Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan's home became a tourist attraction during the National Day holiday. CCTV asked people on the street about what they think patriotic behavior is, and Rafael Nadal experienced the fun and frustrations of the crowds during his visit to the Summer Palace, it's all trending news across China.
Seat fight
A few spectators were involved in an altercation over a seat, with the argument ending in a fight at a Miao ethnic group event in Leishan county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province. The Miao performance event attracted thousands of people on Wednesday, and luckily police and security were able to stop the fight, news.ifeng.com reported.
Safer crossings
Traffic police in Shanghai developed a type of human "on/off" switch to help pedestrians safely cross the streets during Golden Week. At one intersection 10 policemen separately stood along the sidewalk, on both sides of the road when the red light was on, so pedestrians would remain separated from the passing motor vehicles. Once the light turned green, two teams of police moved to the middle of the street forming human "walls" on either side of the zebra crossings, so pedestrians could cross the street safely. Shanghai received about 3.8 million visitors on the third day of the National Day holiday, Shanghai Morining Post reported. Some newspaper also questioned the necessity.
Mortgage business slows
Banks in Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Wuhan suspended their mortgage business as they were running out of bank credit lines. Some banks, even though they did not discontinue their loan services, did however cancel interest rate concessions along with rising interest rates. However, there has been various degrees of extensions allowed on the mortgage approval process. Due to the tight lines on credit loan amounts, housing loan rates for first and second homes,have gone up 10 to 15 percent, said an employee from a China Citic Bank branch in Guangzhou. Heavy real estate loans have experienced an increase this year, which in turn has exacerbated tension on bank credit lines, szsb.sznews.com reported.
Mo effects
Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan's home became a tourist attraction, as cars stretched over 2 km just to drive by it during the National Day holiday in Pinganzhuang, Gaomi county, East China's Shandong province. The "Mo Yan effect" actually has benefited the local farmers, and his hometown has since become a cultural hotspot. Mo's famous debut novel, Red Sorghum, is currently in production for a new televsion series, epaper.xkb.com.cn reported.
Nadal experiences Golden Week
Top-ranked Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal experienced the thrills and frustrations that come with the National Day holiday while visiting the Summer Palace on Thursday in Beijing. Nadal told reporters, "The Summer Palace is very beautiful, but I wasn't expecting such a crowd," sports.qq.com reported.
Uni president's response to bank recruitment
A micro blog post claiming "do not discriminate against my students" went viral online and was forwarded over 38,000 times. A recruitment provision form Shenzhen's bank said all applicants must be from Project 211 (National Key Universities and colleges with the intent of raising the research standards). A reply from Zhang Bigong, the president of Shenzhen University in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province to the students said, "Do not care about the bank recruiter's low quality." Zhang ordered the finance office to close the university's bank account, "If the bank does not change, I will call more than 20,000 parents of the students to remove their money from the bank." The bank immediately changed its recruitment policies, hot.weibo.com reported.
Defining patriotic behavior
China Central Television (CCTV) conducted random interviews on the streets asking people what patriotic behavior means to them. It's not a question that has a precise answer, as it's up to the individual to express their love for the motherland however they see fit. "To be patriotic means to help an old lady cross the street," said one person from Nanjing. Beijing residents believe it is unpatriotic and irrational to spread rumors on the Internet, especially if the rumors are against the government and can hurt the country. One vegetable farmer from Beijing felt that providing people with safe food to eat is patriotic. And a tourist from Chengdu said that people shouldn't embarrass the Chinese when they are in public or traveling outside the country.
Son's perm creates trouble for mother
A hip young mother, surnamed Luo, let a barber perm her son's hair, which cost her 800 yuan ($130), in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province. As a result of the perm, the mother's son, Xiaotian, was often late for school when the new semester first started because his mother spent too much time conditioning his hair in the morning. Xiaotian's mother eventually made her son's hair straight again upon the suggestion of her son's kindergarten teacher. "A perm is not very good for a child's growth, because they may get in the habit of paying too much attention to their appearance," the teacher explained to Luo, whcb.cjn.cn reported.