A talented photographer and dear friend of this magazine passed away recently. Luna Zhang died in the early morning of September18. She was 38.

If you ever met Luna, you would have been astonished to know her age. She had a youthful energy, a chirpy and wide-eyed way of talking, and a bubbly laugh that radiated an eternal innocence. Yet at the same time, she was also tall and graceful, with dignified cheekbones and poignant eyes, and walked into rooms commanding attention.

Liu Heung Shing is a living legend in Chinese photography circles. The Hong Kong-born photographer took his first professional images in China following Mao’s death in 1976, and over the following seven years produced an extraordinary body of work capturing daily life in a rapidly transforming nation.

When: Mid-April, 2009
around 10am

Where: Xi Dawanglu

What: A newcomer from Australia gets a haircut on the street.

Got an interesting picture of Beijing street life? Send it to blog@thebeijinger.com for a chance to be posted on the website. Alternatively, send your Peking pic to editor@thebeijinger.com for a chance to have your pic in the magazine.

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.

Long before embarking on a career in photojournalism that would include winning a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the collapse of the Soviet Union, before winning the 1989 Picture of the Year award for his coverage of China, before photographer Liu Heung Shing had ever picked up a camera - he was attending grade school in Fujian province. Years later, in 2008, Liu put his lifetime of experience photographing China to work editing China: Portrait of a Country. The huge book of photographs, taken by 88 Chinese photographers, gives a visual history of the country from 1949 to the present day, and has been hailed by many as one of the best books on the “New China” ever published. Liu will be taking part in the sold out Committing Journalism session at the Bookworm's International Literary Festival The Beijinger asked Liu about the book, and about his extraordinary career. You can browse our March issue (online version here) for interviews with many of the other authors appearing at the festival. You can browse the events here or on the Bookworm's official Literary Festival page.

All photos and photo captions below are taken from Liu Heung Shing's book, China: Portrait of a Country.

Though it may resemble the aisles of Carrefour on a busy Sunday afternoon, it's actually a shot of just some of the 100,000 60,000 people who crowded into Beijing's International Exhibition Center over the weekend for the second large-scale job fair in Beijing since Spring Festival.

The ever amazing Big Picture photo blog over at Boston.com offers up some choice images of Chinese New Year celebrations around the world. Quite a few of the photos were taken in Beijing including the above image of a performer at one of the city's many Temple Fairs enjoying a cigarette between shows. Click here to see the full gallery, or keep reading to see some of our favorite snaps below.

Please Wait Your Turn

Leaving from Beijing West Railway Station on January 23, two days before The Spring Festival’s Eve.

The cover of yesterday's Beijing Evening News featured this great image of police and firefighters destroying a huge batch of illegal fireworks that had been confiscated in the lead up to Spring Festival. 3,500 boxes of fireworks valued at around RMB 1.02 million were destroyed. The explosion took place at a reservoir in Daxing District at about 11am yesterday. Fans of big explosions can view more photos after the jump or by clicking here.

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.