China Scene: South

Help at hand for foreigners in Yuexiu

Foreigners living in the Yuexiu district of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, can get help from a visitor service center in Dengfeng Street.

The center opened in October and is staffed by two police officers and four university students who major in English. There's also a foreign volunteer at the center who can speak five languages.

The center provides a free information service to the large number of foreigners living in the area on housing rentals, healthcare, employment and education.

The center has registered 1,706 foreigners from 83 nations and regions since it opened. They account for 30 percent of the community's population.

(Information Times)

Pig rustlers detained after hammer stunt

Two men have been detained in Liuzhou, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, over a series of pig farm thefts.

Lan, 26, and Mo, 30, were detained by police at about 3:30 am when they arrived in the city's Xi'e village in Liunan district, allegedly to steal pigs.

But the owners of the pig farm alerted police when they heard the two men knocking a hole in the wall with hammers.

The two are suspected of stealing seven pigs valued at more than 7,000 yuan ($972) during the Spring Festival period.

(Guangxi Daily)

Wife jailed for husband's murder

A woman was sentenced to 15 years' jail for beating her husband to death with a wooden rod in Dongguan, Guangdong province, on Wednesday.

Chen Huixia was found guilty of murdering her husband Li, whom she suspected had been unfaithful, on Jan 20, 2007 during a quarrel.

Chen tried to commit suicide after the murder by jumping from the roof of a three-story building, which left her with a disability.

The Dongguan Intermediate People's Court said Chen had committed a deliberate act of murder but her punishment was reduced because she had confessed.

(Southern Metropolis Daily)

Passengers try to squirrel rats aboard

Security at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport stopped a female passenger with two pet rats in her luggage trying to board a flight to Shanghai this week.

A small squirrel was also confiscated from the pocket of another female passenger.

Both women had to leave their pets at the airport.

A number of passengers have been stopped at the airport trying to take rats on flights since the beginning of the lunar year.

Rats are the latest pet fad in China this year, the Year of the Rat according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

(Information Times)

(China Daily 03/04/2008 page6)