Government-funded gay bar in Dali finally opens
A "gay bar" in Dali that was funded with local government money finally opened after a three week delay, opening its doors on Sunday to a few dozen visitors who were given free condoms and advice on how to practice safe sex.

The bar, which does not sell alcoholic beverages, is run by the Dali HIV/AIDS prevention and health association, which received 120,000 yuan (US$17,600) in local government funds to address the local HIV/AIDS problem.

The bar was originally scheduled to open on December 1, World AIDS Day, but local volunteers working at the bar did not show up for the opening out of fear of the media attention – both local and international – that the bar had attracted.

Kunming police attempt to dispel detainee death doubts
Kunming police have gone on a public relations offensive in recent days, trying to explain the mysterious death of detainee Xing Kun (邢鲲), who died – allegedly by hanging himself with a bootlace – in an interrogation room on December 12.

Reaction to the police explanation of Xing's death across the Chinese internet has been skeptical. Kunming police say Xing hanged himself with a bootlace out of sight of the room's surveillance camera after using a banknote to unlock his handcuffs.

According to police assertions made in a QQ report bootlaces can support up to 75 kilograms of weight and the handcuffs used by Kunming police can be picked with paper bills.

Kunyang child dead, police say he hanged himself
A 12-year-old boy died in a school dormitory in Kunming's Kunyang County on Wednesday, with local police claiming that he hung himself with a scarf, according to a report on en.kunming.cn.

At Fengzong Primary School, more than 30 classmates of the boy, Yu Qin (余勤), have been moved out of the dormitory where Yu died and are now sleeping in a classroom. Four female teachers have reportedly been moved into the school's girls dormitory.

Kunming police showed video at a press conference yesterday which they claim proves that the death of burglary suspect Xing Kun (郉鯤) in police custody on Saturday was suicide and not torture, as claimed by Xing's parents.

The video reportedly shows Xing, 29, alone in an interrogation room unlocking his handcuffs with a banknote and attempting unsuccessfully to hang himself with a bootlace, according to a China Daily report.

The moment of Xing's death was not captured on film because he was in a corner of the room outside of the surveillance camera's range, the report said.

In a phone interview with the China Daily, Xing's father Xing Caifang (郉才芳) criticized the police and municipal procurator, who jointly held the press conference, for not notifying him that the video was going to be shown to reporters.

He also expressed confusion as to why police would have allowed his son to bring a bootlace or anything else that could be used to commit suicide into the interrogation room.

The municipal procurator reportedly performed an autopsy on Xing Kun in front of relatives – including his father – on Tuesday.

"The evidence along with the autopsy results are still not solid enough to convince me," the elder Xing said. "One day the truth will finally come out."

General reaction to the case on the Chinese internet has not been favorable to the police, who have had a less than stellar year in terms of public relations. In 2009, the Kunming Public Security Bureau has had to deal with several high-profile cases involving alleged police misconduct, including two previous detainee deaths and a poorly handled case involving alleged child prostitution.

A Sohu report on the Xing Kun case cited one netizen's comment on the case as a typical reaction by people elsewhere in the country.

"Could it be that he hung himself with a cobweb?" the commenter asked.

A man detained for stealing hanged himself in a police interrogation room early Saturday morning, according to Kunming police. The death is the most recent instance in which detainees have died under questionable circumstances in police custody, according to a China Daily report.

Xing Kun (邢鲲), 29, had been arrested on Friday for allegedly stealing Sony PlayStation Portable game units reportedly worth 50,000 yuan (US$7,300). Police said he was put into an interrogation room at 4 am on Saturday where he reportedly confessed to stealing the machines and was found dead less than four hours later.

Kunming Municipal Public Security Bureau spokesman Yao Zhihong denied any police misconduct, telling reporters "Xing was healthy before going into the interrogation waiting room. He went through some emotional changes during the interrogation, but no torture was used."

According to police, the video camera in the interrogation room in which Xing allegedly died does not show him hanging himself because he was out of the camera's range.

Police originally told Xing's family that he hanged himself with a shoelace, according to a Dushi Shibao report, later saying that he used a strip of cloth to hang himself.

A male relative of Xing's surnamed You also told Dushi Shibao that upon seeing Xing's corpse, it appeared that he had sustained injuries to his temples, throat, the backs of his hands and his fingernails.

Yao seemed to tacitly acknowledge the possibility that foul play may be involved.

"We won't try to cover up anything if any official is found responsible for this," he said.

Prior to his recent arrest and death, Xing had been convicted of theft four times between 1996 and 2008, police said.

Xing's death is the third high-profile detainee death in Kunming in the last year. In February, the death of 24-year-old Li Qiaoming drew nationwide attention when Jinning police said he died while playing "elude the cat", a Chinese version of hide and seek.

Another detainee, 43-year-old Wang Shikun, died in Kunming police custody in August after catching a cold.

Provincial security officials are currently investigating Xing Kun's death, according to China Daily.

Death sentences were handed out today to five members of a Kunming-based gang accused of involvement in drug trafficking, fraud, racketeering, extortion, prostitution and selling counterfeit money, according to a Xinhua report.

The head of the gang, Jiang Jiatian, 56 was sentenced to death along with his mistress Yang Jufen, her father Yang Guoying, and Xie Mingxiang, a fourth member of the 41-member gang's core. Most of the gang members were relatives or friends of Jiang.

The four convicted gang leaders were sentenced in the Intermediate Court of Kunming, with Li Wencai, a fifth gang member, receiving a death sentence with two-year reprieve. The remaining members of the gang were dealt sentences ranging from 18 months to life in prison.

According to a spokesman for the court, Jiang made his initial money in the 1990s trafficking drugs, later investing his ill-gotten gains in hotels, teahouses and internet cafes around Kunming.

The gang reportedly came under police scrutiny after residents of more than three villages around Kunming complained about feeling unsafe. Some of the complaints included being threatened with violence until agreeing to pay 1,000 yuan (US$146) for a pot of tea, or being beaten up after objecting to receiving fake bills as change.

An American environmental activist evading the United States government was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday in Dali for manufacturing drugs, according to a New York Times report.

Former New Jersey resident Justin Franchi Solondz, 30, who had been living in Dali under the name Isaac Cox, was arrested in Dali in March of this year with illegal drugs and faked Canadian identification, the Times reported his parents as saying.

According to Solondz's father, police found more than 30 pounds of marijuana at the apartment he rented in Dali, where it was buried in the courtyard. The prosecutor for the case characterized the inside of the younger Solondz's home as a "drug laboratory", he said.

When finally brought before a court for trial in October, Solondz pleaded guilty to the drug charges he faced and requested deportation back to the US, which he was denied.

After finishing his Chinese prison sentence, Solondz will be deported to the United States where he awaits his arson-related charges.

On the other side of the Pacific, Solondz is on the FBI's wanted list for conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building, arson of property used in interstate commerce, use and carrying of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence and making unregistered destructive devices.

The FBI accuses Solondz of being involved with a splinter group of the Earth Liberation Front, a decentralized environmental activist group which the US government declared the top domestic terrorist threat in early 2001. He was indicted in absentia in 2006 for his alleged involvement in a three-state arson spree in the American west in 2005.

It is widely believed that the Chinese and American governments met regarding the case and that Solondz received a relatively mild sentence as a result of US diplomacy. In October of this year, UK citizen Akmal Shaikh was sentenced to death for dealing drugs in Xinjiang in northwestern China.

While standing before judges at the intermediate court in Dali, Solondz praised Dali as a "paradise" and apologized to the people of China for his actions.

Justin Solondz 2002 photo: FBI via New York Times

Hundreds of angry shop owners brought traffic on Huancheng Nan Lu to a standstill Saturday morning to protest the pending demolition of Luosiwan market, according to a ChinaNews.com.cn report.

At the height of the disorder, a car was smashed and rocks were thrown at police by shop owners who were eventually dispersed with tear gas. Police instructed the protesters to air their grievances with a group of government officials that had been sent hastily to Wuhua Stadium.

Protestors told reporters that they were demanding compensation for shops they had bought in an auction in 2006 at an average cost of two million yuan. The market's property rights are owned by a group of more than twenty shareholders representing investment from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Luosiwan is the largest comprehensive wholesale market in Yunnan province. With average foot traffic of 100,000 visits daily and more than 10,000 vendors, it does roughly 10 billion yuan in business annually. It is one of the 10 largest markets in China.

"The government is forcing us to demolish, yet we're not getting compensated," one shop owner who purchased his shop three years ago said.

"Where's our compensation? Everybody's gotta make a living!"

A new Luosiwan market is currently being built southeast of downtown Kunming on the way to Chenggong. The new market - a small section of which is already open - will be several times larger than its predecessor and will have its own hotel attached to it.

Image: ChinaNews.com.cn

A hilarious video of popular Chengdu "cop-reality" TV program Tan's Traffic Talk Show with English subtitles by the To Rise From Ashes blog. In it, teasing traffic policeman Tan lectures a 'feizhuliu' hairdresser on hair styles and road safety. The blog also explains key cultural terms. Viewing the blog requires a proxy, but you can see it on Tudou here.

Residents in Kunming protest the death of a tricycle driver at the hands of chengguan, the "city management" law enforcers. Translation and the usual comments railing against chengguan at ChinaSMACK.

After the black-Asian Oriental Angel Lou Jing controversy, China Sports Today clears up misinformation about African-Chinese volleyball player Ding Hui and underscores sport's potential as an avenue to greater tolerance toward mixed-heritage Chinese.

Peking University student Tom shares his and his classmates' thoughts on China's growing role as a "responsible stakeholder" in international affairs over at Six blog.

China Beat looks at how the writings of Lu Xun, hugely influential author, essayist, poet, editor and critic and textbook staple in Chinese schools, have been appropriated and over-simplified by the Communist Party.

Mao statues tend to feature the great helmsman hailing a taxi in a long overcoat, as at Tianfu Square, but it doesn't have to be so. Danwei reports on a new, youthful, long-locked Mao statue in Changsha, capital of his native Hunan province.

And have you ever wondered what a sex festival is like in China? Adam Minter from Shanghai Scrap stumbles upon one in Guangzhou and calls it a "seriously cold shower."

Fran likes surfing the China blogosphere, and every Sunday she shares her picks of the week with GoKunming readers.

Pu'er tea starting to catch on in the West?
Roughly a year after the bottom dropped out of the out-of-control pu'er tea market, this specialty tea is starting to get more attention overseas, particularly in the West, where Silicon Valley's tea-obsessed techies are tweeting and blogging about its virtues while frighteningly skinny Victoria Beckham is touting its weight-loss properties.

Time has published an article in which it compares the city of Pu'er (previously known as Simao) in Yunnan to other places around the world whose names have become synonymous with foods or beverages such as France's Champagne, Mexico's Tequila and Italy's Parma. The big question is whether Western palates can learn to love pu'er's earthy bouquet – we're not betting on it.

Stone Forest tickets to increase to 260 yuan
It appears all but certain that tickets for Kunming's only UNESCO World Heritage site, the Stone Forest will rise in price from their current 200 yuan to 260 yuan (US$38). In recent hearings held by the Stone Forest Scenic District Management Bureau, 95 percent of representatives were in favor of the 30 percent price hike, according to local media reports.

At 260 yuan per person, Stone Forest tickets would be one of the most expensive tickets among China's World Heritage sites, more than Fujian's Wuyi Mountain (250 yuan), Yellow Mountain in Anhui, Sichuan's Jiuzhaigou (220 yuan) and Zhangjiajie in Hunan (245 yuan).

Kunming bus passengers ask for help with pickpockets
Kunming public bus system is a cheap, convenient way to get around the city, but city buses are also popular places for pickpockets to practice their trade. Kunming bus passengers have suggested to local bus operators that they broadcast short video clips about how to prevent becoming another theft statistic, according to a Kunming Information Hub report.

Passengers also shared their strategies for minimizing the risk of pickpockets, including:

• Keeping an eye on people who move after the bus starts moving
• Moving to less crowded parts of the bus, should they exist
• Staying aware of one's pockets and bag

According to the Kunming Public Security Bureau, pickpockets tend to operate between 9 and 11 am and 5 and 8 pm. Bus routes with the highest rates of pickpocket activity include 107, 26, 61, 90, 118, 2, 10, 161, 31, K1 and 84.