More Open Doors on Airplanes and Other Stuff

I knew we must be approaching the Spring Festival travel season. On Wednesday night, here on this small Thai island, a waft of cigarette smoke, some slamming hotel room doors, and the echo of "cao" down the corridor, and I realized the first visitors from China must have arrived.

Smog and Fog Predicted for Friday and Saturday

Don’t shoot the messenger, but China’s metrological authority has predicted that Northern China will be covered in a great blanket of smog tomorrow and the day after. Sigh.

Smog in Beijing and Tianjin will be medium to severe, as a result of low wind. Add fog into the mix for a beautiful grey sky. Such a shame considering the AQI has been so low the past few weeks (give or take a few days).

Hopefully the Ministry of Sky Manipulation will be able to fix it before Spring Festival.

In the Year of the Sheep, Don't Get Rammed

Goat, lamb, ram, sheep – whichever moniker you prefer for these occasionally woolly and generally tasty animals, it’s a yang year. And if you were born in 1967, 1979, 1991, or 2003, it’s your year too. The year is considered to take on the characteristics of the animal that rules it, so let’s see what we can expect for the coming period, as the Year of the Sheep only lasts until February 7, 2016.

Yao Ming to Serve as Beijing 2022 Games Bid Ambassador

One of our favorite people, Yao Ming, will serve as an ambassador for Beijing's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, along with five other athletes we're pretty sure we've never heard of.

Yao, who played basketball for China's national team during the 2008 Olympics, is the only non-winter sports ambassador named. The others are "former figure skating pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, speed skater Zhang Hong, aerial skier Li Nina, and Paralympic Games champion Hou Bin," according to CRI English.

It's Live! Vote Now in the Beijinger's 2015 Reader Restaurant Awards

Following weeks of painstaking nomination round voting nearly 300 of Beijing's best restaurants in over 50 categories have been selected to take part in the Beijinger's 2015 Reader Restaurant Awards! And now it's up to you to place your all-important vote!

FOLLOW THE LINK TO VOTE NOW!