Echinacities: Zhongnanhai Bodyguards

Echinacities has a series of photos from the Chinese press showing the President and Premier’s various bodyguards, including this shot of one of Wen Jiabao’s female bodyguards, complete with concealed handgun, 007 style.

Echinacities: Miss China 2009 Contest, Beijing Division

Also on echinacities.com is this collection of photos from fashion.ifeng.com of contestants in the Beijing contest of the Miss China 2009 competition. Contestant Zheng Sirong is pictured.
 

AP: Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith start 'Karate Kid' remake
“Jackie Chan will play the wise kung-fu master in a Hollywood-Chinese remake of the 1984 hit "The Karate Kid" that kicked off filming in the Chinese capital at the weekend, a movie company publicist said Monday. Chan's young disciple in "Kung Fu Kid" will be played by Jaden Smith, the son of Hollywood superstars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, China Film Group spokesman Weng Li told The Associated Press in a phone interview ... The co-production between the state-run China Film Group and Columbia Pictures started shooting Saturday in Beijing, Weng said.”
 

The New York Times: The Collected Ingredients of a Beijing Life
“The Museum of Modern Art’s multistory atrium seems designed to hold monuments. But at the moment it’s filled with the distinctly ungrand contents of one person’s everyday life. The person is, or was, Zhao Xiangyuan. She was born in China in 1938 and died in Beijing in January. For nearly 60 years she lived in the city with her husband and two children in a tiny house crammed with domestic odds and ends — clothes, books, kitchen utensils, toiletries, school supplies, shopping bags, rice bowls, dolls — which were used, then recycled, then indiscriminately hoarded. Now the entire cache, every odd button and ballpoint pen, is at MoMA, along with Ms. Zhao’s fridge and bed.”

xinmin.cn: 3G Mobile Coverage to Encompass the City by Next Year
The entire city of Beijing, including its suburbs, will be covered by 3G signal for mobile phones by the first half of 2010. 3G access will also be available on lines 4, 5 and 10 of the subway by the October 1st holiday this year, with full mobile phone signal coverage available on line 4. Before the end of 2012, Beijing Metro Lines 1 and 2 should also have full coverage.

People's Daily: A Giant Whale or Mantou: The Alternative Design of Chaoyangmen Soho
Beijing real estate mogul Pan Shiyi revealed the new design of his new Chaoyangmen Soho project yesterday. Designed by Zaha Tahid, the 334,000 square meter building is already stirring controversy and is characterized by its flowing shape and resembling a "giant whale" or "four cells about to split apart" when viewed from above. Pan compares the aesthetic of his new building to that of the Bird's Nest.