China Scene: North

Rural women plant seeds of knowledge with books

A woman from a village in Zhengding county, Hebei province, has set up a free reading room inside a shop, giving locals a chance to peruse more than 4,000 books.

Shi Hongpo collected the books with a little help from the local women's federation and the Beijing-based Cultural Development Center for Rural Women, which has, since last September, run a training course to help rural women improve their lives.

Since Shi opened her shop, more and more villagers have been opting to use their spare time reading about practical agro-technology like fish breeding and poultry raising instead of playing mahjong. Many of them hope their knowledge will lead to riches.

(news.sohu.com)

Conspicuous consumption leads to divorce filing

A man from Beijing's Pinggu district got so sick of his wife's taste in gaudy luxury goods like mink coats and diamond rings that he sued for a divorce.

The couple earned just 3,000 yuan ($430) a month, but the wife, surnamed Wu, developed a habit of buying at least 1,000 yuan worth of luxuries each month. Early this year, she spent more than 10,000 yuan on a mink coat.

Having failed to persuade her to give up the habit, Li, the husband, sued for a divorce and demanded half of all the luxury goods his wife had bought. Upon hearing this case earlier this week, a judge ruled in Li's favor, granting him half of Wu's luxury goods on the grounds that they were shared property.

(Beijing Times)

Diving coach digs deep to pay for kidney operation

To rescue her son, a 27-year-old dying of uremia, Miao Xiangju, a 68-year-old woman from a poor rural family in Hebei province, decided she would give him one of her kidneys.

After determining that their organs matched, doctors agreed to do the operation. Miao sold her house and grain, but was only able to raise 29,000 yuan (about $4,100), or about 30,000 yuan less than she would need to pay for the operation.

Touched by Miao's love for her son, Yu Feng, a diving coach at the Beijing-based Tsinghua University, donated 30,000 yuan to close the gap. Upon receiving the money on Sunday, Miao burst into tears to express her joy that she would be able to help her son.

(Yanzhao Metropolis Daily)

(China Daily 04/04/2008 page6)