China, Plus.

Nanjing - 南京

4) China further curtails Tibetans with '13 don'ts' 

Midterm essaying. Hoping for extra points for the picture. (at 首都师范大学 Capital Normal University)

Preferences

Trip to the foreign ministry archives. (at 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

6) 'Mossad man Zygier inadvertently exposed Lebanese spies'

At last! A text about the Chinese armed forces.

China’s Hui Muslims are unique in many respects. The country’s second-largest ethnic minority share linguistic and cultural ties with the majority in China that have allowed them to practice their religion with less interference and fewer restrictions than others, like Uighur Muslims and Tibetans. Outside of China, the Hui practice of installing women as the head of female-only mosques has been viewed with criticism and admiration. In this video, we look inside the lives of Hui women and what the practice, and the religion, means to them.

Fine particulates have also been linked with many other sorts of health issues, both long- and short-term. There’s evidence that, in individuals already predisposed to heart problems, they can trigger heart attacks. They can also exacerbate asthma, cause coughing or difficulty breathing in healthy people, and reduce the lungs’ ability to take in oxygen for people with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Fluent in three months. A blog started by a seemingly naive language learner like myself, with a seemingly impossible goal. Actually, not so. Benny, the creator of this blog, has been making a name for himself on the internet recently for his gung-ho approach to language learning and his simple mantra: "Speak from day one." If you're like me, you may have thought that if you weren't born speaking more than two languages, then there is, to put it lightly, not much hope for you by the time you reach your college years and beyond. Benny stands out as a shining beacon of hope for all of us who have come to believe that unfounded assertion. Monolingual in his twenties, Benny was, after many failures (but ultimately more successes) able to attain fluency in several languages, including Spanish, French, Irish, German, and Italian. It's important to note, however, that Benny is not trying to prove that attaining fluency in 3 months is possible (though he claims he's seen it happen), but rather to attain a useful language in that amount of time. The point is, though, that one should set ambitious yet attainable goals for one's language studies. Set yourself aside an hour to read through some of his favorite blog posts, and you'll be hooked.

Pictures from my trip today to the National Museum (国家博物馆). I went with my friend and classmate Celine to meet up with my One-on-One teacher from last year. Afterwards we had a delicious bite to eat at a Xinjiang restaurant. Looking forward to the next weekend adventure!

Pictures you won't see on any Beijing tourism advertisement.

In China, people often say that peacetime is the worst time for a soldier. General Luo Yuan, however, is a lucky one. He has the chance to get a taste of battlefield on Sina Weibo, China’s leading microblogging service.

Wow, I feel comparably behind the times with only 2G service here in Beijing.

“菲律宾当局表示，他们不需要中国的同意，可以单独把这个问题单独提交联合国仲裁。

I just stumbled upon this fascinating blog about Uyghur politics and culture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Full of interesting first-hand observations, with a refreshing dose of wit and sarcasm. Definitely worth a look!