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Guangdong Woman, with RMB 44 Billion, Named China’s Richest

Posted: 10/22/2014 8:55 am

Two Chinese women standing in front of a Cartier shop

Yang Huiyan, a 33 year-old woman from Shunde, Guangdong, was voted the richest woman in China for the fourth year in a row by Hurun Research Institute, reported Nandu. Hurun valued Yang’s net worth at a whopping RMB 44 billion ($7.2 billion).

A majority shareholder of her father’s real state company, Country Garden Holding, Yang has nabbed the title more than any other woman in the nine years Hurun has published the rich list. Most of the other women on the list come from the property and financial sectors, accounting for 28 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Guangdong is home to four of the 50 women on the rich list, Hurun said. The list’s threshold is RMB 5 billion, a 36 percent increase over last year, while the median average wealth for all women on the list is RMB 10.9 billion, a 14 percent jump over the previous year.

While the wealth of China’s richest women is no doubt impressive, it’s still disproportionately lower than the wealth of their male counterparts. Hurun’s wealth threshold for men is RMB 20.5 billion and the median average was RMB 45 billion, more than four times that of women.

Shenzhen and Beijing remain the two most friendly cities for female entrepreneurs, each producing nine women on the list, followed closely by Shanghai.

The title of the country’s second richest woman went to Chan Liwa, president of Fu Wah International Group.

Photos: Red Luxury 

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More Poisonous Food For Sale in China: This Time It’s Bean Sprouts

Posted: 07/17/2014 10:04 am
bean sprout fake additives

Two men load a bucket of poisonous bean sprouts onto a van.

Watch out for spring rolls with bean sprout fillings! Forty workshops producing bean sprouts with banned additives were busted in Shunde, Guangdong. According to local police, the workshops were responsible for selling over 30 tons of poisonous bean sprouts to various markets in Shunde and Zhongshan.

Thirty-seven tons of fully-grown bean sprouts and 16 tons of half-grown bean sprouts were seized during a police raid on July 9, reported the Guangzhou Daily. 48 people were arrested

Poisonous bean sprouts are thicker, and have fewer roots and translucent white colour.

Some of the banned additives used include ABP or 6-benzylaminopurine. These chemicals can be used to increase the thickness of bean sprouts and help them grow, thus shortening their natural growth cycle.

Consuming additive-laced bean sprouts can cause dizziness, headaches, uraemia and even cancer, said the report said.

Most of the busted workshops are family-operated. The sprouts are grown in plastic buckets in poor conditions. The smell of ammonia is constant at the workshops, the report said.

The police said there are several methods to identify poisonous bean sprouts. Additive-laced bean sprouts exhibit a greyish-white color and are thicker than natural ones, and have relatively fewer roots. In addition, water normally leaks out when a “fake” bean spout snaps in half.

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Photos: Nandu,tzsnw.com

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Shunde Fire Sends Up Plume of Black Smoke Next to Residential Area

Posted: 05/13/2014 10:30 am

television fire shunde rongguiA pile of abandoned televisions and monitors caught fire in a field in the southern district of Ronggui, Shunde, at approximately 9am, sending a tall plume of dark smoke cascading across the sky.

The fire took place in a lot that appears to be part of a park that sits adjacent to a residential area, with multi-story houses and an apartment building located nearby.

The televisions were first abandoned in this large garden two weeks ago.

The cause of the fire and whether any injuries have occurred is currently unknown.television fire shunde rongguitelevision fire shunde rongguitelevision fire shunde ronggui

[h/t Travis]

Photos: Travis

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Dairy farmers in Foshan feeding cows oxytocin

Posted: 03/28/2014 2:00 pm

A self-claimed vet injects oxytocin into a cow at the farm.

Recently, we told you about the industrial salt being passed off as table salt throughout Guangdong. The most recent staple to watch for however, is your milk.

About 300 kilograms of cow milk injected with oxytocin may have been sold to Shunde, Guangzhou and other cities in Guangdong Province, New Express Daily reported on March 27.

An unlicensed dairy farm in Gaoming district in Foshan has been using the hormone on cows to increase the amount of milk extracted. The drug, often used on women to induce labour, is injected into cows to induce muscle contraction around the cows’ nipples, causing milk ejection out of the glands and milk ducts.

A self-professed vet working on the farm told the newspaper’s undercover reporter that they typically use the drug on the cows twice a day to help extract milk. When injected with the drug, cows are often able to produce milk in as little as 15 minutes, said the vet.

When asked by the reporter about the appropriate dosage used, the vet said: “We are quite familiar with what quantity to use. After all, when you use too much, it’s simply a waste of the drug.”

A woman working on the farm told the undercover reporter that about 200 kilos of milk extracted in the morning would be sold to Shunde, and 100 kilos produced in the afternoon would be distributed to Guangzhou. They also supply some milk tea shops (奶茶店), she said.

The potential health consequences of consuming the contaminated milk were not specified in the story, but according to a report by the Indian newspaper, Economic Times, sustained consumption of oxytocin can cause a hormonal imbalance in humans and may harm the reproductive system of animals, thus reducing their life span.

An article by Care2, a US social web portal for green issues, said a substantial part of the oxytocin injected into cows can seep into milk, and children are particularly susceptible to its harmful effects. Side effects include: imbalanced hearing, reduced vision, and lethargy.

Besides oxytocin, the reporter at the farm witnessed the use of antibiotics, vitamins, Chinese herbal medicines and penicillin.

Home page and content photo credit: New Express Daily

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Inspired by hit TV show, cops in Shunde do music video about traffic safety

Posted: 01/17/2014 3:40 pm

Traffic cops in Shunde have followed in the footsteps of the Panyu PSB and the Huizhou Traffic Police by making a music video. This one is inspired by the hit TV show “Where Are We Going, Dad?” and is also about traffic safety. It has been a huge hit in the days preceding the chunyun Spring Festival rush, when more people are on the road than at any other time of year.

The Atlantic has explained the success of the TV show as being down to its presentation of fathers taking an active role in their children’s upbringing, a very new trend in China. You can read a translation of the original English lyrics on Chinasmack.

Here’s the YouTube version of the video:

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PRD’s “Self-dressed women” close to dying out

Posted: 01/13/2014 7:49 pm

Self-dressed women in the 1950s, image courtesy of the Women Culture Museum website.

The “self-dressed woman,” literally self-combed woman, is a phenomenon that emerged in the Pearl River Delta during the late Qing Dynasty. The women are characterised by wearing their hair in a bun, never marrying, being self-sufficient and having little material wealth. Last week, China News reported on what it calls the last three surviving self-dressed women in Zhaoqing, which has long had the highest number of the women.

According to Liang Guiming who works in the civil affairs bureau of Duanzhou District, one of them is on a pension and two are on government assistance.The women receive free physical examinations and often get visits from armed police, a group that they have a historical affinity with. The concept of being a self-dressed woman has its roots in resistance to feudalism and misogyny. Armed police have always been among the few groups of men they have good relations with.

Hou Ailing, the dean of Chengzhong community accompanied a Chinanews reporter to visit two of the women. Sun Ying, 88, told the reporter she is a native of Huanggang Shatou Village. Her father died when she was young and at the age of 18, she followed in the footsteps of her older sisters to become a “self-dressed woman”. After that, she lived as a self-dressed woman with her six sisters, all of whom were of a similar age.

Ouyang Huanyan in 2011 at age 94, courtesy of Google Images

Another, Liang Yueming, 81, is unusual among self-dressed women in that she is from a wealthy background. When she was born, a fortune teller told Liang’s family that she would bring them bad luck. She was subsequently sent off and raised to be a self-dressed woman from the age of just 1. Now, Liang lives with her adoptive daughter and son-in-law. Her granddaughter is a white collar worker in Guangzhou.

Self-dressed women have traditionally gathered at the nunnery Jun’an Bing Yu Tang, the most famous nunnery in Shunde. It became the Women Culture Museum in December 2012. Shunde has its own strong tradition of self-dressed women. One such woman is Ouyang Huanyan, whose extraordinary life was the subject of this 2011 feature in China Daily. Ouyang spent more than 40 years as a domestic helper to Singapore’s most prominent family – the Lee family – which has produced two of the country’s prime ministers.

Nowadays, although there is considerable stigma attached to being a single woman, there are fewer obstacles to a woman becoming self-sufficient, even if China is still some way away from becoming a society free of misogyny.

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2 yr-old in Foshan severely burned by father who was “just educating him”

Posted: 01/10/2014 7:00 am

Foshan made headlines around the world in 2011 when the toddler Wang Yue was run over by two trucks and left for dead by 19 passers-by. Yesterday another horrifying image of the ill-treatment of a child came out of the city.

Xiao Bao, image courtesy of Southern Metropolis Daily

2 year-old Xiao Bao (alias) was taken to hospital last week with severe burns on his head, scars across his face and a 5cm wound on his left arm. His father admitted responsibility for the injuries but said “he was just educating” the boy, Nandu Daily reports.

Xiao Bao’s 7 year-old sister Rong Rong (alias) told doctors that their father often beat her and Xiao Bao, especially while drunk. Police in Shunde are now investigating their father, Mr. Luo.

On January 2, Mr. Luo took the boy to hospital claiming that two days earlier the toddler had suffered burns while being given a bath and the wounds may now be infected. The doctor who treated Xiao Bao doubted this story, claiming that the burns on his head could only be made by boiling water. The doctor also wanted to know why Xiao Bao had so many other injuries.

On Wednesday (Jan.8), a reporter from the paper went to Foshan No. 1 Hospital and spoke to Rong Rong, who was sitting at her brother’s bed side. Rong Rong explained that, after having a row with her father, her mother walked out several months ago.

For over a year now, Mr. Luo has been beating getting drunk and hitting Rong Rong and Xiao Bao, saying they are too naughty. He has even been known to refuse to feed them if they are bad, the family claims. Neither child had eaten meat in months. Rong Rong’s face has traces of a cigarette burn and the father is accused of threatening to disown the children if they tell any strangers about his behaviour.

Mr. Luo tearfully confessed to the paper that he would scold and hit his children. But he claimed he never hit them hard enough to injure them and he only did it to “educate”. He claimed to feel remorse for his actions and also claims to get sleepy rather than violent when he is drunk.

In answer to the accusation that he never fed his children meat, he said there were two reasons. Firstly, he was quite poor, and secondly, the family did not much like meat anyway, they prefer fish.

As well as having a dysfunctional marriage, Luo is also 1000 yuan behind on his rent, according to his landlady. The landlady also says she often hears the children screaming after he has gone home drunk. Once, she knocked on the door after hearing particularly piercing screams. When confronted, Luo asserted that he had just given the child a smacked bottom.

Luo is now under investigation. It ain’t looking good for him.

Haohao
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Man arrested after 13-hour suicide stand-off on Liede Bridge

Posted: 09/19/2013 4:38 pm

Mr. Su sits poised on the bridge, image courtesy of Xinkuaibao

A Zhongshan man was arrested yesterday after spending 13 hours poised on Guangzhou’s Liede Bridge in a suicide stand-off, Xinkuaibao reports. He set the record for the longest stand-off of this kind even though the bridge’s suspension cables were wrapped in barb wire earlier this year to prevent suicidal people from climbing it.

Mr. Su, 40, admitted his behaviour was wrong after police, firefighters, paramedics, and even a representative of the Zhongshan government were called in to talk him down from the bridge while he was up there between 6:48 a.m. and 7:48 p.m.

Su claimed to have lost a lot of money in 2007 after investing in a tree planting project in Shunde and was no longer able to feed his family or serve the people.

When police finally guided him down he was in good physical condition despite not having eaten all day.

He is under arrest for disturbing public order.

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Shunde is seeking UN approval to be a cuisine capital of the world

Posted: 07/19/2013 1:00 pm

Shunde, a district of Foshan which is widely regarded as the home of Cantonese cooking, has sent a delegation to Paris in an attempt to win the UNESCO title of World Capital of Cuisine, Nandu Daily reports. If successful, it will follow in the footsteps of Chengdu, which won the accolade in 2010.

Sweetened fresh milk pudding, courtesy of goodfoodies.blogspot.com

Shunde has been preparing the bid since the second half of last year and has had its eye on the prize since 2010. This is just part of the district’s drive to boost its brand around the world. Last month saw the inauguration ceremony for the Confederation of Shunde Friendship Association Europe.

Famous Shunde dishes include Lijixi southern flavour peanuts, a variety of steamed seafood dishes, and sweetened fresh milk pudding, for which you can find a recipe here.

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Guangzhou to extend subway system to Shunde by 2016

Posted: 06/17/2013 7:00 am

Extension work on Guangzhou’s subway line 7 to bring it all the way to Shunde by 2016 is set to begin, Guangzhou Daily reported at the weekend.

A meeting Friday attended by Mayor Huang of Shunde concluded that an extension of subway line 7 was the best way to improve ease of travel between Shunde and areas of Guangzhou such as Panyu and Nansha. The project has already passed a feasibility study, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

The line will stretch from Guangzhou South Railway Station to Beijiao Station in Shunde, but details such as exactly which route have yet to be finalised.

Boosting infrastructure spending is China’s strategy of exiting its economic slowdown, Bloomberg reported in January.

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