Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
“Nearly a third of our black tea consumption is Earl Grey, and we feel Tregothnan’s is outstanding compared with other brands.” Tea is tea is tea, and for centuries it has been an essential part of both Asian and English cuisine. And as you probably knew, the importation of tea from China and other parts of Asia to England formed one of the very first bonds of trade between the Eastern and Western worlds. Okay, so much for history, which is always evolving anyway and is often filled with irony. Because for one small company in England, the love for tea has led to a mastery in growing, harvesting and processing the precious leaves into a product which is very much coveted and sought out by tea connoisseurs in Asia. Tregothnan Estates in Cornwall produces numerous varieties of tea, including Earl Grey and Darjeeling, for which some high-end consumers in China and Japan have developed a taste. In Japan particularly, English Earl Grey has become a very popular beverage as casual Japanese cuisine has become more westernized. And apparently having a sip of English Breakfast tea is not all that uncommon these days among the more affluent residents of Beijing and Shanghai. So in an interesting flip-flop of history, at least one English tea company is making and exporting tea to the birthplace of those lovely leaves. As we said, history is not without a sense of irony. (CNNGo – English Tea For China)
Continue reading
“Some look like defensive structures and feature narrow slits that could be used for shooting arrows. Others, such as those on mountaintops or at valley entrances, could have marked or guarded a frontier.” No one is really sure why they were built, or for what they were used. In the Danba Valley in western China, there are nearly 1,000 towers of varying shapes, sizes and states of repair, and their age ranges from 300 to roughly 1,700 years. Some of the towers are simple and appear to have served a utilitarian purpose. Others are rather tall and ornate, and may have been built as status symbols for wealthy merchants and traders. All of them are built of some combination of cut stone, bricks and wood timbers. And while determining the towers’ age and purpose has been a challenge and delightful mystery for archeologists, a bigger challenge for China is how to prevent future damage from ongoing neglect, and the threat of earthquakes and planned hydroelectric power projects in the area. Here’s hoping the mystery of Danba Towers gets solved before the structures fall apart or are washed away in the name of modern progress. (Wall Street Journal Travel – Danba Valley Mystery Towers)
Continue reading
“It is legal to supervise religious affairs, and protect normal religious order. This issue of forced disappearance fundamentally does not exist.” It seems the Chinese government possesses magical powers usually, though incorrectly, associated with Tibetan holy men: It has made over 300 monks from Tibet disappear. In April, Chinese security forces rounded up the monks up from Kirti monastery in the Aba prefecture of Sichuan Province. China’s foreign ministry claims the monks are undergoing government “re-education”, but refuses to divulge the location of the 300 holy men to U.N. human rights investigators. The government in Aba says it decided to give the monks further education on China’s legal system following the actions of a monk who burned himself to death in protest earlier this year. According to China’s state news agency Xinhua, the Kirti monks have also been guilty of hiring prostitutes, gambling, drunkenness, and viewing pornography, adding to the need for their legal re-education. Still, no one with the U.N. knows where the monks are or if they are still alive, and at the very least their disappearance and detention is a violation of international law. (Reuters – 300 Tibetan Monks Disappear) China’s First Aircraft Carrier? “The carrier revelation comes at a complicated time for U.S.-Chinese relations.” What surprised us about this story isn’t the fact that China’s military has an aircraft carrier; it’s that this is apparently their first one. The Chinese government normally holds facts about the country’s military very, very close to the proverbial vest. However, Chinese defense minister Chen Bingde revealed details about the carrier this week to a reporter for Hong Kong Commercial Newspapers. The ship is under construction in Dalian, and is nearly completed. It has taken literally an army of workers to convert the hull, which dates from the Soviet era, to Chinese naval specifications. And until now, the entire project has been kept secret with a cover story which claimed the giant ship was a floating casino being built for use off the shores of Macau. The reason the revelation about China’s carrier worries the U.S. is that it is further evidence that the Chinese are developing military technology in secret, technology which could threaten American military superiority. (ABC News – Chinese Aircraft Carrier)
Continue reading
It’s just games… but you can’t miss it. Q: “Hey Chang, What’s your booth called?” A: “We are From China” Q: I mean, what do I look for? A: “We are From China” Q: Are you games real? A: “We are From China” Enough said. (love to Ed Lin) C’mon!
Continue reading
“One incident this past January resulted in the death of one of the bus drivers. The driver was killed after being dragged off by one of the park’s tigers in an attempt to check the bus’s engine.” If you happen to be in Harbin, China, and find yourself at the Harbin Siberian Tiger Park with, say, about $300 burning a hole in your pocket, you can arrange to watch live tigers hunt, kill and eat a live cow. No, this isn’t the kind of spectacle most of us would consider seeking out whilst on a presumably well-deserved, relaxing vacation. But it seems to be a hit with tourists, and the park is getting credit for being one of the largest and most successful tiger preservation facilities in the world. On the other hand, though, the park is being criticized for exploiting the tigers to some degree by making their feeding habits a bit of a spectacle. And a dangerous one at that, as the introductory quote above clearly indicates. (TIME Newsfeed – Tygers, Tygers Eating Right)
Continue reading