https://www.scmp.com/rss/501403/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Tap here to launch this special feature https://www.scmp.com/infographics/hong-kong/article/3202238/pigs-city-hong-kongs-wild-boar-problem-visually-explained?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/infographics/hong-kong/article/3202238/pigs-city-hong-kongs-wild-boar-problem-visually-explained?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Dec 2022 08:00:14 +0000 China is home to 44 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings, including the 128-story Shanghai Tower, the second tallest in the world at 2,073 ft. But China is also home to one of the tallest unfinished towers anywhere, the Goldin Finance 117 – otherwise known as the China 117 – in Tianjin, a major port city a couple of hours away from Beijing.   When it broke ground 12 years ago, the hope was that the mega skyscraper eclipse the Shanghai Tower as the tallest building outside of the Burj Khalifa in... https://www.scmp.com/society/days-chinese-mega-skyscraper-appear-be-over/article/3114834?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/days-chinese-mega-skyscraper-appear-be-over/article/3114834?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Dec 2020 12:39:53 +0000 There was no shortage of eager takers for the free mushroom frittatas and omelets at Future Food Studio, an outdoor pop-up at a glitzy Shanghai shopping mall in October. But the egg dishes—all made by well-known local chefs—contained no eggs. Instead, the main ingredient was Just Egg, a plant-based alternative consisting of mung bean and legumes. In recent years, the plant-based food craze has reached Asia, with international heavyweights such as Beyond Meat and Impossible expanding to the... https://www.scmp.com/food/beyond-impossible-china-ready-vegan-meat/article/3114184?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/beyond-impossible-china-ready-vegan-meat/article/3114184?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Dec 2020 08:59:47 +0000 Elvis Presley might have died more than 40 years ago, but his spirit lives on in Hong Kong. For nearly three decades, Melvis Kwok, a full-time Elvis impersonator, has been swiveling his hips in the city’s biggest night spots, where he plays for tips dressed as the King of Rock and Roll, with pompadour and all. Despite his age—he is 67 this year—Kwok says he still performs seven nights a week. He usually spends two hours in the city’s party districts of Lan Kwai Fong, Soho, and Wan Chai before... https://www.scmp.com/culture/hong-kong-elvis-presley-impersonator/article/3083240?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/hong-kong-elvis-presley-impersonator/article/3083240?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2020 12:01:24 +0000 Every time David Lin, a freelance videographer in Beijing, steps out of his apartment building, a security guard takes his temperature when he returns. Precautions like these can be found all over the Chinese capital, which is humming back to life after a months-long lockdown because of the coronavirus. As the number of new Covid-19 cases continues to fall in China, the country is slowly lifting restrictions on movement. On Friday, Beijing’s Forbidden City reopened to visitors after it was... https://www.scmp.com/videos/life-after-coronavirus/article/3082783?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/life-after-coronavirus/article/3082783?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 May 2020 09:41:26 +0000 While the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc around the world, cities in China, where the first Covid-19 cases were reported, are cautiously humming back to life—and one school in Hangzhou has come up with a novel way to teach students about social distancing. Students at Yangzheng Elementary School started the semester on Monday with a homework assignment unique to these fraught times: design a hat with a one-meter, or three-foot, diameter. The hats, with two wing-like flaps, are modeled... https://www.scmp.com/culture/coronavirus-chinese-students-hats-social-distancing/article/3081768?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/coronavirus-chinese-students-hats-social-distancing/article/3081768?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:35:19 +0000 As the Covid-19 coronavirus spreads across the world, countries are taking drastic measures to contain the virus. Some governments, such as those in New York and Italy, have taken the extreme step of closing all restaurants, bars, and music venues. But in China, that has already been the case for months. At least 700 million people—accounting for nearly half the country’s population—still face some form of lockdown. That means people are advised to stay at home, and security guards in... https://www.scmp.com/culture/coronavirus-china-delivery-drivers-first-responders/article/3075430?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/coronavirus-china-delivery-drivers-first-responders/article/3075430?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2020 11:55:29 +0000 “He’s very cute,” remarks Dong Xiaobo as he feeds a pigeon he’s been raising for several years. “Ever since he was little, he’d always eat grain from my mouth. We’ve built a very close relationship.” Dong is a pigeon enthusiast in Beijing who raises the birds for racing. Throughout history, pigeons have been used to carry messages, and the sport of racing them evolved from their uncanny ability to sense direction across long distances. Races involve releasing trained pigeons and seeing who can... https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-racing-pigeons/article/3073944?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-racing-pigeons/article/3073944?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Mar 2020 08:12:59 +0000 For the past 50 years, Chou Chiu-soon has been following the same routine. Every day, the 73-year-old wakes up at 4 am and heads to Ngau Chi Wan, one of the last villages in the middle of urbanized Hong Kong, to open up Po Fook Cafe. “We’ve been coming here for about 10 years,” says one man sitting with his son. Why? He laughs. “It’s cheap!” It’s a point of pride for Chou, whose family opened the restaurant in the front room of their house in 1964. “We own the house, so we keep prices low,” he... https://www.scmp.com/travel/hong-kong-ngau-chi-wan-village/article/3051833?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/hong-kong-ngau-chi-wan-village/article/3051833?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Feb 2020 11:12:06 +0000 If you’ve heard of Wuhan as of late, you probably know it as ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak that has sickened thousands and killed hundreds. But before all this came to pass, food lovers would count their blessings to wake up in Wuhan. Flanked by China’s two great rivers—the Han and Yangtze—the city is the capital of Hubei Province. The region’s food is one of the 10 primary schools of Chinese cuisine, and among Wuhan’s greatest contributions is its breakfast. If the Chinese saying for... https://www.scmp.com/food/wuhan-coronavirus-hot-dry-noodles/article/3050657?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/wuhan-coronavirus-hot-dry-noodles/article/3050657?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Feb 2020 10:14:40 +0000 Global anxiety around a novel coronavirus stemming from China has turned the world’s attention to a type of open-air market that’s common in this region: the wet market. Specifically, many people are blaming these markets—where fresh meat, fish, and produce are sold out in the open—for the outbreak. Some researchers believe the virus jumped from animals to humans at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. The link between the market and virus has reinvigorated age-old xenophobic sentiments about... https://www.scmp.com/food/wuhan-coronavirus-wet-markets-china/article/3049870?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/wuhan-coronavirus-wet-markets-china/article/3049870?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Feb 2020 10:45:46 +0000 The emerging global sport of ice dragon boat racing came to Jinzhou, Liaoning Province on December 29. https://www.scmp.com/china/ice-dragon-boat-racing-china-warms-you-winter/article/3044024?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/ice-dragon-boat-racing-china-warms-you-winter/article/3044024?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Dec 2019 09:50:39 +0000 Some cities in China appear to have had a visit from the Disney ice queen Elsa of Frozen II fame after buildings, trees and nearby mountains were coated with a layer of frost. https://www.scmp.com/china/chinese-cities-look-frozen-ii-film-sets-after-coating-winter-frost/article/3043190?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/chinese-cities-look-frozen-ii-film-sets-after-coating-winter-frost/article/3043190?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Dec 2019 10:32:21 +0000 Women around the world will know the frustration of standing in seemingly interminable lines for the restroom, while watching men waltz in and out of urinals with no wait. The Hong Kong Toilet Association says it has a solution to this age-old problem. It is calling for female urinals to be built in the city’s public toilets. The association says such facilities would cut peeing time to just 90 seconds, compared with the usual two to three minutes, and help to shorten lines outside women’s... https://www.scmp.com/society/can-hong-kong-make-female-urinals-reality/article/3040946?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/can-hong-kong-make-female-urinals-reality/article/3040946?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Dec 2019 10:26:00 +0000 Luo Xiangjian lost his right leg when he was five-years-old after he stepped on a bomb left over from the Sino-Vietnam war. But that did not stop him from chasing his dream of playing basketball. https://www.scmp.com/china/chinese-one-legged-basketball-player-inspires-others-enjoy-sports-fullest/article/3040698?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/chinese-one-legged-basketball-player-inspires-others-enjoy-sports-fullest/article/3040698?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Dec 2019 10:39:51 +0000 The hundred-year-old game of mahjong, often called China’s “national pastime,” is beloved and played across the country, as well as in many overseas Chinese communities. So when several Chinese cities tried to clamp down on it, people were up in arms. The latest city to do so, Shangrao in Jiangxi Province, ordered mahjong parlors and poker rooms in Yushan County and Xinzhou District to be closed this week, as part of efforts to crack down on vice. The mahjong parlors, the police said, were... https://www.scmp.com/culture/mahjong-ban-china/article/3034088?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/mahjong-ban-china/article/3034088?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Oct 2019 11:45:35 +0000 Surrounded by pink paper cutouts of wiggling sperm, the young, soft-spoken woman in the video boldly declares, “I am a sperm seeker. If you are the one, please contact me.” Alan, the 28-year-old Beijing artist who made the video, always knew she wanted a baby. But after four unsuccessful attempts to find a partner online, she realized she didn’t need a man. All she needed was sperm. “Why do I have to get married before I can have a baby?” she says. Alan’s question is echoed by a small but... https://www.scmp.com/culture/single-mothers-china/article/3030094?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/single-mothers-china/article/3030094?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Sep 2019 10:48:17 +0000 It’s the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and you have a bunch of empty mooncake tins. What do you do? In Hong Kong, many kids set them on fire. The Mid-Autumn Festival, traditionally a fall harvest celebration, has morphed into a family-gathering holiday akin to Thanksgiving. A longstanding tradition involves exchanging mooncakes, small, round pastries stuffed with a sweet or savory filling and usually packaged in tin boxes. Like the fruitcake in the West, these dense pastries have become such... https://www.scmp.com/culture/hong-kong-mid-autumn-festival-wax-burning/article/3026958?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/hong-kong-mid-autumn-festival-wax-burning/article/3026958?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Sep 2019 11:07:38 +0000 After Costco’s first store in China was overrun by crazed shoppers on opening day, it was clearly not taking chances again. Last week, the American bulk retailer opened an outlet in Shanghai, its first in China. But the staff was quickly overwhelmed by a frenzy of shoppers who came and tussled over the deals. On social media, people were seen tugging at cuts of pork and pushing each other to get to household items. It was so chaotic that local police forced the store to shut down early that... https://www.scmp.com/travel/costco-shanghai-opening/article/3025643?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/costco-shanghai-opening/article/3025643?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Sep 2019 09:33:50 +0000 Every morning, Ren Jiuliang wakes up for another day of racing against time. The 28-year-old is a food deliveryman in Beijing, where takeout has become the preferred way to eat among white-collar workers. On-demand delivery is nothing new, with services like Uber Eats and AmazonFresh delivering food and groceries right to people’s doorsteps. But in China, it’s taken to another level. Apart from food, people can pay drivers to fetch medicine, run errands, and even deliver personal items left at... https://www.scmp.com/culture/day-in-the-life-food-deliveryman-china/article/3023099?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/day-in-the-life-food-deliveryman-china/article/3023099?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Aug 2019 08:36:33 +0000 Alice Yan Alice Yan Lizzy Ran is happy with her life. She’s 29, single, and earning a decent income as a doctor in central China’s Hubei Province. In her free time, she hangs out with friends, reads books, and travels. But her mother is worried about her. “She believes getting married and having babies are things that a person must do in their life,” Ran says. “I don’t think so. Marriage isn’t essential for me.” For Ran, finding the right person would be ideal, but she’s not about to force the issue. “If I’m not... https://www.scmp.com/culture/why-chinese-millennials-dont-want-get-married/article/3022804?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/why-chinese-millennials-dont-want-get-married/article/3022804?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Aug 2019 10:51:37 +0000 Elsa Tang, a zero-waste activist in Beijing, still remembers the look of confusion on the vegetable seller’s face when she turned down a plastic bag. “But it’s free,” Tang recalls her saying. “Why don’t you just take it? You want me to put these potatoes inside your clean tote bag? They’ll make it dirty.” Her anecdote is telling of the attitudes that many Chinese people still hold toward environmentalism. There is little stigma attached to single-use plastic, recycling bins are rare, and the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-zero-waste-recycle/article/3022000?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-zero-waste-recycle/article/3022000?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Aug 2019 10:15:10 +0000 A shocking attack by suspected triad members in Hong Kong has focused attention on Yuen Long, a northern district where the violence took place. It is a bustling district in Hong Kong’s New Territories, where, less than a century ago, visitors found little more than a cluster of agricultural villages. In the 1980s, Yuen Long’s town center was built and a new residential town called Tin Shui Wai was established.  But people in the district still cling to their cultural heritage and traditional... https://www.scmp.com/society/yuen-long-rapidly-changing-district-northern-hong-kong-clings-tradition/article/3021107?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/yuen-long-rapidly-changing-district-northern-hong-kong-clings-tradition/article/3021107?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Aug 2019 09:46:42 +0000 Lim Li and Leo Yao are a gay couple living in Shanghai. For three years, they scraped together almost a whopping $150,000 just to have a baby. Last September, their dream finally came true. A woman in Denver, Colorado, gave birth to a girl using Li’s sperm. They named her Ellie. “We were so happy we couldn’t sleep,” Li recalls. In China, gay couples are not allowed to adopt children, so many opt for surrogacy instead. Often, this involves in vitro fertilization, where an egg from a donor is... https://www.scmp.com/identity/china-gay-families/article/3020031?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/identity/china-gay-families/article/3020031?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jul 2019 05:57:53 +0000 Apparently you can have too much of a good thing. The parents of Karry Wang, a member of the Chinese pop sensation TFBoys, tried to capitalize on their 19-year-old son’s fame by opening a bubble tea shop earlier this month. But they were forced to close it just three days later after fans mobbed the tiny store in Wang’s hometown of Chongqing. Reports said that more than 1,000 fans—mostly young girls—had lined up outside the store, Chaforu, on opening day. Some had to wait up to four hours to... https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-boy-band-bubble-tea/article/3019958?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-boy-band-bubble-tea/article/3019958?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jul 2019 12:37:05 +0000 A video of a hundred Chinese people staring into a camera and stating their age from 0 to 100 is going viral—and some of them don’t look a day over 90. The video was shot in the southwestern city of Chengdu by Dutch filmmaker Jeroen Wolf. It’s the latest in his long-running series documenting how people age in different countries. So far, he’s done similar videos in the United States, Morocco, Senegal, Spain, and his native Netherlands. But Wolf had always wanted to go to China—“a big country... https://www.scmp.com/culture/viral-video-shows-chinese-people-age-0-100/article/3019204?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/viral-video-shows-chinese-people-age-0-100/article/3019204?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Jul 2019 12:57:42 +0000 When you think of surfing, China is hardly the first destination that comes to mind. Most cities are landlocked and have no access to the ocean. But there’s a growing number of indoor surf shops popping up across the country, inspired by the surfing centers of Los Angeles. At the Wavorhouse Urban Surf Club in Beijing, young people can be seen riding a 10-foot-high wave on a surf simulator in between drinking beer and chatting. Indoor stand-up surfing, or flowboarding, is quickly becoming... https://www.scmp.com/travel/beijing-china-indoor-surfing-flowboarding/article/3018865?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/beijing-china-indoor-surfing-flowboarding/article/3018865?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jul 2019 12:22:54 +0000 Summers in China are sweltering, especially in big cities, where temperatures can reach upwards of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. To cope, many men of a certain age resort to rolling up their shirts to just above their bellies—or opt for going topless altogether. They do it in public—on the streets, in parks, and even at work if the job involves outdoor labor. The boorish look has become a hallmark of the Chinese summer, so much so that it has an affectionate nickname: the Beijing bikini (though the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/beijing-bikini-chinese-government-cracks-down-men-baring-midriffs/article/3017379?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/beijing-bikini-chinese-government-cracks-down-men-baring-midriffs/article/3017379?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jul 2019 05:41:21 +0000 Livestreaming is an online phenomenon that’s huge in Asia, especially in China. Here, people tune into the lives of their favorite personalities and follow them through their daily experiences as they’re broadcast on a mobile phone. Xingxing is an online microcelebrity that’s climbing the ranks of fame with her legion of loyal fans who tune into her livestream every day. She’s a full-time livestreamer now, but she knows this job won’t be forever. Watch our video for a peek into her daily life as... https://www.scmp.com/chasing-virtual-stardom-broadcasting-your-life-phone/article/2163265?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/chasing-virtual-stardom-broadcasting-your-life-phone/article/2163265?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Sep 2018 13:47:15 +0000