Nanfang News: Internet cafe in Zhuhai found serving up porn

The public hearing in Guangzhou over a possible hike in taxi fares wrapped up quietly yesterday afternoon—literally, apparently microphones stopped working toward the end—and media across the city today are reporting today that of 25 representatives in on the hearing, 21 support a plan which will see the current RMB 2 ‘gas tax’ eliminated but the starting fare raised from RMB 7 to RMB 10 for the first 2.5 km, followed by increases of RMB 2.6 for every kilometer traveled, or equivalent to the additional charge of RMB 1 every 384.6 meters.

Regardless of which plan the city’s price control administration decides to go with, authorities say that Guangzhou residents won’t have to start paying the new rate for another 3 months. Maybe now’s a good time for state-owned taxi companies to get a little transparent about how much they charge their drivers each month, and see how well those figures stand up to public scrutiny.

69 AIDS deaths in June
The Guangdong province Health Bureau released a few figures yesterday, revealing that infectious diseases claimed 100 lives last month, 69 of which were for AIDS-related illnesses. No cases of SARS or H1N1 were reported in the province last month.

Big money in Japan
Representatives from 11 cities throughout the Pearl River Delta will fly to Tokyo later this month for talks aimed at strengthening economic cooperation between Japan and our little stretch of capital investment-needing factory land.

Justified news for anyone who’s ever been busted stumbling out of a pub with no passport in pocket
Police in Guangzhou have recently begun stepping up spot checks to see if people are carrying their shenfenzhengs, and the deal is the same: an RMB 50 fine if you’re lucky, time to start calling friends to fetch your ID if you’re not.

A memorial to China’s brief dabble in democracy
Guangzhou Party Secretary Zhang Guangning has announced that a commemorative museum for China’s Xinhai Revolution will be open in time to mark the 100-year anniversary this October of the revolution’s onset. The Xinhai Revolution led to the downfall of the brutal and corrupt Qing Dynasty and was followed by the founding of the Republic of China, mainland China’s short-lived move toward a constitutional democracy. The museum will be built on Changzhou island, in the city’s Huangpu district.

Enough said
Artem Petrov’s (phon.) claim that he has China figured out better than y’all Chinese do caught the attention of one News Express reporter over beers recently somewhere in Guangzhou, enough to get a three-page feature on his life back in Moscow, followed by time in northern China and six years in Guangzhou. Naturally, he also points out that no foreigner in Guangzhou comes close to depth of understanding of this country’s culture, history and society. A pretty active guy, by this account; Before you go human flesh him, at least check out what he has to say. His favorite figure from Chinese history? Brutal tyrant and first emperor of a unified China, Qin Shi Huang.

It had to be said
Please stop calling us heigui, say black residents of Guangzhou interviewed for this six-page story in today’s News Express which doesn’t pull any punches, tackling the issue of discrimination colored residents of the city face through a number of interviews with both foreign and Chinese citizens.

Traffic-related death rate down in Dongguan
In Dongguan, according to the police in the city, the number of traffic accidents over the first half of this year is down 77 from last year’s tally during the same period of 2,186 incidents. Deaths on the road are also down, from 241 traffic fatalities during the first half of 2010 to 228 deaths as of the end of last month.

Flying angry passenger fist
Police were injured last Thursday after trying to calm down agitated passengers stuck waiting for a flight from Shenzhen to Beijing, delayed due to weather. Six people were taken in for questioning following the altercation.

Zhuhai porn bar
A reporter for Southern Metropolis Daily has run an exposé piece on an Internet cafe in Zhuhai with 300 porn flicks made available to its customers at no extra charge. Police quoted in the story weren’t highly interested in the discovery, but did say they would look into it.