Four people in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province were stunned when the ground underneath their feet gave way as they stood waiting at a bus top.

A security camera recorded the moment at 5:40pm on August 22 on Guxiang Boulevard in Harbin. One woman is seen clinging to a pipe after the collapse, while another woman and two men fell to the bottom of the three meter-deep hole.

Just prior to the collapse, a crowd of people are seen walking through, indicating this could have been even worse.

Some people at the scene helped the victims get out of the ten square meter hole, while others on the stairwell simply watched and then walked away.

The victims were sent to a Harbin hospital where they were treated for various injuries including sprains and abrasions. Police cordoned off an area 100 meters around the sinkhole as workers attempted to make repairs.

There still has been no official word as to what caused the sinkhole, although an investigation is said to be pending. The hole was repaired the day after it appeared, and reports say business in the area has returned to normal.

Sinkholes in China have become a regular occurrence.

This past May, two pedestrians were injured when a  two meter-deep sinkhole appeared beneath their feet in Duchang, Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi also had another sinkhole back in March when three students were swallowed by a three meter-deep hole in Pingxiang.

In June 2013, a grandmother and her grandson were swallowed up by a three meter-deep hole in Shenzhen. In June 2010, a women was swallowed up by a hole in Chengdu after rains had been pelting the city for days.

Here’s the video of the incident in Harbin:

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The explosion happened in a garbage can opposite the entrance to the Jiaokou Bus Station at Fang Village Boulevard and Xifangxing Road in Liwan District. The blast contained so much force that part of the container was destroyed.

A 50 year-old female sanitation worker injured in the blast was taken to No. 2 Zhongshan Hospital. The victim sustained injuries to her hands and was described by eyewitnesses as having a “face covered in blood”.

Police cordoned off the scene when other explosive devices were suspected to still be in the vicinity. At 2:10pm, a suspicious black duffle bag was taken from the entrance of a KFC restaurant along with another bag discovered at a later time. However, both searches found nothing suspicious.

The explosion is now attributed by police to fireworks that had been improperly discarded, reports CCTV News.

Photos: People’s Daily, Guangzhou Live

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A pregnant woman in Longgang District claims she was groped from behind by a stranger while she was waiting for the bus, according to Shenzhen Satellite Television, but the man had a different story.

The woman, surnamed Li, was standing at Minle bus stop with her aunt, minding her own business, when she was frightened by somebody grabbing her shoulder from behind. Initially, she thought that it was her husband but she turned round to see a perfect stranger who she reported to the police.  The man claimed he just “bumped into her”.

The woman’s aunt saw fit to take the man downtown to Minzhi Police Station where he defended himself.

The pregnant woman and her relative described the physical contact between the two as a “bearhug” whereas the man said he just bumped into her at the busy bus stop.  The truth must be somewhere in between, as the man has been detained for 15 days.

We told you in July about how the Shenzhen Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress was introducing measures to combat gender inequality, including laws against sexual harrassment.

Earlier this year, Shenzhen launched a drive to promote civilized behaviour and its buses and subway trains are all adorned with signs urging people to give up their seats to pregnant women.

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For those working in the city, you’re going to get a few extra days off this month. The Shenzhen government has unveiled the holidays, of which there will be a total of 7 days off. It’s a bit confusing, so we’ll try and break it down.

The opening ceremonies are on Friday August 12 and the closing ceremonies are on Tuesday August 23. Both days are absolute holidays, meaning no work needed and no make-up days required.

But…

The government is also freeing the proletariat from work on Thursday August 11, Saturday August 13 and Sunday August 14. Combined with the 12th off for the opening ceremonies, that’s four straight days of no work. Monday August 22 and Wednesday August 24 are also days off, providing 3 straight holiday days at the end of the Universiade. The catch here is that these additional days off (*not* the days off for the opening and closing ceremonies) will need to be made up with additional days of work.

Employees need to work on Saturday August 6 and Saturday August 20, as well as Sunday August 21. Make sense?

If it’s still confusing, you can also find more information here.

One large bus stop

The bus stop at Futian Touzi and the Guangdian buildings have the longest waiting area in Shenzhen, according to an online report. The waiting area is 120 meters long.

A reporter with the paper interviewed somebody from the municipal government after spotting the extra-long waiting area. The government said it was built to resolve the problem caused by the massive volume of passengers and traffic at these two bus stops. Perhaps longer buses should be next on the agenda.

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