The photos North Korea didn't want you to see
Rason, North Korea (CNN) -- As the sole Western journalist covering a unique bicycle race in North Korea last month, I was provided with a personal guide, a car with a driver and the promise that I was free to take any photographs I wanted.
As a journalist, it seemed like an incredible opportunity to document a small snapshot of what North Korea was really like.
However, the promise turned out not to be completely true.
Read more...
More from North Korea:
• Westerners race into North Korea -- by bike (CNN)
• Vätternrundan ska bättra på Nordkoreas rykte (TT / Expressen)
• Kapitalism på försök i Nordkorea (TT / Dagens Industri)
Rason, North Korea (CNN) -- As the sole Western journalist covering a unique bicycle race in North Korea last month, I was provided with a personal guide, a car with a driver and the promise that I was free to take any photographs I wanted.
As a journalist, it seemed like an incredible opportunity to document a small snapshot of what North Korea was really like.
However, the promise turned out not to be completely true.
Read more...
More from North Korea:
• Westerners race into North Korea -- by bike (CNN)
• Vätternrundan ska bättra på Nordkoreas rykte (TT / Expressen)
• Kapitalism på försök i Nordkorea (TT / Dagens Industri)
Stubbing out Mao's smoky legacy
(Al Jazeera) With rhetoric frequently echoing the Great Helmsman, President Xi Jinping has on several occasions given the impression of being a loyal Maoist. But there's one burning issue on which China's leader goes head-to-head with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping - the war against smoking.
Chairman Mao Zedong was a notorious chain-smoker. In an epic black-and-white photograph from 1957, the dictator is seen sitting on a sofa surrounded by a group of young women from the Communist Youth League happily helping him to light a cigarette.
Read more...
(Al Jazeera) With rhetoric frequently echoing the Great Helmsman, President Xi Jinping has on several occasions given the impression of being a loyal Maoist. But there's one burning issue on which China's leader goes head-to-head with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping - the war against smoking.
Chairman Mao Zedong was a notorious chain-smoker. In an epic black-and-white photograph from 1957, the dictator is seen sitting on a sofa surrounded by a group of young women from the Communist Youth League happily helping him to light a cigarette.
Read more...
China's love for copycat architecture
(Al Jazeera's Digital magazine)
As the sun rises over the Swiss Alps village of Interlaken, a soon to be married couple are having their photographs taken next to the glimmering lake with half-timbered buildings in the background. It's an idyllic scene, but with one unusual detail. They are not actually in the real Swiss village, but a Chinese copy on the outskirts of the factory city Shenzhen.
(Al Jazeera's Digital magazine)
As the sun rises over the Swiss Alps village of Interlaken, a soon to be married couple are having their photographs taken next to the glimmering lake with half-timbered buildings in the background. It's an idyllic scene, but with one unusual detail. They are not actually in the real Swiss village, but a Chinese copy on the outskirts of the factory city Shenzhen.
Hårt liv för Hongkongs fattiga
HONG KONG (TT) -- Hong Kong, med dess glimrande bankbyggnader och gigantiska lyxbutiker, beskrivs ibland som en lekplats för de rika. Men för de 1,3 miljoner människor som lever i fattigdom är situationen allt annat än glamourös.
I stadsdelen Sham Shui Po bor ett hundratal män, de flesta äldre, under broar och på gator. Stanken av nerkissade kläder blandas med rökelse från buddistiska minitempel som står mellan fällsängar och utvikta pappkartonger. Skjortor, handdukar och lakan hänger på väggarna och små pallar, matlådor och flaskor med sojasås står strödda runt lägren.
Länge var 37-årige Wing Ho Yeung en av uteliggarna. Men nyligen fick han tak över huvudet – en två kvadratmeter stor träbox i en lägenhet med tio andra okända män.
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Chinese fakes cash in on Dr. Dre's Beats headphones bonanza
Shenzhen, China (CNN) -- Three weeks ago, hip-hop star Andre Young -- better known as Dr. Dre -- made news as his Beats Electronics line, a maker of premium headphones, was valued at more than $1 billion thanks to an investment from the Carlyle Group.
But the former N.W.A. rapper is not the only one profiting from his headphone line. Across the Pearl River Delta in southern China, counterfeit Beats are flowing out of factories, assembly workshops and shops, attracting businesspeople that sell the headphones on global markets.
A CNN reporter approached wholesale companies about buying in bulk in order to learn how the underground sale of knock-off headphones works.
Read more...
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World's biggest mall a China 'ghost town'
Dongguan, China (CNN) -- They built it, but the shoppers didn't come.
New South China Mall in Guangdong Province opened in 2005. With 5 million square feet of shopping area, the mall can accommodate 2,350 stores, making it the largest shopping center in the world in terms of leasable space -- more than twice the size of Mall of America, the biggest shopping center in the United States.
At the outdoor plaza, hundreds of palm-trees blend with a replica Arc de Triomphe, a giant Egyptian sphinx, fountains and long-stretching canals with gondolas.
Only problem is, the mall is virtually deserted.
Read more...
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Triaderna lägger yxan på hyllan
KONG KONG (TT) -- Kinas organiserade brottssyndikat – triaderna – har lämnat gatans blodiga våld. I stället har de tagit klivit in i näringslivets finrum.
För två år sedan höggs 41-årige Lee Tai-hung ihjäl av tre knivbeväpnade män utanför ett lyxhotell i Hongkong. Han var ledare för en av Kinas största triader, Sun Yee On, och mordet var ett beställningsjobb av en rivaliserande gangsterboss. Attacken ledde till en våldsam maktkamp inom den undre världen och massarresteringar av polisen.
– Nästan alla dispyter blir lösta runt bordet nu för tiden, säger 50-årige Rod Miller, som besitter unik insyn i Hongkongs undre värld, till TT.
HONG KONG (TT) -- Hong Kong, med dess glimrande bankbyggnader och gigantiska lyxbutiker, beskrivs ibland som en lekplats för de rika. Men för de 1,3 miljoner människor som lever i fattigdom är situationen allt annat än glamourös.
I stadsdelen Sham Shui Po bor ett hundratal män, de flesta äldre, under broar och på gator. Stanken av nerkissade kläder blandas med rökelse från buddistiska minitempel som står mellan fällsängar och utvikta pappkartonger. Skjortor, handdukar och lakan hänger på väggarna och små pallar, matlådor och flaskor med sojasås står strödda runt lägren.
Länge var 37-årige Wing Ho Yeung en av uteliggarna. Men nyligen fick han tak över huvudet – en två kvadratmeter stor träbox i en lägenhet med tio andra okända män.
- - -
Chinese fakes cash in on Dr. Dre's Beats headphones bonanza
Shenzhen, China (CNN) -- Three weeks ago, hip-hop star Andre Young -- better known as Dr. Dre -- made news as his Beats Electronics line, a maker of premium headphones, was valued at more than $1 billion thanks to an investment from the Carlyle Group.
But the former N.W.A. rapper is not the only one profiting from his headphone line. Across the Pearl River Delta in southern China, counterfeit Beats are flowing out of factories, assembly workshops and shops, attracting businesspeople that sell the headphones on global markets.
A CNN reporter approached wholesale companies about buying in bulk in order to learn how the underground sale of knock-off headphones works.
Read more...
- - -
World's biggest mall a China 'ghost town'
Dongguan, China (CNN) -- They built it, but the shoppers didn't come.
New South China Mall in Guangdong Province opened in 2005. With 5 million square feet of shopping area, the mall can accommodate 2,350 stores, making it the largest shopping center in the world in terms of leasable space -- more than twice the size of Mall of America, the biggest shopping center in the United States.
At the outdoor plaza, hundreds of palm-trees blend with a replica Arc de Triomphe, a giant Egyptian sphinx, fountains and long-stretching canals with gondolas.
Only problem is, the mall is virtually deserted.
Read more...
- - -
Triaderna lägger yxan på hyllan
KONG KONG (TT) -- Kinas organiserade brottssyndikat – triaderna – har lämnat gatans blodiga våld. I stället har de tagit klivit in i näringslivets finrum.
För två år sedan höggs 41-årige Lee Tai-hung ihjäl av tre knivbeväpnade män utanför ett lyxhotell i Hongkong. Han var ledare för en av Kinas största triader, Sun Yee On, och mordet var ett beställningsjobb av en rivaliserande gangsterboss. Attacken ledde till en våldsam maktkamp inom den undre världen och massarresteringar av polisen.
– Nästan alla dispyter blir lösta runt bordet nu för tiden, säger 50-årige Rod Miller, som besitter unik insyn i Hongkongs undre värld, till TT.