As China’s native search engine giant, Baidu was lately pushed to the teeth of the storm again because of the “suspected piracy of Baidu Wenku”. “Baidu has summited its reform plan to the Department of Copyright Administration (DCA). Right now, the Beijing Municipal Copyright Bureau (BMCB) is entrusted to do the further investigation. The DCA [...]

Nicky Hilton @ M1nt – my favourite club. I miss Shanghai…

Halle Berry has been there, Danny Boyle has been there, Usher has been there, Lil Wayne has been there, so has Shopgirl

Got an email the other day from a friend whose company is getting ready to source from China. The email asked me what the company needed to know “to protect their butts in China.” I told them they needed to know/do the following four things.

1.  Choose a good factory. This is the sine quo non of China sourcing. I am always saying that I can write the world’s best contract, but if the party on the other side is a thief, the contract will have no value. How do you pick a good factory? The first thing you do is make sure that you have actually picked a factory, and not a broker claiming to be a factory. The best way to pick a good factory is to go and look at it yourself. The second best way is to have a qualified person you trust go and look at it. The third best way is to rely on the views of others.   

2.  Use an OEM Agreement suited for your situation.  You need a good written contract between you and your supplier, the official version of which should be in Chinese. For more on this, check out “China OEM Agreements. Why Ours Are In Chinese. Flat Out.” This agreement is the road map between you and your Chinese supplier. It will do at least three things for you:

• It will make clear to both you and your Chinese supplier the terms and conditions of your relationship.
• It will let your Chinese supplier know exactly what it must do to comply with your requirements and to stay within the law. By doing so, it will greatly decrease the likelihood of your having problems with your Chinese supplier.
• It will position you well should problems arise.

3.  Set up a Quality Control System.  Even with a good supplier and a good contract, you will almost certainly still face at least some quality control problems. The big question is when will you discover them. If feasible, check for quality before you pay for you product and before your product is shipped.

4.  Register your trademark in China. When it comes to trademarks, China is a first to file country. This means that, with very few exceptions, whoever files for a particular trademark in a particular category gets it. So if the name of your company is XYZ and you make widgets and you have been manufacturing your widgets in China for the last three years and someone registers the XYZ trademark for widgets, that other company gets the trademark for widgets. And then, armed with that trademark, that company has every right to stop your XYZ widgets from leaving China because your widgets violate that other company’s trademark. Trust me when I say that many foreign companies have incurred massive damages by failing to take the simple and inexpensive step of registering their trademark in China.

If you abide by the above, you almost certainly will do just fine.

What do you think?

Every so often, my law firm gets contacted by an expat in China asking us what we charge to provide them with a U.S. notarization. If it is a phone call, I sometimes jokingly tell them that we will do it for free so long as they come to our United States office to have it done.

And therein lies the problem.  

It makes no sense for someone in China needing a United States notarization to fly to the United States to get that. So what are they to do?

Go to the United States Embassy or to one of the U.S. Consulates, both of which will provide U.S. notarization on English language (only) documents that will be used in the United States. All you will need are the documents needing notarization, proof of your identity (your passport), and fifty dollars in cash, RMB equivalent cash, or credit card. If what you are doing also requires a witness, you will need to bring that too.  

The Embassy and the Consulates are also the place to go to get Chinese documents authenticated for use in the United States. If you want a Chinese document authenticated by a United States Embassy or Consulate, you must first get those documents authenticated by the Notarization and Authentication Division of Consular Affairs Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For more information on these things, check out the website of the applicable consulate or the embassy.

There’s certainly a lot green in front of us: glistening mounds of fried Szechuan green beans, steaming Chinese broccoli and soy protein, and a small mountain of sliced celery, cucumber and bok choy-topped crispy noodles marinating in savoury broth. Carrots, onions, garlic, ginger, black mushrooms, brown rice, eggplant and tofu add to the culinary colour spectrum.

What’s missing is meat, or any animal product, for that matter. Loving Hut, in San Francisco, is a fully vegan restaurant; its menu is free of red meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, even honey. With hundreds of locations in over two-dozen countries on four continents, Loving Hut claims to be the fastest-growing vegan restaurant chain in the world.

Six months ago, a Loving Hut in the Guomao district of Beijing had become one of my favorite eateries in China, and I’m curious how an American version compares. At first glance the similarities are striking. Both locations boast bright, immaculate interiors attended by friendly staff, with discreet stacks of literature expounding the benefits of a vegan diet. The menus look similar too, though San Francisco can’t quite match bargain lunch specials for 10 yuan (US$1.50).

The California locale also focuses a bit more on vegetables dishes, while its cousin in Beijing relies heavily on fake meat made from soy and wheat gluten, even adding descriptions like “beef” and “fish”. Menu diversity is apparently one of the hallmarks of Loving Hut, with each franchise owner encouraged to experiment to suit local tastes, although Chinese-themed concoctions are generally included worldwide.

My girlfriend Susan Tu – an educator raised on authentic Chinese and Vietnamese delicacies in the suburbs of Los Angeles and with a passion for pork — agreed to accompany me on a sampling of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the San Francisco area. So far we haven’t been disappointed. The food has all been good, some has been great, and it’s made more delicious by the hope that we’re making a small contribution towards improving our personal and planetary health.

My first experiences with vegetarianism came early. I grew up on a small farm in northern California, surrounded by animals of all shapes and sizes. Some ended up on the dinner table, while others begged for scraps below. Our household was divided by diet. On one side was my grandmother, an unapologetic carnivore descended from a long line of farming pioneers. But my mother did most of the cooking, and several years before my birth she’d decided to eliminate meat from her diet entirely. The result was home cooking that tended towards vegetarian, though I was permitted to indulge meaty impulses on occasion.

In college I decided to give full vegetarianism a go, inspired as much by curiosity as underlying ideology, and spurred on by the vibrant vegetarian cooperative housing scene at Stanford University. In one of two fully vegetarian campus houses, I lived with a menagerie of idealists from diverse socioeconomic and international backgrounds, united by a veggie diet and desire to make the world a better place.

My vegetarian journey lasted three and a half years. Then a combination of competitive rugby and involvement in meat production on my family’s farm nudged me back towards being a carnivore. I also began to work and travel internationally, and often felt rude turning down local dishes because of self-imposed dietary guidelines.  

But my travels and current teaching position at Stanford have also made me acutely aware of facts that make meat less appetising. For one, livestock is responsible for nearly a fifth of greenhouse-gas emissions, with a serving of beef having nearly 25 times the climate impact as the same amount of calories from vegetables and rice. I’ve also seen agriculture encroaching into natural ecosystems in Asia, Africa and the Americas, and know that deforestation and other environmental degradation linked to animal products will continue as long as populations grow — particularly if rising incomes in developing countries lead to more daily meat-eating.

So realising my own eating habits leave a bit to be desired in the realm of sustainability, I’ve been tempted to give vegetarianism another try. I’m lucky to be in San Francisco, where the city’s creative culinary tradition makes abstaining from meat relatively easy and delicious. Susan and I have sampled vegetarian options spanning a broad swathe of global cuisine and affordability.  

Asian choices are plentiful, for example — from fusion restaurants (like Loving Hut) to Indian, Pakistani, Indonesian, Thai, Cambodian, Burmese, Korean, Japanese and Chinese options. The large local Buddhist population has spawned several fully vegan Chinese restaurants, where chefs also refrain from cooking with garlic and onions.

And there are Mediterranean and African options. Susan developed a particular fondness for overstuffed Lebanese falafel wraps, while I’ve found Senegalese mafé tofu, smothered in peanut sauce, to be just the thing to awaken tired taste buds. For less adventurous souls, there’s always the veggie burger or the vegan sausage.

People we talked with had chosen veggie food for a variety of often interconnected reasons: animal welfare, personal health, weight loss, religious or spiritual beliefs, reduced resource consumption and environmental degradation, global malnutrition and cost effectiveness. Some had experienced profound moments of dietary awaking. For my mother, the tipping point came while milking her cow. An overwhelming feeling of love and connectedness made eating the flesh of another sentient creature seem suddenly repulsive, despite the fact she’d already spent more than two decades raising animals for slaughter.

But can giving up meat really save our planet, as the Loving Hut slogan – “Be Veg, Go Green 2 Save the Planet” — proclaims? Over 3% of Americans now classify themselves as vegetarian, while a bit less than 1% identify as vegan, and these percentages are growing, according to Vegetarian Resource Group.  But the average American or European still consumes two to 15 times as much meat per year as their neighbours in the rest of the world, and rapidly growing economies like China and Brazil are catching up fast.  

So while each strict vegetarian substantially reduces personal environmental damage, it seems unlikely a wave of meat-free eating will usher in a new era of Ecotopia. With better scientific understanding of the complex communicative and emotional lives led by other species, future generations may someday look at eating factory-farmed meat in the same way as we now view cannibalism, slavery and gender inequality — but that culture shift has yet to harness much momentum.

What has been gaining traction, though, is a campaign to eat fewer animal products and to be conscious of where they come from, particularly high-impact meats like beef. Mindful meat consumption is a much easier sell for most people than eliminating it entirely, and it’s a mantra that Susan and I are trying to incorporate into our own lives, practicing omnivorous flexibility that honours culinary traditions while enhancing net sustainability.  

Less meat may sound like the easy way out, but it’s a tactic that can have real impact. University of Chicago research suggests that if each American reduced his or her meat consumption just 20%, it would be equivalent to everyone in the country switching from a standard sedan to an ultra-efficient hybrid-electric vehicle. With veggie cuisine as enticing as what we ingested during our gastronomical tour of San Francisco, your taste buds might even welcome the change.

Ian Monroe is a visiting scholar and lecturer at Stanford University, where he teaches courses that explore social and environmental trade-offs linked to climate-change decisions.

Homepage image by gnohz

The roast imitation meat is all gone, but the waitress points at our leftovers. “Coriander’s tasty and nutritious — you should finish it too. Waste not, want not.” Embarrassed, I follow her instructions. Along with food, the Vegan Hut restaurant in Beijing’s trendy Jianwai Soho apartment complex — a small but upscale restaurant — also provides reading material on the environment and health and sells organic foodstuffs. (I even found a copy of chinadialogue’s Chinese-language journal on the bookshelf.)

“I’m surprised there’s somewhere so quiet and cultured at Jianwai Soho,” observed my fiancé, who works nearby.

Quiet, cultured — and the food’s good too. These seem to be the characteristics of vegetarian restaurants. On the city’s North Third Ring Road, for example, sits Xiangyang Xiaozhu, which has become increasingly popular in the seven years it’s been open. Proprietor Liu Yuefan tells us that “with the dishes I make, the most important thing is taste”. People often misunderstand, she says, thinking that vegetarian food won’t be tasty or nutritious – but it can be both. It’s just that many mainstream restaurants don’t put any effort in to making it so.

Tasty food doesn’t have to be oily or have strong flavours, either. Gourmet cook and vegetarian Gao Yan recounted the recipes and flavours of a whole list of her dishes. She uses only a little salt and oil and brings out the flavour of the ingredients. Mild does not need to mean bland; it has its own flavour.

Yu Li — boss of the Vegan Hut and a vegan nutritionist who has been meat-free for 20 years — stresses that the restaurant advocates a vegan above a vegetarian diet. Using only plants, veganism explicitly rules out eggs and dairy products. But even so, he says, it is still possible to make delicious – and nutritious — Chinese dishes and even authentic western ones.

Awareness of vegetarianism has been rising in China, says Yu Li; there are more customers now, and more restaurants for them to go to. In Beijing alone there are around 100, whereas seven to 10 years ago you could number them on your fingers. In southern China, vegetarian restaurants are more plentiful than in the north.

Liu Yuefan says that only 10% of her customers actually are vegetarian. The rest come for many reasons – taste, food safety, concern for the environment and the restaurant’s atmosphere. At Xiangyang Xiaozhu, the fragrance of incense lingers, calligraphy and paintings hang for sale by the entrance, a tall bookcase stands full of works on Buddhism, health and vegetarianism, and in one corner there is a niche for a statue of Buddha. It’s more like a cultural venue than a restaurant, and many people have started to learn about Buddhism here.

A significant proportion of China’s vegetarian restaurants have a Buddhist atmosphere like Xiangyang Xiaozhu. Many of those in Beijing were started by lay Buddhists or monks. For many vegetarian restaurants, cultural propagation and exchange are important aspects of the business. Liu Yuefan says she opened the restaurant so she could make and spend money doing something that makes her happy, sharing the food, culture and lifestyle that she enjoys.

The Vegan Hut represents a different type of restaurant. There, 70% of customers are female, 30% to 40% are foreigners, and 30% to 40% are strict vegetarians. The Vegan Hut advocates healthy and organic eating, and strives to use organic and non-GMO ingredients – and that attracts many customers concerned about food safety and health. Yu Li says he wants to sign up 500 members to a vegan club, with group-buying of organic foods and tailored vegetarian diets for each member.

In terms of pricing, vegetarian restaurants are often at the mid-to-high end of the range. There’s no abalone or sea cucumber or expensive alcohol, but the carefully prepared and flavoursome dishes, costly organic ingredients and cultural atmosphere are all selling points. Eating vegetarian has become a fashion choice for many Chinese.

Vegetarianism is, in fact, closely tied to China’s small-scale farming culture. At the Chinese New Year in February, Sanlian Life Weekly published a special edition on vegetarian eating, looking at the growing, processing, cooking, history and culture of traditional Chinese ingredients such as bamboo shoots, mushrooms, leafy greens, grains, sweet potatoes and tofu. According to the magazine: “Chinese people live in a nation with a longer history of agricultural cultivation than any other, and the love of plant-based foods is almost rooted in our souls, an instinct.”

The increase in the number of vegetarians in China was explained thus: “It is no coincidence that vegetarianism is flourishing at the same time that everything else is flourishing. People are looking for finer and more graceful lifestyles, and vegetarianism is one of these.”

And more are turning vegetarian for another reason: food safety. There are more toxins in meat than people ever imagined, and vegetarianism may be a safer option. (Yu Li contends that even eating vegetables contaminated with pesticides or fertiliser is safer and healthier than eating meat.) Livestock breeding is shifting from small-scale farmers to factory farms, with output and profits both up – but a series of food-safety issues also has arisen, with no quick solutions for many of them.

Many urban residents, seeing reports of additives, hormones and contaminants in animal feed, are opting to avoid meat. While eating at a vegetarian restaurant might be a popular choice when meeting up with friends or when just enjoying a change, many people also are eating vegetarian meals regularly at home.

For some, there also are reasons of ethics, faith and culture in choosing vegetarianism.

Jing Meng, a local culture educator with a civil-society group, described her experiences with vegetarianism. Once when her mother was ill, she was sent to the market in her place; she saw a fish-seller stun and gut a live fish – and from then on she avoided meat as much as possible. That was the first time she’d seen the brutality involved in a live animal becoming food in a shopping basket, Jing Meng said.  

Her family objected to her becoming vegetarian, and her mother deliberately prepared plenty of meat dishes to try and “cure” her problem. Jing Meng said she did what she could in response. If she could eat only the vegetables from a dish, she would; if there wasn’t anything else to eat, she wouldn’t refuse the meat. Now her family have come to accept her vegetarianism.

Zhao Kun, a student and practitioner of Chinese traditional culture, said that when studying Chinese medicine and culture she gradually realised the benefits of not eating meat and started to avoid it. Modern people are too concerned with delicious flavours, she believes, and those desires bring unnecessary problems. Sometimes, Zhao Kun says, she holds back her own appetites, exercising restraint as a kind of spiritual practice.

In early-Qing dynasty dramatist Li Yu’s Occasional Notes With Leisure Motions, he tells us to avoid rich and greasy food and to be content without meat. This is no longer a simple culinary choice, but a way for man and nature to live together in harmony.

Yu Li says that he decided to open a vegan restaurant in 2006 after reading the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s report Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options. He says he’s come to realise veganism is at the root of solutions to many of the world’s food, environmental, economic and greenhouse-gas problems. In comparison, eating meat is the resource-hungry choice: 36% of food crops go to animal fodder, and only 47% used to feed people. The felling of forests, consumption and pillaging of resources, poverty, the food crisis – all of these are linked to the way we eat.

He hopes his restaurant will persuade more people to adopt veganism, and says he really has seen awareness increase over the years. Yu Li emphasises that vegetarians should not be seen as strange, and that vegetarianism does not have to be absolute. People can reduce the amount of meat they eat as they feel willing. If more people choose to eat less meat, there is more hope that our environment will improve.

 
Zhou Wei is associate editor in chinadialogue’s Beijing office.

Homepage image by Zhou Wei

On March 29, the Canadian authorities finally responded to months of criticism from Chinese animal-protection groups, angered by the country’s determination to foster a seal trade with China. “If Chinese consumers like seal products, both countries benefit,” wrote the Canadian ambassador to Beijing, David Mulroney, in reply to an open letter signed by more than 50 organisations.

The critics were unimpressed. “Canada’s excuses haven’t changed, and they have failed to respond to NGO revelations about seal massacres,” Qin Xiaona, head of the Capital Animal Welfare Association, said to chinadialogue. Thirty countries, including European Union nations, the United States, Croatia and Mexico have banned the trade in seal products. Many animal protection groups are calling on the Chinese authorities to do the same.

But the Canadian government has been running a publicity campaign of its own

“We know that China is a huge potential market,” said Gail Shea, Canada’s minister of fisheries and oceans, during a trip to China in January last year. Following another visit a year later, she had even more exciting news for the seal industry back home: new arrangements for market entry would mean that, from January 13, 2011, the full range of Canadian seal products could be exported to China – including meat and oil for human consumption.

However, Qin Xiaona told chinadialogue that she had confirmed with the Chinese government that no legally binding agreement on market access has yet been signed – just a statement of intent – and the Chinese government has already met with the Canadian authorities to discuss the matter. “The publication of this inaccurate information by the Canadian government is inappropriate and benefits neither nation,” she said.

This has not deterred the Canadian media from presenting it as a done deal. Headlines such as “China gives Canada its approval of seal” and “Canada to ink deal to sell seal meat and oil in China” appeared in mainstream media outlets. The Globe and Mail quoted Wayne MacKinnon, the chairman of DPA Industries, a manufacturer of seal-oil supplements, as saying, “The Chinese eat anything. And they simply don’t understand why you would put one animal above another.” Other reports said that the Chinese have no regard for animal welfare and no related legislation.

On March 28, the China Chamber of International Commerce held a seminar on the seal trade at which Li Jianqiang, China policy consultant for Humane Society International, described the reports as “an accumulation of prejudice and error” and said that the Canadian government had rushed to release the “good news” in order to win over interested voters. “Gail Shea is actually misleading the seal industry,” Li said. “The Canadian government is clasping a worthless agreement and telling them the door is open, now get out there and if you can’t it’s your problem.” It is a cheap trick, he said.

Chinese animal protection groups have also objected to Canada’s publicity campaign.

To mark International Day of the Seal on March 15 and kick start a year of campaigning against Canadian seal products, the China Animal Protection Media Salon, Beijing-based NGO Green Beagle and the Capital Animal Welfare Association launched a new song, “Seal Baby”. At the same time, a member of the National Peoples’ Consultative Conference, Zhang Kangkang, proposed a ban on the import of Canadian seal products.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing in November last year, Rebecca Aldworth, executive chair of the Humane Society International’s Canadian branch said: “Every year for the last 12 years I have observed the massacre of seals. I have witnessed indescribable cruelty, including wounded animals suffocating on their own blood, being beaten and dragged across the ice and skinned while still conscious.”

Canadian law permits the hunting of seals older than 12 days, and 97% of seals killed are less than three years old. Rebecca Aldworth said that the majority of Canadians also oppose the seal industry and do not buy seal products – and that this is why the Canadian government is putting its hopes in overseas markets. After the EU closed its doors to the products in 2009, attention shifted to China.

During her visit to China this year, Gail Shea also attended the 37^th China Fur and Leather Products fair, to promote seal-fur products. This triggered a joint letter of protest from 40 animal-protection groups. At the fair, one activist pinned a banner to his own back: “Chinese people do not welcome Canadian seal products!!!”

On Chinese New Year’s eve, Guo Pei, the costume designer for the festivities’ annual TV extravaganza, received a letter of thanks from Humane Society International and 49 Chinese organisations after she announced she would not, as had been planned, use seal fur in the costume for the show’s host, Dong Qing. Chinese viewers speculated that exposure on the show would have boosted the popularity of seal fur.

The Canadian embassy had earlier issued a statement thanking Guo for her support for the seal industry, leading animal protection groups to suspect the fur to be used in the costume had been a gift from the Canadian government.

Qin Xiaona believes that these incidents are enough to prove that Chinese people are not, as international media have reported, willing to eat anything and indifferent to animal welfare. “I am sure the majority of Chinese people, once they know the truth, will reject seal products. The Canadian government has underestimated the Chinese people,” she said.

On March 13, an open letter entitled “Please don’t peddle blood-stained seal products in China” and signed by more than 50 domestic animal-protection groups was sent to Canada’s ambassador David Mulroney. His response, as explained above, disappointed Qin Xiaona. She explained that he justified his support for the seal trade on three grounds: strict government regulation ensures seal hunts are humane; excessive seal numbers are threatening the ecosystem; and the hunting and eating of seals is a traditional part of Inuit culture and livelihoods.

Qin dismissed each of these arguments: firstly, she said there is a large quantity of legally admissible video evidence that proves the Canadian government does not strictly regulate seal hunting. Secondly, there is actually a lot of debate about seal populations and, in any case, high numbers are no excuse for cruelty. And the third, cultural argument is even shakier, she said: “Every nation has some barbaric customs in its history – for example, foot-binding in China. But if people are to make progress, such customs need to be removed. Culture is no excuse for barbarism.” She said she is sure that Canada, as a developed nation, can find alternative livelihoods for the people involved in its tiny seal industry.

Chinese groups campaigning against the seal trade are urging the Chinese government to impose a trade ban. But Mei Xinyu of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce said this was not the solution. At the seminar on seal products in China, Mei explained that World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules do not allow for such a ban, and giving trading partners a cause to pursue legal action against China would damage China’s standing in international trade negotiations. The European Union is currently embroiled in a WTO dispute with Canada over of its ban.

But Li Jianqiang points out that WTO rules allow for a product to be banned if it offends the moral principles of a nation. Zhang Dan, spokesperson for the China Animal Protection Media Salon, said: “The European Union and the United States are WTO members – why can they do it but China can’t?” She believes the government should follow the people’s wishes.

Mei Xinyu argued that, although the volume of seal products traded between Canada and China is tiny, a ban would lead to the customs authorities incurring large personnel and equipment costs. He suggested that the Chinese groups instead lobby the Canadian government to impose a ban on its seal industry, or concentrate on getting the WTO to change its rules.

The annual seal hunt starts again this spring, with the highest ever government quota: the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has given the go-ahead for 400,000 animals to be killed off Canada’s east coast. Before leaving China for the scene of the hunt, Rebecca Aldworth said: “China’s attitude is crucial. Chinese consumers could stop the next seal massacre.”

Meng Si is associate editor in chinadialogue’s Beijing office.

Homepage image from Greenpeace

The Volvo China Open golf tournament opened today at the Luxehills International Country Club, marking the first time the 17-year-old tournament has been held in Chengdu.

On your doorstep, big names from the European Tour such as Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington as well as last year’s China Open champion Y. E. Yang will be fighting it out alongside China’s most talented golfers for the highly coveted Volvo China Open glass trophy.

Volvo has just announced the development of a new car-manufacturing facility in Chengdu, to open in 2013, and the Luxehills International Country Club, which opened in 2007, serves as a scenic location for this year’s Volvo China Open. The course is beautifully crafted and provides an enjoyable walk even for those indifferent to golf. But for keen golfers, there are free pitching and putting competitions for the whole family.

With a total prize fund of RMB20 million, and the winner taking home a cool RMB3.3million, it is sure to be a entertaining and hard-fought contest.

The Schedule
Friday 22nd April The 2nd Round will begin at approximately 7.30am with an estimated finish at 7.30pm. There will be a two-tee start (1st & 10th), and at the end of play the 156-man field will be cut to the 65 leading players.

Saturday 23rd April The 3rd Round will begin at approximately 7.30am, with the play starting from the 1st tee only and an estimated finishing time of 5.30pm.

Sunday 24th April The Final Round will begin at approximately 7.30am, with the play starting at the 1st tee only and an estimated finishing time of 5.30pm. In the event of a tie for the lead after 72 holes, there will be a sudden-death play-off until a clear winner emerges immediately after the final round. After play has finished, the prize presentation will be held, including the Volvo China Open champions trophy and the Rao Gao Tang Award for the Best Chinese Player in the tournament.

Getting there and away
Luxehills Golf Club (麓山国际高尔夫乡村俱乐部) is located south-west of Chengdu in Shuangliu County. Take the subway south to Century City Station and leave through exit A. Free shuttle buses directly to the Luxehills club house are running every half-hour (look for the coaches with the Volvo sign in the window).

Ticket Prices
Entry is free if you fill out a form at the entrance gate. (Otherwise, a pass officially costs RMB680.) With the promise of more good weather to come this weekend, there might not be a better opportunity to see China’s most prestigious golf tournament.

“Whichever villages the petitioners may be from, they will be relieved from their positions. As for the troublemakers, I’ve told the public security bureau already. Lock them all up first and then we’ll talk.” [ more › ]

FRIDAY | APRIL 22

China5 @ Little Bar
Chinese Rock. Support: Chan Lean. RMB40 (Students RMB30). Starts at 7.30 p.m.

Mr.Turtle @ Hemp House
with DJs D.Bassman & Andy Mac. RMB40. Starts at 10 p.m.

The Wreckoning @ Jah Bar
Local folk/ blues trio. Starts at 8.30 p.m.

Back to the Roots @ Cafe Paname
with DJ R Sun. Free entrance. Starts at 7 p.m.

Matt Honyak @ Machu Picchu
Folk from New Zealand. RMB20. Starts at 9 p.m.

Chillout and Dance Tunes @ Mango Jazz (26 Jianshe lu, Di Wu Da Dao [Near UESTC])
Free entrance. Starts at 9 p.m.

SATURDAY | APRIL 23

Swamp @ Little Bar
Guangzhou Rock. Support: 48V. RMB40 (Students RMB30). Starts at 7.30 p.m. Saturday, April 23

The Crow’s Feet @ Hemp House
with DJs D.Bassman & Andy Mac. RMB30. Starts at 10 p.m. Saturday, April 23

Kitchen&Liba @ Machu Picchu
Irish-Canadian Folk Duo. RMB20. Starts at 9 p.m.

Sinne Eeg @ Hongxinglu 35 (Redstar)
Danish Live Jazz. RMB50 (Students RMB40). Starts at 8.30 p.m.

St. George’s Day & Shakespeare’s Birthday @ Underground
Live Music & Free English Food (Pies & Stews) 7-9 p.m. Buy 1 Get 1 Harbin Beer & English beer promo. 5-8 p.m.

St. George’s Day @ Shamrock
Chengdu Pandas Rugby Fundraiser. Starts at 9 p.m.

SUNDAY | APRIL 24

Sinne Eeg @ Hemp House
Danish Live Jazz. RMB50. Starts at 9 p.m.

Easter Sunday Brunch @ Cafe Z
Holiday Brunch with Egg hunt in the open air terrace. Magician, clown performance. Painting competition. RMB168 (Free non-alcoholic drinks)

ONGOING

Volvo China Open Golf Tournament @ Luxehills
International golf tournament. April 21-24

Marc Riboud @ Chengdu International Photography Center
Solo Retrospective of the French Photographer. April 10 – June 10

Lost My Name? @ No.10 Gallery of Art
Contemporary Art Exhibition with the works of the 22 Group (Zhong Zhe, Liu Ruiling), Li Cao, Li Gang, Yu Hongbo, Hao Jiantao, Yang Hui, Yang Peng, Zeng Pu. Free entrance. April 9 – May 9

UPCOMING EVENTS

HEA9VY:”Knock out 2011″ @ Little Bar
4 Live bands from Hongkong. Attention to Piss, Die In Velvet, FaceFace, Los en Found. RMB50. 8 p.m. Thursday, April 28

Reggae Party @ Hemp House
with DJ Fiete. RMB20. Cocktail Specials at RMB15. Starts at 9.30 p.m. Friday, April 29

The Wreckoning @ Machu Picchu
Local folk/ blues trio. Starts at 8.30 p.m. Friday, April 29

Kings & Queens Party @ Underground
Dress Party with games, prizes & British Beer promo. Friday, April 29

Zebra Music Festival Day 1 @ Poly 198 Park
with Proximity Butterfly, Gemini, Your favorite enemies, Bigger Bang, Convenience Store, Yida Huang, Success, Chenchu Sheng, Gramaphonetics, DJ Joe & DJ/MC Marty B. RMB80. 2-10 p.m. Saturday, April 30

Latino Night @ Shamrock
Free entrance. Saturday, April 30

Zebra Music Festival Day 2 @ Poly 198 Park
The Trouble, Good for Nothing, Mosaic, Soundtoy, Xiaokun Wang & Xu Wei. RMB80. 2-10 p.m. Sunday, May 1

Zebra Music Festival Day 3 @ Poly 198 Park
The Amazing Insurance Salesmen, Tongdang, Mr. Turtle aka Mr. Chelonian, The on Fires, Ashura, Brain Failure & Edison Chen. RMB80. 2-10 p.m. Monday, May 2