News You Might Have Missed: Stuck in Traffic, Scalping Stops and Enraging Noodles?
Beijing's heat came on early this year, but are you still left at home in the cold? Out on the streets, Beijing continues to be an unfriendly city for commuters. Unfortunately, the latest proposals for the roads and the subway don't seem very promising. If you're looking ahead, the iPhone will be here in time for Christmas.
It's a good thing that the citywide winter heating switched on over the weekend, just in time for Sunday's storm, which left the city snowy and slushy. However, thousands of residents have been complaining that they are still without heat at home. One of the companies responsible has referred to the lack of coverage as "teething problems."
Transportation woes continue to plague all Beijingers. According to the most recent survey, we waste an average of 14 minutes sitting in traffic each day. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Except when it takes that long to go 100 yards.
Those who think the solution to the traffic problem is to purchase their own car may want to think twice. A new proposal would require all prospective car owners to show proof of a permanent parking space before they can buy a vehicle. As Beijing currently has only 741,090 spaces for more than five million cars, this proposal would effectively put an end to all car sales in the capital. In other words, nobody thinks this policy is actually viable.
Subway riders may be interested to know that the Beijing Subway Bureau is working on a new policy that will ensure a maximum density of four-and-a-half to five people for every square meter of space in the train cars. (Funny, Japan's notoriously packed subway for only allows for four people per square meter.) However, compared to the Beijing bus standard of eight people per square meter, the Beijing subway policy seems positively luxurious.
Apple has announced that the latest version of the iPhone will land in China in December. Also coming along at that time: the iPad mini. If you tend to give Apple stores a wide berth to avoid scalpers, don't worry; apparently, they are not interested in the miniaturized tablet.
Planning on traveling domestically over the upcoming holidays? If you want to treat yourself by splashing out, check out Conde Nast's list of the top 35 hotels in China. And watch out for angry travelers if you're flying. Chinese passengers recently held their flight crew hostage at Pudong Airport after their Melbourne-Beijing flight was diverted to Shanghai because of bad weather.
If you've been having issues with accessing Gmail these days, there's a workaround that may solve your problems. If you can use a proxy site to view it on Greatfire.org, then you're probably tech-savvy enough to edit the hosts file to get to Google’s single reliable IP address. Good luck with that.
Finally, should we stay away from the chow mein? A recent spate of rape cases in India took a bizarre scapegoating turn when a local leader blamed chow mein for creating the kind of hormonal imbalances that might induce such sexual attacks.
Photo: theworldofchinese.com
