Not for the faint-hearted. Thanks to “Beijing Today” for this tip, dated 19 October. Beats all the SPAM I get in my mail box. No, I won’t try, thanks. But maybe we can export to the USA if the FDA permits? Hmmm I see money here… Here goes the full text of the article:
Worming up to weight loss craze ‘reckless’
By Gan Tian- Beijing Today
In the latest bid to battle Beijingers’ burgeoning waistlines, netizens at Baidu’s Post Bar have started selling roundworm eggs as a new magic diet pill. Posters claim to have lost 20 kilograms since drinking a bottle of intentionally-tainted water.
“I’ve heard super stars and rich women use them to lose weight,” Luo Rui, a woman entertainer, said. Online rumors have pointed to one formerly-chubby local star’s staggeringly speedy weight loss as being due to roundworm egg abuse. The worms, more specifically Ascariasis, are a parasite spread by ingestion of worm eggs. When the eggs hatch, larvae burrow into the lungs, from whence they are coughed up and swallowed back into the intestinal track.
Inside their new 37-degree home, the worms anchor to the intestinal wall where they feed on partially-digested food and mature to an adult length of 30 centimeters. The sellers said this feeding can help host organisms lose weight.
Beijing Youth Daily reported that a Shandong man surnamed Guo has been selling the eggs, and many netizens have posted messages naming him as their source. Guo said he raises all the eggs on his own.
“A woman in Guangdong paid me more than 600 yuan for the eggs,” he said. In Guo’s package to the customer, there was a bottle of liquid, which Guo claimed contained the roundworm eggs. He asked customer to take the liquid with water five times, and then the liquid would take effect.
A netizen named Crymax said he gets five customers a day calling for information on roundworm eggs. “Usually I can make 200 yuan on each sale. It is safe to drink the eggs, because human bodies know what is useful and what is harmful. If the roundworms were useless or harmful, the body would just kill them and dump them out,” he said.However, Liang Benyuan, a worker at The Third Hospital of Beijing University, said ingesting the eggs, even intentionally, is dangerous. “Roundworms are harmful to human bodies, and sometimes, their larvae will burrow into blood vessels and travel into the brain. This is an incredibly reckless way to try to lose weight,” he said. Currently, China does not have any laws regulating the sale of roundworm eggs for this purpose, he said.

The English language newspapers in Beijing are improving and add more content. But when run by Chinese only, they remain a bit unreliable and outdated.
“Beijing Weekend” (China Daily) is a good case. Nice layout and colorful. But don’t trust their listings…
– “The Hidden Tree”: the popular Belgian bar has been renamed “The Tree” since years
– If you follow the directions to “Bus Bar” and “Nanjie” you’ll end up in a meters deep crater where both stood once, in front of the Workers’ Stadium; as reported earkier in this blog, they moved time ago (fortunately for them);
– “Browns”: as far as I know, closed since long with its owner vanished.
– “Babyface”: good luck if you wanna dance there. In the process of being demolished, hopefully to re-open one day.

“Beijing Today” also just published a so-called “Chunxiu Lu” Guide. They too lead us directly to the huge construction site to have a beer at Bus Bar and Nanjie. They left out several other well known entertainment and health venues in the area. The same happened when they explored the Gongti Xi Lu area where they missed some famous spots.
Maybe the Chinese reporters don’t have the stamina to visit so many bars and get tired. Too much rice, too little Belgian beer and juicy steak.
Compare that to the other publications like That’s Beijing, Time Out, City Weekend. Can’t beat those.
That is actually a major problem with many Chinese “Guides”: incomplete. A major issue I brought up with the city government who tries to guide the visitors for the 2008 Olympics. I suggested they pick up a copy of That’s Beijing in Morel’s Restaurant or The Tree. After a Leffe beer, of course.

People get curious about what’s going on in China, “behind closed doors”.
Well, the Beijing police (see earlier posting 2 Sept) is trying to improve the morals of its citizens. This is a periodic occurrence, much like influenza. Caused yearly by the upcoming party congress (this month) and by the 2008 Olympics. No more monkey business and doors should not be closed anymore – massage (a VERY wide definition) rooms should be unlocked and have “transparent windows”. Yes, yes, we all know, the city of Beijing is famous for “transparency”.
Promptly, raids were done on some of the sauna houses and other “entertainment” venues, creating fear among the staff and drug withdrawal symptoms with the addicted customers (no dude, not “those” drugs). No problema, I was told by well informed sources, all swell again, business is normal, people need to make a living.

See here pic of SCMP dated 2 September, one of the raids; the police even has English vests. Unlike the crew that beat up some black people walking in Sanlitun recently – no pics coz all cameras and mobiles were promptly “cleaned”.
For the naive sort who allege prostitution and suspicious activities are illegal in China: right. So they are in most countries. Good we have the USA embassy here and the website That’s Beijing (see my favorite links). See here some extract from their website on 7 September (I have the full article, exciting reading I can assure you):
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Massage City.
It doesn’t mean that Beijing is prude. Quite the contrary is true. Sex is as available in Beijing as Chinese food. Sex for eat-in, sex for take-out, sex for home delivery. There are even restaurants where you get a massage when you pay the bill. There are neighborhoods where every barbershop routinely relieves you of excess hair and of undue tension in your male organ. No hotel bar is complete without a complement of willing females. And if you forgot, there is a card on the nightstand that reminds you of massage services. For a tip with happy ending. If you think that at the many foot massage establishments only feet get massaged, think again.
According to a study published by the US Embassy to China (your tax dollars at work … imagine the research) they estimate “that Beijing has at least 200,000 – 300,000 prostitutes.” What’s more ,”the contribution of the ‘sex industry’ to the GDP comes in at about 12.1 – 12.8 percent,” the study claims. In case you want to get in on the booming business, the embassy links to an excerpt of Pan Suiming’s book “Red Light District,” published at the UN China website. This book is a proverbial business manual to setting up a sex business in China.
You can rent a girl by the hour, for the night, for a day, or for the length of your stay. The savvy businessman hires an “assistant” for a week or two, she provides sexual favors and if she’s really good, then she can provide secretarial services, or tell the taxi driver where to go.
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Anybody not convinced or ill-informed, I organize all kinds of seminars and guided tours. ANY topic, not only that boring story about the preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Comes at a price tough! Experts wanna be paid. Of course as said you can simply navigate to “That’s Beijing”, it’s free and you don’t need anybody to help. There goes my business model.

Nanjie, shut up and drink, did not survive long on the former parking lot in front of the Workers Stadium.

At the end of September, only rubble. Nanjie moved somewhere close to South Sanlitun Bar Street, not clear exactly where from the poster on the ruins. Maybe close to the Bookworm?
What they are up to with the parking lot, who knows. They are digging a gigantic hole and trucks are queuing up to take away the soil. Looks like another big tower coming. Some optimists hope it will be an underground parking…