LifeCycle Editorial

A Lifecycle Week – Building Rotary, and Big Building

For a long time, Rotary International has been limited to just two branches in China, but now the government has permitted the organisation to expand. The Shanghai branch, especially some folk who used to be in Nanjing, is hoping...

This Lifecycle Week – Smoking, and Media

China as a haven for smokers is showing signs of disappearing. A few years ago, the local government introduced a regulation requiring restaurants to show “No Smoking” signs. That's as far as it went, as there was no form...

A Lifecycle Week – Farming, and Space

Farming goes on in several Xianlin verges. Vegetables have grown and been harvested, although in many cases it is hard to know what the vegetable is. One looked like capsicum (peppers), but after a few small fruit appeared the...

Lifecycle This Week – Curious, and Cold

To quote a famous line, “Curiouser and curiouser”. In Guangzhou Lu, the night after the desertion, all the usual suspects returned. Life was back to normal. What did they know last Wednesday, and how did they know it? The...

Nanjing’s Lifecycle Week – Disappearance, and Mystery

If you've walked past the Children's Hospital in Guangzhou Lu, you've struggled past the sea of street vendors around the main entrance. Suddenly, last night, it all changed. Gone were the fruit sellers, the aroma of roasting nuts, and...

The Lifecycle Week – Wetting Roads, and Stealing

It turns out that the reason for spraying a thin layer of water onto the roads is to stop the bitumen from cracking. Thanks, Nick, for the answer. On the downside, the water used in Nanjing is highly polluted,...

The Lifecycle week – testing, and getting the boot.

Exactly how does one test a new line. Line 4 of the Metro is supposedly undergoing testing prior to opening in January. Surely this involved moving trains along the line? At the Terminus in Xian Lin, the lights are...

The Lifecycle week – mini-mall, and trucks

Ebb and flow. Remember the disappearing street “mall” from some weeks ago. The space that the vendors vacated was cleaned up and levelled. Nothing happened for quite a while. Then it was surrounded with a steel frame. More inactivity....

Latest News

Nanjing Goes Negative as Suzhou Surges in China’s Trade Shuffle

Nanjing has found itself in the wrong column of China’s latest foreign trade rankings. While most major cities grew...

From Suzhou to Liverpool by Bike, One Student Makes the Link Real

Student Luke Rimmer left Suzhou on Tuesday with a bicycle, a ridiculous distance ahead of him and, by his...

Nanjing North Tops Out, but Jiangbei Still Wants Its Metro

Today’s last concrete pour at Nanjing North Railway Station felt like one of those construction moments that actually means...

Best of The Nanjinger