Kunming newspaper Dushi Shibao is reporting the emergence of suspects in the July 21 bus bombings on Renmin Xi Lu that killed two and injured 14.

According to the report, a man surnamed Wang who has a shop near the Daguan Tower in west Kunming said police came to his store and asked if he could identify a young man in a photograph.

After telling police he had never seen the man before, the police told Mr Wang to immediately contact the authorities should he happen to see the man from the photograph.

Wang told Dushi Shibao that after the police finished talking with him, they made stops at all the residences in his immediate vicinity, showing the photo to residents and questioning them.

According to the Dushi Shibao report, they have learned from undisclosed sources that there are currently several suspects in the bombing case, one of them being the man in the photo.

Both the Yunnan and Kunming Public Security Bureaus have yet to release any photographs of suspects connected to the case.

Tags: 7.21 bus explosions, crime, Dushi Shibao, police

In a promotional move that would seem to be tempting fate, Kunming Arts Theatre (艺术剧院) is currently displaying a live tiger and lion in its front lobby, according to a report in Kunming daily Dushi Shibao.

Considering that last year in Kunming a six year-old girl was mauled to death and a four year-old boy sustained serious head injuries in separate tiger attacks, it is surprising that the cats being displayed in the Arts Theatre are in open-top glass cages which are low enough for the tigers inside to reach their paws out of their containers.

The cats, which are only separated from freedom by a 1.4 meter-high glass barrier, have attracted large numbers of visitors, according to the Dushi Shibao report. Their glass containers feature signs warning in Chinese: "Please do not get too close – you will be held responsible for any dangerous aftermath" (请勿靠近老虎！危险后果自负).

The Dushi Shibao report went on to list six attacks on people by lions and tigers last year across China in the cities of Changde, Nanjing, Ji'nan, Dongguan – and Kunming, the only city with more than one recorded attack.

On January 14 of last year, a five year-old tiger named Lili who was in heat reportedly lost control during a performance at the Yunnan Wild Animal Zoo and pinned a four year-old boy to the ground, inflicting serious but nonlethal lacerations upon the boy's head.

Five weeks later at the Kunming Zoo on Yuantong Jie, a six year-old girl whose parents were taking her photograph with a tiger – inside the tiger's cage – was bitten on the head by the tiger when her parents' camera flashed. The tiger held the girl's head in its jaws for a full minute before letting go. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene, her parents were later given compensation of 340,000 yuan for their daughter's death.

Image: www.clzg.cn

Related article: Tiger fishing

Tags: Dushi Shibao, Kunming Arts Theatre, Kunming Zoo, lion, mauling, tiger, Yunnan Wild Animal Zoo

Kunming newspaper Dushi Shibao is sponsoring a contest in which the paper's readers plus a committee of political, cultural and economic leaders from the city are being asked to select the city's top landmarks. The winning landmarks are expected to figure heavily in future promotion of Kunming to the rest of China and the world.

Last Friday a roundtable discussion by members of an ad hoc landmark selection committee organized by Dushi Shibao engaged in a discussion of Kunming's landmarks and what needs to be done to protect them.

Jake Caccia

In addition to an assortment of government officials and media representatives, the roundtable also featured some rather unorthodox committee members, including one of Kunming's long-term foreign residents, Jake Caccia of Andao Tea, who has been living in Kunming for nearly eight years. The inclusion of a foreigner in the meeting suggests a growing openness on the part of the Kunming government to outside opinions.

Caccia told GoKunming that despite the diverse group of officials, intellectuals, creatives and businesspeople, a general consensus was reached regarding the need to protect Kunming's landmarks. Kunming's Bird and Flower Market, which had been a major attraction for travelers to the Spring City, was cited as an example of how not to manage the city's landmarks – today the formerly vibrant area is a chaotic mix of real estate development and the remnants of the market's periphery.

Dushi Shibao's coverage of the meeting quotes Caccia under his Chinese name 杰克:

"I really like Kunming, and have very deep feelings for it, as I live here with my family. What I'm most concerned about is how to preserve whatever landmarks are selected as well as how to maintain Kunming's unique aspects and personality to make the city's economy and culture develop in a stable manner."

Tags: Dushi Shibao, Jake Caccia, landmarks