• Foreigners Dubious of China's Newly Announced “Ease of Entry” Procedures

  Useful Info |

  Word on the street: it's becoming more difficult for foreigners to get employment visas in Beijing. Several years ago, China implemented and began enforcing new requirements that foreigners have at least two years of work experience outside the country before becoming eligible for a work permit here, along with requiring that such visas be applied for in the applicant's home country. This cut off a prime source of talent for a significant number of both domestic and international firms: foreigners who were studying at local universities and thus tended to possess the Mandarin-language skills that many coming straight from abroad do not have.

• From laughingstock to columnist: Controversial online celebrity redeems herself

  People & Stories |

  Luo Yufeng first gained online notoriety as an air-headed, homely twenty-something who unaccountably demanded China's most eligible bachelors despite not being well-qualified herself. Now, the controversial online celebrity has been hired by a respected news app as a columnist.

• Former university president suspended

  People & Stories |

  Ji Baocheng, a former president of Renmin University of China, has been suspended from the Party for two years and has been put on a good-behavior notice after being investigated for misbehavior, a newspaper reported.

• Police question six in sex scandal probe

  People & Stories |

  Beijing police are holding six people who are allegedly involved in a sex video that was apparently made in a popular fashion retailer's fitting room, Beijing media reported on Sunday.

• Smoother, faster ride home for Spring Festival

  Useful Info |

  BEIJING - High-speed trains with comfort, Starbucks coffee onboard, free WIFI in stations, and phone apps for ticket purchase. As the Spring Festival travel rush kicked off on Sunday, hundreds of millions of Chinese found that their journeys for holiday homecomings have become much smoother and faster.

• Motorcyclists warm to free journeys home

  People & Stories |

  In freezing weather on Sunday morning, Wei Guojian began his journey home for a Spring Festival family reunion.It will take him nearly 24 hours to travel from Foshan in Guangdong province, where he has worked as a truck driver for eight years, to his hometown in Guizhou province.

• Shanghai sees twelvefold increase in 'green cards'

  Useful Info |

  Under loosened visa policies in effect since July to attract more foreign talent to Shanghai, 12 times more expats have obtained permanent residence cards in the past five months than during the same period last year.

• Lawyer or not, Pu Zhiqiang broke the law

  People & Stories |

  BEIJING - Pu Zhiqiang, a former Beijing-based lawyer, was given a suspended three-year prison term on Tuesday for inciting ethnic hatred and disturbing public order. Simply, he was punished for breaking the law.

• More Chinese cities on high smog alert

  Issues to Talk About |

  TIANJIN - Roughly 50 cities in northern and eastern China have issued air pollution alerts in the most recent bout of smog.

• Chinese TV station 'employs robot' as weather reporter

  People & Stories |

  SHANGHAI - Shanghai Dragon TV has "employed" an artificial intelligence (AI) robot as a weather reporter on its live breakfast show.