China Scene: West

Icon-filled valley discovered in Xinjiang

A mysterious Buddha valley was found recently in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The valley, located in Bole county, runs for more than 300 m and is filled with a variety of Buddha statues in numerous poses. A 10-m reclining Buddha sits opposite a statue of a naked man, which is meant to symbolize a human admitting his errors before Buddha.

(http://ic.eastday.com)

Suicide attempt spoiled by gas leak scare

Police and firefighters on Friday stopped Yue, a resident of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, from killing himself with gas.

That morning residents of an apartment building noticed a heavy gas smell and called the police.

Emergency workers searched the building while more than 100 nervous residents looked on. Police traced the leak to an apartment on the third floor. After knocking and getting no response, they kicked in the door and found Yue passed out on the bed.

At the hospital later that day, the young man told police that his girlfriend had left him and so he wanted to die.

(Sanqin Metropolis Daily)

Fish dinner continues to haunt woman 2 weeks on

Yang, 25, a resident of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, has been in pain ever since a 5-cm-long fishbone got stuck in her abdomen.

Yang started getting stomachaches about 10 days ago, and not even medicine could help. On Friday, doctors performed an ultrasound and said she had a cyst in her abdomen. They operated on her abdomen and were surprised to discover a fishbone where the cyst was supposed to be. Yang said she had eaten some fish about two weeks ago. Doctors said the bone had poked through her intestines.

(Chinese Business View)

Honest student finds, returns money-filled wallet

Zhang Meng, a sixth-grade student at a primary school in Minhe county, Qinghai province, found a wallet containing cash and bankcards for some 1.2 million yuan (about $171,000) and handed it back to its owner.

The girl found the wallet at a market on Friday morning and brought it to school. It held 3,300 yuan in cash and 13 bankcards. Police helped track down the owner that afternoon. The owner offered to give the girl a 2,000 yuan ($285) reward, be she declined to accept it, saying she just wanted to do the right thing.

(www.qhnews.net)

Proof of tax man's reach found in old walls

A bundle of 48 tax bills used about 140 years ago were found recently in Wusheng county, Sichuan province.

The bills were hidden in a wall of an old house. The owner, Jiang Mingde, found them while he was renovating the house. The oldest bill was used in 1866, and the taxpayer was surnamed Jiang.

(http://ic.eastday.com)

Mistaken identity leads son to mourn prematurely

A farmer in Gufeng village, Shaanxi province, was told on Saturday that his missing father had been killed in a traffic accident so he went to the scene. The victim looked a lot like his 80-year-old father, so he carried the dead man's body back home. However, as he was making the funeral arrangements the next day, he received word that his father had been spotted near a temple.

"My father had been missing for several days, and I was so sad when I saw the dead man, so I did not carefully look at the body," the farmer said after retrieving his real father from the temple.

(Chinese Business View)

(China Daily 04/04/2008 page6)