Nanfang News: Jiangmen police declare war on dogs

Don’t let your dogs out

Nooooooo

Authorities in Jiangmen recently passed a municipal law banning dogs from all public spaces, set to go in effect later this month. Police and chengguan in the city have said that beginning August 26, all dogs seen in public will automatically be impounded and put down. Yeah, right. Remember this? Or this? Netizens are outraged and residents of the city have been ringing 12345 off the hook. Dog-displaying acts of civil disobedience probably coming soon.

Red Cross donations dry up
Guo Meimei is out of the news, but in Shenzhen, where she previously worked as a struggling model and actress and somehow wound up owning a Lamborghini, the Red Cross charity organization is suffering as a result of its past association-or-not with Guo. Yancheng Evening News today quotes Zhao Lizhen, vice chairwoman of the Shenzhen branch of the Red Cross Society of China, as saying that only RMB 100 in new donations have come in over the past month. To make matters worse, one Shenzhen netizen went red on Weibo this week with a bank transfer receipt and the claim that the Red Cross’ Shenzhen office keeps telling him that his donation, sent in on July 23, still hasn’t been received. Zhao said she would look into the situation, but it was likely a problem with the bank.

Huangpu arts and crafts fair underway

Get your rhinestone chickens

On the east side of Guangzhou, Huangpu district’s fifth annual arts and crafts fair (photos) is now underway, featuring works from local artists done in traditional styles unique to the Huangpu area. Hosted by the Huangpu South Seas (Nanhai) God Temple, this year’s fair also features its first-ever male artist, who has made a meter-high replica of housing found inside Beijing’s Forbidden City. Also this week, an exhibition will be held beginning Friday on Guangzhou’s east side in Liwan District’s Liwan Cultural Center, featuring miniature scale replicas of Xiguan-style furniture and architecture. More info in Chinese here.

Guangzhou sticking with restaurant smoking ban
Following Guangzhou’s historical first-ever indoor smoking fine in May this year, city authorities went on to ticket one restaurant RMB 3,500 for not complying with smoke-free workplace regulations, and issued more than 1,300 notices to other dining establishments. Since regulations against indoor smoking in restaurants took effect earlier this year, however, the city has awarded more than 360 restaurants the official “smoke-free workplace” title.

Surprisingly, health authorities in the city only received a total of 466 complaints to the 12319 complaint hotline throughout the first half of 2011. The RMB 3,500 fine was handed down to the Fangcun branch of the Dongjiang Seafood Restaurant on July 1.

Guangzhou Metro line 4 cars malfunction
At 8:44 yesterday morning, a train on line 4 of Guangzhou Metro stopped suddenly between the Xinzao and Shiqi stations after signal equipment malfunctioned, delaying passengers for 7 minutes. No-one was injured. At the same time, another car traveling between Chebeinan and Xinzao stations on the opposite track also stopped after experiencing signal loss and reportedly limped along for an hour, reaching only six stops in that time.

Sweating electricity thieves stage sit-in protest
Residents in one part of Luogang village in Guangzhou’s Baiyun district have had their electricity completely shut off after China Southern Power discovered locals had tampered with their electricity meters, stealing more than 2 million watts of electricity since last year, to the tune of over RMB 6 million.

Enough air-con for the whole village and some

Villagers say they gave their local transformer an ‘upgrade’ as means to avoid persistent brownouts which began late last year, after numerous complaints had no effect.

Yesterday morning, more than 100 Luogang village residents began a sit-in protest at the China Southern Power office on Huangshi Road, demanding that their power be turned back on. Later, more villagers showed up and some even climbed on top several power company repair vehicles. For an interesting read on how electricity theft works elsewhere, check out this post from Inside-Out China.