Finally, an update on Taoping village, one of the Sichuan communities close to the May 12 earthquake. Thanks to our correspondent, Love the Country, there are these pictures of the village. Love the Country said the village escaped the tremor largely unscathed in terms of people, with four or five people sustaining minor injuries. There was structural damage to some buildings, including the main tower. The main concern of the residents was how they would get their cherry crops to market.
A panda picture just for the sake of it. More can be found at
http://club.cn.yahoo.com/bbs/threadview.html?gid=900111328&tid=22679&page=1&source=1JH
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The May 1 holiday is traditionally the unofficial start of the flower season in Beijing. We’re a bit past that now but the city is still a riot of colour. The time is ripe for a garden gnome competition.
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The basset hound seems to have it all under control.
It was 19 years ago that the tanks rolled into the square and people seeking to commemorate the event may want to consider smashing a small bottle. “Xiao ping” is a homonym for “little bottle” and the personal name of Deng Xiaoping, one of the leaders blamed for the crackdown. Also consider saying the phrase “po guan po shuai”, which suggests the bottle should be smashed in a violent way because a good bottle should be well-protected.
The crackdown also meant that students entering university after 1989 had to complete military service before starting their studies. In some cases this was up to a year but other places it was about three months, possibly depending on how active the university was in the protests. When asked what she learned from the training, one alumnus said: “I learned to endure.”
