China Scene: North

Beijing's biggest wedding ever

Beijing will hold a grand wedding ceremony in October for 2008 newlywed couples at the Great Wall, or Olympic venues.

The wedding event is likely to be the largest of its kind ever to be held in the capital.

Interested couples, who are officially registered between July 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008, have until Saturday to apply for the group wedding at http://www.marry5.com/.

Up to 2008 couples will be selected based on a series of talent shows. Hopeful couples will also compete for the chance to win 30,000 yuan ($4,289) worth of diamonds, as a special souvenir for their marriage.

(news.sohu.com)

Chinese donor saves child in America

A 24-year-old Chinese women from Tianjin has given new life to a 3-year-old Chinese-American by donating her stem cells.

Jia Yuan's donation helped the young boy fight a fatal case of leukemia in the United States - and is the first cross-country donation of its kind ever reported in Beijing.

On Monday, doctors took 144 ml of Jia's stem cells on May 13 to bring back to America, where they used them to save the child's life.

"Since I learned that my stem cell has been matched well with that of the boy, I were longing to help him," she said. "Now, I've achieved one of my biggest wishes - to help those in need."

(news.sohu.com)

Cola, breath mints, harmful mix

A Chinese college student was rushed to hospital following a dieting experiment gone wrong.

The eruption trend has been growing in online popularity. The stomach reaction is said to occur after mixing pop drink Coke with Mentos breath mints.

After watching an online video about eruption, 21-year-old Li Na from Changchun, Jilin province, was eager to try it. She guzzled two large bottles of Coca-Cola and ate two pieces of Mentos candies.

Seconds later, a massive jet of cola formed in her mouth and she began violently vomiting until she gave herself a serious gastric mucosa hemorrhage.

Doctors are cautioning against the game.

They say Li's stomach could have been severely damaged had she not received treatment immediately.

(East Asia Economy and Trade News)

Couple celebrates their marriage on public buses

A bride and groom shared their wedding day with bus passengers in Beijing last month via a digital video broadcast on the city's 20,000-some buses through a mobile TV broadcasting system.

Meng Xiangfa and his bride Zhang Yan fell in love two years ago, but didn't see much of each other because they lived an hour and a half apart by bus.

Fortunately a new bus route, No 459, was launched, connecting the two and shortening the trip to less than an hour.

Thus, when they planned the wedding in April, they decided to use the bus broadcasting system, to let bus passengers share their happiness.

(Beijing Times)

Night weddings to save rush hour headaches

Night weddings have become fashionable for many newlyweds in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, in order to avoid "rush hour" weddings during the day.

It also allows soon-to-be husbands and wives to reduce costs by more than 20 percent, according to one hotel owner.

But, experts believe the trend marks a revival of traditional Chinese culture in which weddings were held at night for many years until the Tang Dynasty (618-960).

(www.chinanews.com.cn)

Police have ordered a migrant couple working in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, to remove eight piglets being kept on their balcony of their apartment.

Police banned the pigs after neighbors complained wretched odors and cries from the pigs, which made it impossible for them to sleep for days at a time.

The couple had turned their balcony into a hog's pen to make extra money from raising and selling pigs. They had even planned on enlarging the pen to include the apartment's kitchen after the piglets grew bigger.

(news.sohu.com)

(China Daily 06/05/2008 page6)