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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Beijing Tea Scam (Beware of Female Strangers)

A simple advice to guys who travel in China. Tip which can save you a lot of money.

Be careful and be afraid of ANY Chinese woman (that you don't know) who approaches you on her own initiative - especially if her English is good - and wants to help you, walks along with you under excuse of practicing her English etc.

Because at some point she will offer you to go to drink tea or eat some food at the nice place that she knows: and then you have to know - you are being scammed!

In any case, if you are adventurous and don't believe the first part of my warning - then at least remember to NEVER EVER go to the place that she offers and always choose the place YOURSELF!  

The classic Beijing tea scam almost happened to my boyfriend on his visit to China. After he finished walking around the Forbidden City in Beijing, a normally looking girl suddenly approached him and asked - "How are you?"

For some reason he immediately felt uncomfortable and - as he later told me - he thought that she was prostitute. So - although it sounded quite awkward - he answered: "I am sorry but I have a girlfriend".

"Oh", - laughed the girl - "It's OK. I just wanted to practice English. Can I walk with you?" He didn't mind and actually they walked for a while talking about his trip in China and her studies. Then she offered to go and drink some tea. 

She invited him to some teahouse but - and, gosh! how lucky he was! - for some reason he didn't like the teahouse and immediately went out. Then he said - "Let's go to another place", walked just few meters further and entered a little restaurant. The girl followed him. He occupied the table and began exploring the menu. But the girl "suddenly" got the telephone call and after finishing the conversation said "I am sorry, I got a phone form my friend - she wants to meet me. So I have to leave. Thank you very much. Bye bye".  

After that my boyfriend called me and told about what happened. He was quite sure that he ran into prostitute or scammer, and boasted how clever and cautious he was to get rid of her without any "damage". To say the truth, I was very naive - and reassured him that he was too suspicious and possibly it was just a friendly student who indeed wanted to practice her English.

And only today I stumbled upon this forum talking about Beijing "tea scam". It was like "WOW". 

For a more picturesque description watch this instructional video

    

Monday, September 27, 2010

When Rich (Non-Chinese) Guys Date Chinese Girls

It seems that when Chinese girl dates a rich non-Chinese guy - she will always be a target for gossips and nasty comments.

It was true for Zhang Ziyi who had a lot of haters in China (since playing a leading role in "Memoirs of a Geisha") and was accused in "betraying all Chinese men" simply because she chose a white boyfriend. The lucky man is an Israeli multi-millionaire Aviv Nevo

OK, so she is famous and beautiful... and I can understand that there is an amplified jealousy for her good looks, fame and the fat wallet of her fiance.

Maybe - if she would be just an average girl next door  - there would be more sympathy and understanding? 

Sigh... Seems not. The fresh example of Priscilla Chan - the girlfriend of Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) - proves that being a "normal" girl is not enough to avoid criticism. She is actually guilty for NOT being beautiful... 

 

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Dating Game in China Takes No Prisoners

When I read through multiple posts about dating in China, I sometimes think that marriage is only for rich (and thus the small) part of Chinese population.

The material requirements for young lovers (and mainly for guys) who want to tie the knot are so high that one can only wonder whether there is a golden middle between "naked" wedding and the price tag calculated in this curious article.   

Today I found yet another post talking about the same problem. Its "hero" Qiang has a serious dilemma:

he can’t afford the expensive price tag on a new apartment... What’s Qiang supposed to do? He obviously loves his girl, but he’s faced with a true impasse. He can either borrow the money needed for the down payment on his future apartment, putting him in debt and causing him to lose face in front of his girlfriend’s family, or Qiang can abandon his love and his life plan for this young lady. He is between a rock and one helluva heartbreak.

This dating game in China takes no prisoners.

Wish that neither of my readers face such heart-breaking dilemmas.

Crystal Tao

 

 

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Yellow Fever, Foreign Moons

This is the name of blog with a very promising subtitle - "A BLOG ABOUT TAIWANESE/WESTERN SEX AND ROMANCE"

Yesterday Gilad (the founder of Fili's world) sent me a link to this interesting site.

I really liked what I saw!

It's not some regurgitation of gossips that you can find everywhere else on Web, but collection of original articles written by different columnists. 

Not only that - the whole design of this site is very appealing and each article is accompanied with authentic drawings.

As for the content itself - you can judge about it from the list of the following links:

WHAT’S UP WITH THIS? Cross-cultural Confusion and Criticism

INTERVIEW: A Westerner’s View of More “Open” Taiwanese Girls

(“If a guy isn’t bad, a girl won’t love him.”) What’s your comment on this idea? 

Thursday August 12th 8月12日 星期四 Q&A : Building a Better Mousetrap? (You'll never guess what this post is about before you read it...)

Finding Mr Right (and Occasionally, Mr. Right Now) 

The Lady is a Tramp?

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Top 10 Sexiest Cities in China

Survey undertaken by the Chinese consulting company Horizon China determined 10 Sexiest cities in China.

And the winners are:

  1. Shanghai
  2. Hong Kong
  3. Chongqing
  4. Beijing
  5. Guangzhou
  6. Shenzhen
  7. Hangzhou
  8. Sanya
  9. Dalian
  10. Macao

 

Monday, September 13, 2010

Kill A Sparrow and One Child Policy - Dejavu?

Last few days the Chinese blogosphere was full of articles speculating that China is going to gradually abolish its one-child policy starting the pilot in five provinces from the next year.

Others received these news more sceptically. Actually, it's not the first time that similar rumors are spread in media and quickly refuted by government officials.

Well - we will not have to wait for too long to see the results. Anyway, I wanted to look at the problem of one-child-policy from a different angle. 

Recently I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article about the "Kill a sparrow campaign" which took place in China during 1958-1962. Its goal was to exterminate sparrows in the countryside in order to decrease the losses of crops harvest.

But it seems that people are punished when they are questioning the wisdom of Nature:

Initially, the campaign did improve the harvest. By April 1960 the National Academy of Science found that sparrows ate insects more than seeds. Mao declared "forget it", and ordered the end of the campaign against sparrows. By this time, however, it was too late. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward and adverse weather conditions, leading to the Great Chinese Famine in which around 30 million people died of starvation.

Don't you think that One Child Policy is another "ambitious" attempt to put Mother Nature on her knees? If so - I really fear what kind of punishment we will get this time. Some problems already begin to surface: the gender imbalance when there are noticeably more males of marriageable age than females; and quickly ageing population which will become a heavy economical burden in the near future.

Fortunately, people are not so willing to cooperate as in the case of Great Sparrow Campaign. Parents hide babies to avoid heavy fines and other sanctions. This is the reason why in 1990, the national census recorded 23 million births. But by the 2000 census, there were 26 million ten-year-old children, an increase of three million. 

But Beijing officials don't give up. Babies that will not be registered by 1st of November face will be stripped of citizenship.

I don't know how long will the one child policy (with its forced sterilization and late-term abortion) continue - but I am sure that the sooner it ends the better. 

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Ethnic Weddings of Chinese Minorities

Today I stumbled upon a cool site and want to share this finding with my readers.

The site itself is an online shop for wedding items but the interesting thing about it is that they have a collection of articles (with nice pictures) related to wedding customs of different Chinese minorities.

Unfortunately they didn't organize any archives to easily browse through their posts.

So you will have to start from this link about De'ang Ethnic Minority Wedding and from here just follow navigation links to each subsequent post. 

 

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Not Just For Buck and Bang

Not all English language teachers are coming to China for an easy buck and bang.

Meet Mark - a 27 years old guy living in China from 2005.

He is a... teacher of English in college. And he has a Chinese wife (whom he deeply loves). And recently he welcomed to this world their first baby.

Of course, all that wouldn't be enough to deserve a post :-)

Mark is running a blog "Laowai Wen Shen" where he writes about tattoos (this is his hobby), life in China and Chinese girls. Well... after getting married both the number of posts about girls and number of posts generally went into decline - but I am sure that you will enjoy reading through some of his archives.

And here are my favorite posts:

A Chinese Girl's Heart: Tread Softly

The Pros and Cons of Dating a Small-City Chinese Girl

The Laowai Rock Star Complex

In Defense of The Old Foreign Dudes with The Hot Asian Girls - Cut 'Em Some Slack... 

Temptations

The Power of Softness

Friday, September 10, 2010

That (In)famous Abortion Ad

About a year ago many blogs writing about China (and not only) reported about the advertisement of abortions provided by a Chongqing hospital.

This ad had a picture of a cute and innocent Chinese female student accompanied by the following text:

"Students are our future, but when something happens to them, who will help and protect them? Chongqing Huaxi Women's Hospital has started Students Care Month, where those students who come to get an abortion can get 50% off if they show their student ids. Abortion surgeries are the most advanced in the world, won't stretch (your womb), won't hurt, it's quick, and you can do what you want afterward, it won't affect your studies or your work."

One of the sites where these news were published has accumulated more than two hundreds comments and some of them are really worth reading! 

 

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Chinese girls vs. Russian girls

Well... sometimes besides talking about serious topics, it's important to have a little bit of fun.

It took me a long time to compile something entertaining after the quiz "Chinese or Not Chinese?". But today I am proud to have finished writing two short posts titled "Russian Girls Are More Popular Than Chinese Girls". Not sure, however, if my readers will enjoy them as much as I myself. 

Anyway, try them out:

Part I

Part II

 

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Books for White Guys Who Like Chinese Girls

And once again Asian Fetish.
This time I want to share the list of books that I found on Amazon. And no... it wasn't me who made this list.
I'll just give you the link of the compilation and the credit to its author Thomas Carter who also has a wonderful site featuring the photographs that he took while traveling for 2 years in all 33 provinces of China.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

RedFlava - Future Star of Asian Blogosphere?

Chinasmack and Chinahush seem to have a new contender!

Although not specializing in news about China only, RedFlava is going to become a noteworthy "player" in Chinese blogosphere.

Started less than 3 months ago by two artistic souls (as they call themselves), RedFlava has a goal to entertain and provide the readers with the most discussed and up to date news stories, topics and pictures mainly from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Their focus is more on gossip related to new generation celebrities, culture trends and internet phenomena.  

Of course, the idea itself is far from being new but the consistent rate in which their posts are published and appealing design of the site hint that it is going to shine in the near future. Hope I am not wrong in my predictions.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Yellow fever - Alternative View

Yellow fever (or Asian fetish) is a slang name of that special attraction that some guys feel towards Asian (and Chinese among them) girls.

I am not going to enter sociological discussions about the nature of this phenomenon. Rather suggest you to watch this funny video in which two American Chinese guys try to understand why White guys are so successful in pursuing Chinese girls.

After watching it I feel a little bit guilty for writing a blog about Chinese girls for foreign men :-)  

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Love Story Like in Fairy-Tales

Xu Chaoqing, an 80 years old Chinese woman, is sitting in the house slowly peeling potatoes. From time to time she raises her head and looks at her husband working outside. Liu Guojiang catches her glance and a happy smile lights his face. If someone would witness this scene – he would never doubt – this is LOVE! Actually, the China Women Weekly included their story into the list of 10 most remarkable love stories in China.

 

It all started 60 years ago. A  young boy from southern Chongqing, Liu Guojiang, broke his tooth. According to a local superstition, if some bride would touch the sore tooth it would soon grow again. And it was the first time when he saw her beautiful face – on the day of her wedding: he asked her to “heal” his tooth.

 

Ten years later, Xu Chaoqing’s husband died from illness. She left with 4 children. The family was so poor that sometimes she even didn’t have money to buy salt. 

 Liu Guojiang, by that time 19 years old guy, fell in love with the widow. He tried to help her in every possible way. People around began to spread gossips: it was unacceptable and shameful for a widow to have romantic relationship with a much younger single man. Hostility of neighbors made their life almost unbearable… one evening they took children, left their house and made their way to a big mountain. It became their new home.

 

Life wasn’t easy. For the first 8 years cave served them a shelter from wind and rains. Their ration consisted of herbs, mushrooms and roots. Crops which they tried to grow had been eaten by wild animals before they could consume them.  Animals also posed threat not only to their harvest but also to them. Like cavemen in ancient times, Liu had to use fire in order to repel the beasts. Xu was deeply grateful for his care but at the same time she felt guilty. “Do you regret? Do you want to go back to the village?” – she had been asking him. But he never showed regret: “Don’t worry, our life will be better.” 

 

Together Xu and Liu had four kids. It was obvious that they needed a bigger place for a big family with 8 children. Liu began producing clay tiles from the mud which he found about 2 kilometers away from their living place. 5 years, more than 30,000 tiles and they had their own house made of mud. In it they spent decades of quiet and happy life not being separated for even a single day.

 

The biggest inconvenience was the lack of road in the mountain. Possibly, Xu had bound feet or there was another reason but it was difficult for her to walk up and down the mountain. So, Liu began to build the ladder. With only hammer and iron stick he had carved more than 6,000 steps in the rock. It took half of century to finish this titanic job. 

 

Later these steps led a group of travelers to the discovery of their dwelling. Xu and Liu became famous overnight. Simple people and journalists were coming to visit the couple – all to seek the answer for the secret of their incredible love.

 

However, there was no secret to reveal. “I am happy. Since the moment I made the decision in my heart, I never regretted” – said Liu. “Do I treat you well?” asked he Xu in front of multiple witnesses. “Yes, very well”, - simply answered the old woman. But her shy and happy expression made everyone around feel so touched…  

 

In the end of 2007, at the age of 72 Liu died in the hands of his wife. Nobody could release Xu’s arms holding the body of her beloved husband… Xu was sitting besides the black coffin continuously repeating: ”You promised that you will be with me until the day I die. How will I live without you now?”

 

 

Long time ago they made a promise that both of them will be buried on the mountain near each other. Liu was buried there according to this request.    

The local government decided to preserve the “ladder of love” and in its place create a museum.

 

If you liked this story – visit my blog LoveLoveChina. There you will find more stories about love and Chinese girls.