Trending across China

Restaurants in Shaanxi add Xi Jinping's dinner with KMT's Lien Chan to their menus, and a man in Jiangsu is burned by his rental girlfriend – to the tune of 80,000 yuan.

 

Court to consider gay rights group

A 20-year-old man in Changsha, Hunan province, sued the local bureau of civil affairs in court on Wednesday for not allowing him to establish an organization that centers on homosexual culture.

The man applied to set up a civil organization that centers on homosexual culture in late 2013, but was refused by the city bureau of civil affairs, which cited the marriage law in China, which says marriage is between a male and female. "Homosexuality is not in line with China's traditional culture, and organizations promoting culture of this kind are not allowed to be set up," it said.

The man said he has been running the organization since 2009 but had a hard time getting it legalized.

Kaifu district court has accepted the petition and will reply in seven working days.

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'Xi and Lien Meal Set'

On Feb 18, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, held a dinner banquet in Beijing to welcome Kuomintang Honorary Chairman Lien Chan, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. As both men are from Shaanxi province, the banquet featured some special dishes from Shaanxi, such as pita bread soaked in lamb soup and meat pie.

Some restaurants in Shaanxi province quickly followed the trend, and are now promoting set meals composed of similar dishes that Xi and Lien had at the banquet, and selling them as the Xi and Lien Meal Set. One set meal at a local restaurant in Shaanxi cost 58 yuan, and has become very popular among diners. Some netizens, after learning about the meal set, are eager to go to Shaanxi and try it.

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Beijing subway safety rules

A draft of rail traffic safety regulation was released in Beijing on Tuesday. According to the draft, behaviors such as eating, drinking, begging or lying down in the car will result in fines of up to 500 yuan ($82.30). Going the wrong way on an escalator will be fined up to 1,000 yuan. It also clarifies that people who don't go through security checks at subways stations will not be allowed in. Pets and animals are still not allowed on the subway, but seeing-eye dogs are allowed as long as the owners show the certificate.

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Drivers lose perks

Many drivers who used to work for government officials in Hunan province are quitting, as they are losing the "grey income" they used to get from working with government officials. Some of the perks included extra bonuses from people seeking access to the officials.

Sun Rui in Chaling county, Hunan province, has been driving for a provincial level department for the past two years. He said that working as a driver in the government requires good social skills, and sometimes requires delivering gifts from visitors to government official in secret. Sun recently quit his job and is heading to Guangdong province as a migrant worker.

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Man swindled by rental girlfriend

Wang Wei, a 32-year-old man in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, was cheated out of more than 80,000 yuan ($13,168) by his rental girlfriend. He had found her on a dating website, to join him for his family reunion during the Spring Festival holiday, at 500 yuan a day.

Wang got the idea of renting a girlfriend for Spring Festival because he was being heavily pushed by his family toward marriage. The girlfriend he rented was a 22-year-old from Anhui province, who faked her identity on dating websites. She told Wang's mother during Spring Festival that her father was in the hospital and borrowed 80,000 yuan from the mother, and disappeared from the train station. The police eventually found her and she was arrested.

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Rooftop villa is no more

The demolition of a large illegal rooftop villa in Beijing, Renji Shanzhuang, a residential compound in Haidian district, was recently finished, leaving only a big pile of garbage behind.

The structure, set on top of a 26-story building was dotted with artificial rocks, grass and trees, and a swimming pool. The whole compound covered more than 1,000 square meters. The demolition work started in August 2013.

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Military school fraud

A man surnamed Cheng in Henan province was cheated out of 51million yuan ($8.4 million) as he tried to send his daughter to military school. The case was opened in court in Henan on Monday.

Meng Peicheng told Cheng that he was a secretary of the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and asked Cheng for money to guarantee a spot for his daughter at the military school. From March 2009 to 2012, Meng asked for tens of millions of yuan from Cheng in the name of project funds, as well as a Mercedes-Benz worth 2.3 million yuan.

Cheng's daughter did get into the military school, but was soon dismissed.

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Shoe factory shutdowns protested

Thousands of shoe factory owners in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, gathered Monday in front of local authorities to protest local government orders to close their factories.

On Jan 14, a fire that started at a shoe factory in Wenzhou led to the local government's decision to close down some of the city's small shoe factories out of safety concerns. But shoe manufacturing is a main industry for many businessmen in Wenzhou as well as for the local economy.

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