OPINION> Columnists

Kang Bing

Beware of travel agents

Want to go on a trip? The most convenient way seems to be joining a packaged tour. You scan the advertisements, find a good bargain, sign a contract with a travel agent, and all the while not knowing you might be falling into a trap.

Gao Anming

Stimulating domestic consumption

For most people, this seems rather like a joke: Xing Pu, a member of the CPPCC Shanghai Committee, proposed last month that the government, fresh from a hefty increase in financial revenue, hand out 1,000 yuan ($142) to each citizen as a subsidy against soaring inflation.

Wang Hao

And the gold goes to ... volunteers

My parents were fascinated by the Water Cube when they watched an international swimming gala, a test event for the Beijing Games.

You Nuo

A protracted war against recession

The beginning of a new year is usually a time for saying all the good things, and for confidence- boosting messages. But since we are in the depth of a global crisis (and how deep it will be is still hard to gauge), and since no country can afford to make new mistakes, we had better be more realistic.

Li Xing

Let tradition live under new skyline

It has been six years since I visited Shanghai. Although I expected to see the country's largest metropolis further transformed in six years, I was still a little surprised at its new skyline, with skyscrapers sort of juxtaposed together to compete for attention.

Li Hong

Spend, Spend, Spend

Deng Xiaoping, the most venerable man in China's 5,000-year history, had drawn the line for us: Development overrides anything. And, I deeply believe, he didn't expect his offspring to renege on the teaching at all.

Liu Shinan

What's in a number? No great fortune

Last Thursday, China Daily reported a bizarre story about the owner of a cheap automobile who "spent a fortune on a lucky license plate" in Foshan, Guangdong province.

Raymond Zhou

Creating an image - or trapped in one

This has been a year of extremes - extreme joys and extreme sorrow. It was a year many celebrities decided to tie the knot, or bear children, or emigrate overseas, at least in name; and it was a year amateur photographers made history without the aid of Photoshop.

Ravi S. Narasimhan

At 3 yuan a beer, it's a tough life

I know now that there are two kinds of foreigners living in China. Most of us who are employed in the media, academia, marketing, NGOs and the like, who - mostly - think we are paid reasonably enough to get by comfortably. Let's say the Silent Majority.

Debasish Roy Chowdhury

Dreams, Made in China, coming true

As I watched in fascination the Chinese follow the Olympic Games with unbridled pride and sense of accomplishment these past weeks, I realized I may have witnessed something way more important than a sporting gala here.

Liang Hongfu

Information is power for investors too

While putting stock market recovery at the top of their New Year's wish lists, many Chinese investors may have wondered what had goaded them into this bear trap in the first place.

Chen Weihua

Parody is a norm of life, accept it

American television talk show hosts like Jay Leno and Jon Stewart are hugely popular among the audience for their satirical humor - right from ridiculing US President George W. Bush's statements to making fun of 'Chinglish' labels on Chinese exports.

Pankaj Adhikari

Home of solitude, anguish

Last week I went to Razor Hill, Sai Kung in the New Territories to visit a home for mentally challenged adults. Run by the social welfare department of the Hong Kong government, the home nestles on a hill amid sylvan surroundings and lush woodlands.

Patrick Whiteley

Why learning Chinese is easier in Year of the Ox

Britney Spears wants to stop biting her nails, Cameron Diaz wants to stop smoking and start wearing a bra, and I want to speak Chinese. We all have different New Year's resolutions and maybe in 2009 there's a few expats who will share my wish.

Brendan John Worrell

Debriefing the Dragon 2008

While the west wraps up the year and curtains close for Christmas, here inChinamore formal opportunities for reflection don't really commence until Spring Festival late January 2009.