Beijing News You Might Have Missed this Week, Jul 24

Beijing is a happening city! Don't miss a thing with our weekend roundup of the latest news.


It’s movie time: The Beijing Film Festival, taking place Aug 14-21, as finally unveiled its screening schedule. A full 15 titles will be shown, including three from Chinese directors. Much anticipated are Russian film Conference and Last Film Show from Indian director Pan Nalin. See the full list here.

Fined for failing to sort: Think your getting away with not sorting your trash? Well, it appears that enforcement is ramping up. As of this week, more than 4,000 Beijingers have been warned for failure to sort and 739 fines have been issued this year.

Business is booming: In what amounts to a sign of strong economic recovery as much as a boon for consumers, the Beijing Bureau of Commerce revealed that the number of “first store” (a term used by Chinese economists to refer to the debut branch of a brand in the country, city, or region) openings are up by 30 pecent in the CBD and Sanlitun areas. In the first half of 2021, there have been two world-firsts, 32 China-firsts, and 397 Beijing-firsts.

There was an earthquake?: Amidst all the rain and storms, you might have missed the news of a micro-earthquake this week in west Beijing (Mentogou district). The quake is suspected to be the result of an underground collapse rather than the usual suspect, which is the fault line that runs through the city.

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Images: China Film Insider