News You Might Have Missed: Great Losses and Not-So-Great Freebies

Beijing is like a sneaky thief. While pretending to give with one hand, it's busy stealing something away with the other – like your TV programming or the Great Wall. Well, at least you have unreliable Wi-Fi and an ancient canal to console yourself with.

If you’ve been in Beijing long enough, you probably no longer view the Great Wall with wide-eyed amazement. In fact, you probably have become so desensitized by concerts and parties on the Wall that it has become a mere direction-giving marker ("… and once you hit a Wall, go left."). That dismissive attitude may change if sections of the Great Wall start falling down. Areas of China's iconic monument have begun crumbling because of mineral prospecting at the base of the Wall, much of which has been permitted by the authorities. These vulnerable parts are located southwest of Beijing, away from the cash cows of Badaling and Mutianyu, so apparently the loss wasn't considered too great.

If the Wall does become inaccessible, you can fulfill your cultural cravings at Beijing’s newly unveiled canal. The Jade Canal – originally commissioned by Kublai Khan – has been restored and will eventually be developed into a cultural corridor between Houhai and Nanluogu Xiang. Presently, the half-filled canal offers sterile sidewalks, potted aquatic plants, and some replica ancient features. Feels a bit like demolishing historical buildings and getting to view culture in a characterless museum instead, doesn’t it?

Thinking of hibernating in front of your TV this winter? Get ready for some changes in programming. Starting on January 1, 2012, provincial channels will be forced to reduce the number of entertainment shows, like dating games and crime drama to allocate more time for “morality building” content. Look forward to more programs like this:

If you want to view those banned shows online, you’ll soon be able to do that at ten locations around Beijing, hypothetically. By the end of November, free public Wi-Fi will be available around the city (Xidan, Wangfujing, the Olympic zone, Financial Street, Yanshan, Zhongguancun, and the three train stations). Connecting to the My Beijing network will require users to provide their cellphone numbers to receive a login password. The logistics of this three-year program have brought about concerns over the security of online activity and privacy, a worry that the government has dismissed, to our great reassurance.

Speaking of online activity that deals with private matters, sales of placenta on Taobao and other online sites are still going strong despite a 2005 ban. (For anyone drawing a blank, the placenta is the flat, vascular organ that grows in the uterus during pregnancy and is expelled following the birth.) Most of the afterbirths for sale come in a dried or ground-up form, and are used primarily in Chinese medicine. Placentas are thought to “improve the immune system, slow the aging process and cure impotence and infertility." While the thought of this semi-cannibalism definitely turns our stomachs, placenta in pill form is easier to swallow than a placenta cocktail or spaghetti bolognaise.

Photos: Rully Priyadipta, Buzzfeed.com