First, Shenzhen tops the list of Chinese cities that had the most departures of holiday goers from May 1 to 3; rounding out the list after Chengdu and Beijing is Guangzhou at number four. The infographic gives it a nice spin of saying Shenzhen residents are the people who “most love fun in China”, and not that they can’t stand to spend another long weekend here.

Maybe telling and maybe not, Dongguan pops up in this demographic as being the ninth most popular domestic destination this past Labor Day holiday. Are the good times back? We’ll see if travelers will go for the hooker, line and sinker. No other Guangdong city made it into that list.

Some more factoids: Labor Day travelers are mostly female, aged 23-34, and of the Aries sign. Men like to take group photos, while girls prefer “selfies”. Thirty year-olds are more liable to pose with a peace sign, while twenty year-olds are more prone to posing with a duckface.

Photo: Weibo

The survey revealed that the four worst expressions are “哦”、“呵呵” and “额”、all of which roughly mean “oh” and the expression “你懂的” which means “you get it.” The four most annoying emoticons are the smily face, nose-picking, feces, and the one that symbolises lecherousness.

The most annoying emoticons.

A survey by Sanxiang Weekend on Jan. 6 produced slightly, but only slightly, different results. 40% of netizens thought “哦” was the most annoying expression and 60% thought the smily face was the most annoying emoticon.

One WeChat user “叶呆呆” (Ye Daidai) claimed to have left her boyfriend three months ago because of his overuse of the word “哦” in online communications. She is now back with the boyfriend, but if he uses the word again he will be back out the door, she told the survey.

Another WeChat user “匪夷所思” (Feiyi Suosi) told the survey: “The mere sight of the smily face emoticon makes me pull my hair out.” The user’s real name is Sun Haoxin and when he sees it in his job as a web designer he feels that it is more likely to be sarcastic than encouraging.

Another user named “菲尔” (fei’er) told the survey that use of the smiley face suggested a perfunctory and impatient attitude. The user said that he stops chatting with people when he sees them use it.

So what are your netiquette pet peeves? Are you ever guilty of these sins?

A woman in Huizhou is on trial for provoking a suicide with defamatory rumours that she spread, Guangzhou Daily reports.

Mrs. Li, 29, pleaded guilty in Huicheng Court of falsely claiming on the QQ page of a Ms. Hao that she was having an inappropriate affair. She pleaded guilty Monday (Sept. 16) to spreading the rumours that caused Hao to jump off a building.

It started in 2010 when Li met Hao over the internet. On May 14 this year, Hao said something about one of Li’s friends that she thought disrespectful so she got upset.

That evening, she went to an internet bar in Huizhou’s Zhongkai District and created a QQ account with the name “恨你” (hate you). She wrote on Hao’s QQ page false claims about how she lived a depraved and promiscuous lifestyle.

The speech bubble is the contents of Hao’s suicide note, image courtesy of Guangzhou Daily

Hao was later found dead and her suicide note read: “I don’t understand. Who hates me so much? What have I done wrong?”

Li admitted in court that the claims of promiscuity and depravity were unconfirmed rumours that she had heard.

Hao’s family is demanding 750,000 RMB in compensation. Li said she wants to pay it back but does not have the money and is unlikely to earn it if she goes to jail.

China is in the midst of a crackdown on online rumour-mongering, which is most likely targeted at those spreading political rumours.

According to Reuters:

People will be charged with defamation if posts online that contain rumours are visited by 5,000 internet users or reposted more than 500 times, according to a judicial interpretation issued this month by China’s top court and prosecutor.

That rule, which could lead to three years in jail, is part of a recent government efforts to rein in social media, increasingly used by Chinese people to discuss politics, despite stringent censorship.

An interesting article was also published this week in “An Optimist’s Guide to China” about online rumour-mongering.

A Po (alias) is a 26 year-old driver who has a wife and son. He met the 14 year-old Xiao Fang on QQ in early November last year. Both live in Zengcheng. Without meeting in person, A Po gained Xiao Fang’s trust.

After a while, A Po asked to see Xiao Fang’s nude body and she sent a topless photo of herself.

They met at Xiao Fang’s house on December 20 (presumably her parents were away. The paper doesn’t say) and hugged in the living room. A Po then dragged a reluctant Xiao Fang into the bedroom. When Xiao Fang resisted, he reminded her that he had her nude photo and would put it on Sina Weibo.

After they had sex, A Po took out his phone and deleted the photo in front of her. On January 3, he contacted her again and told her he still had the photo on his computer and would put it on Sina Weibo if she didn’t have sex with him again. She reluctantly obliged.

He contacted her again in mid-January and told Xiao Fang that if she didn’t have sex with him again, he would print the photo and stick it on the front entrance of her school. Scared, she consulted a QQ group to ask for help and one of the adults in the group called the police. The adult then accompanied her to the police station to tell her story.

A Po is now facing trial for blackmail but will not be tried for pedophilia as the age of consent in China is just 14.

(drawing by Li Yong)

WeChat, also known as Weixin, has been growing like a bad weed in China these days.  The iOS and Android app is now being used by more than 200 million people, and is the pick-up tool of choice for many laowai in China because it facilitates chatting with nearby strangers.

Given how ubiquitous the tool has become, it’s not surprising that a scam has finally surfaced.  Users in Dongguan are being warned after a woman met up with a stranger she had chatted with on the service in April this year. The stranger then threatened her and demanded she hand over her bank card, Southern Metropolis Daily reports.

The woman, who works in a hotel, was invited by a Weixin contact to meet up and have a chat. In the end, she met an accomplice of a criminal surnamed Lu, who comes from Hubei Province and ran a restaurant with another man Jian before it went out of business.

Unable to support themselves, Lu and Jian set up a criminal gang. As part of the arrangement, Lu’s girlfriend and brother used Weixin to meet and then steal from strangers.

Police say there have been six similar cases in Dongguan this year involving rape, theft and blackmail.

Police explained that because Weixin is newer than rival services such as QQ, it is poorly policed. They warned residents to be vigilant when using the service, and not to meet strangers who refused to identify themselves or asked to borrow things.

The claim was made by the father of one of the victims who goes by the alias Xiao Jie.

Xiao Jie’s academic performance deteriorated rapidly after entering junior high school last year, and he became “irritable and silent”, according to his father Mr Su. After watching the boy more closely, Su discovered that Xiao Jie had received numerous sexually explicit QQ messages from a stranger.

Xiao Jie later claimed that he had been molested by the stranger after being “lured into his home”. It was seen on Xiao Jie’s QQ chat history that he had asked for several computer games in exchange for keeping quiet. The stranger had even bought a computer for him for RMB20,000.

In order to catch the paedophile, Mr Su had a female friend open a fake QQ account and pretend to be a young boy, later arranging to meet the paedophile. The plan proved successful and the suspect has been arrested. The man’s name is Li Jun, who turns out to be the leader of the inspection department of the NGO Administration Office at the Guangzhou Civil Affairs Bureau.

The coterie of the unit described Li as “gentle, silent and tending to keep to himself”. Li has now been charged with raping three boys and his QQ contact list was found to have more than 160 boys on it under the age of 13.