growth rate of the world economy, while China, Russia and India together will account for more than half of world growth this year, the report said. Next year China’s growth rate was forecast to fall back, but only to a still very strong 10.5 per cent.

By contrast, US growth was revised down slightly, from an earlier forecast of 2.2 per cent, although the IMF said it expected growth in the world’s largest economy to pick up next year to 2.8 per cent.

The report also tipped Britain’s GDP to expand by 2.9 per cent before slowing to 2.7 per cent next year. Growth in the eurozone was predicted to be 2.6 per cent this year and 2.5 per cent in 2008.

Charles Collyns, deputy director of the IMF’s research department, said: “This year for the very first time, with its very strong growth expected, and with the growth slowdown in the United States, China will be contributing the largest part to the increase in the global growth measured at market exchange rates as well as purchasing parity terms.”

He added: “China seems to be going from strength to strength at this point. It’s hitting on all cylinders.”

The world body gave warning that faster growth meant that supply constraints were developing, heightening the risk of inflation, although price rises remained contained for now.

Central banks were now more likely to tighten monetary policy than in the April outlook.

Mr Collyns said: “There are concerns that inflation pressures may be picking up, and central banks will need to respond quickly and in a for-ward-looking way to these pressures.”

The report outlined a largely benign scenario for the US sub-prime mortgage market, arguing that while defaults and foreclosures had led to increased uncertainty, the risks appeared to be contained and should not pose a wider risk to the world economy.

Jaime Caruana, the IMF’s director of monetary and capital market development, said that the process of adjusting to the higher than expected level of defaults had not yet run its course.

The report said that lending discipline had weakened in the corporate credit market. Credit risk “has begun to translate into higher market risk” for sub-prime mortgages and highly leveraged loans, it said.

However, the report said that markets were avoiding panic by discriminating between loans according to the strength of their underlying fundamentals.

“In sum, risks have increased and credit markets could remain volatile in the period ahead with a further repricing of some credit products,” the IMF said in its financial market update. “However, so far, our assessment is that this risk is likely to remain largely contained.”

Mr Caruana said financial markets are “almost around average volatility”.

11.2% - Economic growth forecast for China this year

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We just moved to a place with more dedicated book storage space. We are keeping more book inventory to meet our business's rapid growth, and our customer base is growing as well, we are so glade to see more and more people are interested in learning Chinese. This is your first step towards getting to know the culture, the history and the opportunities we are facing.

Need2LearnChinese will do our best to make sure we always carry the most and best Chinese learning books and materials, maintain the highest customer satisfaction and overall shopping experience. Please contact us at the new address on the "about us" page, We thank you for your continued support and wish you great success on your Chinese learning.

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Although the Beijing government has repeatedly denied that it will order many of the city's migrant workers back to their home provinces during the 2008 Olympics next year, no one has stated precisely what will be done with them. For a city that's trying to make a good impression on the world, the prospect of hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of scruffy peasants sharing the streets with foreign guests is not particularly attractive.

In an opinion piece that appeared in yesterday's Global Times, Ding Gang, a senior editor with the People's Daily, wrote that China should take pride in what it is rather than worrying about foreign tourists catching glimpses of Beijing's imperfections.

He Dong, who reposted the article on his blog, agrees with Ding, but fears that the government will be worried anyway. His comments are translated following Ding's essay.

There are quite a few construction sites near my neighborhood. Every evening, migrant workers will walk out wearing sandals, shirtless or wearing their shirts rolled up to expose their stomachs. They'll walk along the streets in groups of three to five, and occasionally there'll be someone sitting at the roadside eating a few sticks of barbecued lamb and drinking beer. They don't have much else to do outside of work, and they don't have enough money to enjoy a life outside of work. It's obvious that this is their most relaxing time of day.

A friend of mine became anxious after seeing this, saying that it would affect Beijing's image during the Olympics. My friend's worries are not without basis. Next summer during the Olympics, tens of thousands of athletes, tourists, and reporters from all over the world will crowd into Beijing. If they see this sort of sight, they may spread it abroad.

So how should this problem be solved? Should we impress a bit more upon those migrant workers the great importance that wearing shirts and buttoning them up has on the Olympics, or should we collect funds to purchase shirts for them? Or maybe we should just take the simplest approach, and when the time comes, have all of the construction sites simply halt work and dismiss them back to their homes.

Truth be told, going shirtless is not really in very good taste - it's less than ideal and the very least is not in accordance with the standards of modern civilization. For an influential, world-famous, metropolis like Beijing, it's something of a loss of face. But the reality of shirtlessness is not just Beijing's reality - it is China's reality as well. I will suggest that this phenomenon exists in practically all of China's cities. Making shirtless migrant workers completely disappear from Beijing's streets in a short time is not difficult to accomplish, but have we ever considered that Beijing without shirtless migrant workers is no longer the real Beijing, no longer the real China? We always say that the greatest inspiration, the greatest life force, comes from reality. When friends come from afar, we ought to warmly welcome them in a festive atmosphere. But we must not lose the opportunity to show the world the real China.

If foreigners do not see shirtless guys on the streets of Beijing, will they change their view of Beijing? Not necessarily, I'd say. If foreigners see shirtless guys in some other city, they may begin to be suspicious about the real Beijing. "When the false is true, the true becomes false" is precisely this logic.

Then again, even if foreigners see shirtless migrant workers, even if photos of those shirtless migrant workers are published in the newspaper, it's not that big of a deal. Ask yourself - which Chinese city doesn't rely on these shirtless migrant workers for swift growth? Which of Beijing's Olympic projects would exist apart from these shirtless migrant workers? Letting foreigners understand this is not the least bit shameful. There's really no need to worry too much over issues like shirtless migrant workers, and there's no need to take pains to cover them up or hide them away. Otherwise, it won't just be the government's money - it'll be more of a hassle for common people as well as officials. Rather than spending a great deal of effort to cover things up in pursuit of perfection, why not just take things as they come and give foreigners a picture of the real Beijing and the real China?

Everyone knows that it will take time to get shirtless migrant workers to wear shirts. It's not something that simple education alone will solve. It is a reflection of real standards of living for a segment of Chinese society, and it involves reasons both historical and contemporary. To transform their situation will require substantial investment; overall living standards must be raised for rural residents. Only when they have cool, air-conditioner-equipped rooms, and their wife and child are at their side, will they no longer go outside to chat and stroll shirtless on the streets.

Telling foreigners about the real Beijing is nothing that will muddy our faces. It will show our self-confidence and it will reduce pressure on government officials and common people. This is China's national situation - there are modern skyscrapers, but there are also low-lying buildings behind them, in streets that aren't very clean; you can find city-dwellers in pretty clothes eating Häagen-Dazs in snack shops, and you can see shirtless migrant workers strolling along the roadside....this is China, a developing country, a country that still requires vigorous effort to reduce the gap between rich and poor.

Perhaps what we should be thinking of is a way to let these shirtless migrant workers experience a bit of the Olympic atmosphere, and how to make sure that their livelihood, so hard to come by, is not casually interrupted. There's been news that the Beijing Municipal Government has denied rumors that it will urge migrant workers to go home, so I hope that when the Olympics come next year, I'll still be able to see shirtless migrant workers sitting at the roadside drinking beer, eating barbecued lamb, and talking about how many gold medals the Chinese team has won.

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Feng shui has made its way into the fringes of Western culture, along with yoga, kung fu, Ayurvedic medicine, acupuncture and a number of other Asian and South Asian cultural practices. But though books on feng shui populate Western book shelves in their dozens, it's not widely known just exactly what feng shui is, nor what it means to the Chinese.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, feng shui is, "The Chinese art or practice of positioning objects, especially graves, buildings, and furniture, based on a belief in patterns of yin and yang and the flow of chi that have positive and negative effects." This is a fairly good definition insofar as it goes, but its brevity necessarily obscures the complexity of the concept.

Even understanding the term "feng shui" requires quite a bit of definition and explanation. "Feng shui" literally means "wind water" and unless you know about a couple of things about the Chinese language, the term is completely meaningless.

So: a brief lesson in Chinese linguistics. In classical Chinese there was a tendency to use phrases as references to lines of well known poems, as a way to show erudition. In spoken Chinese, there's a tendency to reduce long phrases or place names to two character abbreviations, in much the same way as there's a tendency in English to use acronyms.

With those two things in mind, we can take another look at the term "feng shui" and look a little deeper. "Feng shui" is actually an abbreviation of and a reference to a line from an ancient poem by Guo Pu. The line describes one of the principles of feng shui; it reads, "the qi that rides the wind stops at the boundary of water."

And now we come to the word "qi". "Qi" is a difficult word to translate into English, and in fact people often don't bother. It appears in the Oxford American Dictionary, defined as, "he circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of much Chinese philosophy and medicine." In Chinese the word literally means "air", but, again, the literal translation is an over simplification of a complex concept. Dissertations could, and almost certainly have been, written about the concept of "qi", but for our purposes it seems sufficient to say that in the context of feng shui calculations, "qi" means something like "flow of energy".

The goal of feng shui is to build on places with good qi and then, once that's done, design the building so that it doesn't impede the flow of qi. Some locations don't have the proper qi and aren't suitable for human habitation. These places should be left in their natural state.

First, a quick and dirty lesson in ancient Chinese physics, for lack of a better term. The world is driven by two principal forces – yin and yang. There are eight directions – north, northwest, west, southwest etc). There are five basic elements – water, wood, fire, earth and metal. All of these elements have properties associated with them (yin is receptive yang is active; heaven is creative; wood represents awakening etc) and they interact with each and react to each other to produce complex effects on qi, both of the local environment and of the people in it.

The effects of all of these interactions are measurable, using two charts called bagua and a compass. The first (early heaven) bagua represents the sacred unchanging universe and is used to orient graves, temples, and other such sacred places. The second (later heaven) bagua represents the changing universe and is used to orient every day spaces, such as homes and offices. Without getting too technical, the two baguas are divided into eight trigrams – heaven, earth, fire, water, thunder, lake, mountain, wind – each of which has particular qualities and patterns of energy associated with it, and each of which is associated with a direction, though which direction is associated with which trigram differs for the two charts. So, thus laid out and divided the bagua measure interactions between trigrams, the eight directions, the five elements, and yin and yang – i.e. they're used to determine the quality of the qi in a given place. An example of an application of the bagua is as follows: north is associated with water; water extinguishes fire. Therefore, the kitchen should not be located in the north part of the house. (for a full description of all of the trigrams and elements see answers.com insert proper link)

If it sounds complicated, it is. The concept of feng shui and its principles has developed as an integral part of Chinese culture for many thousands of years; there's even evidence of the practice of something like feng shui as far back as the Neolithic Age. These ancient practices were later combined with the principles of Taoism and Taoist views about the universe. Then, during the Han Dynasty (BC 207 – AD 220) the practice of feng shui was recognized as a professional skill and its principles began to be organized and codified into various schools of thought. In the 2000 plus years since then the practice of feng shui has continued to evolve and has risen and fallen in popularity, so that, today there are many different schools of thought and ways of employing feng shui.

In China today feng shui operates on two more or less separate levels. There are feng shui experts with extensive knowledge of the bagua and feng shui principles who can be hired to take extensive measurements of a location's qi and help you design the interior to take best advantage of qi flow. But feng shui is also an amorphous set of basic rules that anyone can apply, and many or most people would not find it necessary to employ an expert. For example, stairs shouldn't face the front door; straight lines and clutter are to be avoided; houses should not be built in front of cemetaries, mortuaries or hospitals; the best location for a house is on a street shaped like a horseshoe etc.

Feng shui is such an old and integrated part of the Chinese way of looking at the universe that it's difficult to separate it from Chinese beliefs about religion, numerology, colors ets.  (links to articles here) For instance, each of the five elements (water, wood, fire, earth, and metal) is associated with a color, so in order for the elements to balance, the colors must also balance properly. 

Many westerners find the idea that there is some mystical "flow of energy" in nature preposterous and they dismiss the idea of feng shui outright. But the principles of feng shui often reflect what Westerners might call "good sense" (for instance, not building a house by a cemetary, mortuary, or hospital), and compasses do more than just point north; they reflect local geomagnetism, which is itself formed by geomagnetically induced currents caused by space weather. Western science has no clear, concrete idea of how space weather affects us, but it's clear that it can have profound effects on technology (GPS, communication and navigation systems, power grids, etc.). What affect it might have on people is unknown in Western science.

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It would be difficult to exaggerate the popularity of cell phones in China.  In February of 2007 6.8 million new subscribers got cell phones; in March 6.7 million. As of late May 2007 almost 40% of Chinese own a cell phone, and the number of subscribers is expected to hit 500 million by the end of June 2007 (1). Not only that, but there may be more active cell phones than there are subscribers, as it's not uncommon for people to have more than one cell phone in order to take advantage of different rates on different providers. When you arrive in China, one of your first priorities should be getting a cell phone.

Cell phones are quite inexpensive and easy to use in China. Even the cheapest models should have both English and Chinese language interfaces, though of course you should confirm this before you purchase the phone. The cheapest models can be purchased for as little as US$30, and SIM cards can be purchased for 50 RMB (more auspicious phone numbers cost more). Minutes can be added to a SIM card by purchasing a phone card (generally in increments of 50 RMB) from a vendor; calling an automated service, which has instructions in both Mandarin and English; and entering the PIN printed on the card. For China Mobile rates are .60 RMB a minute to talk and .10 RMB to send an SMS, with no cost to receive an SMS. There are too many other, smaller service providers to list them all, but rates are generally comparable.

Monthly plans are also available, though you must sign a long term contract to get the best rates. The way these work can be slightly confusing for Westerners used to receiving an itemized bill. For example, you may elect to pay 20 RMB a month for unlimited incoming calls, with outgoing calls and SMS at the normal rates on top of that sum. After you sign the contract, you add money to your phone in the usual way, with phone cards purchased from vendors. Each month, 20 RMB is deducted from the total that you add to your phone. So, if you add 100 RMB to your phone each month, you will actually have only 80 RMB at your disposal after the flat rate for incoming calls is deducted. If you would like an itemized bill it is possible to print one for your phone number from the China Mobile website, but to do this you must be able to read Chinese.

Especially for non-Chinese speakers, it's enormously helpful if your cell phone has the ability to receive Chinese text. Even if you yourself do not read Chinese, a cell phone that can receive Chinese text messages is a quick and easy tool for communicating with cab drivers. You can ask your friends to help you by sending you the address of where ever you're meeting them for dinner or the like, and then you can simply show the text message to your cab driver. An address in pinyin will not work for this purpose so Chinese text support is essential.

A major difference in the way Chinese people use their cell phones as compared to the way they're used in the West is voice-mail. Chinese people virtually never have voice-mail on their phones, and should you bother to set up voice-mail on your own cell phone, do not expect anyone to leave you any messages. Actually this is as true on landlines, both professional and personal, as it is on cell phones. Chinese people simply don't like to leave voice messages; for whatever reason they're much more comfortable with SMS and other written forms of message leaving (2).

Another major difference to keep in mind is the difference in cell phone etiquette. Chinese people don't consider it rude to answer a cell phone at any time, whether they're interrupting a conversation, a dinner, a class they might be teaching, or even an important business meeting. If the phone rings, they answer it, and those who sit waiting for them to finish their conversation are not in the least offended by the wait.

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The country's huge trade surplus has helped build up the world's largest currency reserves, which until now were invested mainly in US treasury bonds.

Finance minister Jin Renqing gave no details when the fund would be set up or how it would manage the money.

However, he pointed to Singapore's state investment firm Temasek as a possible model for the fund.

Market impact

The size of the currency reserves means that the fund could wield huge influence in global markets.

"Some people in the market are concerned that if there is going to be a drastic change in the way the [foreign exchange] reserves are being managed, it could have a potentially important impact on capital flows and financial markets," said JP Morgan Chase economist Grace Ng.

Redirecting Chinese investment from US bonds to other assets could drive up long-term interest rates in America, which in turn could hurt US companies, home buyers and borrowers.

How China's $1 trillion currency reserves are handled has been a hot topic in China recently, with some arguing that some of the money should be spent on fighting poverty, while others call for strategic investments in natural resources or foreign companies.

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Well according to new reports that have come in, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Church has "quietly" nominated (note: not appointed) a new bishop for Beijing. In his 40s, Father Li Shan of Beijing's Eastern Cathedral (东堂) near the Wangfujing shopping district, is not known to have received papal blessing but has said the government would decide whether to seek approval from Rome as Pope Benedict demanded.

Reuters elucidates:

The death in April of Beijing bishop Fu Tieshan, who did not have Rome's blessing, opened a vacancy in China's most prominent diocese and presented a test for China-Vatican relations. Some church people have hoped that in the wake of the Pope's letter, China will make a gesture of goodwill by giving Rome some say in naming Fu's successor. But the elevation of Li, who said he had not been in contact with the Vatican, may inflame tensions if he is appointed without papal blessing. One priest familiar with the issue said Li may be in private contact with the Vatican and it was too early to assume he would be ordained without Vatican approval. Like other sources he requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

According to the Catholic News Service though:

Church sources in Beijing confirmed that the polling did take place July 16 and that all the candidates except Father Li had studied abroad. They also said that government officials had earlier lobbied all priests to ensure that Father Li would be elected.

In other religious news, ChristianToday reports that China has recently expelled more than 100 foreign nationals between April and June this year for their alleged participation in "illegal religious activities". The Christians have all been expelled to prevent proselytisation at next year's upcoming Olympic Games.

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The Houston Rockets' star was faulted for taking too much time off to recover from his last NBA season. The government's All-China Sports Federation also said he spent too much time planning his wedding and making appearances for the Special Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"No matter how lofty public welfare activities are, they can't be allowed to take first place in a player's life,'' the China Sports Daily, a federation-owned newspaper, said in an article appearing Tuesday.

"No matter how sweet personal life is, it can't be compared to the exultation of capturing glory for one's nation,'' the article said.

Chinese Web sites later said Yao reported for national teaming training on Wednesday

It's really sad to see pro athletes go off the deep end like this. Special Olympics?!?!? Beijing Olympics??!?!?! Getting married?!??!? What self-destructive and unpatriotic activities will this prima donna get messed up in next? Yao, please stop embarrassing your fellow countrymen with your reckless behavior!

If only Yao could be a true stand up guy like Yi Jianlian. On that topic, we tend to agree with this Shanghaiist commenter.

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For those who don't already know, the Peace Hotel was the property baby of British trader Victor Sassoon and opened in 1929 as the Cathay Hotel. Built in the gothic style of the Chicago school, it was later renamed the Peace Hotel. Its early guests included a significant amount of luminaries, such as Charlie Chaplin and playwright Noel Coward, the latter of which actually completed his famous work "Private Lives" while staying there. Basically, this is one colonial edifice that would be a massive shame to obliterate.

Fortunately, we can all relax. Hirsh Bedner Associates, the interior design consultancy behind the revamp of the hotel's North Wing, are now working with Shanghai historian and author of "The Bund Shanghai: China Faces West," Peter Hibbard, to ensure the hotel's rich past continues to shape its future. Ian Carr, Principal of HBA, says:

We are keen to gather as much photographic and documentary evidence as will help piece together a comprehensive picture, and an understanding, of how the hotel began life and how it evolved over time. Photographs and accounts detailing the hotel's rich interior, from the public areas to rooms, as well as personal reminiscences, memorabilia and ephemera are seen as vital in telling this story – a story that promises to re-make history.

If all goes to plan, the hotel is set to open in 2010.

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The two variables he used in determining the Budget Cost per Day for each of the 94 cities in his study are:

1. The cheapest private, double occupancy room that I could find in each city. (private rooms, as they were the most commonly available accommodation options I found across the board. This does not mean that these are the cheapest of all accommodation options, as a dorm style accommodation is certainly less expensive when available. However, for comparison purposes it made more sense to just look at private rooms.)
2. The price of a cheap local meal in each city, multiplied by 2. Meant to represent the cost of two meals per day.

All expenses were derived from either his personal experiences, information provided by his fellow backpacker friends, HostelBookers.com (accommodation prices), HostelWorld.com (accommodation prices), and the Lonely Planet World Guide (cheap meal prices).

So Shanghai ranked 26th on the expensive list and 16th on the cheap list. Guess it is true how Shanghai can both be expensive or cheap depending on your lifestyle! And here the rankings:

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Five Chinese carriers have committed to buying 57 of the new fuel-efficient, long-haul Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and three Chinese companies are producing parts and components for the new plane. Air China and China Eastern Airlines have each ordered 15 of the new planes. China Southern Airlines has ordered 10, Shanghai Airlines nine and Hainan Airlines eight. Boeing has won 677 orders for the Dreamliner, which means it will be sold out all the way till 2015. The news comes amid a new aviation pact that will significantly increase passenger and cargo flights between China and the US. It is estimated that the agreement will generate as much as US$5 billion in passenger and cargo revenues for the airline industry over the next six years, and as much as US$8 billion in new economic activity in the United States.

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Mahjong is one of China’s most popular games, and, along with its food, also one of its most popular cultural exports. For those entirely unfamiliar with the game, a quick overview: mahjong is a game played with four players and a set of mahjong tiles, usually a little larger and thicker than western dominoes. The tiles are divided into three different types: suits, honors and flowers. There are three suits – circles, bamboo and characters – each numbered one through nine. The honor tiles include the four wind tiles, each printed with one of the four cardinal directions, and three dragon tiles, one printed with the character zhong , one with fa  and one with a simple square, called the white (bai) tile. The game has a number of complex rules for shuffling and dealing tiles, designed to make cheating as difficult as possible.

In its essence, mahjong is something like gin rummy, with players drawing and discarding tiles and trying to create melds of three or four of a kind or three in a row of the same suit. There are two important differences however: points and betting.  Some mahjong hands get no points and some get many, based on how difficult the hand is to make. These points carry over from one round to the next until the game is over. Also, money is wagered at the beginning of a round and once the round is finished money is doled out according to points.

History

Popular myth connects mahjong to Confucius, asserting that its appearance in various parts of China corresponds with Confucius’s travels. According to this myth, the three dragon tiles (zhong, fa, and bai) correspond to the three cardinal virtues taught by Confucius (benevolence, sincerity, and filial piety). It’s highly unlikely that this is accurate, as the game rules would have changed so much that it would effectively be a different game today if it had been around for so long (1).

Evidence suggests that the game was actually invented during the 19th century. Its development was probably influenced by existing card and tile games. One game in particular, Madiao was played with forty cards, numbered 1 to 9 in four different suits along with four extra flower cards. This configuration is quite similar to modern Mahjong, so it's believed that Madiao may have had some influence. As to who created the game and where, there are many conflicting theories, even among the camp that agrees that the game was invented sometime after 1850. In the end, there's no way to be certain (1).

By the early twentieth century, the game was roaringly popular all over China. In 1949 the communist government of the newly established People's Republic of China banned mahjong as part of its larger ban on gambling in general. After the Cultural Revolution, the game was revived and it has more than regained its former popularity, though there are still restrictions on gambling in China and high stakes games are not allowed (1).

Mahjong for Export

It seems that not long after its invention and rise to popularity in China, Mahjong became a phenomenon in the West. Mention of the game first appeared in an anthropology paper written by an American man named Stewart Culin in 1895. Soon there were rule books written in a number of languages, including French, English and Japanese. Every time the game appeared in a new country and gained popularity there, some of its rules were changed. Thus, there are now completely different American, Japanese, and British versions of the game. But purists still look to China for the "real" Mahjong.

Variations

So called "classical" or "standard" mahjong is played with a set of 144 tiles and each player is dealt 13 tiles. The Taiwanese variation uses 16 tile hands. Rarer versions of the game involve sets of 136, 148 or 152 tiles.

The rules of mahjong differ wildly from region to region. Some versions use joker or wild tiles, others don't. Some versions award points for being only one tile short of a full set at the end of the round, others don't. Some versions require that you form not only a standard mahjong hand to win the round, but that the hand have a point value. The details of wagering and winning money differ according to different point values assigned to different hands. Different versions also differ in how the dealer position is rotated. Basically, there are so many different versions of the game that players must usually discuss and agree on the rules before they start playing.

Innovations

Online mahjong has been around in Asia for awhile through gaming portals like FunTown, which operates the world's largest online mahjong gaming site in terms of revenue (2). Mahjong may soon be making its presence felt on the worldwide internet gambling stage; Carmen Media, owner of a number of online casinos, recently signed a deal with  GigaMedia  to use their mahjong software (2). Major players in the online gambling world have high hopes that online mahjong will soon explode in popularity in Asia in the same way that online poker has in the West.

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The Chinese government is considering scrapping two of China's three "golden weeks". The proposal appears to have been drawn up by domestic tourism experts and if the guidelines are accepted, the weeklong May Day holiday would be shortened to one day and the National Day holiday to two days. Only the Lunar New Year golden week would be preserved. To make up for the lost holidays, three traditional Chinese festivals would be set aside as public holidays. Top contenders include the Mid-Autumn Festival, Lantern Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, Dragonboat Festival and Chongyang Festival. In addition, compulsory paid vacations may be written into labour law. We think this is just as well because

1. We don't get any Golden Week holidays anyways!
   
2. Half of the expatriates we know work through Golden Weeks while everyone else is on holiday!
   
3. Golden Week throngs were never really our idea of fun! Shanghai is crowded enough during normal days.
   
4. Giving people the freedom to choose when to go on holiday sounds like a fab idea to us. At least we can choose to travel at times when airfare prices are not that exorbitantly high!

    

   What does everyone else think?
   

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From just 300,000 in 1978, the number of foreign visitors to China reached 22 million in 2006, excluding arrivals from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Well it appears China is not just a beneficiary in this whole cycle of things as Chinese tourists have become a key driving force behind fast tourism growth in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the first travel trend and research conference of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA):

John Koldowski, head of the PATA strategy and information center, said there were about 500 million in-bound tourists in the Asia-Pac region in 2006, including 30 million Chinese tourists. The "Chinese factor" will have a big impact on tourism destinations, he said. According to him, 710,000 Chinese tourists visited the Republic of Korea in 2005, but the number will double to 1.5 million by 2009. Chinese tourists to New Zealand totaled 87,000 in 2005, but the number will rise to 200,000 by 2009.

Rosy statistics aside, Shanghaiist thinks that with increasing interconnectivity between China and the global economy on more and more fronts, any blip in the Chinese economy could have devastating results on the rest of the world. Whether we like it or not, we will begin to see more and more instances that support the idea -- "When China sneezes, the world catches a cold".

Posted by jialilyus at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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