China Scene: North

2.36 m giant Bao Xishun and wife expecting baby

Bao Xishun, one of the world's tallest men (2.36 m), will become a father at the age of 58.

His wife was last week found four-months pregnant during a check up at a hospital in Chifeng, a city of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Bao said he has longed for a child for months since he tying the knot last December.

Both Bao's 30-year-old wife, Xia Shujuan, and her embryo are doing well.

(www.xinhuanet.com)

A man parks his bicycle outside his window - on the sixth floor of his apartment in Shenyang, Liaoning province - to prevent it from getting stolen.

He bought a remote-controlled hoist for the bicycle. The hoist cost 1,000 yuan ($143) and his bicycle 600 yuan.

"The money has been well spent. I do not have to worry about losing my bicycle, unlike my neighbors whose bicycles have been repeatedly stolen from the yard downstairs," Ye said.

(Liaoshen Evening News)

Millionaire mistook two-finger gesture

Dressed as police, four knife-wielding men from Jixian, a county in Shanxi province, broke into a millionaire's home with the intention of robbing him of two million yuan ($285,660).

But, the robbers got 10 million yuan after the man misread the robber's gesture of two fingers as 20 million.

Wang bargained with the robbers for half the sum, fearing they would harm him and his family.

The robbery is the biggest ever reported in Shanxi. The robbers were captured last month, and the money has been recovered.

(Chinese Business Morning View)

(China Daily 06/03/2008 page6)