In A Country Which Was, Until Relatively Recently, More Preoccupied With The Problem Of Having Too Little To Eat Rather Than Too Much, Obesity And Preoccupation With Weight Are Still Rare In China. It’s Still Not Common To See Severely Overweight People On Chinese Streets - And Certainly The Contrast With Countries Like The US Or The UK Is Huge. Indeed When Chinese People Haven’T Seen Someone For A While The Phrase “You’Re Fatter Than Before” Is Usually A Compliment Rather Than Otherwise. But As The Trend For A More Meat And Dairy Based Western Diet Grows – Especially Amongst The Younger Generations In The More Developed East Coast Cities - Weight Problems Are Beginning To Surface. And With Them Come Money Making Opportunities. Weight Loss Plans, Diets, Exercise Fads, Even Dubious Surgery Are Widely Advertised On Late Night TV And The Internet – And Weight Loss Pills. Now Recently Weight-Loss Products Containing The Drug Sibutramine Were Recalled Across China Because Of Concerns They Increased Risk Of Heart Disease. The State Food And Drug Administration (SFDA) Named 15 Weight-Loss Products Including Qumei Capsules, Which Account For About Half Of The Diet Drugs On The Chinese Market. But Other Diet Pills Still Exist. So How Do Ordinary People Here In China Feel About These – And Would They Use Them? Our Researcher Grace Wang Went Out On The Streets Of Beijing To Find Out.
If there's one cliché about China, it's the world's factory: a massive nation of 1.4 billion people, many of them manufacturing goods for the rest of the world. But, as Tony Zhou explains, there's a much bigger plan, and that was only phase one.
At least five workers have died and another 10 were injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in northern China. According to reports, the factory was illegally manufacturing fireworks ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday.
The blast happened early on Wednesday in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. It's thought the factory was operating without a license and had been selling illegally manufactured fireworks for the Chinese New Year holiday, which falls this year on February 14th.
State media says police are still looking for the owner of the factory, who fled after the explosion. Reports say there are currently three factories in Hohhot that operate with a license but the others are all illegal.