China Scene: North

Newlyweds divert wedding expenses to quake relief

In Heilongjiang province, some newlyweds have sacrificed lavish wedding ceremonies and honeymoons in order to save money to donate to victims of the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province.

Huang Changshuai and Zhang Shanshan, a newlywed couple working for Harbin Railway Station in the provincial capital, canceled a limousine they had booked for their nuptials, trimmed banquet expenses, and relinquished some pieces of furniture they had reserved for their new home. Their frugality allowed them to donate 12,000 yuan ($1,730) to quake survivors.

Other newlyweds in the city have canceled their honeymoons in order to divert travel expenses to relief efforts.

(www.xinhuanet.com)

Hit-and-run kills Hohhot public servant

An environmental sanitation worker was sweeping streets in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolian autonomous region, when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver.

The worker, surnamed Zhang, was rushed to a hospital, where he died, last Wednesday morning.

Local authorities are urging witnesses to help them identify and charge the driver.

"We do hope witnesses of the accident could clue us on the driver and help police bring him to justice," a representative told local media.

(Hohhot Evening News)

Bomb threat in Beijing supermarket

A migrant worker from Hebei province stood trial on Monday for trying to extort money from two Beijing supermarkets.

Yu Yang, the worker, threatened to detonate bombs he claimed to have hidden in each store unless he was paid one million yuan ($144,500).

While he was waiting for the money outside one of the stores, police were able to identify and detain him, with the help of a photograph of the man obtained from a local bank.

(Beijing Evening News)

Mother sentenced for suffocating daughter

The daughter of a woman from Jiangsu province suffered from severe cerebral palsy, which left her unable to speak or walk.

After caring for her child for two decades, the 47-year-old mother gave her daughter an overdose of sleeping pills and smothered her with bed quilts, in a rented room in Beijing.

The mother, Li Daohong, was convicted of murder in Beijing on Tuesday. Her husband, the father of the dead child, pleaded for his wife's sentence to be reduced, pointing to the twenty years she had previously spent as a devoted caretaker.

(eijing Morning Post)

Doctors donate medical service to Sichuan man

Su Shuliang, a migrant worker from Sichuan was rushed to a hospital in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in May in dire need of an appendicitis.

The man had no money to pay for the operation, but the hospital decided to provide the operation free of charge when doctors learned that his family and hometown had been devastated by the May 12 earthquake.

(nner Mongolia Daily)

(China Daily 06/13/2008 page6)