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BEIJING
Harmful fake drugs seized
Beijing police seized nearly 600 million yuan (HK$758 million) of counterfeit food and drugs and arrested 760 people involved in the trade last year, Xinhua reports. The knock-off goods – mostly sold as health products that stimulate weight loss or improve sexual performance – severely threatened the health of those who took them as they contained harmful chemicals, the authorities said.
Last pet market to shut
Beijing authorities have ordered the city’s last downtown pet market to close after January 1 next year, the Legal Evening News reports. The market, near Taoranting Park in the south, sells a wide range of animals including fish, birds and crickets. Beijing has been shutting down its pet markets in recent years as animal rights activists’ protests over the pets’ living conditions have affected the city’s image.
 
FUJIAN
‘High’ time for marriage
A hallucinating man in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, declared his love for his colleague, believing that she was the popular Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, Chinanews.com reports. Police found the 27-year-old kneeling beside a car with the woman seated inside, declaring that he wanted to present her with roses and propose to her. Officers detained him for five days after a urine test confirmed that he had been taking drugs.
Child’s play goes wrong
A child in Fuqing, Fuzhou, accidentally burned down a villa on Tuesday after playing with a lighter, online news site Strait City Daily reports. Firefighters managed to get the flames under control within 10 minutes, but everything in the villa had already been reduced to ashes by the time the blaze was put out. No one was hurt.
 
GUANGXI
Armed man knocked down
A teacher ran over an armed man with a car on Tuesday after the man rushed into a secondary school in Beihai intending to hurt the pupils, Sina.com.cn reports. The 34-year-old man from Qinzhou, who was drunk and carrying a knife, was subdued by the time police arrived. No one was hurt and police are investigating.
Dogs’ dinner
Dogs may have feasted on the body of their owner, who lived alone in a Nanning village, after he died, Modern Life Daily reports. Neighbours found the 65-year-old man’s body, with parts missing, lying on the bloodstained kitchen floor and his two dogs nearby. They suspected the hungry dogs might have eaten parts of the body as there were no signs a struggle had taken place. The man’s son, who lives outside the village, returned to arrange for his father’s funeral but declined to involve the police.
 
HENAN
Studious sperm donors
Students and teachers are the Henan provincial sperm bank’s most active donors, the Henan Business Daily reports. About 60 per cent of the bank’s new sperm was from students and more than 30 per cent from teachers. But the quality of the students’ sperm was much higher than that of the teachers, the bank said. The donors tended to be more open-minded than the general population and also had more time on their hands, it added.
Setting low standards
The Henan government has targeted just 190 non-polluting days in its humble plan to cut air pollution in the province this year, the Henan Daily reports. Last year, the province had already recorded 199 “blue sky” days by the end of the first nine months, thanks to its slowing economy. Bigger cities such as Zhengzhou saw considerably fewer clean-air days than the smaller ones.
 
JILIN
Thriving exports
Jilin city’s export business grew 64 per cent last year even as the province’s overall economy struggled, Chinajilin.com.cn reports. A few large firms – mainly in the chemical, steel, machinery and pharmaceutical sectors – contributed strongly to the city’s US$851 million (HK$6.6 billion) exports. The city government said the export business would be given more incentives to keep up the growth.
Closing the income gap
The Changchun city government has paired 10,000 of its poorest families to 10,000 government officials in an effort to narrow the city’s widening income gap, the Changchun Daily reports. The officials have been tasked to do whatever they can to improve the families’ economic situation and living standards within three years, and are required to visit them at least three times a year.
 
SHAANXI
Drink-driving cop held
A policeman in Yulin city faces serious punishment after he injured three civilians by driving a police car while drunk, Hsw.cn reports. The sedan hit three cars on Monday night and three people, including a child, were hurt and had to be hospitalised. The officer tried to flee the scene but was apprehended and arrested.
Fireman fetish exposed
A homeless man with a penchant for watching firefighters in action was arrested for setting vehicles ablaze, Hsw.cn reports. The man said he enjoyed hearing the fire engine’s siren and watching firemen put out the blaze. Police said the man started at least three fires this month that destroyed over a dozen cars.
 
SHANXI
Bonus with a bang
A Jincheng official was issued a serious warning by the city’s graft-busters on Tuesday after he gave his staff fireworks as a year-end bonus, the Shanxi Daily reports. The official, from Zezhou’s work safety bureau, gave his subordinates almost 400,000 yuan of firecrackers using the government budget, the authorities said, adding that his behaviour violated party discipline.
Game over for tomb raider
A tomb raider in Lin county turned himself in to police last week after an accident while raiding a tomb in Inner Mongolia killed his two teammates, the Shanxi Evening News reports. The 49-year-old said the team of three had entered an ancient tomb in Erdos last month and found a large number of bronze wares, but the tomb collapsed as they were moving out the items and only he managed to escape. He said he surrendered himself and the loot out of guilt.
 
SICHUAN
Burglar hits the roof
A burglar broke into a Chengdu supermarket by cutting a hole in the building’s roof, the West China City Daily reports. The shopkeeper turned up on Monday morning to find three huge holes on the roof of the supermarket and more than 10,000 yuan in cash as well as 50,000 yuan worth of wine and laptops missing. Motion detectors and burglar alarms on the doors proved ineffective, she said. Police are investigating.
Spotted: snow leopards
Wild snow leopards have been captured on camera at the Feng Tong Zhai nature reserve in Yaan  for the first time, Chinanews.com reports. The blurry black-and-white photo was taken by an infrared camera at more than 4,000 metres above sea level, said a manager at the reserve. Snow leopards, which are extremely rare and an endangered species, have a global population of around 4,000, with half of them in China, according to the global conservation body WWF.
 
 
 


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Around the nation: Hallucinating Chinese man proposes to 'Fan Bingbing' - or so he thinks

A man high on drugs thought he was proposing to popular Chinese actress Fan Bingbing (pictured), but it turned out to be his colleague. Photo: SCMP Pictures

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China Insider

Also, teachers and students make sperm bank's top donors, and dogs make dinner out of dead owner's corpse


Fan Bingbing

New | Around the nation: Hallucinating Chinese man proposes to 'Fan Bingbing' - or so he thinks

Also, teachers and students make sperm bank's top donors, and dogs make dinner out of dead owner's corpse