OPINION> Columnists

Kang Bing

Beware of travel agents

Want to go on a trip? The most convenient way seems to be joining a packaged tour. You scan the advertisements, find a good bargain, sign a contract with a travel agent, and all the while not knowing you might be falling into a trap.

Gao Anming

Stimulating domestic consumption

For most people, this seems rather like a joke: Xing Pu, a member of the CPPCC Shanghai Committee, proposed last month that the government, fresh from a hefty increase in financial revenue, hand out 1,000 yuan ($142) to each citizen as a subsidy against soaring inflation.

Wang Hao

And the gold goes to ... volunteers

My parents were fascinated by the Water Cube when they watched an international swimming gala, a test event for the Beijing Games.

You Nuo

Consumer fears undue, unnecessary

You would say it is absurd if you read, from any serious source, the forecast that China's GDP growth for the second half of 2008 would fall below 5 percent. For by this country's standard, growth below 9 percent can cause a lot of dislocations in the economy, led usually by massive factory closures.

Li Xing

Feelings of a Chinese scribe who stayed at the Taj

Shock. Dismay. Pain. No word can describe my feelings at the terror attacks in Mumbai, where I stayed for two nights while covering President Hu Jintao's state visit to India a couple of winters ago.

Li Hong

We wish US president-elect Obama well

Like American people on the other side of the Pacific, we are excited, too, at the landslide win of Democrat Barack Obama, who will become the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20 next year.

Zhao Huanxin

Sweetness and light nourish office worker bees

Office "worker bees" in their 30s and 40s like myself, worn out by the daily stress and strain of living in busy Beijing, have become increasingly blunted emotionally. On most weekdays we look as sulky as the wintry weather.

Liu Shinan

Cops should know justice is above all

An outrageous incident happened last week in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. A woman driving a luxury car deliberately ran over the feet of a waitress who tried to prevent her from parking in front of the restaurant. When the waitress made the emergency call to the police, the woman yelled: "I am not scared; I have connections in the police bureau."

Raymond Zhou

Studying the 'Wen effect'

What do Oprah Winfrey and Wen Jiabao have in common? They can both catapult obscure works into bestsellers. The American television host opened a book club, a segment on her extremely popular talk show, in 1996 and has since recommended dozens of books, increasing their sales by as much as a million copies each. Hence, the "Oprah effect".

Ravi S. Narasimhan

Dear Barack

I don't think I am being presumptuous in addressing you so informally - after all, this is the first time a US president has been born after me, so I assumed the privilege of age.

Debasish Roy Chowdhury

Dreams, Made in China, coming true

As I watched in fascination the Chinese follow the Olympic Games with unbridled pride and sense of accomplishment these past weeks, I realized I may have witnessed something way more important than a sporting gala here.

Liang Hongfu

Be more imaginative about TV commercials

Watching television the other night, I came across a commercial of a hamburger restaurant (not McDonald's) which was reasonably well done with nice scenes and a refreshing looking cast. But the ad turned me off.

Pankaj Adhikari

Home of solitude, anguish

Last week I went to Razor Hill, Sai Kung in the New Territories to visit a home for mentally challenged adults. Run by the social welfare department of the Hong Kong government, the home nestles on a hill amid sylvan surroundings and lush woodlands.

Patrick Whiteley

Hot on the paper trail

Winning the paperwork war in China is a challenge that can test an expat's temperament and I was pushed to the limit last week at the counter of a Beijing bank.

Brendan

China's press progress peer reviewed

Local and international media gathered in Beijing Thursday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of China's opening up policy and to examine how this had impacted on the nation's media.

Cameron Broadhurst

Zou Hanrou

Hong Kong flushed with loo ideas

Public toilets are the very places for tourists to get their first and lasting impressions of a city. Of the many elements that combine to qualify a city as being modern and civilized, well-managed public lavatories ought to be one essential yardstick. In this respect, Hong Kong definitely qualifies.