https://www.scmp.com/rss/327232/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Alice Yan Alice Yan A robot in a high-visibility vest carrying a loud hailer while patrolling a park in China’s northeastern Jilin province has caused much amusement online. “We have sprayed pesticides in the park. It is highly poisonous,” the robot was exclaiming through the loud hailer. The robot was also saying that when worms eat the pesticide it they instantly lie down and pretend to be dead, state media CCTV reported. An official from the park said the robotic warnings were necessary because it was a prime... https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3351724/quirky-china-robot-plays-dead-pesticide-warnings-bot-hugs-girl-car-toilet-approved?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3351724/quirky-china-robot-plays-dead-pesticide-warnings-bot-hugs-girl-car-toilet-approved?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 May 2026 08:00:09 +0000 Zoey Zhang Zoey Zhang The story of a man in China who had to have his left eyeball removed because of an infection caused by him swatting an insect on his face has trended on mainland social media. The man, surnamed Wu, from Shenzhen in the southern province of Guangdong, killed the fly that was buzzing around him after it landed on him, according to Yangcheng Evening News. An hour later, his left eye became red, swollen and painful. After seeking medical attention, he was diagnosed with seasonal... https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3271652/fly-swatting-man-china-loses-eye-after-killing-pesky-insect-landed-his-face?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3271652/fly-swatting-man-china-loses-eye-after-killing-pesky-insect-landed-his-face?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jul 2024 06:00:15 +0000 The experience of a Chinese actress who was shocked to find a bloodstained bedsheet and dirty toilet in a luxury hotel room in southern China has attracted widespread attention on mainland social media. Tian Pujun released a video clip on Douyin at the end of January in which she exposed a five-star hotel in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, with a room rate of 4,000 yuan (US$560) a night, for its poor sanitary conditions and appalling service, reported the news outlet thecover.cn. As well as the... https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3250659/top-china-actress-shock-after-finding-bloodstained-sheet-dirty-toilet-us560-night-5-star-hotel-room?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3250659/top-china-actress-shock-after-finding-bloodstained-sheet-dirty-toilet-us560-night-5-star-hotel-room?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Feb 2024 10:00:15 +0000 A university student in China who took revenge on a mouse that bit her by biting it back has shocked doctors and people on mainland social media. The pesky rodent bit the finger of the 18-year-old while she was trying to catch it in her university dormitory in eastern China’s Jiangsu province on December 21. Although she successfully snared the tiny troublemaker, as she gripped it in her hand she saw its head poking out and decided to leave her own mark by biting it on the head. Her risky... https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/environment/article/3246246/biggest-daredevil-2023-china-student-takes-revenge-mouse-bit-her-sinking-teeth-rodents-head-shocking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/environment/article/3246246/biggest-daredevil-2023-china-student-takes-revenge-mouse-bit-her-sinking-teeth-rodents-head-shocking?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jan 2024 01:00:08 +0000 A county government in China has brought in a new system of fines for citizens, imposing penalties on people who do not complete basic household chores, sparking fierce countrywide debate. Puge county in Sichuan province in southwestern China said it would impose a 10-yuan (US$1.4) penalty on people who did not make their beds or left dishes unwashed. It also added a 20-yuan fine for people who squatted while eating. The new policy, titled “Fine Standards for the New Countryside for Human... https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/environment/article/3241700/fines-are-king-county-china-imposes-uncivilised-behaviour-fines-penalise-squatting-while-eating-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/environment/article/3241700/fines-are-king-county-china-imposes-uncivilised-behaviour-fines-penalise-squatting-while-eating-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Nov 2023 01:00:10 +0000 The Covid-19 epidemic sweeping through the Asia-Pacific appears to be heading inland towards Western Asia and Europe. This past week has witnessed the first major outbreaks outside the Asia-Pacific, in Iran and Italy, prompting temporary lockdowns on schools, museums, universities and cinemas, as well as bans on public gatherings. With a climbing death toll and infections diffusing through the continent, Covid-19 takes on new meaning as it reopens the scars left by the severe acute respiratory... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3052304/what-world-learned-sars-stands-us-good-stead-curb-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3052304/what-world-learned-sars-stands-us-good-stead-curb-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Feb 2020 22:30:07 +0000 Here in Britain , the latest appearance of the coronavirus is the top headline on the lunchtime BBC news. Around the world, people feel deep empathy for an unexpected calamity that has hit China, but could have appeared first in many places around the globe, and may yet spread further. One startling image from the crisis was the building of a brand-new hospital in Wuhan in the space of a week. Yet in one sense, that rapid response is not new, as disease control and modernity have always gone... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049594/coronavirus-why-hygiene-fears-strike-heart-modern-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049594/coronavirus-why-hygiene-fears-strike-heart-modern-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:15:11 +0000 A kindergarten in northwest China has provoked widespread outrage after parents complained that their children were told to finish their meals in the lavatory if they ate too slowly, according to a local newspaper report. The Education Bureau of Dali county of Shaanxi has started an investigation in Jingshi Tongdi Kindergarten after parents said children had been told to take bowls of food to the toilets if they could not finish the meal in the designated time, Huashang Daily reported. A parent... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3032528/chinese-kindergarten-under-investigation-after-forcing-children?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3032528/chinese-kindergarten-under-investigation-after-forcing-children?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Oct 2019 08:00:14 +0000 Bugs in the bed might be the last thing guests want from a hotel stay, but a new microchipping service in China that tracks every sheet and towel has proved popular online. A laundry service catering to hotels in the central Chinese city of Wuhan has started installing wafer-thin microchips on bedsheets, pillow covers and towels – allowing travellers to scan a QR code on each item and check precisely when it was last washed. The service, which also allows management to track each individual... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3018172/chinas-hotel-hygiene-scandals-see-sheets-and-towels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3018172/chinas-hotel-hygiene-scandals-see-sheets-and-towels?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Jul 2019 08:30:06 +0000 Chinese customs officials have seized 11.4 tonnes of substandard adult diapers – deemed to be waste products – that had been illegally imported from the United States and repackaged in Thailand before they were shipped to China, according to state media. Authorities in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province said the diapers were poorly packaged, not individually wrapped, and they did not have manufacture or expiry dates on the labels, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday. Some of the products were... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3003213/china-seizes-114-tonnes-adult-diapers-imported-us-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3003213/china-seizes-114-tonnes-adult-diapers-imported-us-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Mar 2019 13:30:04 +0000 Three years into its “toilet revolution” and China has built or upgraded tens of thousands of facilities at tourists sites across the country. But there are still thousands more to go in the next couple of years as authorities try to improve public sanitation and clean up the country’s international reputation. Where did it all begin? The revolution started in April 2015 after Chinese President Xi Jinping called for improvements to toilets across the country, especially in rural areas and at... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2164300/travelling-china-heres-why-you-no-longer-have-fear-its-dirty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2164300/travelling-china-heres-why-you-no-longer-have-fear-its-dirty?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Sep 2018 19:01:11 +0000 A hotpot restaurant in eastern China has been shut down and a pregnant woman is undergoing health checks after a dead rat was found in a family’s meal. Authorities in Weifang, Shandong province, have suspended the branch of popular hotpot restaurant chain Xiabu Xiabu in the latest in a string of food safety scandals in China. A man from Weifang surnamed Ma said he and his family were eating at the restaurant on Thursday night when, after a few bites, his wife found a dead rat in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2163524/rat-hotpot-shocks-pregnant-woman-shuts-down-restaurant-eastern?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2163524/rat-hotpot-shocks-pregnant-woman-shuts-down-restaurant-eastern?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Sep 2018 06:58:39 +0000 A woman in southern China had a close call with a cockroach after the insect crawled into her ear and started chewing a hole in her eardrum, Chinese media reported. A doctor at Renkang Hospital in Dongguan, Guangdong province, extracted the cockroach two days after it crawled into the 20-year-old woman’s ear while she was asleep on Tuesday, Guangzhou Daily reported on Thursday. “I felt as if needles were being poked in my ear at that time,” the woman was quoted as saying. “I didn’t expect it... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2156143/attack-german-cockroach-doctor-exterminates-bug-chewing-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2156143/attack-german-cockroach-doctor-exterminates-bug-chewing-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jul 2018 07:49:48 +0000 A Chinese supermarket worker has been fired for eating cooked snails and throwing the shells back into the pile of food for sale, an online news portal reported. The woman was seen picking snails out of the skillet and eating them at a branch of Century Mart in Yongzhou city, Hunan province, according to video footage published by Thepaper.cn. The incident, which took place on Monday, was captured by a member of the public, who uploaded the footage onto Weibo. Blood toast at property firm’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2155955/chinese-supermarket-employee-suffers-swift-reprisal-eating-snails?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2155955/chinese-supermarket-employee-suffers-swift-reprisal-eating-snails?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jul 2018 06:36:11 +0000 A drunk woman in Yulin, Guangxi, had to be rescued by firefighters after she slipped and got her leg stuck in a squat toilet. The woman, who was shown trapped in the toilet, in a video, became distraught after getting her right foot stuck and finding she was unable to remove it, on Tuesday morning. The footage, posted on the Pear Video the same day, has been widely circulated online. The firefighters from the Yulin Fire Department arrived at the scene after six minutes and used tools to break up... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2151772/firefighters-china-free-drunk-woman-who-trapped-leg-toilet-bowl?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2151772/firefighters-china-free-drunk-woman-who-trapped-leg-toilet-bowl?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Jun 2018 04:57:34 +0000 A Bollywood romantic comedy about a lack of toilets for women in rural India has become an unlikely hit in China, topping the box office since its Chinese debut on Friday. Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, or Toilet: A Love Story has earned 66 million yuan (US$10.3 million) in Chinese cinemas, striking a chord with its tale of a man who leads a social campaign for gender equality when he sets out to build an indoor toilet his new wife. Chinese film critics and viewers said the movie’s theme resonated in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2150277/toilet-love-story-indian-movie-thats-loocrative-hit-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2150277/toilet-love-story-indian-movie-thats-loocrative-hit-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Jun 2018 23:01:14 +0000 They might have been on the planet for 300 million years longer than humans. They might also have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. But when you sit down to eat a steaming bowl of hotpot, the last thing you want to find floating in your spicy soup is a cockroach, let alone eight of them. Unfortunately for two women at a restaurant in Haikou, capital of southern China’s Hainan province, that was exactly what was on the menu earlier this week, according to a report... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2149893/chinese-diners-find-eight-cockroaches-their-hotpot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2149893/chinese-diners-find-eight-cockroaches-their-hotpot?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Jun 2018 06:56:56 +0000 When Starbucks announced it had changed its policy on the use of its toilets following a massive public relations disaster over the arrest of two black men in one of its outlets in Philadelphia, the news made headlines around the world. But while the US coffee chain might have felt it had no choice but to change its rules on toilet use, hundreds of companies across China are taking part in a new social initiative that will see them opening their restrooms to the public as part of the “toilet... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2148183/its-not-just-starbucks-businesses-across-china-are-opening-their?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2148183/its-not-just-starbucks-businesses-across-china-are-opening-their?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 May 2018 03:54:54 +0000 From its economic prowess to its technological advances, signs of China’s progress in recent decades are easy to find. But for foreign visitors, one of the most telling indications of the country’s advancement is the improving condition of its public toilets.  Kay Park, a South Korean who lived in Beijing for more than 10 years, said that when she first visited China as a tourist 15 years ago, its public toilets were “a disaster”.  “There were no doors at some toilets,” she recalled in an... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2139204/relief-foreigners-amid-chinas-public-toilets-makeover-theres?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2139204/relief-foreigners-amid-chinas-public-toilets-makeover-theres?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Mar 2018 01:33:35 +0000 A young boy in southwest China who entertained himself on a lift ride by urinating all over the control buttons got a nasty surprise when the system short-circuited and he became stuck. The incident was caught on a surveillance camera and the footage was published on social media by the Ministry of Public Security. In the footage, the boy enters the empty lift inside a block of flats in Chongqing and selects his floor. He then unzips his fly and takes aim. After some experimenting, he adjusts... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2134705/urine-trouble-son-chinese-boy-gets-trapped-lift-after-peeing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2134705/urine-trouble-son-chinese-boy-gets-trapped-lift-after-peeing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Feb 2018 05:11:11 +0000 It happened three decades ago but Bai Lin still remembers clearly the joy of the first time he used a flush toilet. The 37-year-old China project manager with the Singapore-based World Toilet Organisation had been living with his grandparents in rural Henan and was reunited with his parents in the city of Luoyang. Until then, going to the bathroom meant squatting over holes in the ground at home and school but in his new home the toilet flushed and the tissues were soft. He no longer had to use... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2128114/man-building-better-today-chinas-children-one-toilet-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2128114/man-building-better-today-chinas-children-one-toilet-time?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Jan 2018 08:31:41 +0000 Restaurants in the Chinese megacity of Chongqing are banned from serving up leftover soup stock or cooking oil from previous customers under new guidelines for serving hotpot, Chongqing Daily reported on Friday. Chongqing is the nation’s hotpot capital, with more than 30,000 restaurants serving the regional delicacy, and the new hygiene rules – the first in country – are designed in part to help inexperienced foreign diners fend off food poisoning. According to the regulations, raw hotpot... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2117324/chinese-city-turns-hygiene-heat-hotpot-restaurants-protect?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2117324/chinese-city-turns-hygiene-heat-hotpot-restaurants-protect?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Oct 2017 09:10:14 +0000 Two Beijing branches of the popular Chinese hotpot chain Haidilao are reported to have reopened following a food hygiene scare in August. The stores, along with 25 other branches in the capital, now offer a live stream video feed from their kitchens to customers who wish to keep an eye on how their food is being prepared, Legal Evening News reported on Tuesday. In August, undercover journalists from the newspaper reported that there were serious hygiene problems in the Taiyanggong and Jinsong... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2114291/chinese-hotpot-chain-haidilao-reopens-beijing-branches-after-food?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2114291/chinese-hotpot-chain-haidilao-reopens-beijing-branches-after-food?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Oct 2017 09:36:34 +0000 A Chinese start-up offering a “bed sharing” service has suspended operations after concerns were raised about safety and hygiene. The move is the latest setback for China’s burgeoning sharing economy, which has seen bike-sharing firms shut and an umbrella-sharing company suffer losses after users stole, vandalised or misplaced their products. The case also highlights how the authorities are struggling to adapt and formulate regulations as new and relatively untested services constantly appear on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2103740/chinese-bed-sharing-firm-halts-services-amid-concerns-over-safety?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2103740/chinese-bed-sharing-firm-halts-services-amid-concerns-over-safety?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Jul 2017 01:32:11 +0000