News

Good news: The H1N1 flu virus is on the decline.
Bad news: The virus is not completely gone, patients have stopped asking for the vaccine, and doctors are worried about another outbreak.

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The Internet is such a big part of our lives, but how big is too big? Check out this article from the China Daily:

"Many Chinese teens feel most happy when they are surfing the Internet rather than spending time with family or friends, latest research on the country's post-90s generation has found.

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We stumbled across this disturbing article in the Shanghai Daily:

"THERE has been a 10-fold increase in the number of children in the city hospitalized for cancer in the past decade, local medical experts said yesterday ..."

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UPDATE: An interesting discussion about this article has opened up on the UK Times Online's Alpha Mummy blog.

"The picture of the little Chinese boy chained to a post while his father worked has been everywhere today. And at first it is a bit shocking. I don't want to go all Sue Sylvester from Glee on this, but actually as the story unfolds, it begins to seem a not-so-unreasonable childcare solution." ... To read more or have your say, click here.

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Whether or not China produces truly organic produce is a hot topic among Beijing expats. Is it worth paying extra for tomatoes at Lohao City (Beijing's self-proclaimed organic supermarket)? And is Beijing's standards for organic and GM foods the same as that in our home countries?

A recent article in the Global Times claims that there is a double standard when it comes to the GM produce sold in China. Wang Weikang, director of Greenpeace's food and agriculture program, was quoted in the article as saying that Wal-Mart has made no moves to make their Chinese outlets GM free, though they have publicly stated that they will refuse GM products in their British stores.

If you're craving the organic section of your supermarket back home, it's worth questioning whether it was organic at all.

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Remember the excitement you felt receiving mail as a child? That's the inspiration behind San Francisco-based Little Passports, a new educational subscription service that aims to turn 5-to-10-year-olds into world travellers, one country at a time. Little Passports delivers monthly travel packages designed to provide a fun, hands-on way for kids to learn about other countries without leaving home. The first shipment in the USD 10.95 per month subscription prepares little voyagers for their global adventure with a mini suitcase, passport, world map and a letter and photo introducing their travel guides, Sam and Sofia.

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I regularly read a fantastic blog by Australian mother of three, Mia Freedman, called Mama Mia. Aside from being a great time waster, it's full of thoughtful posts about body image, fashion, and motherhood.

While cruising Mia's blog I came across this interesting post about trailing spouses.

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14-year-old Londoner, Arran Fernandez, is on course to be the youngest Cambridge University student in almost 230 years.

Arran, who was home-schooled, puts most adult university students to shame. After successfully completing the British GCSE maths exam -- normally taken by 16-year-olds -- at the tender age of five, he went on to complete his A levels -- university entrance exams taken by 18-year-olds -- at just 14.

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The LA Times has an interesting article describing how families with adopted children from China go to great pains to help their children find their biological parents.

Some excerpts:

"The number of Chinese adoptees looking for their birth parents is expected to rise as the girls, most of them still very young, reach adolescence and then adulthood. But in China, the families often confront an entrenched culture of secrecy that clashes with Americans' presumed right to know."

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Dr Richard over at MyHealthBeijing has a couple of recent posts pertinent to families in Beijing:

The first includes a look back at an article Will Chickering wrote about indoor air pollution for Beijing Kids' (now defunct) sister magazine Urbane and subsequently posted on Beijingcafe. "Basically, I learned that the worst component of air pollution from the point of health effects is traffic-related, i.e., within 150-200m of four-lane streets/highways (which can be easily identified on a Google Map of Beijing), and that the worst of the worst are fine and ultra-fine particles, which seep indoors with such efficiency that their concentration is almost the same indoors as out. HEPA air purifiers can help, but only in closed rooms where the machines need to be set at a rate to clean a room’s volume TWICE in one hour (to keep ahead of the seepage). Unless the rooms are very small, this rate is very loud." Read more here.

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