China Scene: West

Groom-to-be struggles to crack fiancee's riddle

Wu Yong, a resident of Chongqing municipality, has asked local media for help deciphering a riddle his girlfriend posed.

Wu and his girlfriend have been together for four years, and he wants to get married on May 1. However, when Wu told his girlfriend his marriage plan on April 20, she gave him a riddle and said she would not agree to marry him until he finds the answer. Wu has been racking his brains trying to solve it, and even enlisted his friends and relatives in the search for the answer. He got some extra help on Thursday when a local newspaper published the riddle. Wu hopes someone will be able to find the answer.

(Chongqing Commercial Daily)

Several monkeys recently went on a crop-destroying rampage through a mountainous village in Nanguang township, Sichuan province.

"We do not know where the monkeys came from, but they visited our farms at night and destroyed many of our crops," a local farmer said.

The local government sent animal experts and police officers to the village to investigate, and the expert told the farmers that the monkeys are State-protected animals. They said the monkeys had appeared because the ecosystem around the mountain had improved.

(West China Metropolis Daily)

Suicide prank leaves man disfigured by burns

Jiang Xingquan, a 22-year-old resident of Chongqing municipality, paid a heavy price for his impulsiveness last Thursday.

Jiang and his girlfriend quarreled several days ago, so Jiang thought he would scare her by orchestrating a fake suicide attempt. He switched on the gas at home and waited. His girlfriend called him when she heard about his plan - and the incoming call seems to have ignited the gas in the room.

Jiang was seriously injured and will face disfigurement and disability. Doctors said the incoming call might have created a spark of electricity.

(Chongqing Morning News)

Official goes the extra mile for childless couple

Li Tao, a 38-year-old official in Fangxiang township, Guizhou province, has been looking after a poor old couple for 14 years.

In 1994, Li Tao came to the township to work as a financial official. He met Li Zhigang and his wife by chance. After hearing that the couple had no child of their own, Li Tao said he would look after them as if he were their son. Li Tao said he would continue to care for the old couple forever.

(Guizhou Metropolis Daily)

Lost wedding ring testimony to love

Zhou Xiaodong and Pan Xiaoxing, a young couple from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, confirmed their love over a lost wedding ring.

During the Spring Festival, the couple visited Shaanxi for their honeymoon and Zhou, the husband, lost his ring in Maoling, a scenic spot in the province, while they were playing in the snow. The ring was inscribed with his wife's name. The couple spent many hours looking for the ring, but failed.

On Friday, Pan went back to the area to conduct another search.

"Many people did not understand why I had spent more than 6,000 yuan ($857) on travel to look for a ring which was worth only 1,700 yuan. To me it was not the money, but a symbol of our love," Pan said.

Though Pan failed again to find the ring, the couple's love for each other moved many people.

(Xi'an Evening News)

Machine brings joy for blind woman

"I am so happy to be able to listen to books being read to me on a machine," Zhang Hongping of Baoji, Shaanxi province, said on Monday. She received an electronic reading machine for blind people.

One hundred blind people in the city were given such machines for them to listen to written materials and songs. It is part of the local government's efforts to help enhance the education of the disabled. The project will be continued in the next few months, with more people receiving such machines.

(Chinese Business View)

(China Daily 05/06/2008 page6)