To be eligible, passengers must possess valid international travel documents and booked tickets with confirmed dates and destinations.

A 72-hour visa-free policy has been in effect since 2013 for Shanghai and the capitals of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, Hangzhou and Nanjing. Under the new policy however, not only has the duration been extended, but international travelers will now be permitted to enter through ports and railway stations in addition to airports.

The Ministry of Public Security said foreigners can take advantage of the 144-hour visa scheme at Shanghai’s two airports (Pudong and Hongqiao), Hangzhou (Xiaoshan International Airport) and Nanjing (Lukou International Airport). They can stay in the city and the two provinces for six days without a visa, and can also leave the country from any of the aforementioned airports.

There is however one catch: the policy is only offered to 51 countries. They include: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania.

Earlier this month, China and the UK agreed to allow their citizens to visit each others’ countries under two-year multiple entry visas.

Last November, Changsha and Qingdao both began offering a 72-hour visa-free transit policy for international visitors.

The post Foreigners Can Now Visit Shanghai Visa Free for 6 Days appeared first on The Nanfang.

However, cold alerts weren’t the only warnings being given out by Chinese authorities, let alone the most frantic.

Last Tuesday, before the cold snap arrived, police authorities were dismayed when they discovered some 501 bags of road salt were missing from under a bridge in Pinghu, Zhejiang. What was most alarming to police wasn’t the loss of an essential road safety resource as a winter storm approached, but that the thief may actually attempt to eat the stolen road salt.

That prompted a local media station to issue a public health warning on the dangers of eating road salt. “A large number of bags containing road salt intended for the incoming cold front in Pinghu have apparently been taken by local residents. If used for cooking the consequences will be unfathomable! … It is not edible salt, do not consume!” wrote Zhejiang Traffic Radio wrote on their Weibo post.

Meanwhile, other warnings appeared to be directed towards the thief himself. “Eat at your own risk,” read a statement released by Pingu road management authorities.

More than 500 bags of road salt sound like a lot for any one person to consume. But as other unscrupulous criminals have found, rock salt can be counterfeited and sold to unwitting consumers.

Last July, Beijing police cracked down on a criminal ring that sold 20 tons of counterfeit table salt, an operation worth 20 million yuan. Guangdong police have been busy cracking down on separate fake salt producers who sold 600 tons of fake salt in Guangzhou, 19 tons in Dongguan, and 26 tons in Guangzhou.

For now, it appears the public health danger is over. A suspect, a 61 year-old man named Liu, was arrested last week for the theft.

Maybe it was his burning conscience or the knowledge that he was in possession of a public health hazard, but for whatever reason, it seemed like Liu just wasn’t able to “hold the salt”.

The post Things You Shouldn’t Need to Say: Road Salt is for the Road, Not for Eating appeared first on The Nanfang.

While this sentiment runs throughout China, the media isn’t shy about leading popular opinion. Chinese state-run newspaper the People’s Daily does not want the Paris terror attacks to overshadow a deadly landslide that coincidentally happened at the same time, and it does so by urging its readers to choose one over the other.

Twenty-five people died when a landslide struck the village of Lidong near the city of Lishui, Zhejiang at 10:50 on Friday night. Only one person has been rescued from the landslide so far, while another 12 victims remain unaccounted for. Twenty-seven Lidong homes below an adjacent mountain were buried, with another 21 flooded.

Landslides are a common occurrence in China that have derailed trains, blocked train tracks, capsized boats in the Yangtze River, and have caused numerous fatalities during south China’s annual rainy season. It’s a problem that keeps happening in China, but with the Paris terror attacks attracting world-wide attention on Friday night, the Lishui incident is at risk of being ignored in the daily news cycle.

That’s where the People’s Daily intervened by sharing a Weibo micro-blogging post at around 8pm on Saturday. The post compares the two tragic incidents:

People’s Daily Weibo Opinion: Cry for Paris, but don’t forget to cry for Lishui as well.
The Paris terror attack has shocked the world. Terrorists are the enemy of the entire word which is united in its humanity to defeat it. Cry for Paris, but don’t forget to cry for Lishui as well. A landslide occurred in Lidong village, Yaxi County, Liandu District, Lishui, Zhejiang. The latest news reports there are nine dead from the disaster, with another 28 victims unaccounted for. Every life that is taken away in a disaster is valuable; please direct your concerns and prayers towards Lishui.

Even though many Chinese have shown sympathy towards the people of France, many of the top-voted responses said deaths from the Paris terror attacks are simply not as important as those from the Lishui landslide, two incidents that were otherwise separate and unrelated before the People’s Daily Online made the connection.

Here are what some Chinese people had to say in response to the People’s Daily Online Weibo post:

(highest rated comment)
洛水柳畔：
I don’t cry for Paris, I pray for that whore the Virgin Mary to curse them. I only pray for Lishui. 

Fally章：
Pray for your own compatriots! France supports Tibet independence!

春晖大地：
Some people these days only know how to concern themselves with the outside world. They think that everything outside the border is great. If you think that it’s so great in other countries, then you should immigrate! If you’re going to be spouting off your opinions, then you should show some concern about your own country. China is not worse than other countries!

O福星高照O：
Cry for Paris? From where do I have such emotion? I am only sympathizing with them! I only cry for the tragic deaths of my compatriots!

king1however：
The perspective of the masses is directed by the media. Don’t forget this, because the people won’t forget this. 

应西堤：
Even more importantly, don’t forget about Tianjin.

努力使自己微笑：
The running dogs of capitalism have gone to lick France.

Even though Chinese President Xi Jiping has made an official statement saying that China is devoted to fighting terrorism, and the Oriental Pearl Tower lit up its exterior in the colors of the French flag, the feeling that the Paris terror attacks were stealing attention away from China’s own domestic tragedy have been spreading online.

In a CCTV report about the Lishui landslide that made no mention whatsoever about the Paris terror attacks, netizens used the opportunity to compare the two incidents in much the way that the People’s Daily Online had done:

鉴翔师：
I ask the municipal government of Shanghai to shine their lights for the victims of the Lishui landslide. I also ask the network of the addicted running lap dogs of the Virgin Mary to shout aloud ‘May heaven protect Zhejiang’. I also ask that the traitors belonging to the media outlet Caijing as well as others to pray for the victims of Lishui.

Lr19970808：
Hey, Oriental Pearl Tower, why do you pray for foreign countries, but not for China?

神的奥斯坦丁：
My compatriots (who died in the Lishui landslide), even though you didn’t die in a terror attack, you are still Chinese people. The Oriental Pearl Tower won’t shine its lights for you. When I return home I will light a candle for you… 

Then there’s this comment:

Don’t the lives of Chinese people matter?
On November 13, Paris suffered an unprecedented terror attack that led to the deaths of some 140 people. On television, French President Francois Hollande showed how moved he was by the attack by the shakiness of his voice. What is unacceptable is that the 2009 terror attack in Urumqi, in which 197 people died and 1700 people were hurt, was far more severe than in Paris. However, the French government showed no anger or “shaky voice” at this time, but instead interfered with China trying to implement the death penalty upon these terrorists.

It may seem like a minor miracle to get Chinese to actively care about the terror attacks in Paris, but there is one thing that may come to pass. Since the attacks occurred on Friday, there has been no contact with 27 year-old Chinese graduate student Liu Anyu, drawing fears that he may be one of the victims who succumbed in the attacks.

The post Chinese Nationalism Dulls Sympathy for Paris Terror Attack Victims appeared first on The Nanfang.

Unfortunately, the unidentified man rode his horse into a spectacular head-on collision in the City of Wenling that sent both rider and horse over the roof of the car. As confirmed by Wenling traffic police, the incident happened at 11:33pm last Saturday when a BMW collided with the horse and rider, who were both going the wrong way down the street.

The rider is described as not having incurred any serious injury due to the amount of protective clothing he was wearing at the time. No word on how the horse fared.

The unidentified man had already been featured in the local news when he was seen picking up his daughter from school while riding the horse (seen below).

Here’s the video:

The post Watch: Drunk Man Rides Horse The Wrong Way On A Chinese Street, Gets Run Over appeared first on The Nanfang.

A waiter at a Wenzhou hot pot restaurant was so incensed by a negative review left online by a customer that he dumped boiling hot pot broth all over the customer.

The whole thing was caught on video, which showed the waiter walking directly up to the customer and, in one swift move, emptying the scalding contents over her head before knocking her to the ground and attacking her.

The incident happened during dinner on August 24 at a restaurant called “Mr Hotpot” in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. After an hour of dining with family members, 29 year-old Mrs Lin asked a waiter to bring more broth for the hotpot. After being ignored, Lin was finally able to catch the attention of a waiter named Zhu. However, Zhu said the pot was full enough and didn’t need a refill.

This started an argument between the pair, with Lin demanding to speak to a manager.  When the manager failed to appear, Lin took matters into her own hands by posting a message on the Weibo micro-blogging service that criticized the waitstaff at Mr Hotpot, saying they have a bad attitude.

As it turns out, Lin didn’t send the message to a crowd-sourced peer review platform like Dianping, China’s Yelp. Instead, Lin sent it to Weibo user @张记茶楼, who, as it turns out, is one of the shareholders of Mr Hotpot.

It’s not clear how Zhu found out about the Weibo post, but he clearly did.  Zhu asked Lin to come back to the kitchen with him. When she refused, Zhu came back to the table to pour the boiling soup over Lin’s neck and back.

Lin explains what happened:

He continued to beat me. At the time, all I could feel was my body burning. It’s fortunate that at the time, my son was holding onto my mother, or else the unthinkable could have happened.

Another diner named Jiang saw everything:

All I could see was steam coming off from Mrs Lin’s body, her skin already blistering.

Lin was taken to hospital where doctors say she has received severe burns to 42 percent of her body, especially to her face, neck, and back. Due to the injuries, Lin is not able to breastfeed her seven month-old son anymore.

Zhu is described as an 18 year-old man from Henan who had worked at the Mr Hotpot for just six months. He is currently in police custody undergoing interrogation. The owner of the restaurant has offered Lin RMB 20,000 for hospital bills, but hasn’t said anything else so far.

Here’s the video that shows the waiter bringing over a pot of boiling soup and dumping it on the customer, throwing her to the ground and attacking her, as well as the resulting brawl:

The post Video: Wenzhou Waiter Pours Hot Pot All Over Angry Customer After Dispute appeared first on The Nanfang.

One of the strongest typhoons this year, Soudelor touched down on the mainland at Putian, Fujian Province on August 8, bringing 700 millimetres of rain to some areas and causing floods of up to four meters deep. After Fujian, Soudelor continued onto Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui, cutting a path through a total of eight cities by 2pm yesterday including Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Putian.

About 320 thousand residents were evacuated from their homes, with 700 homes destroyed and another 28,000 damaged.  In Taiwan, Soudelor is being blamed for causing RMB 290 million in agricultural damage.

Soudelor has since been downgraded to tropical storm status as it continues its way through China.

Here’s a video showing the incredible power of the typhoon taken by local residents that shows Soudelor blowing over building and trees, and even lifting up passenger airliners:

The post Watch: Crazy Footage of Typhoon Soudelor Wreaking Havoc on City Streets appeared first on The Nanfang.

A public square in Lishui, Zhejiang Province found this out the hard way. People in the square said a porno began airing on a screen at the city’s popular Wandi Square yesterday and stayed there for 7 to 8 minutes.

While China has been recovering from the incendiary UNIQLO sex tape that rocked the nation last month, this isn’t the first time pornographic material has been broadcast on giant screens in public places.

Last September, university students in Zhuhai were treated to a television broadcast of porn during their lunch. And in 2013, a public square in Zhongshan broadcast a pornographic film for 20 minutes on a giant LED screen before anyone thought to turn it off.

This past June, pornography was broadcast on a public screen for more than ten minutes in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, resulting in the worker responsible spending 15 days in jail. Similar incidents have occurred in Lanzhou and Pingdingshan.

It’s too early to say what kind of punishment will be handed out for this incident as police are still investigating. But since public squares are so important in China, we can be sure that no matter what kind of alibi the slippery suspect may have, the police will get to the bottom of it.

Related:

• HSBC Hong Kong Apologizes for Linking to Porn Website
• Porn found on official website of Huidong health department
• Nanfang News: Internet cafe in Zhuhai found serving up porn

The post Oops! Zhejiang Public Square Shows Porn on Giant Video Screen appeared first on The Nanfang.

Linfa, the tenth typhoon of the year, is forecast to make contact with the Chinese mainland tomorrow (July 9) at 5am right near the border between Guangdong and Fujian. The typhoon is forecast to move westward through Guangdong and may possibly  to make it to Maoming in the province’s west end, losing strength as it does so.

Chan-hom, the ninth typhoon of the year, is forecast to sweep past the northern tip of Taiwan and hit the areas of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shanghai on Friday.

Another typhoon named Nangka formed just formed and is quickly building strength and becoming a category 2. However, it is not expected to affect China.

The post Twin Typhoons to Hit China Starting Tomorrow appeared first on The Nanfang.

Although the park had its “soft opening” in November last year, it has been operating at roughly 65 peace t capacity until now. With one million visitors expected each year, the $215 million theme park, built to celebrate the popular character’s 40th anniversary, will get some serious competition when Shanghai Disneyland opens nearby next spring.

If Shanghai is a little too far away, and you still want to enjoy Japan’s most beloved cartoon cat, there are still plenty of options for you in south China.

Hong Kong recently saw the opening of the world’s first Hello Kitty-themed Chinese restaurant, which offers 37 food items featuring the cat with a pink bow (seen below), while Macao features its own cafe serving Hello Kitty egg tarts.

Related:

• LEGOLAND Follows Hello Kitty into Shanghai
• Shanghai Disney Store Opens to Long Line of Shoppers

The post Gallery: Hello Kitty’s Largest Ever Theme Park Officially Opens in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

Users will be required to log in once in order to receive the free service, which is expected to start later this year.

Li Min, an engineer with the Zhejiang Economy and Informatization Commission, said they hope to improve the WiFi capabilities to the point where users are able to use peer-to-peer file sharing services to download movies from each other on the go.

Several larger cities throughout China already offer limited access to free WiFi. People in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou are able to access free WiFi on public transportation, at the airport, and when visiting certain tourist attractions.

The post Zhejiang Province 1st in China to be Entirely Covered with Free WiFi appeared first on The Nanfang.