Chinese doctor Jiang Yanyong, who exposed the cover-up of China’s SARS outbreak in 2003, was barred from traveling to the United States to collect a human rights award. He spent several months in custody for his efforts.
China
The earliest form of smallpox immunization…
The earliest form of smallpox immunization was used in China in the 1500’s. Doctors would take ground up scabs from people with mild cases of the disease, and blow the material into their nostrils. This lead to a mild version of the disease which had a mortality rate of ~2%. (20-30%if untreated)
Today China is experiencing piano…
Today China is experiencing piano frenzy with an estimated 40m children now learning to play. The instrument is increasingly in vogue among China’s burgeoning middle classes, who have the money to splurge on steep lessons and expensive fixtures. For many, owning a Steinway is a status symbol.
Standard QWERTY keyboards are used in China…
Standard QWERTY keyboards are used in China. Chinese users are familiar with the sounds that Latin letters make, and they type in the way their characters sound when spoken out loud. Software then translates the sound they typed into a Chinese character.
Prior to the handover of Hong…
Prior to the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, UK officials considered building a new city in Northern Ireland, and resettling the entire population of Hong Kong on the Magilligan Peninsula near Coleraine.
During the Beijing Olympics…
During the Beijing Olympics, a 9-year-old girl who sang a patriotic song at the opening ceremony, was revealed to be a fake lip-syncing. The real singer was a 7-year-old girl who was kept backstage, because she was considered not good looking enough and that might’ve damaged China’s image.
The “Hundred Flowers Campaign” of…
The “Hundred Flowers Campaign” of 1956 China, allowed and encouraged people to speak freely and openly express their opinions about the communist regime. After a year, the campaign was withdrawn the Chinese government imprisoned those who spoke critically about them.
There was a traffic jam in China…
There was a traffic jam in China that started on August 13th 2010; it lasted two weeks, jammed traffic for over 100km and allowed drivers to move roughly 1km a day. It inspired people to sell noodles in the jam for 3x the normal price and bottled water for ¥15, it normally sold for ¥1.
Pizza Hut restaurants in China…
Pizza Hut restaurants in China stopped offering one trip salad bars- due to customers creating elaborately engineered “salad towers” carefully balanced on one plate.
In China there are centres…
In China there are centres for internet addiction with treatments that can be so rough that some patients have died. Some facilities use electro-shock treatment as part of the cure, and among roughly three hundred such centres in China, there have been seven reported deaths.