First mobile phone call from Everest's summit

"It's cold, it's fantastic, the Himalayas are everywhere," Rod Baber said in the phone call from the top of the 8,848-metre peak early on Monday morning. The British mountaineer's achievement was made possible by China Telecom, which has set up a mobile phone tower at base camp on the north side of the mountain.

Dashanzi @ Arles

Arles, a beautiful medieval city in the south of France, each summer plays host to one of the longest running and best-loved photo festivals around. This year, Les Rencontres d'Arles as it's known, starts on July 3 and runs through Sept. 16, and features a wide array of contemporary photography exhibitions, slideshows, competitions, and educational programs, including the the Dashanzi [at] Arles exhibition. Highlighted photographers include Huang Rui, the Gao Brothers, and Rongrong & inri, in four exhibitions bearing on the output of the Dashanzi art district – also known as 798 – in Beijing.

Wang Ningde

"He captures the tension between an ever-changing contemporary China and the always-present memory of the Cultural Revolution", Goedhuis Gallery commented in the introduction to Wang Ningde. Yes, that tension is present everywhere in the contemporary Chinese Art. I wonder in how many years we can ever resolve that tension...

Apple iPhone from Fujian

Apple's iPhone won't be released until June. But Fujian Huamin Import and Export Company Limited is selling this iPhone (shown above) on its website. engadget calls it "Keepin' it real fake".

Intel wafer fabrication plant in Dalian

See the report.

Chinglish vs. Olympics

Beijing is trying hard to clean up the wrong, embarrassing and sometimes plain rude signs in Chinese English before the 2008 Summer Olympics. Language experts suffer headaches trying to make sure that menus do not use tortured English, such as those at one well-known Beijing restaurant chain with dishes called “It is small to fry the chicken miscellaneous” or “mixed elbow with garlic mud”. See the report.

Uniform for Chinese athletes in 2008?

Yes, someone did propose that the traditional dress be the uniform. See this China Daily article for details.

National Swim Center

Designed by Sydney-based PTW, the “Watercube" is both cool-looking and highly functional. For detailed information on the architecture, check out Inhabitat and PTW.

National gynmastics team getting ready

An athlete of China's national gynmastics team is getting ready for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. On the wall are the girl's role models. (Photograph by Natalie Behring).

Pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

I'm going to start a mini series here on the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. It's such a hot topic in China now. But our coverage here will be very different from the perspectives of the Chinese government and the businesses that are involved in the preparation. We're going to focus on the images that are related to the various aspects that are non-political and non-profit-oriented. Stay tuned...

Natalie Behring - Photojournalist based in Beijing

Natalie Behring's portfolio contains extensive images of China, ranging from 2007 National People's Congress to China's most Polluted City, from China's aging population to small town nightlife...Very interesting and much more in depth than many of the superficial China snapshots you see on the internet. That is partly because she lives in Beijing and speaks Mandarin. Take a look at her portfolio.