Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

A three minute silence was observed Monday at 2.28pm Beijing Time (6.28 GMT), one week after the terrible earthquake in Sichuan. This was accompanied by three minutes of noise by drivers of cars, ship and trains blasted their horns for three minutes of noise.

Here you can see a CCTV report which includes coverage of the three minutes from across China

I was at work when suddenly a mass of people moved along the street at the foot of our building. Here are the impressions I caught during a 5 minutes coffee break.

Like seemingly everything else in China prefaced with ‘The World’s…Biggest, Longest, Most Populace, etc.,’ the Beijing Subway is presently the world’s fastest growing rapid transit network. By Tom Carter for Air Macau infight magazine.

Just a quick note to assure everyone that this spam problem is top of my priority list. I've had e-mails and comments from a few users who seemed a bit ticked, and wanted to give you guys a forum where you could comment and give suggestions.

So, here's a run down of what "was" in place, what "is" in place, and what likely "will be" in place soon. Please leave comments here and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Was

An article from Angry Chinese Blogger about a little known ceremony that takes place once a year to remember those that suffered and died to build Japan's largest man-made lake.

Built largely by Korean slaves and Chinese POWs during the 1940s, the lake now offers Japan's young and old alike a place and time to reflect on a dark spot in their history.

On average, a Chinese person takes his or her own life every two minutes, giving the world's most populous nation a dismal record as it prepares to celebrate 30 years of otherwise spectacular economic reform. In just one generation, China's millennia-old civilisation has become one dedicated almost entirely to profit, with profound consequences.

Half of all private cars banned every day, an army of volunteers roaming the streets, Olympic flare as far as the eye can see, new subway lines, and security checks everywhere in between. Yup, Beijing is a vastly different place today than it was before July 20. Here's a rundown of the changes which have gone into effect.

A quick overview, and some pictures and video, of the new line 5 recently added to the Beijing subway.

I took this two shots with my Yashica T3 during 2006 when i was on my way to the Shanghai Museum in summer. It was in the late afternoon, there was a lot of people crossing the busy streets around Nanjing Road, People's Square and Xizang Road. This old lady sat down near a cross junction attracting lots of attention from passer-bys. She was not performing or basking. She was apparently outcrying to the public for some wrongs done to her, seeking justice and attention. There were a couple of street police and traffic police trying to clear the crowd. I took the shots quickly and left.