It took four tons of chocolate to make this replica of a BMW which will be featured at the World Chocolate Wonderland Theme Park in Beijing. The exhibit is located next to the bird's nest stadium that was built for the Olympics. The attraction will also feature a replica of The Great Wall of China, made from chocolate. Take a look:
On Friday night Beyonce played just one night in Beijing for an estimated 10,000 people who, according to China Daily, were absolutely enthralled with her performance.
The show was her first in Beijing and her only mainland stop on her I Am world tour.
Fans cheered and waved glow sticks while Beyonce, her 12-woman band and backup dancers rocked the stage. Most of the songs she sung, such as Hello, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) and Ave Maria, are from her new album I Am Sasha Fierce, which went gold in China. And it was her first tour since her last album, The Beyonce Experience, sold out in 2007.
The singer got a better reception in Beijing than in Shanghai, where she staged her only other show on the mainland in 2007. But then her Shanghai fans complained she was not "warm" toward the audience.
It was different in Beijing. "She gave the best of what she has got, and the best-received song was If I Were A Boy. Her covers of Michael Jackson's songs were the most surprising addition to her repertoire," said Zhang Jing, a member of Beijing's Beyonce fan club.
"She offered a wonderful lesson for local entertainers to learn from with her exceptional presentation, dancing, vocals and staging."
The 27-year-old performer opened the show with her hit Deja vu, followed by Crazy In Love, to which she danced clad in a glittering silver sequin dress with an enormous bow on the back.
She commemorated pop legend Michael Jackson during her performance of If I Were a Boy, dressing in an outfit similar to that from his hit album Thriller and emulating his signature moonwalk.
Beyonce's concert in Malaysia was canceled after a dispute with Muslim authorities over the raciness of Beyonce's costumes.
Before she visited China, Beyonce was in Tokyo, Japan, for a fashion event for Samantha Thavasa and a performance. She took time out to talk about why she loves performing in Japan. Take a look:
Mona Lisa and other art masterpieces come to life in a new exhibit in Beijing. The famous painted characters can both talk and move in the exhibit. Jesus and the Disciples all come to life in the exhibit's digitally animated version of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. Reuters says $7 million was spent developing the 3-D holographic technology. Over 400 artists and engineers were involved in the project.
It looks like a very interesting exhibit. The characters do seem to come to life in this Reuters video, but something about the proportions looks a bit off. The Mona Lisa's hands are quite large for a woman: scholars say that large hands were considered quite beautiful at the time and many paintings show women with larger hands. Other scholars believe that the woman in the portrait is pregnant and her hands are swollen a bit. In the animation, they look positively huge. Take a look:
The above photograph is not a home in the U.S. It's a house in Beijing, China designed by F+A Architects. American-style suburbs are on the rise in China and the Middle East as U.S. architects go abroad to find work.
A growing number of architects and urban planners are finding work overseas as the domestic real estate slump persists. An emerging affluent class abroad is drawn to suburbs with U.S. names that mimic the American ideal - down to the master bathroom and tree-lined sidewalk.
A 2006 survey of American Institute of Architects members shows that large architecture firms with more than 100 employees reported billings from international work doubled in four years. Meanwhile, billings in the U.S. this year dropped to the lowest point in the 12 years the survey has been conducted.
There's even a suburb in Beijing named Orange County. It was designed by Newport Beach firm Bassenian Lagoni and it sold out days after opening according to the AP.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics are officially over. The Closing Ceremonies last night were almost as elaborate as the Opening Ceremonies. The fireworks, the giant tower of rappelling gymnasts, the giant flame, the daredevil bungee jumpers...it was an amazing spectacle. One odd note in the ceremonies was provided by the British producer. The interlude was to remind people that the next summer Olympics in 2012 will occur on London. A giant double decker bus came out, that opened up into a stage. Leona Lewis then sang and gyrated to the Led Zeppelin song, "Whole Lotta Love" while rock legend Jimmy Page played guitar. Jimmy sounded great, by the way. Leona was perched on this balcony thing high in the air -- too much enthusiastic dancing and she would have suffered a serious injury.
The problem wasn't in the execution, it was in the choice of the song itself.
No one could dance to it: here's a stadium full of people who want to dance and have fun. It wasn't pop -- it's 70s heavy metal (well, technically the song was recorded in 1969, but it certainly set the stage for the 70s music). The lyrics were actually altered for the event, because they were deemed too naughty for the family viewing audience. The whole thing was just...odd. Wouldn't the Rolling Stones or Paul McCartney been more venue-appropriate? Those are classic British rock bands. And if you wanted pop, why not the Spice Girls?
David Beckham looked adorable and kicked a soccer ball to the crowd so that was fun and put everyone back in the correct mood. We think that overall the Chinese did an outstanding job: it cost $40 billion to put the games on. We wonder what they will do with the Water Cube? It wouldn't surprise us in the least if the Chinese swimmers and divers are already training hard for London.
As China's economy continues to expand, the country is experiencing major growing pains. Western clothing, cars and luxury items are affordable by a growing number of Chinese. As Western advertising seeps into the culture, some officials are worried that the Chinese culture is being contaminated by the West's ideas of materialism and luxury. The Beijing mayor is especially peeved
by all the ads for luxury cars, jewelry and other items.
Beijing's mayor has expressed disapproval of outdoor advertisements that promote luxury and indulgence, for fear they would escalate hostility between the rich and the poor, state media said Friday.
Billboards promoting expensive villas, cars and other luxury goods were often seen in major Beijing streets, said Mayor Wang Qishan during a gathering with the city's political advisors, according to the Xinhua news agency.
"Many use exaggerated terms that encourage luxury and self-indulgence which are beyond the reach of low-income groups and are therefore not conducive to harmony in the capital," he said.
Apartments and villas that often cost millions yuan (hundreds of thousands of dollars) constantly remind people of the yawning income gap between the rich and the poor, Xinhua said.
The per capita disposable income of Beijing's urban residents averaged 5,900 yuan (756 dollars) in the first quarter of this year, according to the Beijing municipal statistics bureau. Those in the rural areas make even less.
Anger is rising as documents filed with Chinese stock exchanges show that senior executives in banks and large state-owned firms are making annual salaries several times higher than many of the poor's lift-time earnings.
So, lets get this straight. Instead of working on policies that would enable more Chinese to afford a better standard of living, the government's answer is to take down the billboards that show the people that some people have a much higher standard of living. That will work.
