The Beijinger Blog - Health

Green Beijing: Pedal Power and Energy Efficient Houses

thebeijinger — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:00:31 +0800

First Fengtai, next the world! The answer to the looming energy crisis that threatens the planet has been revealed in a residential community in Beijing’s Fengtai District. In an effort to harness the surfeit energy of retirees, the local residence committee has installed six brightly colored exercise bikes that also function as electric generators.

Winter Warmers: Roasted Chestnuts

thebeijinger — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:00:24 +0800

With the weather starting to cool, more and more small stands are switching from summer snacks to the aromatic winter treats of roasted chestnuts and roasted sweet potato. Roasted chestnuts are one of the city's most popular winter snacks and are made by rolling the nuts around in either a wok-like pot or huge ovens with rough grit (basically little black stones) and maltose. Chestnuts are a rich source of vitamin C but locals say it’s best not to eat any chestnuts with cracks in them. Cupping your hands around a warm bag of roasted chestnuts (tangchao lizi) is one of the best things about a Beijing winter, but you’ll probably have to queue up in the cold for the pleasure.

Breakfast Blues: Is it OK to Eat the Eggs?

thebeijinger — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:30:48 +0800

It's getting harder and harder to enjoy a good breakfast in Beijing. First it was the milk (latest numbers here)- coffee drinkers across the city were forced to try and remember which brands were safe to drink, not to mention the sleepless nights that cereal eaters and pancake flippers had to endure. Next came the maggots in the oranges - no more fresh juice for some. Finally, the discovery of melamine-tainted “problem eggs" in Hong Kong and the subsequent spread of the scandal to the mainland, has left fans of a good old fry up worried about how much melamine they'll be ingesting with all that heart-clogging cholesterol.

Sick Citrus: Is it OK to Eat the Oranges?

thebeijinger — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:00:30 +0800

Update: EWSN has a translation of an interesting opinion piece published in the Southern Metropolis Daily about the dilema of whether to forward messages about the oranges or not.

Rumors of infected tangerines from Sichuan’s Guangyuan spread through Beijing earlier this week. Originally constrained to BBS forums and SMS messages, official news agencies have since picked up the story and acknowledged that there was indeed a pest outbreak in Guangyuan and that some fruit had been infected. However, the reports went on to downplay the extent of the outbreak and to reject the suggestion that tangerines from the area were being sold in Beijing. Sohu quoted a spokesperson from Beijing’s Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry (we have no idea why they, and not the ministry of Agriculture, would be monitoring this issue) as saying that no tangerines from Guangyuan are currently on sale in the capital. Officials from Sichuan’s Ministry of Agriculture also announced at a recent press conference that only small part of the tangerines grown in Guangyuan had been affected, and none of these were ever transported outside of the area where they were discovered. At the same time, officials announced that they were launching an investigation into the source on the rumor.

Talking Balls: Golf, Shooting and Free Tickets to the NBA

thebeijinger — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:00:33 +0800

Lots of balls this week, and if you want to see some live NBA action absolutely free you’re going to have to grab your own balls and show us a photograph. To be more exact, our competition to win tickets for the game between the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks on Oct 18 is now underway. To win four tickets all you have to do is send in a photo to us at blog@thebeijinger.com of you somewhere in this lovely city with a basketball. It doesn’t even have to be your basketball so all you need is a camera. More details about the competition can be found here, and you can view the current entries here. The cut-off date is 6pm this evening, so get snapping.

Milk Update: Melamine FAQ

thebeijinger — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:00:48 +0800

From Sep 12 when the scandal first broke to the start of this week, more than 180,000 free examinations of infants have taken place in the capital’s hospitals at a cost of millions of RMB. The tab has been covered by the city’s medical institutions but the city government haa set aside emergency funds to reimburse the medical institutions so that free checks can continue to take place until Sep 23. Among the 180,000 infants examined, 30% of them have Beijing residence papers and 30% are children living in Beijing without a Beijing hukou, the other 40% came to the capital especially for an examination. According to the official statistics, of the 181, 320 health checks that have been under taken in Beijing’s hospitals from Sep 12 to Oct 6, 3,159 resulted in patients being diagnosed with kidney stones. Currently there are 54 infants receiving medical treatment at Beijing hospitals. No deaths have been reported.

On Wednesday the Chinese government released strict new standards for melamine levels in milk and associated food products, while six more people were detained on Tuesday over the milk adulteration scandal. It seems that melamine, the chemical villain of the piece, just can’t stay out of the headlines. Here are some questions and answers for the worried or the just plain curious.

Olympic Venues for Hire

thebeijinger — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:00:25 +0800

Olympic sporting venues located inside the National Olympic Sports Center, just south of the Bird's Nest, are now open to the public - and we're not just talking about tourists poking their noses around. According to a report in Sunday's Beijing News, as part of a plan to put the Olympic venues to good use, the National Olympics Sports Center Stadium, National Olympics Sports Center Gymnasium, the Yingdong Natatorium of National Olympic Sports Center, National Olympic Sports Center Hockey Pitch, National Olympic Sports Center Comprehensive Training Gymnasium, National Olympic Sports Center Handball Training Gymnasium and National Olympic Sports Center Football Training Pitch are now all available for hire. The National Olympics Sports Center is not a new venue, but it under went renovation from 2005 to 2007 in preparation to host the Olympic Handball, Water Polo and Modern Pentathlon events.  

Milk Update: Beijing Pours its Milk Down the Drain

thebeijinger — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:20:00 +0800

Beijing’s milk suppliers have been hard hit by the melamine milk scandal that has rocked the country these past few weeks. Production in Yanqing County’s Dabai Village, one of the largest dairy-farm-reliant villages in Beijing, has come to a halt. The local government has agreed to compensate dairy farmers for their loss and has set up centralized milk stations to take charge of disposing of any affected milk. Earlier this week, dozens of tankers filled with milk arrived at a farm in Yanqing County to pour thousands of liters of milk into a reservoir. Much of the milk was from suppliers who had been sourcing many of the now suspect brand-name companies.

Talking Balls

thebeijinger — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0800

It’s the busiest time of year for local sports teams, both professional and amateur, as schedules either resume or start afresh after the Olympic hiatus.

Beijing Guoan lost away to first-placed Shandong Luneng on the weekend The 2-0 reverse leaves Guoan 11 points off the pacesetters in fifth place. There are still 13 games left in the campaign to mount a title challenge, the next of which is against Wuhan Guanggu at 1.30pm this Sunday (Sep 28) at Fengtai Stadium. See this earlier post for directions to the stadium and here for a warning of what to expect from local supporters.

Is any milk safe to drink?

thebeijinger — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:27:15 +0800

Starbucks customers in the capital had to take their coffee black - or more often than not choose to whiten it with soy milk - this morning as the international coffee chain decided to stop using milk supplied by Mengniu Dairy. The decision was made after news emerged that the baby milk powder scandal had spread to regular milk supplies with milk produced by some of China’s biggest brand names, including Olympic sponsor Yili, being tainted. While Starbucks continue to search for alternate suppliers, readers might be wondering what to put on their cereal tomorrow morning.

According to Chinese media reports, Sanyuan and Nestle (along with 406 other brands) have not tested positive for traces of melamine. However three of the country's most well-known brands Yili, Mengniu and Guangming all have had a small proportion of their products return a positive test for traces of the harmful chemical. Sanyuan is a Beijing-based supplier of dairy products and their share price has jumped 10% on the news of their clean bill of health. Although the fresh milk that Sanyuan produce is much more expensive than the others (RMB 8-9 a liter), the milk that the Great Hall of the People choose to serve at their official banquets looks like the safest bet for now.