Tragedy Befalls Hanzhong

So it's taken me a while to talk about this but it was quite traumatizing. Here it goes:

Back in May a man walked into a private preschool a few kilometers from my school and killed nine children with a machete. It was the last of a spate of well-publicized child-killings which occurred over a two-week period. I was the first in my school to find out thanks to the BBC and in the following days we hired security guards, installed security cameras, purchased batons and a giant fork (Pictured Left) to keep potential attackers at a distance. After the fear died down these became our favorite off-hour toys!

Less than a week after the gruesome attack students were joking about the incident, the young ones bursting in through class doors while holding imaginary machetes and attacking their classmates. Gotta love kids! But still quite disturbing.

I attended a wedding a few blocks from the attack about two weeks afterward which was pretty weird but not as weird as having a "Crazy Machete-Man Attack Drill" with kids. As if earthquakes, fires and Pig Flu weren't enough for these kids, now they also had to prepare for crazy middle-aged attackers!

The government seems to be doing all it can to prevent these attacks but the important question is: Why are they happening? Luckily, I've figured it out for you...in the next post. SL

Article on attack

Development, Chinese style

Ever find yourself in a Chinese city and wonder about its size? Yeah, me too! Like all the time. I've come to realize that China is like SimCity where cities are awarded "gifts" upon breaking certain population thresholds. What follows is a completely objective list based on a Chinese government report titled "Everybody Gets a Colonel."

KFC (Ken De Ji): Come standards with the Chinese City-building Kit; every Chinese city has at least one.

McDonalds: Upon achieving 750K residents, cities are awarded a McDonalds.

Pizza Hut/Papa John's: When 2.5M souls decide to call a city home they are rewarded with a Pizza Hut and Papa John's.

Haagen-Daaz: How many people does it take to eat at Haagen-Daaz? Five million!

Subway: At about 7M residents the Chinese government will fund a subway line for your city. This is important because a functioning subway is a prerequisite to opening a  Subway sandwich branch.

Starbucks: A city large enough to hold 10M residents deserves a Starbucks. And then another. And another. SL