China: We're No. 3
Thursday January 15, 2009
A sign from a labor market in Chengdu, Sichuan Province yesterday reads "unlimited work/labor." It's unclear if it is from a job seeker or job provider. Many laid off migrant workers are returning home and seeking work. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)
China beat out Germany in 2007 to become the world's third largest economy with a gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion, according to recently-released China National Bureau of Statistics and World Bank figures.
China announced its new status yesterday, saying it was a result of a revision to the previously recorded 2007 GDP. Apparently the National Bureau of Statistics had recorded its 2007 GDP at 11.9 percent, when it was actually 13 percent. That made China the World's third largest economy in 2007 behind Japan ($4.3 trillion) and the United States ($13.8 trillion). Read more...
Bamboo Owners, Your Nation's Pandas Need You
Wednesday January 14, 2009
They're very hungry. Giant Panda cub Tai Shan cuddles with his mother, Mei Xiang, at the National Zoo in 2006. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Two unrelated panda posts in a week, what are the odds? Last week I wrote about the latest attack on a human by the Beijing Zoo's Giant Panda Gu Gu, and today I learned that the National Zoo in Washington D.C. is facing a "critical and unexpected" bamboo shortage.
No, Not these. These decorative twisty bamboo are not what the National Zoo needs. (Martin Harvey/Getty Images)
It's gotten so bad that the Zoo is looking for local landowners and farmers to donate their bamboo to help feed it's Giant Pandas and other animals.
But before people start bringing in their decorative bamboo pots on a bed of pebbles, the standards are pretty high. The Zoo only wants bamboo that make up at least an acre of land, is at least 100 feet from a roadway, is at least 25 miles driving distance from the zoo, and has not been treated with herbicides or pesticides.
The National Zoo's Giant Panda Mei Xiang eats some bamboo in 2006. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The Zoo harvests 75,000 pounds of bamboo a year which it says feeds its giant pandas, red pandas, Asian elephants and gorillas. But the zoo also claims that it's three Giant Pandas are offered 1,400 pounds of that bamboo a week, which basically makes up most of its bamboo supply. Apparently Tai Shan, Tian Tian, and Mei Xiang eat bamboo 12-14 hours a day.
This year, the bamboo that the Zoo grows on- and off-site are not regrowing as they normally do for unknown reasons. They expect to deplete their supplies before the end of winter. If they can't get enough bamboo donations before then, they'll have to start harvesting bamboo from small patches located throughout the zoo's exhibits and property.
Read more...
Latin America's Los Barrios Chinos
Tuesday January 13, 2009
Young men practice a dragon dance in Mexico City's Chinatown. (ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images)
Danwei.org has a great post about the
growing Chinese population in Argentina from contributor Nancy H. Liu, a health researcher in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Liu describes the Chinatown in Buenos Aires (El Barrio Chino) and says that Chinese immigrants from Argentina now number 60,000, coming mostly from the 1980s and 1990s.
Coincidentally, I just wrote about Cuba's history of Chinese migrants as well as the creation of Cuban-Chinese food as a result of this cultural mixing.
It's always amazed me that no matter where you go in the world there's always a Chinatown somewhere. I guess that's what happens when one in five people on earth are Chinese.
When (and Why) Pandas Attack
Friday January 9, 2009
A woman has her picture taken with Jing Jing, a cartoon panda and one of the Olympic mascots during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. (GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)
The media was quick to pick up the story of
Gu Gu the panda this week. After yet another human entered his pen at the Beijing Zoo on Wednesday, the 240-pound panda fought back with big bites to both legs of ill-thinking tourist.
According to the zoo, Zhang Jiao jumped the 5-foot barrier of the panda's outdoor exercise area on Wednesday to retrieve his child's toy which had fallen into the pen. Gu Gu, unhappy at the intrusion, proceeded to maul him and apparently held on to his legs so tightly that zookeepers had to pry them open with tools.
It wasn't the first time Gu Gu attacked. Last year a drunk tourist jumped into the pen and tried to hug him; Gu Gu bit him in the back. And just a few months ago, another person climbed into his exercise area "out of curiosity" and Gugu bit back again.
Authorities say Gu Gu's latest victim is recovering from surgery.
But before all the hands are wrung, let's consider that perhaps Gu Gu is the victim. Imagine you are happily chewing on some bamboo in southwest China, and suddenly you are uplifted to smoggy and crowded Beijing, where tourists continually intrude on your space.
Read more...
