Beijing Bites

The manager of the Boys and Girls bar in Sanlitun was sentenced to two years in jail for illegal possession of methamphetamine at Chongwen district court, the Mirror Evening News reported yesterday.

The police found 390 pills of methamphetamine at Meng Qingli's apartment at the China Central Place on May 19. The pills were weighed at 35.85 g. After he was arrested he helped police arrest the drug dealer, which was believed to be a reason for the lesser sentence.

Body found by trash collector

A dead female body was found in a suitcase by a trash collector in Beiqijia, Changping district on Saturday morning, the Beijing Times reported yesterday.

The collector noticed the suitcase on a pile of rubbish. Inside, he discovered a dead body wrapped in a bed sheet but without any trace of blood.

There was no snow on the case although it had snowed on Friday night, suggesting the case had been dropped recently.

The police are now investigating.

13.95 M entries and exits

In 2009, 13.95 million people entered or exited China through its border control in Beijing, roughly the same as 2008, the Beijing border control police said.

More than 7 million people entered into China through Beijing, and 6.94 million people left.

More than 460,000 Taiwan travelers entered or left Beijing, with a significant growth of 25 percent as a result of direct flights across the Taiwan Straits. South Korea, the US and Japan ranked as the top three foreign sources of travelers.

Man cheats $246,000 from girl

A man who pretended to be an anti-smuggling officer and swindled 1.68 million yuan ($246,000) from a girl was sentenced to 16 years in prison at Chongwen district court, the Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

Liu Tao got to know Yuan Li on the instant messaging tool QQ in August 2006, claiming he was an official with the General Administration of Customs. They fell in love and began to live together. In October 2007, Yuan got a call from a friend wanting to return 1.5 million yuan to her.

Liu told Yuan he could open an account for her, but withdrew the money two weeks later. He also stole 180,000 yuan from her mother's account.

Carbon monoxide kills one

A man died from carbon monoxide poisoning yesterday morning and six others were hospitalized as a result of insufficient heating ventilation at a residential accommodation in Haidian district, the Mirror Evening News reported.

The dead man was the son of the owners of the flats.

His wife and five tenants were hospitalized.

The accident was caused by poor ventilation of their coal stove. The police are still investigating.

Underground robber nabbed

A man who robbed eight women in an underground pass was arrested by Haidian district police, the Mirror Evening News reported yesterday.

The man surnamed Ma was accused of robbing several women who walked alone through the underground pass near Jianxiang Bridge of the North Fourth Ring Road in April and May.

Ma was later arrested in Chengdu, Hebei province on Dec 28, four days after CCTV footage showed him robbing a woman.

Website sells lucky numbers

A 25-year-old girl who ran the "official website of China lottery" and collected 40,000 yuan of membership fees was sentenced to two years in jail with two years of probation, the Xuanwu district court said.

She was also fined 2,000 yuan.

The girl founded the website in February and claimed it could offer predictions on lottery numbers, but required users to pay membership fees.

A man gave more than 40,000 yuan to the website to get the lucky numbers. The girl later returned the money and received a more lenient sentence.

(China Daily 01/04/2010 page14)