Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

This article, via Mask of China, makes you think how far the river has come since Mao took his famous dips. Due to droughts (and a completely disregard for hard-hitting environmental policy), the Chang Jiang (??) or Yangtse River is packed with about 7 million cubic feet of garbage congesting at the controversial Three Gorges Dam.

The Three Gorges Dam is 600 km long, and contains a gigantic amount of water. [If it broke]it’d cause earthquakes, and obliterate anything it encountered, due to kinetic energy. It would be the flood equivalent of Mt. Saint Helens, at the very least, and downstream is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth.

If Noah saw something like that coming, he'd build a spaceship, not an ark.

Over one million people are facing water shortages because the Yangtze River is being ravaged by drought. But what effect will the ongoing drought have on the operation of the Three Gorges Dam? If the rain stays away, power generation targets must surely have to be amended.

I did a quick search to find the origin of the term "quake lake" in its current usage, and made a surprising discovery... quake lake seems to have spread like a disease from one brilliant mind at Xinhua, quickly attaching itself to respectable journalists across the globe. I even put together a little chart to track the term's progression.

Earlier today, a Chinese couple that worked on Wall Street was found guilty of insider trading. They cleared a reported $600,000 gain through inside tips. Their attorney claimed that there was a “cultural basis” for their actions - i.e., insider trading is a common practice in China.

GUANG’AN, China - Crowds roared with delight and waved hundreds of Chinese flags in welcome as the Olympic torch began an emotional tour of Sichuan on Sunday, three months after a powerful quake devastated large swaths of the lush, mountainous province.

A minute of silence to honor the victims of the earthquake was held before the start of the run in Guang’an. The city is about 190 miles from the epicenter of the quake but was unscathed.

Part III of expat Turner Sparks' journey into the relief effort underway in Sichuan. In this post Turner talks about the contrast between what the media is saying and what the feeling on the ground is. Includes a number of photos from the front lines.

BEIJING - Corruption costs China more every year than it spends on education and is one of the most serious threats to the country's political stability, according to a new report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The report said graft would continue because the ruling Communist Party is unlikely to carry out the political reforms needed to fight corruption, as a result of fears of losing its grip on power.

Following my first post a couple of days ago, I wanted to post some of the responses I received a couple of weeks ago when I posted this question Linkedin.

It is by no means scientific, but some of the answers were really well thought out, interesting, and thought provoking.