Juliana Lopez Sarrazola, a Columbian citizen, had travelled to Guangzhou on July 18 to participate in the Miss World Medellin beauty pageant. When she landed, she was arrested with 610 grams of cocaine hidden inside her laptop computer, say Chinese authorities.

Sarrazola, 23, had agreed to smuggle the drugs for a Colombian drug dealer named “Sergio” in order to earn money to attend the Miss World pageant, reported the Yangcheng Evening Report.

According to the paper, Sarrazola was paid $776 in cash and given free air tickets and hotel accommodation. She would have received another $2,500 if she successfully smuggled the drugs into the country.

Sarrazola’s lawyers had asked the court for leniency on the grounds that Sergio had threatened to kill her family if she refused to comply with his demands.

According to official figures, more than a hundred Colombians are currently being held in China, almost all due to drug-related issues.

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That’s when a businessman known only as “A.S.” was taking the bus in Guangzhou just after withdrawing the equivalent of $86,600 from a bank. He found a seat near the back of the bus and soon dozed off. A.S. slept so soundly that the next thing he knew, he was awakened by a bus worker at the terminal station.

However, pleasant dreams gave way to a real-life nightmare when A.S. discovered his money had been stolen. The zipper of his backpack had been opened, and the black bag containing the funds he had withdrawn from the bank was gone.

The money stolen from A.S. included RMB 70,000, $36,500, and EUR 36,000, a total equivalent to RMB 520,000 or USD $86,600.

The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau investigated the case and discovered that a gang of deaf thieves were targeting expat victims. Police found the gang was responsible for another theft that also targeted a non-Chinese. On May 18, an expat riding the same bus had RMB 20,000 stolen from him. Reports say the gang, comprised of two males and one female, was arrested on May 26.

Other expats have been more fortunate. Last May, two businessmen were reunited with luggage containing $100,000 they had forgotten while taking the Guangzhou Metro. 

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Sinkholes have again appeared in a southern Chinese city, this time on a Guangzhou street when a passing cement truck suddenly collapsed into a hole directly beneath it, throwing local traffic into chaos.

The ten square meter-wide sinkhole appeared on Saturday night in the Huadu District of Guangzhou. The massive hole had a diameter of ten meters and was 1.5 meters deep, occupying three lanes of traffic.

The hole neatly accommodated the cement truck, tipping it onto its right side.

There were no injuries reported.

A day afterwards, the truck had been removed and the sinkhole filled in with concrete (shown below). With the area still cordoned off, only one lane of the road was open to traffic.

No official reason has been given for the road collapse, although local residents suspect it may be related to construction of the city’s subway tunnels.

Sinkholes have been opening up in Guangzhou at an alarmingly common rate.

On June 14th, a sinkhole appeared in Huangpu District. Although the reason for the sinkhole hasn’t been made clear, the hole appeared directly underneath a car (seen above), similar to how the street collapsed underneath the cement truck in the most recent case. A similar case also occurred in June of last year when a Guangzhou road broke underneath the weight of a passing public bus.

Sinkholes also appeared in Guangzhou last year in the city’s Baiyun and Liwan districts. Huadu had previously experienced a sinkhole in 2014.

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Some residents blamed the flooding on Guangzhou’s poor drainage system, despite a 400 million yuan upgrade in 2014.

One photograph shows bus passengers not particularly concerned despite the floor being flooded with water.

Severe flooding in Guangzhou has become something of an annual occurrence, as can be seen in this photograph from last year. Heavy rains have also been blamed for the death of nine people in neighboring Guangxi, causing 13,500 residents to be evacuated from their homes.

Here are more photos of the flooding:

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As the photos illustrate, the women gathered in the shape of the olympic rings to kick-off the seasonal opening of the park. This isn’t the first time Chimelong has gathered women in their bathing suits for an olympic shoot. In 2014, women formed the shape of a dolphin, while three years ago, they formed a “2013“. Previous Chimelong promotions have seen women forming the shape of “2010”, the word “HAPPY”, and the Olympic Rings back in 2008.

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The enforcement officers were recently seen tearing down a Ronald McDonald statue outside a McDonald’s in Huadu District. The chengguan broke poor Ronald at his ankles, before eventually confiscating the entire statue.

In explaining their actions, an unidentified member of the chengguan told the Yangcheng Evening Report that the McDonald’s had repeatedly violated regulations on outdoor advertising signs: “We implored them several times to rectify the problem, but the store would not comply,” said the chengguan.

As he explained, the signs are not permitted on Guangzhou sidewalks. “Putting outdoor advertisements on a pedestrian walkway is a hindrance to pedestrian traffic and also a tripping hazard,” he said.

The chengguan went on to say that this particular McDonald’s routinely flaunted the law by removing the outdoor signs whenever the chengguan were on patrol, only to replace them once they had left. As a result, they determined that the best course of action was to confiscate their sign and Ronald, known as “Uncle McDonald” in Chinese.

The unnamed chengguan worker also said that the McDonald’s manager provoked him by saying “The Uncle McDonald standing in front of our store is also taking up space on the sidewalk (just like the outdoor advertising signs). Why don’t you take him away too?” And that was exactly what they proceeded to do, but not before severing Ronald’s leg.

The chengguan claim there could still be a happy ending for the Ronald McDonald statue. If the McDonald’s restaurant is willing to admit its wrongdoing and pay its fines, the mutilated “Uncle McDonald” would be returned to the fast food restaurant, mostly safe and sound.

The post Guangzhou Chengguan, Eager to Clean Up the Place, Start by “Arresting” Ronald McDonald appeared first on The Nanfang.

The backpacker said he had just arrived from Kunming by train, and is planning to go to Hong Kong. He claims to only have RMB 40 on his person, and is relying on the generosity of others to cover his train tickets and accommodation.

The backpacker follows in the steps of 25 year-old Victor from Poland who was seen begging at Guangzhou East Railway Station last November. Victor said he ran out of money while backpacking, and relied on the kindness of strangers, while police and workers at the station claim Victor is a professional panhandler who can make as much as RMB 1000 a day.

Much like the Russian backpacker, Victor said he intended to use the money earned from begging to travel to Kunming, and then continue onwards to Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

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Large crowds of migrant workers throughout China are trying to return to their families in time to celebrate Spring Festival, which occurs on February 8 this year.

176,000 passengers were scheduled to pass through the station gates Monday night. In response to the growing crowd, local police declared a “level two emergency” and posted 2,600 officers to the scene.

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Die-hard fans from as far away as Dongguan and Foshan waited all night for the chance to be among the first to attend the store opening. Reports say the queue grew from 200 people at 7am to 500 by 9:30am, culminating in a line of over 1,000 people stretching half a kilometer by the time the store opened at 10am.

A man describing himself as a “model disciple of Apple” said he arrived at 4am to wait in line.

As fans excitedly waited in the falling rain, enthusiastic red-shirted Apple staff inside the store could be seen getting ready for customers by cheering and waving to the waiting crowd. Even the local traffic department got involved, warning motorists of traffic congestion in the area.

Beijing and Shanghai both have four Apple stores already, while Chengdu and Shenzhen each have a store of their own. Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised to have 20 stores operational in mainland China within two years. Across the border, Hong Kong has three stores of its own with a fourth on the way.

Despite celebrating a new store opening, future prospects for Apple look grim.

An Apple report released Tuesday said that despite record-breaking sales and net profits this past financial quarter, iPhone sales have risen just 0.4 percent, the lowest rate since 2007. Apple is anticipating a drop in sales for the coming second quarter, the first in 13 years.

China has traditionally been a robust market for the tech giant. With this forecast downturn, industry analysts are suggesting that Apple’s exponential growth in the Chinese market may soon come to an end.

Meanwhile, Huawei looks to take a bite out of Apple’s market share by diversifying its product line, as seen by its smartwatch and a rumored home PC product.

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For RMB 4,999 ($770), commuters can hop on board an Astro Air helicopter and travel between Guanzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai in just half an hour, a fifth of the time when compared to other modes of transportation.

Passengers can depart from and arrive at helicopter landing pads in the Central Business District (CBD) areas of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and in the Hengqin New Area of Zhuhai, now part of the new free trade zone.

Astro Air is planning to expand service to other Guangdong cities including Dongguan, Foshan, Huizhou, and Jiangmen. As part of the expansion, Astro Air plans to establish routes between these cities’ CBD and their respective airport, according to Nanfang Daily.

Zhu Zilin of Astro Air said that his company has plans to bring the inter-city helicopter service to Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, otherwise known as the Yangtze River Delta, in the second half of 2016. Further expansion will bring helicopter service to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

Astro Air was the first company to offer helicopter service between Shenzhen and Guangzhou in August of this year, while similar services have been growing in popularity throughout China.

Last September, Nanfang Airlines Corporation offered helicopter service between Guangzhou and Macau in 45 minutes. This past May, the Didi Kuaidi car-sharing service partnered with a helicopter company to provide service between Beijing and Tianjin for RMB 3,500 ($560), completing the 120 kilometer journey in just 40 minutes.

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