leah.jones posted several photos of the Olympic Relay Torch:
Amazing photos by someone who actually got to hold an Olympic Relay Torch. It doesn’t look particularly Chinese to me, but it does look really cool. All I can say is that it looks amazing and I’m jealous!
It’s hard to believe that these torches have been the centre of so much attention. It’s a real shame that there’s been so much negativity around the Olympic Relay – this should have been a really joyous event.
This is fantastic. A supermarket with lanes painted down the aisles! This supermarket is obviously getting into the Olympic spirit. I’m sure we’ll see all sort of craziness in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics.
photo by Denn
The posters of athlete jumping hurdles, hanging from the ceiling, really make this picture.
On a side note, that aisle is really wide. I’ve certainly seen supermarkets in China with such wide aisles, but it’s not the norm. More often than not, the aisles are pretty cramped. I wonder if they widened the aisles especially so they could add the lanes? I wouldn’t put it past them.
While this blog was in remission, the tragedy of the 5.12 earthquake in Sichuan occurred. I’d left China only weeks before and listened to the emerging news with horror.
As of 8 June 2008, the death toll stood at 69,134 people. 17,681 people were still missing and 374,061 were injured. The scale of the disaster is hard to take in. It’s hard to comprehend that so many people lost their lives, especially the cruel twist that so many children were amongst the dead.
Following my recent post on Beijing’s new airport terminal being the biggest building in the world, Beijing has claimed another record: Having more public toilets than any other city in the world. Continue reading
I recently read about the new Terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport. It sounds mightily impressive. Here are a few quotes from the article:
at the size of 170 soccer fields, qualifies as the world’s biggest building.
JobsInChina is proud to present LocalCurrency, a WordPress plugin that allows you to show currency values to your readers in their local currency.
For example: If a post contains 10 yuan, a user from Australia will see 10 yuan (AUD$1.53), while a US user will see 10 yuan (USD$1.39). Continue reading
NOTE: As of 21st October 2016, this plugin is no longer available. It was removed from the WordPress plugin repository at the request of Yahoo! as they no longer allow their exchange rate API to be used. Existing users should transition to a different solution as soon as they can, as there will be no further updates to the plugin.
Shows currency values to readers in their local currency (in brackets after the original value). For example: If the site’s currency is Chinese yuan and the post contains 10 yuan, a user from Australia will see 10 yuan (AUD$1.53), while a user from US will see 10 yuan (USD$1.39).
I’ve seen many bloggers write something like: 10 yuan (about $1.50) – because many of their readers don’t know how much yuan (or whatever currency they are using) is worth.
LocalCurrency automatically does this for you and tells readers exactly how much it’s worth, in their own currency, wherever they are from.
Note: The plugin is large compared to most WordPress plugins, due the IP2C database used to recognise the reader’s country
Alternatively, you can install the plugin automatically through the WordPress Admin interface by going to Plugins -> Add New and searching for LocalCurrency.
Please update this plugin through the WordPress Admin interface.
Enter any currency values you want converted using the localcurrency shortcode. For example:
[localcurrency]$65[/localcurrency]
This can be done manually through the Visual view in the post editor, or using the LocalCurrency Quicktag in the Code view (select the number to be converted and click the quicktag).
For a currency range, use a hyphen between values (without spaces), eg:
[localcurrency]$65-$75[/localcurrency]
There is a site-wide Site Currency setting which is used as the ‘from’ currency. To override this and convert from a different currency for a specific value, specify the ‘from’ currency (using a valid currency code):
[localcurrency from="GBP"]£65[/localcurrency]
The plugin will work with more than one currency per page, but will be much slower.
Note: This plugin used to use the following format: $10. This will still work but it is recommended to use the shortcode format shown above. Please do not use both formats on the one page.
WARNING:
The plugin strips non numeric characters (such as $) from between the tags, before converting the value. However, some currency symbols may include numeric characters. For example, 10元 may be stored as 10元. The 20803 will remain after the non numeric characters are stripped and will be considered as part of the value to convert, resulting in an incorrect value.
If you experience this problem, please leave the currency sign outside the tags (ie: 元[localcurrency]10[/localcurrency]).
The following sentence should contain the amount in your local currency:
I spent 20 yuan on dinner last night, then 30 yuan on the taxi home.
If you want to change the currency, use the selection box at the bottom of the post. Note: if you are in China, you will not see anything.
This plugin is officially not supported (due to my time constraints), but if you post on the WordPress.org forum for this plugin, I should be able to help.
This plugin is released under the GPL licence.
I do not accept any responsibility for any damages or losses, direct or indirect, that may arise from using the plugin or these instructions. This software is provided as is, with absolutely no warranty. Please refer to the full version of the GPL license for more information.
This plugin makes use of some code from the CurreX plugin. Thanks to miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG.
It also uses IP2C and Yahoo! Finance.
I don’t want this blog to become political, but I can’t let this pass. I’ve been watching the media storm about Steven Speilberg withdrawing from the Beijing Olypmics opening ceremony preparations because he’s not happy at the Chinese involvement with what’s happening in Darfur. Continue reading
I’ve never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day and not just because I couldn’t find anyone to share it with! I’ve always seen it as a fabricated ‘commercial’ celebration – more about making money than about lovers.
Living here in China, I should be able to escape such Western customs, right? Wrong! Valentine’s Day is big here in China, especially amongst the youngsters, who seem to soak up anything Western. Continue reading
Spring Festival, or Chunjie as it is called here, is a great time of year!
It starts with Chinese New Year’s Eve (actually it technically doesn’t start until New Year’s Day). Then over the following two weeks, people take extended holidays to celebrate. There are fireworks, firecrackers, reunion dinners, visits to family and friend, lucky money, the New Year’s Eve TV gala, etc.
Spring Festival ends with the Lantern Festival on January 15 (on the Chinese calendar)
Continue reading