Around the nation: massive lingzhi mushroom found in Guangxi
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 5:19am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 5:19am
A shop owner in Hezhou has been showing off a giant lingzhi mushroom he bought.
BEIJING
Death at 'Devil's crossing'
A man was killed by a train at a notoriously dangerous railway crossing in the capital, the Beijing Youth Daily reports. The accident happened at about 6.30pm and delayed services for half an hour. Local members of the political consultative conference have submitted proposals for three years hoping to redesign what has become known as the "Devil's crossing".
Truck driven up tree
A truck veered off a road in Changping district and came to rest up the trunk of a tree, the Beijing Times reports. The driver, in his 30s, mistook the accelerator for the brake and drove off the road, over a lamp post and a through a gate before hitting the tree. He escaped with minor injuries.
GUANGXI
Photoshop failure
Two female tour guides in Liuzhou were sent blackmail letters with faked "scandalous photos" of them, but they simply laughed at the poor Photoshop skills, Chinanews.com reports. One tour guide received a photo showing "indecent photos of a man and woman" with the tour guide's face added onto the woman's head. The letter demanded 116,000 yuan (HK$146,000) within two days. The sender claimed to be a private detective. Another tour guide received a similar threat using the same photo, but with a different head in the picture.
Massive mushroom
A shop owner in Hezhou has been showing off a giant lingzhi mushroom he bought, the online news platform News.qq.com reports. The mushroom is 107cm in diameter and weighs 14.9kg. Lingzhi mushrooms (Ganoderma lucidum), also called reishi, are believed to promote health and longevity, lower the risk of cancer and heart disease and boost the immune system. They're mostly found south of the Yangtze River.
HEBEI
Farmers dump milk
Plummeting milk prices have forced dairy farmers to dump their milk, feed it to cattle and even sell pregnant cows, T he Beijing News reports. After a milk shortage in 2013, prices surged so many dairy farmers bought more cows. The price has since fallen while the cost of feeding the cows has remained high. According to the report, an industry expert said a spike in imported milk powder had driven local milk prices down.
Locks lopped for charity
A young woman who has already donated bone marrow twice has cut her metre-long hair for charity in Shijiazhuang , Hebnews.cn reports. She had grown her hair for nine years and raised 125,000 yuan for girls in need. The Guinness World Record for the longest hair belongs to another Chinese woman, whose hair measured 5.6 metres when it was cut in 2004.
HEILONGJIANG
Milking the milkman
A man has been detained by police in Qiqihar for swindling 270,000 yuan from a milk trader by claiming to have close connections that could help him win contracts, the Hecheng Evening News reports. The 40-year-old said the trader should give him 60,000 yuan as a gesture of goodwill, so that trust could be built. He asked for 210,000 yuan more from him before disappearing. Records showed he had cheated several other people before, making about a million yuan altogether.
Motorcyclist surrenders
A motorcyclist turned himself in to police in Qiqihar after a fatal hit-and-run accident last week, Heilongjiang.dbw.cn reports. The motorcyclist initially disposed of his machine, but later decided to turn himself in. The victim of the accident died two days after being hit. He had just bought a lottery ticket, the report said.
HUBEI
Boyfriend in a rage
A 23-year-old man turned himself in to the police after stabbing a man he found with his ex-girlfriend at a cinema in Huanggang , news portal Hgdaily.com.cn reports. The man noticed the couple midway through the film and confronted them. He soon became enraged and dragged the man aside, stabbing him with a fruit knife he had bought from a counter to cut the sugar cane and apple he took into the cinema. The victim suffered serious injuries.
Accomplice's revenge
A man was arrested in Huanggang last month for a burglary he committed with another man, already detained, who turned him in after he realised his accomplice had reneged on a promise to look after his wife and child, the Dongchu Evening News reports. The duo agreed before the burglary that if one of them was caught, the other would take care of his family's finances, the report said.
HUNAN
Better luck second time?
A 45-year-old man who has been standing in public in Hengyang draped with a banner saying he is seeking a wife has told a reporter the sad tale of his earlier marriage, Xtol.cn reports. His first wife disappeared in 1999 and he only realised five years later that she married him solely to have a baby for her rich but impotent husband from Hong Kong. The two met in Hengyang in 1998 when she was managing her husband's business on the mainland. She wanted to have a baby with the man because having a son would let her inherit more of her husband's fortune. She ran off with the baby, and the man spent the next five years searching for her.
Kind woman murdered
A 37-year-old man has been sentenced to death in Xiangtan for robbing and killing a woman who occasionally let him eat for free at her restaurant, the Sanxiang City Express reports. She befriended the man, who was a frequent customer, and offered him free meals when he was in financial trouble. In April, 2013, he broke into her home looking for something valuable to steal but killed her when she suddenly came home.
SHANXI
Taiyuan to limit cars
Authorities in Taiyuan will limit the number of vehicles on the road to combat pollution and traffic congestion, Xinhua reports. The city already has more than a million cars and their number should not exceed 1.1 million this year, the city government decreed. Taiyuan also plans to impose a number plate rotation system that would reduce the number of cars travelling on a single day.
Qing statues toppled
A stone statue of a Qing dynasty general has been found with its head in a ditch, the Huashang Daily reports. Other statues of people and horses at the tomb in Xian have toppled and are scattered throughout a small village. A local heritage official said he was waiting for funds to preserve the area and re-erect the statues.
SICHUAN
Lost for words
A burglar who pretended to be mute and weak with hunger when discovered by a returning homeowner turned out to be an able-bodied serial thief after Nanchong police ran a background check on him, Cnncw.cn reports. The owner found the man eating when he returned, but he had not stolen anything. He wrote his name to the police, who ran a check. He has been detained for 15 days.
Woman survives plunge
Deyang police were searching for a man missing since he jumped into a river with his wife on Monday, Newssc.org reports. Police received a report saying the couple leapt together, but the woman's down jacket kept her afloat. Police reported that the woman was safe.
