Ok foodies, after a marathon 32 pizza reviews submitted to the beijinger website in the inaugural Beijinger Food Fight, we have a winner - and this week's category to announce.

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Carlos Gibbs will bring a small Redbox to Beijing on Friday, May 8th, for a guest appearance at White Rabbit Club. Doors open @ 11pm, entry RMB 60. For a chance to get your name on the door list, leave a comment on this post before 6pm on Friday, telling us why you want to see Gibbs perform. Keep reading below for an interview with the multitalented Gibbs.

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Last year we reported on the controversy surrounding China's 4th International Press Photo Contest. This year, unaware of any claims of digital manipulation, we simply present some of the winning images. Aside from all the Olympic photos entered in the sports news category, none of the other images seem to have been taken in Beijing. Click here for Sohu's gallery of all the winning images, view last year's winners here or keep reading below for a selection of some of the winning images from this year's competition.

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We've selected the shortlist for our China NBA Game Competition and now it's up to you to vote for your favorite image. The person who sent us the photo that manages to garner the most votes as of 2pm tomorrow afternoon (Friday, Oct 17), will win 4 tickets to Saturday's NBA game at the Wukesong Indoor Stadium.

You can choose to either select the one image that you like the best or rank some or all of the images. Please be sure to make sure that you don't give the same ranking to more than one image, this will invalidate your vote.

To vote, click here.

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Update: Voting is now open. To rank your favorite of the 8 images we've chosen, click here.

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Riviera Pool Party

After what appears to be a long history of organizing pool parties down south, the Rivera people have woken up to the fact that Beijing is in need of some cooling off this summer and have organized their first pool party in Beijing. Originally scheduled to take place last Saturday, due to the capital's unpredictable weather, the first of what will become a regular Saturday event, was postponed to this coming Saturday, Jul 26. They promise tunes, sunshine and Mumm Champagne and advise people to come dressed in "glam swimwear". More details available here. RMB 100 (includes one glass of Champagne).
1pm-midnight. Sunstyle (6431 0020)

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Want to see how your Chinese measures up to that of other foreigners learning the language? You might want to catch an episode of Haier's Foreign Students in China Chinese Competition which is being screened all week from 10-11pm on CCTV 4. The show concludes with a grand final this Friday evening. We read about the contest over at Truth from Facts, where you can also find more details about the show and a translation of one Chinese blogger's reaction to hearing laowai mangling his mother tongue. Read more...

The great showdown between 2006 Chili Eating King, Gabe "Dr Pepper" Monroe and reigning Chili Eating Queen Yulin Zhao ended in a controversial* draw on Sunday with the two pepper-eating machines swallowing an astounding 75 peppers in 5 minutes. Six other brave contestants nobly tried to keep up, with Spike in second place as he methodically ate his way through a fiery 33 peppers and Josh in third as he consumed 20 peppers.

But it was really just a battle between the two favorites, who went chili for chili down to the final count, with spectators holding their breath as they battled to eat just one more chili.

A large crowd of Canada Day attendees cheered on the contestants as they pushed their bodies to the limit for the chance to win vouchers from Asian Star and Elisa’s Italian. Each contestant also received a limited-edition t-shirt from Gobi Gear.

Witness the chili carnage for yourself below.

You can take a look at a gallery of photos from the event here.

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Fancy a bit of Mala Xiangguo? Order your chicken wings biantai la? Put your Sichuan friends to shame by ordering the extra spicy broth at the local hot pot joint? Then we invite you to step up and take part in the Fourth Annual Beijinger Chili Pepper Eating Contest being held as part of the Canada Day celebrations at the Canadian International School this Sunday.

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We failed to get two of them into last week's issue of 7 Days, but there are three great events taking place this evening and a thin thread connects all three of them.

At 5pm, New York artist Patty Chang will give a talk over at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in 798. Chang, a 2008 finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize, was also recently featured in the MOMA New Directors series for her work Flotsam Jetsam. According to the Ullen's website, the artist will

give an overview of her work but will primarily introduce A Chinoiserie out of the Old West, the project she is currently working on here in China. Based on a 1928 text written by Walter Benjamin about the Asian American film starlet Anna May Wong, this work will take the form of several short film pieces that deal with representation, translation, mistranslation, and crossed meanings. Chang is in Beijing to film the first segment, which will be shown in late July at the Arrow Factory, Beijing.

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