Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
“Doctors and nurses are people who saved me from cancer and gave me strength in the darkest time. I need to return the favour,” says Li Yan, a food delivery rider based in Beijing.
Mr Li was diagnosed with lymph cancer in 2003, when he was just 17 years old. He recovered from the disease and has been full of gratitude ever since for the medical workers who nursed him back to health. With China in a national lockdown, food delivery firms found themselves in hot demand providing meals for residents stuck at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
As a delivery rider for Meituan, one of China’s biggest food delivery firms, Mr Li saw an opportunity to repay the medical professionals he admires by providing them with food and drinks as they worked tirelessly on patients across the city. “Given my past experience, I felt I needed to do something for them in return during the virus outbreak,” he adds.
Beijing is a city of 21 million residents, and Mr Li covers its Tongzhou district, where there are a handful of hospitals with fever clinics, one of which is a designated hospital for Covid-19 treatment. “Many might have concerns delivering for the hospital, but I’ve chosen to deliver for them more often. I just think of the local residents and medical workers who need us. I can’t leave them being hungry. It’s not for money.”
Before the outbreak in China, he delivered more than 50 orders on an average day. But during the first ten days after the coronavirus outbreak in late January, the number of orders dropped to less than 20, as some restaurants were closed. The outbreak also coincided with the Chinese New Year period which is normally a low season.
“By mid-February when the situation was brought more under control, and people’s concerns and fears gradually began to ease, orders started to be restored. I can deliver over 40 orders a day now.”
Image copyright LI YAN
During this time, Meituan brought in a contactless delivery option which allowed food to be dropped off at designated points to avoid contact between customers and riders. “When I called customers to explain, some initially didn’t understand and wanted to cancel the order. But gradually people grew more understanding and began to welcome the contactless approach.”
Empty streets
China was in lockdown for more than two months, although restrictions are now beginning to be lifted. It will still take time before a sense of normalcy returns.
“I remember when the coronavirus first broke out, it was hazy for a few days in Beijing. Streets were empty and stores were closed. An ambulance or a delivery rider occasionally drove by. It felt like I was living in a different world.”
Mr Li says restaurants have started to re-open and people have begun coming back to work in the office since mid-February. Orders are still lower than normal but are improving.
“I miss the hustling Beijing which used to filled with traffic, the days when I could smell car exhaust when I stop at crossroads, the times when I had to walk all the way up to the 6th floor to deliver food, and even times when I was late for a delivery.”
Image copyright LI YAN
When the virus first broke out, face masks and alcohol disinfectant were the most ordered items along with supermarket groceries. “Grains, rice, cooking oil, vegetables, fruits, and solid, packaged food that lasts long. Orders often came in big sizes and transaction prices at around 200 yuan [£23; $28] to 300 yuan on one order.”
Being a food delivery rider, Mr Li feels he can not only give back to the medical community but to the city’s vulnerable too.
“I once received an order that came with a note saying the customer is a 82-year-old who lives alone and couldn’t get downstairs to pick up the food so the rider needs to enter the residential community and deliver food to the door. I had to spend some time communicating with security and finally was allowed in. The door was open when I arrived, and I put the bowl of wontons [a type of dumpling] on the table.”
Tips have increased from happy customers during the pandemic as a result. “Many more send me thank-you notes in the Meituan app and tell me to take care.”
Image copyright LI YAN
Keeping clean
Mr Li has a new routine now which involves lots of disinfecting and temperature checks. “I get my temperature checked dozens of times everyday now, before entering shopping malls, at restaurants, and returning home to the residential compound I live in. I also bring with me disinfectant sprays, a towel in my scooter and use disposable gloves when delivering to areas with reported confirmed cases.”
While he’s providing a vital service, is Mr Li worried about the risk of infection? “I did have worries when the virus spread and was at its worst time here but I feel like I’ve already been there, given what I went through in the fight against cancer.
“I’ve learnt to take things easy, look at the bright side of things and always seek strength in a dark time. As long as I take sufficient precautions, masks, gloves, disinfectants and everything, and follow advice from disease control experts, I think the possibility of getting the virus is pretty low.”
And with a seven-month pregnant wife at home, Mr Li is looking forward to happier times.
At least 19 people have been killed in a freak accident in southern India, after a container slipped off a truck and rammed into a passenger bus.
Police are investigating the incident, but officials say the container came off its hinges after one of the wheels of the truck had a puncture.
“There were about 48 people in the bus, and several are in a critical condition,” an official told BBC Hindi.
The incident occurred around 3:30am local time (21:50 GMT), police said.
The bus was on a highway when the container slipped off the truck, which was in the opposite lane. It then rolled onto the other side, colliding with the bus.
The Volvo bus, owned by the Kerala state transport corporation, was travelling from Bangalore city in the neighbouring state of Karnataka to Ernakulam in Kerala.
The district collector, Dr Vijay Karthikeyan, told BBC Hindi that the cause of the accident was still being investigated.
Luxury car owner who blocked hospital emergency access in criminal detention for identity papers scam
Former driver conned her out of US$280,000
The rare licence plate on this luxury car blocking a hospital emergency access led to a police investigation and criminal detention for the owner and her former driver. Photo: Weibo
A woman who blocked a hospital’s emergency access with her Rolls-Royce two weeks ago lost more than her temper when investigators uncovered a string of unexpected crimes.
Police said on Tuesday that the woman, surnamed Shan, was in criminal detention, along with her former driver, as a result of their investigation. A third man is in administrative detention for fabricating and spreading rumours about the luxury car.
Shan, 31, was originally given five days’ administrative detention for disturbing public order after she argued with a security guard and a police officer in the August 14 incident, which went viral on social media.
The attention of China’s online community was quickly drawn to the rare licence plate on the Rolls-Royce, which blocked emergency access at the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital for more than an hour.
The licence plate number on the car indicated it had originated from a government agency or from someone who was among the first in China to own a vehicle. Traffic laws ban the transfer of car plate registration, prompting online sleuths to speculate just how Shan had obtained it.
Beijing police were also interested and established a special task force which discovered that Shan had paid her former driver two million yuan (US$280,000) to transfer ownership of the Rolls-Royce to the legal owner of the plate.
Police did not say how much the transfer of the car ownership actually cost, but they were satisfied most of the two million yuan had been spent by the former driver, surnamed Guo. He is now in criminal detention for fraud.
Unfortunately for Shan, police also uncovered her involvement in a scheme to forge, alter and trade identity papers. Details of the enterprise were not disclosed by Beijing police, who said they were working with officers from the location of Shan’s registered permanent residence.
Meanwhile, a 37-year-old man was placed in administrative detention for an unspecified number of days after he fabricated a rumour that Shan’s luxury car had been put up for sale in a second-hand car dealership.
One Sleeper Coach passenger bus travelling from Lucknow to Delhi met with an accident on Yamuna Expressway. It fell into the side fall about 15 feet deep.
20 passengers rescued so far. Efforts are on for the rest.
About 900 people have been killed on the road since it opened in 2012, according to authorities.
Road accidents in India are usually blamed on badly maintained vehicles, poor driving and the state of the roads.
Correspondents say buses in rural India are often old and rickety. Many also do not follow or enforce basic safety measures – it’s not uncommon to see people crowding into buses or even travelling on the roof if they cannot find a seat inside.
Police in Shenzhen look for clues to accident in driver’s medical records
Motorist complains of ‘sudden attack’ at time of accident
Police in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, are investigating a driver’s medical history after a fatal accident on Thursday. Photo: Weibo
Police in southern China have detained a motorist after three people were killed and seven injured in a car accident on Thursday night.
Officers said a car went out of control and struck pedestrians on a road in Nanshan district in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, at about 7.20pm. The 23-year-old driver, surnamed Liu, was taken into custody.
In a statement online, the Shenzhen public security bureau said blood and urine tests showed the driver was sober and drug-free. They said medicine for epilepsy was found in the vehicle.
Two dead, six injured in Japan after bus drives through pedestrians in Kobe
During questioning, Liu told officers he lost control of car because he had had “a sudden attack”, but did not elaborate.
Police said they were examining Liu’s medical records.
In China, people with epilepsy are not allowed to apply for a driving licence, according to regulations from the Ministry of Public Security.
Image copyright LI YAN
Image copyright LI YAN
Image copyright LI YAN
Image copyright LI YAN
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 