School offers lessons in the chemistry of love

A special love school is gaining popularity among students in Beihai, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In addition to outlining the skills needed to communicate, the school teaches students how to appear more attractive to the opposite sex.

And the teachers, most of whom are psychologists, usually focus on helping singles find a good husband or a wife.

Mock love scenes include student participation. Most students are office workers with well paying jobs and education.

(www.chinanews.com.cn) (China Daily) Updated: 2009-03-24 09:34

Chinadaily.com.cn 090124 #2

Wanted: boyfriend for 2 days, acting skills a plus

A female student at Peking University didn't want to go home alone for the Spring Festival so she's seeking a man to pretend to be her boyfriend.

She is offering to pay up to 10,000 yuan ($1,460) a day to the person who accepts the role.

She wrote that her family won't let her go home for the holiday "unless I bring home a boyfriend with me."

The ad triggered debate on the Internet with some saying they understood her situation while some psychologists said it could cause trouble for her and possibly put her in danger if dishonest men answered her ad.

(news.sohu.com)

chinadaily.com.cn 090124

There's so much "serious, pointing a big finger" news reporting about China that often I think the rest of the world has a very skewed understanding of this country. It's enlightening to read about the "other" China, the China that's like any other place in the world, peopled by real, everyday people. I'll be posting things from the China Daily in the coming months. I'm the first to admit that most of them will be on the humorous/absurd/frivolous side:

090124:

Emergency workers had to use heavy equipment to lift a man and his girlfriend out from a deep pit in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, on Sunday.

Zhang and his girlfriend, who were on a date on Haiyan road in the city's Haizhu district, fell into the pit when the soil suddenly collapsed.

Local police called in the firefighters who used a crane to rescue them 90 minutes later.