An update on recent news in the new year

An eco-city is going to be built from scratch on an island in the mouth of the Yangtze River, just north of Shanghai.

It’s a promising sign that China’s development (tens of millions more people will move into the cities so urban areas are rapidly expanding) will – at least in some cases – take smart design and environmental impact into consideration.

Who knew that Peking duck is made by filling the duck’s body cavity with water and putting a bamboo plug up its butt to keep it from leaking? The water keeps the meat moist as it slowly roasts (includes pictures from the Dong duck restaurant in Beijing, where I ate Peking duck once this summer).

Chinese, followed by Japanese and Korean spend more of their leisure time on the Internet than anyone else. A lot of that is done on their cell phones now. People are very mobile and cities have lots of wi-fi access. And my students are certainly addicted to their phones and PSPs, which are often used to go online, take videos and pictures (and edit them on the phone), and play games.

One of the first people to fly on a direct commercial flight from China to Taiwan (direct flights and postal services started about three weeks ago) wrote about the brief and uneventful but symbolic flight.

China is spending a lot of money on its military and building up capacity in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, partly because of the modern day pirates on the high seas and the threats they pose to ships bringing oil and other valuable natural resources into China and sending exports out to markets around the world.

BYD, a Chinese car company, recently released China’s first hybrid car. This one can also plug into an electric power source to recharge the battery.

There was a good summary of the economic interdependence of China and the U.S.in the New York Times. People here are closely watching all of the bad news in the financial industry that comes out of New York City and every detail of the government’s reaction in Washington. So much of the world economy – and China’s export led growth – is driven by American consumers that its strange to think about how much our holiday shopping, vacation trips, home remodeling, and car buying decisions affect the lives of workers and savers in countries halfway around the world.