A rather amusing article from China Daily today about paper Apple products being sold as Tomb Sweeping Festival gifts. According to the article, over 1,000 tons of paper products are burnt as offerings over the festival, which will take place Sunday 3rd-Tuesday 5th April this year, including everything from TV sets to plane tickets, cars, houses and so on. Everyone in China seems to be crazy about Apple though, so it may be little surprise that ipads, iphones and Mac computers are the latest addition to the range of paper gifts…

Read the full story here: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/30/content_12246740.htm

Another news story from the China Daily today tells of plans to build a hotel in the shape of a table tennis racket in Huainan city, Anhui province. Take a look at the computer generated images of the hotel…

Here’s the article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/23/content_12217320.htm

If you’re contemplating whether or not learning Chinese is worth all the effort, then maybe this news story, published in the China Daily today, will help to convince you. According to the chief economist of the World Bank, the Chinese economy is likely to continue to experience rapid growth over the next 20 years and may even overtake the US to become the world’s biggest economy by 2030. I know it’s a while to go until then, but that gives you some time to learn Mandarin…

Click here to read the full article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/24/content_12218216.htm

Today’s word of the day is  抢购qiǎnggòu, which means “panic buy”.

Rumours that iodized salt could prevent radiation poisoning sent the Chinese nation into a frenzy of panic-buying yesterday. Supermarkets had to limit each buyer to 2 bags of salt and by the evening, salt was sold out all over the city.

Check out the full story here: http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/18/content_12190695.htm