A hitchhiker's guide to good blogging

I started to blog in 2004 while I was a graduate student at Syracuse University. In the decade that has followed, my blog has fetched more than 20 million page hits. The exposure has also brought invitations to write columns for various newspapers and magazines, including China Daily and Southern Metropolis Daily, as well as the Chinese versions of The New York Times, Financial Times and Holland Online. I have published three collections of essays based largely on blog posts, too.

Twilight years dogged by medical woes

My family life plunged into chaos a month ago when my father suddenly collapsed and went into a coma on the day he and my mother came to visit us in Beijing.

Later retirement, better life

China will raise the retirement age in gradual steps, as proposed by the communique issued by the Third Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee, ending the debate on whether raising the retirement age is good for the country's labor market.

Cartoon

Japanese germ-war atrocities undeniable

A large number of files discovered by the Jilin provincial archives administration recently reveal the grim world of helplessness and suffering that Japanese troops unleashed on China through their large-scale human experimentation, which was carried out by the notorious Unit 731.

Local legislators to the fore

The scrutiny of the proposed ordinance on air pollution prevention by Beijing municipal people's congress is hardly newsy, because the deteriorating air quality in the city deserves to be a legislative priority and, more importantly, a legislative response to the issue of outstanding public concern is overdue.

Ban on extravagance

More than 30,000 government officials have been punished for corruption and other malpractices since December 2012, when the country's new leadership issued a document to eliminate corruption and extravagance. Thanks to strengthened supervision, many officials have stopped dining in fancy restaurants while some others are busy hiding their luxury cars or moving out of their over-decorated offices. In fact, more than 90 percent government officials who responded to a recent survey said: "Life is becoming tough".

West unfair on Sochi security

As the 2014 winter Olympics, which are scheduled to be held in Sochi, Russia, from Feb 6 to 23, draw near, super strict security measures are being implemented to ensure the Games are safe.

'Rotten women' only expression of desire

The BBC drama Sherlock has proved so popular in China that when the first episode of the third series was launched on a Chinese video-hosting website just two hours after it was broadcast in Britain, it received almost 3 million hits overnight.

Hot words

12306 phenomenon

From the Chinese press

Quality not quantity of education

Committed to a clean society

Communist Party of China General Secretary Xi Jinping has pledged a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, reflecting the top leadership's determination to root out corruption from Chinese society.