An official, identified by his surname, Lu, was photographed naked.

Two officials from Henan Province’s Xinyang Housing Administration are under investigation after being photographed naked among several prostitutes, allegedly paid for with bribe money, according to New Beijing Daily.

Zhu Huagang blogged that the two officials spent more than RMB 200,000 of his money on banquets, entertainment and prostitution after assuring him that they would redress his grievance with the Housing Administration.

One of the officials, surnamed Lu, was said to be a division head at the Administration. The second official was a clerk-level public servant. On several occasions, Zhu paid for banquets and karaoke for the public servants. Each time the two officials would ask him to send them to the same hotel and for Zhu to pay the RMB 500 prostitution fee.

When contacted by the media, a representative of the Housing Administration explained that the two officials in question were simply low level public servants. He added that an investigation is underway to verify the story.

More photos below:

Photos: China Youth Net 

A gold-plated sports car in Nanjing

Thirty years of continuous growth means there are a lot of rich Chinese people walking around — 14 million of them, to be exact. And according to a new report by Heng Seng Bank, many of them are parking their money in Hong Kong. 

The wealthy – defined as Chinese nationals with assets between RMB 600,000 and RMB 6 million – primarily come from Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai. As of August last year, the group had RMB 1.1 trillion worth of assets in Hong Kong.

Despite the Occupy Central protests and growing political tensions in the city, more than 60 percent of Guangdong residents say they are optimistic about Hong Kong’s future, and half of the respondents said they had already acquired some assets in Hong Kong.

Photos: ibtimes 

Three iSmugglers who taped iPhones to their bodies while trying to enter mainland China via Shenshen were caught by customs officials at Luohu Port, Chinese state news agency China News reported on January 27, following the story of a man who was caught strapping 96 iPhones to his body.

The three suspects, all local Hong Kong women, were stopped by officers in early January, and two of them were second-time offenders, the report said. The first woman in her early 20s raised suspicions when she was spotted walking awkwardly on January 8, and a search revealed that she had taped 20 iPhones around her waist.

At the same border on January 10, another woman was found to have taped 26 iPhones to her body. Both of them were second-time offenders. Just a week after the second case, a third woman was caught with 23 iPhones, the report said.

Previously on January 10, a man was caught at the border after he was found to have taped 96 iPhones to his body, SCMP reported.

Apple’s iPhone sales in China are expected to surpass the US for the first time in history as analysts predict. UBS analysts told the Financial Times that China alone accounted for an estimated 36 percent of global iPhone shipments in the last quarter of 2014 compared with 24 per cent in the United States.

By the end of September last year, Chinese customs officials had seized more than 2,000 smuggled iPhone 6s within a just a week of its release.

Photos: Takungpao, Reuters

A steamed salamander was served as a dish at a Chinese dining table.

China’s anti-corruption brigade had a busy year in 2014, netting tens of thousands of corrupt officials over the past two years. But no matter where graft-busters may lurk, some Chinese officials are still fearlessly willing to splurge on extravagant banquets when it comes to treating themselves to some exotic, endangered wild animals.

According to a report by Nandu, 28 officials in Shenzhen including government cadres, police officers and retirees are suspected of using public funds to dine at a high-end seafood restaurant in Luohu district, feasting on Chinese giant salamander, or Andrias davidianus, an endangered amphibian species protected by the Chinese government. The wild Andrias davidianus is called “living fossil” because of its rarity, and can sell for about RMB 2,000 per kilo. Still, that did not stop them from ordering the exotic dish.

When the newspaper’s undercover reporters revealed their identities, the officials allegedly beat them up. One reporter named Chen Lewei said someone smacked him hard on his left temple and slapped him in his face. He was shoved to the ground and his shoulder was stomped, he recalled. Another said he was scratched and his iPhone was taken. The videographer said he was held in a chokehold and his camera was smashed and taken away from him.

Shenzhen’s vice mayor said the government has launched a formal investigation into the allegations and visited the reporters in hospital. So far 14 officials have been suspended.

Chinese giant salamander, which is also known as “baby fish”, is considered a delicacy in the country and is often the target of illegal poaching. People believe eating it could have anti-aging effects and helps to treat dementia and cancer, which is leaving fewer of them in the wild.

Photos: Nandu; MFS

To all the smokers, heavy drinkers, and hardcore partiers in China: with three million deaths caused each year by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), it might be time for a lifestyle change.

According to the latest figues by the World Health Organization, more than three million people die prematurely each year in China because of NCDs, which includes lung cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

“The report is a dramatic wake-up call. There is an urgent need for strong action to stop millions of Chinese men and women from dying in their most productive years from diseases that can be prevented simply by changing common, unhealthy lifestyle habits: smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet and not enough physical activity,” Bernhard Schwartländer, WHO’s representative in China, told the China Daily.

Nearly four in ten NCD deaths among Chinese men, and three in ten (31.9 percent) among Chinese women, are premature before the age of 70, the report showed.

Not surprisingly, a lot of Chinese readers were shocked by the figures, and the topic. Following the story, #MoreThan3MillionChineseDiePrematurely#, was trending on Weibo. Perhaps not surprisingly, many stunned smokers and drinkers commented, “Gosh, I need a smoke to calm my nerves”.

Photos: Made In China

A young couple in eastern Henan Province filed for divorce because neither of them love each other more than their own mobile phones. According to a report by China News, the couple in their early 20s were constantly playing with their cellphones to the point that neither of them were taking care of their new-born baby.

Eventually, the lack of communication led to a divorce after only one year of marriage, underlining the damaging effects of digital device addiction. The report said this kind of addiction has become a leading factor in divorces among young couples.

China currently has more than one billion cellphone users, the most among all countries. Attachment to mobile phones and other digital devices has mostly been accepted as daily facts of modern life in the Internet age. Chongqing even opened a Mobile Phone Lane dedicated to mobile phone-using pedestrians.

But obsessively checking one’s mobile phone also comes with a price. Scientists and health experts argue that it could lead to shortened attention spans. Last week, some students from Liaocheng University in Shandong Province organised a campaign against mobile phone addiction in an effort to warn people of the harm of overusing mobiles. It also called for students to engage more with families during the upcoming Chinese New Year, People’s Daily wrote.

Photos: China News

Guangzhou recorded its worst pollution of the year so far on Wednesday. All of the city’s air monitoring stations had different readings, but ten of them passed the serious pollution level, New Express Daily reported on January 22.

“[Wednesday] was the worst polluted day in Guangzhou since the start of the new year,” said Huang Zuzhao, deputy head of the city’s environment monitoring centre.

The Pearl River Delta, in particular, suffered severe smog with several air stations in Foshan recording PM 2.5 levels higher than 200. The World Health Organization recommends daily exposure of not more than 25 micrograms per cubic metre over a 24-hour period, and any reading above 200 is considered “heavily polluted” by China’s national standards.

Guangdong’s current cold weather, static air and pollutants accumulated over several days have all contributed to the city’s worsening air quality, the report said.

Photos: Reinhard Krause/Courtesy Reuters

Desperate times call for desperate measures. When Hanzhong, in Shaanxi Province, was confronted with off-the-chart PM 2.5 readings, officials at the City’s Environmental Protection Bureau did what any respectable scientist would do: they altered the readings by spraying the air quality monitors with water from a fire hose.

One blogger happened to catch the Bureau in the act, snapping a photo of the scene, and posting it online. The photo immediately became quite a discussion piece on online forums. User 业精于勤 said, “This is covering one’s ear while stealing a bell?” alluding to a Chinese idiom that describes trying to conceal the truth while committing a devious act.

Authorities at the Bureau denied the accusations, claiming the fire hose was not pointed at the air quality monitors, despite the photograph above clearly illustrating water being sprayed at the air quality monitors. However, authorities were willing to admit that, in the past, they may have used water trucks around the city to spray mass quantities of water in an effort to reduce heavy smog, according to an interview with Nandu.

While there appears to be no evidence to suggest that spraying air quality monitors, or the streets for that matter, has any impact on pollution readings, someone somewhere clearly believes it does. Let’s hope that going forward, the Environmental Protection Bureau takes a more constructive approach to addressing air pollution.

Photos: Internet

Liu Boquan and his private helicopter

A Dongguan hotel tycoon, Liu Boquan, made a name for himself in 2010 after he used his private helicopter and speed boat to help local police chase down purse-snatchers. According to the Dongguan Times, Liu was awarded RMB 40,000 by the provincial and local governments for his heroic deed. But those were the good days, now the intrepid Samaritan has been stripped of his CPPCC membership and is currently under police investigation, China News reports.

The report did not specify what he has been charged with, but Liu, chairperson of several Dongguan four and five-star hotels, took a big hit during Dongguan’s anti-prostitution campaign when several of his hotels were caught offering sex services.

In one case, approximately 30 sex workers at Liu’s Huimei Tianlun Hotel went after the tycoon for outstanding salaries after the hotel was shut down in a police raid.

A parade of sex workers photographed at one of Liu’s hotels.

Ironically, Liu’s last public statement prior to his arrest included a pledge to always follow and obey the Party’s orders, Nandu reported.

Photo: Global Times Net 

A foreign tourist wears a mask in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square.

Foreign tourism to China continues to decline due to increasing air pollution, an ever-widening wealth gap, corruption, food safety problems, and poor public security, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In a recent report by the Academy’s Public Opinion Research Office and China Travel Daily, lead expert Liu Zhiming argues, “Incidents such as off-the-chart PM 2.5 readings and food safety scandals are certainly not helping China’s national image.”

In the first nine months of 2014, the number of foreign tourists dropped 0.77 percent, to 19.21 million, compared with the same period in 2013, BBC Chinese wrote. The China Travel Daily and the Academy of Social Sciences collected about 23,000 responses from 23 countries, representing approximately 90 percent of the country’s inbound hospitality market.

Numbers from the China National Tourism Administration painted an even grimmer picture: In 2013, China attracted 26.29 million foreign tourists, which was a 3 percent decline over 2012.

While China’s inbound tourism is dropping, its outbound numbers are rapidly increasing. In 2013, 97 million Chinese citizens travelled abroad, which was the highest number of outbound tourists in the world, according to the China National Tourism Administration. This was 14 million more than in 2012. The number is expected to have surpassed 100 million in 2014, reported China Daily.

 Photos: AP