And a few other fun facts:

"Statistics showed that the average yearly income of non-private sector employees in Shanghai was 71,874 yuan last year, ranking first in China. Beijing workers ranked second with an average annual salary of 65,683 yuan."

"Shanghai ranked first with an average annual salary of 71,874 yuan, followed by Beijing (65,683 yuan) and Tibet (54,397 yuan)."

Jerry Chan, Digital Marketing & Content Strategy Director

Some other key Beijing stats (from the China Daily):

"The number of permanent Beijing residents who originally come from other regions of China has doubled to 7.045 million, with an average annual growth rate of 10.6 percent and accounting for 35.9 percent of the city's total permanent residents. The ratio is a significant increase over the 18.9 percent from 10 years ago ...
This means that one out of every three permanent Beijing residents is a migrant from outside of Beijing."

"According to last year's census data, Beijing has 1.71 million people aged 65 or above, accounting for 8.7 percent of the total population. That ratio is up 0.3 percentage points from 10 years ago"

Jerry Chan, Digital Marketing & Content Strategy Director

HansHans1 wrote:
Typical White Guilt tripe; European food is excellent for ones diet, as well. Of course none of the writers here would deign set foot in their own genetic motherlands, as that would be racist. Instead, let us all venture to the non-white lands and pretend that they accept us as the raceless coddles that we are.

gay asian or straight caucasian today, hans? just checking :H


Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

It's funny you should mention additives in western convenience foods - do you know how much MSG is used in restaurant (and also home) cooking over here?

And don't forget the prevalent use of animal fat/oils. Even the vegetarian-looking traditional Beijing snacks from DaoXiangCun are made with animal oils (it says so on the Chinese ingredients).

Don't be fooled - over here, "xiang" (tasty) is more important than healthy.

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No, I'm not an employee and not related to Page One. I have no clue why it's arranged the way it is, but I was browsing more than I was looking for a certain set of books, so at the time, it didn't occur to me to be bothered by it. (Though I could see why you would be.)

I did inquire about one book I couldn't seem to find, and they went and checked the computer (they didn't have it). I guess that's your worst case scenario: tell the workers what you're looking for and they'll look it up for you. Annoying, perhaps, but it beats ordering books online, shipping them to the next Beijing-bound visitor, asking your visitor to lug'em to Beijing, then treating said visitor to dinner as a nice gesture, especially because books are heavy and annoying to pack.

Shrug.

If you know of a bookstore in Beijing that packs a superb, impeccably organized selection at Amazon prices, I'd love to know about it. Smile

They are trying to use the soft way.
But I doubt they will soon start giving fines as there are too many interests in this market.

It seems to me that the government is just trying to show they are doing something to reduce deaths and diseases caused by direct and passive smoke.

If they will suceed or fail, it's not probably what they really matter.

Rudling_ wrote:
Btw, better service might be a good place to start.

High-end Chinese restaurants have some of the best service in the world, with often a dedicated staff person for each table (and never in Beijing have I encountered a restaurant where a staff person will ignore you because they don't happen to the person that will earn your tips, which happens all the time in the US. In Beijing, just call anyone over -- and they'll sort you out.)

You should try eating out at some of the fancier places.

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20