From the first day of the new year, the two trams (dangdangche) that sat idle at the top of the newly renovated Qianmen Dajie since the Olympics, finally began to make their slow way down the new commercial boulevard. The tram is actually making a return to the pedestrian street 42 years after services were stopped. The two new 84-seat trams, “Qianmen No.1” and “Qianmen No.2”, crawl between the south and north end of the Qianmen street at between 3-9km/h - perhaps allowing for tourists to walk alongside and take photos of family and friends who are, gasp, actually on the tram!? It takes the trams about 10 minutes to cover the 845m journey, past largely empty stores, from one end of the street to the other and tourists are expected to hand over 20 kuai for the ride.

Fake 100s

An official from the Bank of China has contradicted earlier media reports that the fake RMB 100 notes circulating around the country, were of such good quality that even the official currency detecting machines at banks had difficulty distinguishing the fakes. The official clarified that these notes can be identified and that China’s central bank has begun an investigation into the source of the counterfeit bills.

The death from Bird Flu of a 19-year old woman living in Chaoyang District on Jan 5 has raised concerns of another outbreak of the deadly avian influenza. According to the WHO, since its reemergence in 2003, the H5N1 strain of avian influenza (Bird Flu) has been identified in 392 cases worldwide, of which 248 resulted in death (include the death announced today). Of these, China had a total of 31 cases and 21 deaths. In 2008, there were 3 identified cases and 3 deaths, the last one being in February of that year.

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Beijing’s rank in the 2008 Scientific and Comprehensive Rating Report on Chinese Cities.

According to the report produced by China City Development Institute (CCDI), Beijing is ranked fourth, following Shanghai, Hangzhou and Wuxi. The report is based on each city’s living standards as well as economic and social development. Dongguan, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Jinhua and Ningbo make up the rest of the top ten.

The opening up of direct flights, post and shipping between the mainland and Taiwan on Monday (or the liang'an santong) is good news for those who regularly commute between Beijing and Taibei. The price of a roundtrip Beijing-Taiwan flight has dropped by about RMB 600 and now goes for something in the vicinity of RMB 3,700 including tax. The length of the flight has also been cut by over an hour with the direct flight taking a mere 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Despite earlier reports that a large chunk of Beijing cops were going to start patrolling the city on electric bikes, traffic cops in the Tian'anmen area won’t be following suit. This week they've enjoyed revving up the 1700cc engines of three new Harleys for the cameras. Harley Davidson has donated the three bikes to the Municipal Traffic Administration Bureau. Each bike is worth about RMB 400,000.

The Beijing Bureau of Meteorology released an alert at 5pm yesterday - the first of its kind since 2004 - warning of a "cold wave" that will result in temperatures in the capital plummeting to -9 deg celsius overnight. According to the forecast,  force 5 to 6 north winds will begin buffeting the city tonight and during the day tomorrow the temperature is unlikely to rise above 0 ℃. According to authorities, the cold front will only affect Beijing for the next couple of days and temperatures are likely to rebound over the weekend. That said, they're unlikely to reach the relatively mild temperatures we've been experiencing lately.

Links and Sources
Beijing Times: 本市首次发布寒潮预警  平原地区气温下降至-9℃
Hexun: 北京首发寒潮预警(图)

European Film Festival
Many of the European embassies in Beijing have come together to present China’s first Annual European Union Film Festival. The schedule consists of films from over 20 countries and includes popular films like Once from Ireland, La Môme (My Life in Rose) from France and The Last King of Scotland from the UK. For a complete schedule click here. The screenings will take place in four locations: the French Cultural Centre, Instituto Cervantes, Italian Institute of Culture and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Each film will be screened in its original language, with English and Chinese subtitles. Free. ID required at certain locations.

We weren't expecting to see more smiley faces in the sky until those special Olympic fireworks go on sale in late January. But anyone who was out and about last night might have seen a cute little astronomical phenomenon in the southwest of the city. A smiley face with the eyes of Venus and Jupiter and a friendly little smile care of the crescent moon. The heavenly bodies not only smiled down upon the Olympic city, but could also be seen throughout China and across the Eastern hemisphere. According to experts from the Beijing Planetarium the phenomenon of three celestial bodies being so close together only occurs about once a year. Most Beijing papers reported that you won't be able to see the smiley face tonight.

According to statistics from Beijing's Municipal Health Bureau, as of October this year, 5,635 people in Beijing have tested positive for HIV/AIDS since 1985 (we've edited the proceeding sentence - click here to find out why). Of this group, 1,184 were local residents, 4,232 were from out of town and 219 were foreigners. Last year also saw sex overtake drug use as the main cause of HIV infections in the capital. As today is World AIDS Day, we've done a roundup of related-activities going on in the capital.