Beijing tops Shanghai in cost-of-living

Looking at 144 cities around the world, including five cities on the Chinese mainland as well as Hong Kong and Taipei, the latest cost-of-living survey has thrown up more than a few surprises.

While China watchers may be left open mouthed by the ranking of Beijing as a more expensive place to live than Shanghai, Taipei and Singapore, others around the world will be equally perplexed that Moscow beat off the likes of Tokyo, London and Geneva to claim the number one spot.

The move to peg the renminbi against a basket of currencies rather than just the US dollar was a major reason for cities on the Chinese mainland climbing up the scale.

This does not explain, however, the apparent anomaly of Beijing being judged more expensive than Shanghai for the second year running, something that seemed to come as a shock to everyone, except Professor Zhang Jun from the Economics Department of Fudan University.

"Actually I was not surprised by this result at all," he said. "The cost of real estate in Beijing has been very high, but the main reason for Beijing being ranked more expensive is because of its social make-up.

"Shanghai has a lot of middle-income earners, where as Beijing has a lot of high earners, a lot of people on low incomes and far fewer people in the middle.

"As a result, prices tend towards the extremes; while cheap things are very cheap, the high-end goods and services are very expensive, certainly more expensive than in Shanghai."

With the survey looking at things like the rental of a luxury two-bed apartment, a genuine music CD, a cup of coffee, including service charge, and the price of an international daily newspaper, it is perhaps unsurprising that Beijing outranked its east coast rival, despite Shanghai's more affluent reputation. (China Daily)

I guess it may also because living in Beijing costs more medical expenses because of the pollution? :)

Foreigner Participates in Building Qinshihuang's Mausoleum

Chinese archaeologists have found in a DNA test that a foreigner participated in building the mausoleum of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of unified and centralized Chinamore than 2,200 years ago.

"In comparison with the DNA data of modern human being, we found one sample has typical DNA features commonly owned by the Parsi in India and Pakistan, the Kurds in Turkmenistan and the Persian in Iran,"

He might be caught from the north where nomad people traveled between the east and west of Asia. And then he was sent to work at the burial ground in the inland areas of China. (More on Xinhua)

Nomads, be careful when you travel in China.

June 7-9

In a few hours the National College Entrance Exam will begin in China. A moment that Chinese students have worked most of their waking hours of the past 11 years for, a 3 day period that city governments will issue temporary regulations like special transportation and noise control for examinees, a single event that has influenced the country's economy (food production, publishing industry, tourism, private school, psychology consulting, etc) so much that there's now a word and a study dedicated to it called "NCEE Economy (Gaokao Jingji)", and an exam that for some young people, sadly, might be life-or-death critical...

Wish this year's 9.5 million kids good luck. Hope they’ll find their effort all worth it and their dreams come true. They are also AIESEC's future in China, so remember they all fight their way through to the campus, make sure they enjoy... :)

Intangible cultural heritage

The Chinese State Council has included the Spring Festival, Peking Opera, acupuncture, The Legend of Madame White Snake and Shaolin Kungfu in the country's first intangible cultural heritage list.

The list contains 518 items in 10 categories, including folk literature, folk music and dance, traditional opera, ballad singing, cross-talk, acrobatics, folk fine arts, traditional handicraft, traditional medicine and folk customs, the State Council announced on its website on Friday.

However, experts say the protection of heritage in China is a race against time.

"Intangible cultural heritage in China is facing a rigorous challenge in its battle against urbanization and globalization," said Tian Qing, a member of the jury and director of the Intangible Culture Heritage Research Center under the AAC.

An old artwork, handicraft or folk song is likely to disappear and an old house is likely to be demolished every second in China.

Few Chinese media covered UNESCO's listing of Kunqu opera as a "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity" in 2001, while the Japanese media acclaimed the listing of the Nogaku theater, said Tian. (Xinhua News)

Sidenote: Spring Festivals listed as intangible cultural heritage... maybe one more tangible selling point for adult diapers. :P

Where to explore today?

After the survey of the "Most Beautiful Places in China" in 2005, Chinese National Geography magazine just announced the commencement of their new national "most beautiful" campaign for 2006 – "365 days, who’s the most beautiful today?".

Having started on May 18, the magazine has already finished uploading their recommended photos of the day for all 365 days of a year (not necessarily in 2006 of course). The public can either vote via SMS or on Sina.com, CNG's national partner for this event. If you don't like their nomination, you can also upload your own photos to the pool and join in the competition. Of course the photo has to be taken on the matching pool of the day you are uploading to. The deadline for uploading is July 16, August 20 for voting. The result will be announced in mid September.

For a glance of the tip of the iceberg, up to now this picture below has won the most votes for June 2nd - Ggurbantonggut Desert (Xinjiang), No.3 on the Most Beautiful Desert list of CNG’s Most Beautiful Places in China ranking last year.


Vote away, or upload your own!