Beijing--rainstorm
 

1.
http://photo.sohu.com/20040712/Img220958952.jpg

2.
http://photo.sohu.com/20040713/Img220972932.jpg

3.
http://photo.sohu.com/20040710/Img220944128.jpg

4.
http://photo.sohu.com/20040710/Img220944123.jpg

5.
http://photo.sohu.com/2004/07/11/58/Img220945843.jpg

Any of these pictures could have been taken in Houston during the floods and you could not tell the difference.

Can I have the phone number of the one on the left?

Or Calgary. :eek:

Water tornado in Kunshan
 

A rarely-seen water tornado rises as high as 1,000 meters over the Yangcheng Lake, Kunshan city in Jiangsu Province July 15, 2004. The water column lasted about 20 minutes Thursday afternoon. Experts said strong convective air causes an ascending movement, hurling lake water up into the sky.

Rainstorms hit Xi'an
 

A man tries to cycle through a waterlogged street in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, July 15, 2004. The city was flooded after five hours of torrential rains Thursday morning. Flood water in some areas is as deep as two metres, report said.

Many rainstorm in China this year.

Hi Billy, meet No_TimE. He's got some girls for you to meet and one of them is rich. ;)

How is someone 'rich' in a communist country? I thought everyone was the same.

Anyway, I want to ask the Chinese guys: If Taiwan declares independence, do you think there will be war? This matter is of great interest to me.

Be part of the government.

Or the underground economy.

1. All the countries have the rich and the poor,if everone is the same,then how the country go on developing.

2. Taiwan IS A PATR OF CHINA!! Anyone attempt to disrupt China MUST will be blessed!! And Chinese goverment NEVER GIVE UP solving the problem by FORCE!! If Taiwan declares independence i think Chinese military circles won't turn a blind eye to it!! A just war may not be avoided.

3. Be part of the government may make someone rich,but most people become rich by hard-working. Underground economy ~I don't know much about it.

4. I am typing while looking up the words in the dictionary.
So thanks to HTTP://WWW.ICIBA.NET (a online dictionary)
And thank you for your patient to my reply~

I'm sorry i hope i don't make the environment depressing.
Can we don't talk about this?
Let's talk about something esay.

No TimE, no worries. You are completely elegant. And adorable. If I could even BEGIN to do what you are doing...I'd have a job instead of playing Cellargames. Oh, the shame...

At the risk of annoying No_time..

China has limited private property now, it has a largely free economy, it is frankly, communist in name alone, you become rich the saw way you do everywhere else, starting businesses, being good at cutting deals, investing in the right places and knowing the right people. There are certain cultural differences in how business is coducted by it's otherwise exactly the same, Berlin to Bejing to Boston.

haha~tanks.(my god,"tanks"?where's the "H"?)
is this lovely... ^_^

Well jaguar:
What i said is just my own word as a middle school student,some of my words may not very felicitous and I welcome all the well-meaning criticism.

No_TimE, you can state your views on anything. We can handle the truth. :haha:

The 2005 Audi A-6 Quatro will sell here for about 50k USD.
Of the slated production of 180k:
31% for Germany
15% for USA
25% for CHINA!
Somebodie's making money over there. :)

OH my God! A middle school student! The AGONY...

yeah Audi A6 and the most of the luxurious cars in China, the price of them is too much higher than abroad.And to be a car sellor or maker really have a considerable income.
50K USD is feckly to buy a Audi A4 3.0 cvt(homemade) or BMW 325i(homemade)
It's too expensive.

we disscused such "capitalism v communism" thing before, at cellar

shall we go on ?

......i don't care about capitalism or socialism ,both have its advantage&disadvantage.So i'd like to change a topic......

I got here as quick as I could.


So.........................(struggling to come up with something that is not offensive)..............................................Do the Chinese restaurants there serve fortune cookies with the meals??

Hey No_Time,

What is your favorite American food?? They let you eat American food, don't they??

My favorite Chinese food is....all of it.

There are lots of rich peopel in China now.
I strongly support the war to drag TW back.

Clarify please.

You support a war to bring TW back to full Chinese control?

You know infinitely more about the whole subject than I do. Could you explain your position?

This issue is of great interest to me too.

It seems China has both,...or neither. Hi Al. :guinea:

In China mainlanders, Taiwan is one provience pf China for hundreds of years. Before Chen Shuibian, all Taiwanese want to "return and master mainland". I support the war because of the following reasons:

1. Taiwan has its culture roots in China mainland. The TW people feel lost their culture base and direction.

2. TW cannot lost China mainland market. If so, mainland government would close gate to TW productions. That would influence TE economy development.

3. US canot save TW. TW is just one jeton of entreating China. The US just use TW.

4. China cannot lose any part, inlcluding TW. The US want to block by Tibet, Sinkiang, South Korea, Japan, TW.

5. TW is one part of China. Chinese people cannot accept any any land abruption.

The naval exercises in the area last week by the US were an interesting move, there is no way I can see either side letting it get to war, the stakes are too high.

Economically the war would be a disaster for everyone, Taiwan is a major manufacturing base for a sweet fuckload of electronics, those facilities being destroyed or taken offline for weeks or months would play havoc, not to mention the cost of a US/China war and what that could bring about.

The other factor is that China really only has a very limited 'blue water' naval capacity, this is changing but it's nowhere near a scale where it could match the US in a sea war, it's airforce is not there either.

In short, I don't doubt China's ability to turn Taiwan into dust I doubt it's ability to launch a full scale invasion and hold it against US forces, possibly including a US blockade after such an invasion. Taiwan itself also has a very and growing capable navy that could play havoc with the kind of merchant naval capability China would use in such an event, I know that China could afford to lose 20-30k troops at sea without real worry but their amphibious capability is not amazing and a lot dates back to the 60/70s. The requirement to use a merchant naval element to land enough troops would give at least 24hour notice to hostile intel services, long enough to bolster defenses, start moving in US forces, landing bombers and preparing anti-landing defenses.

Kerry won't do that, though. ;)

......

Many TW electronics remove their factories such as BenQ, Acer, VIA, into China mainland. So they don't hope war. No one like war, but we cannot let our land depart. We must try out best to protect our mother land.

Now the two sides all don't hope the war, but the war risk is on rocket. Hope we find other peaceful way to resolve it.

ok, let's go on

hi Burce :D

严重支持!!!!!!!!! :thumpsup: :thumpsup:

I heard one of our liberal politicians complaining last week that the Taiwan issue is the most important world problem at the moment (in his opinion), and he was disgusted that the world's media has been largely ignoring it. Until I heard this I did not realise that the topic had become such a hot issue. I know the subject flares up from time to time, but it seems that things are starting to get serious. Anyone know what has suddenly happened to stir this all up again?

I wonder what Bush will do if a military conflict does flare up between China and Taiwan. I guess the US is already fully committed elsewhere?

Only in terms of ground troops. We have plenty ships and missiles and other equipment.


But then again, I dont know. I'm certain someone will have more to add.

Hope peace...

bluesdave, a case of grumbling and echos, from what I can get my grubby paws on it seems someone tipped off a hostile intel service about something funny going on which bounced up the line resulting in the recent exercises in the region which didn't amuse china...There is a serious internal battle going on inside the chinese government at the moment.

The biggest danger is if war results due to internal.....unfriendlyness inside the chinese government at the moment, this is a real possibility. Both sides are rational and the ramifications from China would be both large and highly detrimental, I have interests in 2 facilities in China and I know if such an event occurred I'd be pulling escape clauses and getting the hell out.

Thanks Jag. :)

I don't think China navy is strong enough. We still afraid that the USA and other western countries, especially Enlglish, will block China.

I hate any war. I don't like watch the USA and other countries's people beheaded in Iraq.

I posted good Kuangfu movie pix in Entertainment. Hope you go to see and like.

That wouldn't make sense, Billy. With all the money invested in Chinese production and being dependant on the Chinese goods, by all the western countries. Walmart wouldn't allow it. :)

Wow, when did I miss this thread (under the coy guise of a rainstorm in Beijing, probably).

Taiwan deserves its independence, particularly as a country that for 50-60 years has worked diligently at progressing its own politics and economy. In the golden ages, one would not be surprised at the prospect of a war, but this is 2004 and that is just ridiculous. Taiwan and most of eastern China are far, far beyond third-world status.

What the hell does China want with an island the size of New Jersey, anyway? To feed off its export economy, which is far superior (in proportion) to China's GDP (which actually isn't so bad, just diluted by a large population).

U.S. has pledged its support for Taiwan in the event of an assault - Naval fleet will move out of Japan and other South Pacific bases can mobilize quickly. That would be a spectacular clash of nations.

President Chen has my full support and that of my entire family as well. I hope China will come to its senses one day and rid of this ridiculous "special autonomous region" bullshit.

breakingnews, you might want to read some Chinese history to understand how and why.

How and why what?

I won't say I'm an expert on Chinese history (not modern chinese history at least - I've studied ancient history through a few centuries ago).

Stirred recently because of a controversial presidential election in Taiwan in March ... Chen shui-bian, one of the stronger voices in Taiwan's bid for independence, won against a joint party of his two opponents in the prior election.

People say the election was won by too small of a margin, that Chen staged his own assassination attempt the day before the election to draw sympathy votes. Demonstrators protested night and day the minute the results were announced, right through the court's ruling that the election was valid. Probably are rallies still going on there and across the Formosa strait in China, too.

One China, the idea that Taiwan and Tibet (and some other geographical oddities) has been a central part of communist national spirit for decades, what you're seeing in this thread is a demonstration of how a nationalised education designed to drive an agenda embeds an opinion in national psyche. It's all about national spirit, geopolitics and economics be damned. Thankfully economic intergration means too many people have too much to lose but it's going to be used as a pole to beat certain governmental figures around the head with and everyone will get a little uppity while they sort out who's boss.

Not sure if it got much coverage but Taiwan did some sabre rattling of it's own today, airforce wargames in the event of invasion. Looks like it's penis measuring season in the south china sea.

Well if you want to put it that way... Taiwan wins

use that to win what ?

The biggest dick contest. He was joking, Al. :)

Agree your points on BN

My home town has the flood in Henan provience, China now. I will go home to see my famlies on 25, July.

As you saw on the pic, the girl's shirt is that I AM YOURS FOREVER. She presents Taiwan and the boy is whole China.

So the shirts are saying, China is screwing Taiwan? :biggrin:

Yeah, but Taiwan was asking for it, going around dressed like that. :)

thank you very much. Now I have to clean Kool-Aid off my monitor. :D

Ha ... I have a 'Say No to China' t-shirt that I got from a rally in Times Square back when Hong Kong was being returned to ROC. It used to not get so much attention ... maybe now that I am older I am more aware of what's going on around me ... but now it always seems to draw a few looks when I'm strolling through the city wearing it.