"Does acting in or watching a Shakespeare play sound like a bad high school flashback? Well this isn't like anything you've seen, or possibly performed in, before.

Beijing Playhouse will hold auditions for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) on March 1 and 2, for performances of the long-running London West End play May 8-21. The show claims a record for the fastest performance of Hamlet ever: 43 seconds.

Although foreigners are leaving China at a quicker rate than coming in, and sometimes it feels like the only sector hiring is the education sector, there are still sectors where foreigners are actively sought after.

Jaycee Chan, son of Jackie Chan, kung fu movie star and potentially the most famous Chinese person in the entire world, apologized on Saturday following his release from prison. He sat out a six-month sentence in Beijing on drugs charges.

“Just a little spicy please.”

Only concerning Asian cuisine does a simple five-word sentence hold so many diverse meanings. My waiter looked at me, nodded once, and walked to the kitchen, while I sat there and wondered if I was going to get a bowl of primordial, tasteless soup, or a fiery broth that would cause even a condemned soul to blow on their spoon. Adjusting for spice preference is like turning the shower knob in a Beijing bathroom, you’re either going to get hit with icy Antarctic waters or steam that’s hissed straight off the sun’s surface.

With voting for our 2015 Reader Restaurant Awards well underway (vote here), we wanted to take a moment to highlight the 10 restaurants named to the ballot in the category of Best New (Non-Chinese) Restaurants. Each is awesome in its own right, so if you're growing tired of cycling through your old favorites, give one of these 10 a try ... and then come back and cast your opinion on the best in our awards poll here!
 

If you’ve been in China for Spring Festival before, you know the best part is the food. There are few other occasions in the Chinese calendar in which locals’ love of eating and respect for superstition come together in such grand fashion. Chuxi (the eve of Chinese New Year) is traditionally the scene of annual family reunions; common dishes include dumplings, fish, sweet tangyuan, longevity noodles, and niangao – all of which contain or recall homophones for fortune, luck, and health.

The competition to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games heated up on Friday, as inspectors from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) arrived in the Kazakhstan candidate city of Almaty for its official inspection.

The visit is the final and biggest opportunity for Beijing's only rival for the Games to convince the IOC that it's ready to become an Olympic city. Twelve Olympic representatives will spend five days listening to presentations and visiting sites around the former Kazakh capital.

Underneath all the shine and sparkle of the W Hotel, the new luxury boutique digs at the southeast corner of Jianguomen, is a single, no-nonsense gin martini. Its two speared, plump olives are the size of cherries, large enough to hold up to a near goblet of Beefeater 24 and vermouth. Drink more than one, and the saxophone player at X 25 may start looking fuzzy. Head bartender Alex Xie’s creation may even have what it takes to convert James Bond to gin, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

So this restaurant doesn’t spell out the entirety of ‘Pizza Hut’, but it is pretty obvious that they nicked the logo. Or, well, only half of the logo.

For those of us living nearby, this place has intrigued for a while now, partially because it could potentially be cheap edible pizza on our doorstep and partially because the door reads ‘cupcakes’, and everyone knows that those fluffy multi-colored delights are the best thing to have ever been invented.

China is planning to create an international tourism zone along its Northeastern border region with Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The zone, dubbed ‘Tumen River Delta International Tourism Area’ (read: Gulag, see:picture) will include park of China’s Hunchun City, as well as a 10-square-kilometer plot each from both Russia and the DPRK.

Facilities on the site will be built between the three countries, following interest from authorities of Russia and the DPRK after the Hunchun City government put forth the original idea in 2013.