This is not the $2million teapot. It is a more ordinary Ming plate sitting in a museum in Berlin. 400 years ago, it was affordable contemporary art.

Someone just spent $2,130,000 (more or less) to buy a teapot. It was sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong to London-based... more

This might have a direct effect on families traveling via Tokyo, which some do -- and perhaps more will.

It looks like despite things being rather frosty between China and Japan (which I've alluded to before)... more

It was just Easter here in the Western world, and it was Easter in China, too. The fact that it's Easter is becoming more worth mentioning in the Chinese press. I've previously alluded to the ... more

The Economist, of all publications, has a fascinating story on names in Chinese orphanages, what they're likely to mean and where some of them come from.

And, incidentally, just how very strange some of them are.

Common choices are Dang meaning “party” (the Communist one, naturally), or Guo meaning “country” or “state”. Those saddled with these names face a lifetime of funny looks, or a bureaucratic quagmire trying to change them.

In February... more

But they're both in red and gold!

There's McLabor trouble in China....

U.S. fast-food chains McDonald‘s and KFC said Thursday they are working with Chinese authorities to resolve allegations that the companies underpay their part-time workers, as a labor probe expands to other cities. The companies said they were seeking clarification of labor laws, while China‘s government-affiliated trade union demanded redress, noting that probes... more

First thing one: China is launching its first gay talk show

"My mother was very supportive," she said on Thursday, as cameras rolled in a small studio in northwest Beijing. "But my father still has not accepted it." "He said I was young and would feel different when I was older ... But he is still saying that even though I'm now in my thirties," she said. Qiao Qiao was the first guest on "Tongxing Xinglian", China's first gay chat show, an interactive online forum hosted by gay presenters and accessible... more

Asia's richest woman has died, according to her secretary, Ringo Wong.

Wang's habit of wearing tight pigtails earned her the nickname "Little Sweetie," or "Siu Tim Tim" in Cantonese.

Friends say the Shanghai-born magnate knew she only had months to live, having been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December.

She'd been a subject of some controversy because of legal battles with husband Teddy Wang's estate and a passel of ... more

Lots of visitors talk about how crowded China is, and how that's because 1 billion people live there and it's only (only?) about the size of the U.S.

That's not really true. China can *seem* crowded because nearly all the people live in only a few places, and those are the few places where most visitors wind up. Most of China *isn't* crowded.

I've, uh, been looking at maps. For fun.

Here's a map... more

…or at least questions that might be asked by those traveling to China.

Um, this week, at least.

Question 1: Why are they burning Viagra? Or, well, pictures of Viagra? Those guys in the cemetery… the ones with the funny-looking money? And why do they seem so *serious* about it?

Well, so Great-grandpa... more

Are you afraid of Chinese grannies?

Respect their power.