Crime in Beijing has been a hot topic of late with bar fights and muggings in Sanlitun grabbing attention, but nothing has been as notorious as the recent case of Song Jinhua. A word of warning to the squeamish to look away now.

A Shunyi residents' association has put forward proposals that would see the outlying suburb become the world's largest gated community. On Tuesday, March 29, the Shunyi Neighborhood Development Council published its plans to have a 100km perimeter fence erected around the district's central urban area, which accounts for 19sqkm of the district's total 1,000sqkm area.

Christmas has become more common and celebrated around China over the years and highlighting this trend is the celebration at Beijing No 1 Detention Center.

Bought an apple lately? If you’ve gone food shopping in any local market or stopped off at a fruit stall in the last month or so, you’d likely have noticed that a bag of fruit has left a deeper dent in your pocket than it did a year ago.