Trust in China-based charities is down, but PRD donations are up
Although the Red Cross Society of China’s future looks bleak—Guangzhou media reported over the weekend that the organization’s Shunde branch only has RMB 1,200 left in its bank account—following the Guo Meimei scandal, Chinese samaritans haven’t put away their checkbooks just yet.
While in Hong Kong this weekend to attend a 60th anniversary event for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Chinese actress and Weibo queen Yao Chen, named the UNHCR’s Honorary Patron for China earlier this year, wrote on her microblog account of her admiration for one retired worker from Guangzhou who traveled to Hong Kong especially for the event with his donation of RMB 700, quickly drawing more than 3,000 comments.
It turns out that the man actually made his donation through the UNHCR’s Beijing office, but Yao clarified in a second Weibo update that while the number of donations made by residents of Shenzhen and Guangzhou have seen a steady rise over the past two months, people from around the PRD are choosing to travel to Hong Kong and make their donation to the UN agency through its office there.
Shenzhen subway troubles
After two incidents last week in which cars on line 4 of Shenzhen’s subway system suddenly stopped moving, a malfunction on line 1 in the direction of the airport yesterday morning left many passengers late for work and resulted in more than a hundred others missing their flight. The line 1 cars stopped moving at around 7:45, but were back up in operation by 8:30.
Guangzhou celebrates Chinese Valentine’s Day with Ming Dynasty cosplay
Chinese Valentine’s Day is usually relatively quiet up in the Baiyun hills, with couples doing their thing in parked cars or on a bench. Management of the park decided to lighten things up this year by throwing a ‘night of romance’ costume party for singles over the weekend. More than 300 people showed up, and those who came dressed in traditional Han clothing got in for free. More photos from the event here and here.
