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VIDEOOn September 5, 2021 a black swan appeared in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and attracted a lot of attention as you can see. Does this very rare appearance of a black swan in the very center of China portend a Black Swan event? By strange coincidence, on the very same day the black swan appeared in Tiananmen Square, a fascinating documentary about Black Swan Events, "The Worst Kind of Surprise: Black Swan Theory," was uploaded to YouTube. You can see a few excerpts of it in this video but I highly recommend you watch the entire documentary in the link below.The...

The World Health Organisation said it is in ongoing contact with authorities in China over an unidentified outbreak of viral pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, amid concern it may have been transmitted from animals. Wuhan health authorities on Tuesday said 27 people – most of them stallholders at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market – had been treated in hospital, with seven said to be in serious condition. Pathology tests were under way to try and identify the virus, officials said. Hong Kong medical authorities were also on alert. Wuhan authorities ordered the closure of the market on Wednesday....

Two people in China were diagnosed with a severe form of the plague, according to reports in Chinese media — raising alarms for citizens despite promises from health authorities that control measures are in place. Local health officials confirmed the two cases of pneumonic plague on Tuesday, according to Xinhua News, China’s state-run news agency. The two patients, who authorities say received “proper treatment,” hail from China’s Inner Mongolia region. Additional information on the patients and their health status was not available Wednesday, and it’s not clear when the cases were identified. Officials told Xinhua that “relevant disease prevention and...

UNTIL the start of this month, no one had ever heard of Xiongan. Today, it is the most talked-about place in China. When the government announced on April 1st that it would create “Xiongan New Area” as a metropolis from scratch, it immediately set off a frenzy. Housing prices in the zone, about 100km (62 miles) south-west of Beijing, more than tripled overnight before authorities ordered a halt to property transactions. Local hotels were booked up and roads packed with cars as prospective investors flocked to what is still largely farmland. The shares of companies such as local cement-makers and...

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Thursday morning warned citizens of a Christmastime terrorism threat against Westerners in one of the city's most popular expat districts. Beijing authorities put swaths of the city under lockdown, stationing armed guards on street corners and in pedestrian plazas. "The U.S. Embassy has received information of possible threats against Westerners in the Sanlitun area of Beijing, on or around Christmas Day," the embassy said in an email to American citizens living in Beijing. "U.S. citizens are urged to exercise heightened vigilance. The U.S. Embassy has issued the same guidance to U.S. government personnel." The...

Dish named for China’s capital has its origins in Nanjing, hundreds of kilometres to the south.Beijing: Where does Peking Duck come from? It is a trick question: the dish named for China’s capital has its origins in Nanjing, hundreds of kilometres to the south. The tidbit is one of the revelations in a museum opened earlier this month to mark the 150th anniversary of the Quanjude restaurant, now the seven-storey flagship of a chain with franchises as far away as Australia. Statues of roasters, photos of officials dining and menus going back 100 years trace the duck’s route from humble...

They may not have the gravitas of bald eagles or the mysterious allure of condors, but North America's ducks -- a classic harbinger every year of the changing seasons -- have done something remarkable. Scientists say the number of mallards, teals, canvasbacks and other ducks this year has reached the highest level ever recorded, with a total estimate of 48.6 million breeding ducks in Canada and the United States. The number is 7 percent higher than last year, according to a survey released this week from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and 43 percent higher than the historic average...

ICC Note:The Chinese Government has taken Catholic clergy to a meeting in Beiging by means of force. The meeting is reportedly meant to set up a church leadership structure the government can control.12/07/2010 China (AsiaNews) – AsiaNews sources say that dozens of bishops of the official Church have been forcibly deported to the capital to ensure their participation at the Assembly of representatives of Chinese Catholics, which the pope considers incompatible with Catholic faith.The Assembly opened today in Beijing on a low profileand is being shrouded in secrecy: it is impossible to contact anyone and not even Xinhua is reporting...

Husband and wife charged in plot to rid neighborhood of What a pair of quacks. The South Florida husband and wife accused of hatching a plot to rid their Palm Beach Gardens community of ducks are going to court. Robert and Blain Aymond face misdemeanor theft charges after they rounded up eight ducks belonging to their homeowner's association and hired a trapper to take them to a shelter where they'd be killed, according to the Palm Beach Post. The trial was expected to begin Monday morning. Prosecutors say the Aymonds had trapped the ducks on their patio and planned...

Iconic ancient human fossils from China are 200,000 years older than had previously been thought, a study shows. The new dating analysis suggests the "Peking Man" fossils, unearthed in the caves of Zhoukoudian are some 750,000 years old. The discovery should help define a more accurate timeline for early humans arriving in North-East Asia. A US-Chinese team of researchers has published its findings in the prestigious journal Nature. The cave system of Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, is one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the world. Between 1921 and 1966, archaeologists working at the site unearthed tens of thousands of...

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier group sailed through the tense waters between China and Taiwan after it was denied entry last week to a Hong Kong port, the U.S. Navy said on Thursday. The USS Kitty Hawk and eight accompanying ships passed through the Taiwan Strait, seen as one of Asia's most dangerous flash points, on their way back to Japan after China barred the carrier group from entering the Hong Kong harbor for a long-planned visit, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii said. "USS Kitty Hawk carrier strike group has transited the...

BEIJING - A man threw a burning object at a portrait of Mao Zedong that hangs over Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, slightly damaging it and prompting police to close the nearby imperial palace, a news report said Sunday. The man, identified as Gu Hai'ou, from the northwestern city of Urumqi, tried to burn the portrait of communist China's first leader on Saturday afternoon, the Xinhua News Agency said. Early Sunday, authorities replaced the portrait, which had a small scorch mark in the lower left corner. "Armed police are guarding the area and visitors are forbidden to enter the Forbidden...

Beijing is covered by desert sandstorm By Richard Spencer in Beijing (Filed: 18/04/2006) Beijing's 14 million residents woke to find their houses, cars and bicycles covered in thick, yellow dust yesterday after the worst spring sandstorms for five years. Workers start to clear the some of the 300,000 tons of sand dumped on the Chinese capital, Beijing Officials said 300,000 tons of sand whipped up by fierce winds in the Gobi desert more than 1,000 miles away were dumped on the city in a storm that began on Sunday evening. It was the second such storm in a week, the...

Unearthing the lost Peking Man After years of searching, a new initiative aims to trace these historic missing fossils, says Ching-Ching Ni Monday, April 10, 2006 After years of searching, a new initiative aims to trace these historic missing fossils, says Ching-Ching Ni It's a mystery that has baffled the world for more than half a century. Whatever happened to the fossils of the prehistoric human ancestor known as Peking Man? Their discovery in the late 1920s and 1930s in limestone caves on the outskirts of Beijing, then called Peking in the West, was one of the 20th century's greatest...

BEIJING - Beijing is launching a campaign to stamp out widespread public spitting in an effort to clean up its image for the 2008 Olympics. The government has concluded that spitting is the city's "most serious bad habit," Zhang Huiguang, director of Beijing's Capital Ethics Development Office, said Wednesday. "This year we will intensify our law enforcement efforts in this field," Zhang told a news conference. "We will require law enforcement officials to step up the frequency of fines." The fine for public spitting is 50 yuan (US$5; euro4). Tourists visiting Beijing often are startled at how many people spit...

The man, a young journalist when he was arrested in 1989, was released yesterday. He was charged and jailed with two friends. At least 70 other people are still in prison from the 1989 protests. Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Yu Dongyue, who spent 17 years in prison for throwing paint-filled eggs at the Tiananmen Square portrait of Mao Zedong during the 1989 pro-democracy protests, was freed yesterday. But many more dissidents are still languishing in Chinese gulags.Yu, 39, was a journalist from Hunan province. In June 1989 he was sentenced to 20 years for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement” after he and...

China frees man jailed in 1989 for throwing paint on Mao Zedong portrait By Joe McDonald ASSOCIATED PRESS 8:08 a.m. February 23, 2006 BEIJING – A man who was jailed for throwing paint on Mao Zedong's portrait in Beijing's Tiananmen Square during pro-democracy protests in 1989 has been released after nearly 17 years in prison, his family said Thursday. Yu Dongyue's release early Wednesday came ahead of a U.S. visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao in April. It did not appear to be meant as a gesture to Washington: Yu served his full sentence, unlike other prisoners who have released...

Digging deep for a clue to a global mysteryThe search for the ancient skulls of Peking Man, missing since 1941, sits firmly on Beijing's agenda, GEOFFREY YORK writes GEOFFREY YORK ZHOUKOUDIAN, CHINA -- For more than two decades, Yang Shoukai had hoarded his secret, unsure what to do with a possible clue to one of China's most baffling mysteries. As construction supervisor on the site of an abandoned U.S. military barracks in Tianjin in 1982, he had discovered a strange cement box in the basement of the old wartime barracks. He tried to dig it up, but lacked the proper...

Inner Mongolia Yields New Discoveries More than 80 leading archeological experts are participating in an international conference in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to exchange the latest information on Hongshan, a prehistoric relics site. Relics excavated at the Hongshan ("Red Mountain") site originated around 5000 BC to 6500 BC. Now a part of Chifeng City, the site was discovered in 1935. Some of the relics found at Hongshan have led archeologists to conclude that the heads of Chinese dragons may have been inspired by boars in addition to horses and cattle. Primitive people who struggled to survive by fishing and...

Does the Free Republic of China have the right to tell a bully to back off? Taiwan's government is planning a referendum to demand that communist China stop aiming missiles at the island. This seemingly reasonable desire is being criticized -- by China, of course -- as "provocative." You'd think aiming the missiles is somewhat provocative. But this didn't stop President Bush from chiming in with China. Bush has rebuked the Taiwanese government for its proposed referendum, citing "comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the...