A Big Fat Pampered PIG!

Source: China.org.cn

Li Yuan never thought a pig could bring so much happiness - a laid-back sort that enjoys music, provides company on neighborhood strolls and makes friends easily.

Two years ago, Li bought the piglet from a market in Beijing. The male pig, a Bama miniature, had a short and round body.

Such piglets typically weigh 15 or 20 kg, or 33 to 44 pounds.

It was the pig's certain charm that sealed the sale.

"I found him looking like a lovely baby at my first glance," said Li, patting the pig's now-huge belly. "Oh, my boy, you are destined to meet me."

Told that raising a pig when she was in her 50s could bring good fortune, Li cherished the pig so much she named him Laifu (or "fortune comes").

"Indeed, he brings me good business and a peaceful soul," said Li, who is a merchant.

How it is in China everything is a superstition? So fattening up a PIG to 50 years old bring good fortune. I don't know who will live longer? The owner of the pig!

Shanghai Building Collapses

Source: China Daily

A 13-floor apartment building under construction collapsed Saturday morning in Shanghai, killing one worker.

Witnesses said the whole building started to fall down at about 5:30 am on Saturday and a 28-year-old worker surnamed Xiao from Anhui province was buried in the collapse and killed, the Xinhua news agency reported. No other casualties are reported.

Zhang Supong, a witness across a river to the collapsed building, said his family and neighbors were shocked when they felt the earth shake in the morning.

"It was just like an earthquake," he told China Daily, adding there was no visual damage in his apartment.

The authorities have ordered suspension of the construction and a thorough investigation of the collapse.

A man, who is in his 30s and declined to be named, told China Daily that he just bought an apartment beside the collapse building and with this accident, he would terminate the contract with the property developers.

The apartment building is at a premium location in Shanghai, about five metro stops from downtown areas, and is sold at a price of 18,000 yuan per sq m.

Local media reported on Friday that some cracks appeared on the anti-flood bank near the collapsed building, but the cause of the cracks was also uncertain.

A) This is what happens when you cut corners (literally)
B) This is what happens when your building is 13 floors. It should have only been 8 floors.

China puts a stop to snake-bitten cock-in-a-pot

Whaaaaaaat?

Source: Reuters

Chinese health authorities are putting a stop to restaurants serving chickens which have been bitten to death by poisonous snakes and cooked up for a supposedly detoxing meal.

The dish, served by a small number of eateries in the southern province of Guangdong and the southwestern city of Chongqing, has generated a storm of publicity and controversy in the Chinese media and amongst bloggers.

A video showing a cook holding a snake and forcing it to bite a live chicken until it dies has been widely circulated online, (http:/you.video.sina.com.cn/b/21145091-1405053100.html) generating mainly angry comments.

"It's disgusting and really cruel," wrote one poster on the popular portal sina.com.cn.

"Not only is it cruel and blood-thirsty, but totally amoral," the Chongqing Business Daily cited a neighbor to one of the restaurants as saying.

Health authorities in Guangdong have already told restaurants to stop serving "poisonous snake-bitten chicken" and now those in Chongqing have joined in.

"Although nobody has been poisoned, this at the very least is an irregular way of slaughtering poultry," the business newspaper quoted a local health official as saying.

One dish, prized among some in Guangdong, is monkey brains scooped from a live animal, which has regularly upset animal rights campaigners in the West.

Supposedly detoxing meal? Must be another crazy superstition.

Clog show given boot in Hong Kong over feng shui

Source: Yahoo!

One of Hong Kong's tallest skyscrapers has declined to hold a Dutch charity exhibition of clogs because of worries the clunky footwear will bring bad luck, a report said.

The Cheung Kong Center refused to host the show, which was organised by the Dutch consulate, because of feng shui, a diplomat told the Sunday Morning Post.

The tower's management said the wooden footwear show would cause bad luck, because the Cantonese word for shoes -- hai -- sounds similar to a sigh of exasperation, the English-language paper said.

"Cheung Kong Center rejected the exhibition because of the Chinese meaning of wooden shoes. I don't understand. It is difficult to explain as I don't know how to say shoes in Chinese," an unnamed member of staff at the consulate told the paper.

The exhibition, part of an effort to promote Dutch culture, which will raise money for Chinese children, is now being held at another tower in Hong Kong, the paper said.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese system, used to enhance positive energy and good luck.

The system is still very influential in superstitious Hong Kong, and highly-paid feng shui consultants are often employed to advise on the location and design of new buildings, as well as give individuals advice on how to improve their luck.

So nobody in Hong Kong can wear shoes? Shoes are not fit to be worn indoors? I don't get superstitions.

The perfect 10

Source: Asiaone

FOR Ms Jerlyn Soh, the date on which she ties the knot is of utmost importance.

Not only must it be easy to remember, but it must also be “special” to her and her partner.

So Ms Soh, 27, was quick to decide on Oct 10, 2010 (10.10.10) for her upcoming nuptials.

In Mandarin, the number 10 – shi – can allude to shi quan shi mei – a Chinese idiom which means “perfect in every way”.

The private-school student told my paper: “We want our wedding to be perfect.”

She and her husband-to-be have been together for 10 months and they intend to have 10 bridesmaids and 10 best men on their big day.

“If possible, we’d even like to have 10 cars at the wedding,” Ms Soh said.

While they have yet to consult a geomancer on whether their chosen date is considered auspicious, Ms Soh said she will not change her mind.

“As long as the date is special to us, it shouldn’t matter whether it is considered auspicious or not,” she said.

This same enthusiasm cannot be said for Sept 9 this year, 09.09.09.

So superstitious! It's going to be a pain in the ass to have a wedding on a day that everyone else is having one too. These people are too superficial. I went to a wedding last year on 08.08.08. First of all it was a Friday so I was pissed off cause I had to work and then rush home and try to get ready and make a 7:00pm wedding. Plus it was no fun cause the bride was in an absolute panic because nothing was allowed to go wrong on this perfect day. Of course they're divorced now. They were not ready to marry but because of 08.08.08 they rushed into it. All because of a stupid number.

In this article if the lady is planning now for a 10.10.10 wedding then she has lots of time to prepare. But it's still going to be a shit show! The bigger the wedding, the faster the divorce I say!

Girl raped on mystic advice

Source: The Straits Times

AN INDIAN businessman has been arrested for allegedly raping his daughter for more than eight years, apparently on the advice of a Hindu mystic who said it would make him wealthy, police said.

Authorities also arrested the man's wife, suspected of being an accomplice, and the mystic - a tantrik, or practitioner of the ancient Indian art of the occult - for allegedly raping the man's other minor daughter, police said on Thursday.

Police said the father, a 49-year-old car parts salesman from Mumbai's outskirts, began raping his oldest daughter in 2000, when she was 14, after he ran into financial troubles.

'The businessman approached a friend who claimed to possess tantrik powers, and the latter advised him to have sex with his daughter to prosper in life,' police officer Mukund Mahajan told the CNN-IBN news channel.

Police said that in recent months, the tantrik apparently began having sex with the businessman's 15-year-old daughter, also for occult reasons.

OK how stupid are people? Having sex with the daughter to being good luck is ridiculous enough, and then letting the tantrik have sex with her too? With the mothers approval? At what point to you realize that the tantrik tricks you to have sex with the girl. Ever?

What the article fails to mention is, did it work? Did they get richer? I can see them 'trying it' to see if it work, as heinous as that is. But did they get richer? If they didn't, they don't keep raping her for 8 years!