Workers at the shopping center on Beijing’s financial street covered up the statue and whisked it away only hours after it first appeared on Monday.

A phrase commonly used in finance circles, a “black swan” is a highly unanticipated event with far reaching consequences – just the kind of thing the CSRC would like to avoid.

Netizens ridiculed the decision to remove the offending statue. One person wrote, “Such a grand country, and yet can’t tolerate a single bird,” while another said, “This dynasty had better offer a sacrifice to the gods.” Yet another person said, “Don’t the firm tenets of Marxism insist on following atheism?”

It’s not the first time art has been removed from Beijing’s financial district.

Last June, characters from the hit animated TV show The Boonie Bears were removed just a day after they appeared at a plaza immediately facing the CSRC (shown below). Though the reasons why the bears were exchanged for monkeys was not made clear, it was thought that the bears were making rude hand gestures towards the CSRC. Additionally, “bear” is a term for falling share prices and widespread selling.

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Shanghai Daily reports former employees are claiming the company has gone bankrupt, and is currently in the process of being liquidated.

A ubiquitous sight for over a decade, a number of taxi companies have since removed Touchmedia screens from their vehicles.

Shanghai’s Haibao taxi company said it has terminated its contract with Touchmedia and has now removed the screens, while Dazhong Taxi said Touchmedia “failed to fulfill the contract since the end of last year”. Shanghai Daily reports Touchmedia’s Shanghai offices are empty, and that its registered number is no longer in service.

Touchmedia once commanded a huge part of the advertising market in China, with 22,000 of its screens installed in Shanghai taxi cabs back in 2013. In 2009, Touchmedia secured a third round of financing worth 100 million yuan ($14.6 million).

The company’s height of fame would arrive in 2011 when it sparked a national fitness craze with its “Miss Wow” in-vehicle workout routine that found a huge following among white-collar workers, reaching nearly 129 million passengers after 12 weeks.

However, times have changed over Touchmedia’s 13 year history; taxis have had to make room for ride-sharing services, while the rise of smartphones has replaced the need for a distraction like an interactive touch screen for advertisements.

It’s not quite the same as watching it the back of a cab, but for old time’s sake, here’s Touchmedia’s “Miss Wow” video:

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A new guidebook released over the weekend hopes to provide guidelines to domestic helpers in Shanghai. Some suggestions include “not drinking alcohol or eating garlic and leeks before going to work” in order to prevent bad breath and body odor.

The Shanghai Daily reported that the guide also recommends that domestic helpers stay clean as part of their job, to refrain from wearing jewelry, using strong perfume or even painting their nails.

The guide also emphasized that Ayi should be polite and courteous. They were instructed to respect guests by offering them tea served with two hands, and escort them out of the house.

The guide didn’t shy away from explaining the hard work involved in being a domestic helper. Ayi were fully instructed on how to clean living rooms, dining rooms, or bedrooms properly.

Zhou Juemin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Home Service Industry Association, said such criteria and standards were necessary for continuity in the industry.

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The plan was initially introduced as a pilot project exclusively in Shandong Province, however, according to Chen, the one yuan note will gradually be phased out across the country.

Support for the policy remains divided. Pro-bill advocates argue that the one yuan coin is too heavy, and will require a change purse. Pro-coin advocates argue one yuan bills are often wrinkled and dirty, and are easily torn and destroyed.

Interestingly, when it comes to use of the one yuan coin versus the bill, there appears be a geographical preference: bills in the north, and coins to the south. While northerners look down upon yuan coins as being “cheap” and “inferior”, southerners traditionally prefer coins due to the heavy humidity.

The passing of the one yuan bill will join the ranks of other lost denominations: the one mao bill, the five mao bill, and the two yuan bill. However while it has taken the two yuan bill ten years to finally be removed from circulation, the others routinely appear when getting change.

Whichever side of the debate you may fall on, there are two indisputable facts in favor of coins: they last longer than paper currency, and are less likely to spread germs and disease.

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Reuters cited two sources with ties to China’s leadership that say the vast number of state employees will be culled from “zombie enterprises” over the next two or three years in order to rein in production over-capacity and pollution.

“Zombie enterprises”, a named priority of the Chinese government this year, refers to companies that have shut down operations but continue to keep employees on payroll to placate local governments worried about bankruptcy and unemployment.

The Minister for Human Resources and Social Security, Yin Weimin, announced that up to 1.8 million workers will be laid off in state-owned coal and steel factories. A timeline of the layoffs was not announced. Yin described the layoffs as “very difficult”, but added that the Chinese government remained “very confident”.

To prepare for the layoffs, 150 million tonnes of crude steel and 500 million tonnes of coal production will be cut over the next three to five years. The central government will also designate 100 billion yuan ($15.29 billion) to deal with the impact of the layoffs. The funds don’t deal with the debts held by the zombie companies, which some analysts believe could overwhelm local banks.

The second Reuters source estimated layoffs would reach six million, arguing that “overcapacity is a leftover problem from the Hu-Wen era.”

Former Chinese president and premier, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, stimulated the Chinese economy with four trillion yuan in the wake of the global financial crisis last decade.

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Grindr’s remaining shares will remain with founder and Chief Executive Officer Joel Simkhai, along with other employees.

Carter McJunkin, Chief Operating Officer of Grindr, said Beijing Kunlun was a good match for Grindr as the gaming company agreed to let the app’s founders continue to use its existing business structure and development team.

Since its founding in 2009, Grindr has become immensely popular in the gay community, and is used in over 196 countries worldwide. However, the app has plagued by spam bots and other bugs which have contributed to its low user score.

This is the latest in a long list of acquisitions for Beijing Kunlun and its billionaire chairman Zhou Yahui who recently purchased a share of British mortgage lender, LendInvest.

Beijing Kunlun has not specified whether or not it plans to introduce Grindr to the Chinese market. Although Grindr has about two million daily users, Chinese-based gay networking app, Blued, already dominates the market, receiving upwards of three million daily users.

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According to a poll conducted by P2P lender iqianjin.com and AdMaster, a marketing data technology company, peer-to-peer lending remains China’s third most popular choice for investments of less than 500,000 yuan ($77,150).

Of the 5,000 people polled for the survey, 38 percent said they favor investing on P2P lending platforms, beating out bank deposits (37 percent) and stocks (35 percent) but still far behind Internet-based investment services (76 percent) and wealth management products sold by commercial banks (40 percent).

However, when considering investment in excess of 500,000 yuan, 70 percent of respondents would choose stocks rather than P2P platforms (at 56 percent).

The news of the popularity of P2P investment platforms comes at a time when they have received a lot of negative press throughout China. By the end of November, 1,157 of the platforms were reportedly facing financial problems, with either top executives absconding with investors’ money or investors having difficulty withdrawing their cash. A November report by wangdaizhijia.com claimed there were 32 more platforms believed to be in trouble, involving 157,000 investors and 8.27 billion yuan worth of loans.

Only 12 percent of those surveyed in the iqianjin survey believed the risk involved in P2P sites to be “fairly high”.

In response to the China Banking Regulatory Commission completing the basic draft on proposed regulations for the P2P industry, iqianjin founding partner, Yang Fan, said the CBRC is likely to require all P2P lending platforms to be backed by banks in the future, and hoped the new laws can be adopted without too much trouble.

“We look forward to the introduction of regulations on P2P lending and hope the regulations will not be too rigid. We would welcome the gradual, smooth elimination of unqualified platforms, but do not want to see any abrupt or radical reshuffle of the industry,” said Yang.

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Taken at a breakfast described as “bling bling” by China Daily, the photo included Alibab’s Jack Ma, the chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin, and founder and chairman of Lenovo, Liu Chunazhi.

Chinese netizens were impressed by the gathering of uber-wealth; the top-rated comment joked,  “Even my ‘grandpa’ knows how to dip the head and tuck in the chin (when taking a selfie).”

Similar comaradarie between East and West was recently seen during the “golden” UK state visit of Chinese President, Xi Jinping. Besides a casual visit to a British pub for some fish and chips, Xi joined British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Manchester United striker, Sergio Aguero, for an informal selfie that was posted to social networks.

Selfies have been a hot promotional tool for Chinese politicians in 2015. In May, Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, posed with the social media-savvy Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. And in April, Xi had the first selfie of his presidency taken with Indonesian politician, Fadli Zon.

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Under the deal, Ctrip will gain a 45 percent ownership in Qunar, while Baidu, which has a 20 percent stake of Qunar, will own 25 percent of Ctrip.

Qunar had refused a buyout offer from Ctrip five months ago. According to data from Thompson Reuters, Ctrip is worth about $10.6 billion while Qunar is priced at $5.2 billion. Both companies have been fierce competitors in a travel market that has heated up considerably as an increasing number of affluent Chinese travel abroad.

Besides merging services and products, Ctrip and Qunar will also share members of their two board of executives.

The practice of share swaps has become an increasingly popular method to resolve competition for rival companies in China’s online service industry.

Earlier this month, online dining peer review companies Meituan.com and Dianping Holdings agreed to merge after years of fierce competition. Earlier this year, taxi-hailing apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, swapped shares worth $6 billion.

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Until three years ago, no Chinese company produced tampons — that is, not until a small Shanghai company, Wishu, started manufacturing and selling them online. Today, Wishu is looking to make the shift from the online marketplace to brick-and-mortar stores.

Wishu CEO Jeremy Rigaud announced that, “We are currently distributing our products across all CityShop branches in China, and are in talks with big supermarkets in Beijing and Shanghai. Soon, our products will be sold via supermarkets in large cities.”

Currently valued at 5 million yuan ($785,000), Wishu caters to customers that already use tampons, instead of targeting new users that may not be interested in using them due to cultural beliefs. It’s these beliefs that stop many multinational companies from launching campaigns to sell tampons in China.

Procter & Gamble media relations spokesperson Dannie Pai said the company’s Whisper tampons were not sold in China because of traditional values. Kimberly-Clark’s Jessica Cai said: “Culturally, maintaining virginity (until marriage) is held in high regard among Chinese women. This keeps the tampon trial rate at a very low level.”

Of course by “maintaining virginity”, Cai is ever so subtly referring to the traditionally held belief among Chinese women that wearing a tampon may break the hymen, thereby compromising their desirability and potential as a future bride.

Nevertheless rapid urbanization is likely to generate massive growth for producers of feminine hygiene products. According to market research firm Mintel, the retail value of the feminine hygiene market in China is expected to increase 47 percent by 2018, from 57.71 billion yuan in 2013, to 84.95 billion yuan.

This past July, the SCMP reported that Chinese women rejected domestically produced sanitary pads out of fear that they contained cancer-causing agents. In response, the state-owned company, Oriental Outlook, announced that none of the maxi pads they tested contained bleaching agents, including nine domestically-made products.

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