Cup of Cha
This is China

I love Beijing, but every city can improve somewhat, right? New York could have bigger apartments. Atlanta could have fewer strip clubs. Salt Lake City could have more. Every city is different. But here are a few public policy choices that could help Beijing:
1. Mandate that all restaurants have more than four copies of the [...]

Continue reading “Unique Improvements to Beijing” »

A funny thing happened after the traffic restrictions, designed to reduce air pollution, went into effect: air quality got much worse. In addition to the obvious negative change in visibility, even the government’s own numbers (which many suspect are manipulated anyway) back it up. Before July 20, when the restrictions went into effect, there were [...]

Continue reading “Pollution Worsens Following Traffic Restrictions (a lot)” »

Saturday marked the beginning of the last stage of ticket pick-ups for the Olympics. This is for tickets bought through the official American channel, Co-Sport. All I have to say is that picking up at the Bank of China was 1000 times easier. That’s right, the Chinese outlet was far superior to the foreign one.
At [...]

Continue reading “CoSport Olympic Ticket Pick-Up Hassle” »

Henry Sanderson of the Associated Press is reporting that China has stopped issuing all business visas into China until September 20. Terrorism concerns related to American lawyers were the cited reason. Just kidding, they’re worried businessmen might protest. That makes sense:
The visas restrictions are part of a massive security operation to ensure a trouble-free games, [...]

Continue reading “We Don’t Want No Stinkin’ Business” »

The Chinese government has announced that people attending the Olympic Games will have designated areas where they will be allowed to protest. No word yet on what topics people are allowed to protest in these areas that, no doubt, will have extremely close surveillance. Here’s the official story from the AP:
Beijing will set up specially [...]

Continue reading “Idiots Encouraged to Protest in Olympic Safe Zones” »

Recently the government released eight things Chinese shouldn’t ask foreigners. Well, we at Cup of Cha have put together eight things visitors to the Beijing Olympics shouldn’t ask Chinese people:

When it says “duck’s blood” on the menu, what is it really? (And why is blood solid?)
Why does Taiwan (ie, Chinese Taipei) have its own flag [...]

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Bush and McCain are really, really different on policy. Just ask McCain’s surrogates.

Two parts I love about this:
1. Toward the end Sanford starts talking about the McCain-Bush approach. Which, uh, is not one thing.
2. Wolf asks him about being VP at the end, almost as if to make it more apparent that this interview has [...]

Continue reading “Bush and McCain Really, Really Different” »

We know there won’t be any foreign, Xinjiang or Tibetan tourists in Beijing during the Olympics. But that (or at least the first part of that) might not be such a bad thing. Aside from that inconvenient fact, what if these Games basically go off perfectly? It seems entirely possible, depending on your definition of [...]

Continue reading “Hey! This Olympics Thing Might Work!” »

A few nights ago, I was minding my own business biking home from the Andingmen area on the Second Ring Road, when I noticed two police officers in full riot gear talking to a motorist on the side of the road. The one speaking had a giant plexiglass shield on his left arm, separating himself [...]

Continue reading “Riot Gear and Big Guns Near Yonghegong Temple” »

I went to buy Ibuprofen from my local Chemist on Saturday. I was informed that, unlike on every previous occasion I was not allowed to as the doctor was not present. I think the rule is that Ibuprofen can only be sold by a qualified pharmacist or doctor, none was available, thus [...]

Continue reading “Don’t take drugs or burn Beijing to the ground - for the Olympics anyway.” »