Word: guangzhou
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...herded onto their air-conditioned buses, they are driven to Cochin's second most famous landmark: the synagogue, set amid the blue-shuttered pepper warehouses in the neighborhood known as Jew Town. There, on the synagogue's floor, may be another clue to Zheng He's visits: Guangzhou-made porcelain tiles, several centuries old. The synagogue is the legacy of a Jewish presence in Kerala dating back to A.D. 70. But it's not much to look at, just an ordinary house on an ordinary street. Built in 1568, it now caters to a few score local Jews and thousands...
...This was Guangzhou's finest, grade A public hospital when it was built 40 years ago. Now, it is one of hundreds of private and state-owned clinics stretching from the boomtown of Shenzhen to the ancient city of Guangzhou that perform tens of thousands of abortions every year. They draw pregnant women from across China, and beyond. "Women come from Hong Kong for treatment all the time," says a tired gynecologist at the Guangzhou Area People's Hospital. "They even fly in from Beijing, Singapore and Macau...
...would someone come so far for a medical procedure? One reason is that the operations are cheap: $60 per patient, all inclusive. But the main draw is the method used: in 1998, Guangzhou Second City People's Hospital began using general anesthesia for every operation, which is used in the rest of China solely for late-term abortions or patients under extreme stress. But here, thanks to the drugs, all patients are unconscious during the 10-minute operation. "We've performed over 7,000 'no-pain' abortions since we began the service midway through 1998," one long-haired nurse...
...that on the eastern side of the Pearl River, abortion is treated as a human right, rather than a metaphysical question. And no one cares who you are or why you're there. "Girls and women of all ages come in here everyday for treatment," says the gynecologist at Guangzhou Area People's Hospital. "I don't ask for reasons or hometowns...
...Other outlets across China are feeling the sting. Shanghai Weekend was yellow carded for running a suggestive photo of a woman's body on its cover. The government fined and nearly closed China's biggest private bookstore chain, Xishu Publishing, for selling a tract on dissident poets. And Guangzhou Television sacked its top three editors when someone ran subtitles under images of Premier Zhu Rongji reading, "Former follower of Falun Gong," the banned spiritual practice. The foreign press has suffered, too. For the past 16 weeks, China has banned newsstand sales of TIME after the magazine published an article...