Comrade Li Keqiang has passed away. As the 17th, 18th, and 19th Politburo committee leader and former premier, Comrade Li Keqiang has been rehabilitating in Shanghai lately, and died of a sudden heart attack on the 26th of October. He was unable to be saved and died at 10 minutes past midnight in Shanghai on the 27th, at 68 years of age.
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“Today, let’s talk about my mom’s influence on my sense of beauty. Her childcare philosophy when raising me was: to love generously.
My mom is a beauty. She has a great sense of fashion and was good at make up and had great poise too.
We lived in a small town back in the 80s. Most women’s make up was limited to just a bottle of moisturiser. But my mom had a big box full of makeup. She had delicate little perfume bottles, in little glass tubes like test tubes. She’d apply it with a little glass wand behind her ear and on her wrist. It wasn’t even available for sale at the department store in our small town. Her business partner had to send it to her from Guangzhou. To this day, I remember the cold touch of the glass and the permeating fragrance.
One day, my primary school homeroom teacher suddenly told me sternly, “Go home and tell your mom to come to school right away.” I was so scared my eyebrows almost fell off. What did I do this time? And then my homeroom teacher continued, “Tell her she needs to do everyone’s makeup in class!”
It was some kind of festival that day and we had to put on a performance. My mom took her makeup box to school, and put blush and lipstick on each little kid. I was so proud of that day, to the point that I still remember more than 30 years later.
My mom loved to do things that “broadened perspective”. She worked in retail, so she’d often get supplies from Chongqing. At the time, it took over 4 hours to get into the city by car, and it was a very tiring journey.
Every time she went to Chongqing, she’d first go to the “Three Eight Store” near the Liberation Omnument to buy anything new and unique that had come in. She bought Wella shampoo and conditioner. That scent accompanied my whole childhood. In the day and age when all my neighbours and classmates were still using Seagull Shampoo, whenever I washed my hair on Friday afternoons, I would smell so good that even my homeroom teacher would come over and ask what I used.
She bought Nestle coffee and accessories, but she wasn’t sure what kind of cup to put it in, so she bought a bunch of Bordeaux wine glasses and Whiskey shot glasses, to mix her coffee in. Imagine, she’d invite friends and family to come over, and use the fat Bordeaux wine glasses to serve sweetened coffee in. Everyone sat around the table like it was some kind of fancy dinner. Everyone would start subconsciously talking in a lower voice, act more civilised, suddenly start being all elegant, and then end up staying up all night. It was people’s first experience with caffeine. They’d chat all the way to daybreak, and still be hyped and jittery. They’d all say, “This coffee stuff is too strong!”
…Anyway, she’s bought a lot of strange stuff. She called it “broadening her perspective.”
After she was done with the Three Eight Store, she’d to go a hundred-year store to buy some snacks. Then she’d go to the nearby nationalised fruit store to buy stuff that our little town didn’t used to have, and that’s already went extinct from the market, like green bananas from Guangdong, or golden apples.
Finally, she’d go to the movie theatre and watch the latest movie.
Then, she’d take all her harvests and leisurely stole over to the hotel around Chaotianmen, and the next day, in the early morning, she’d go to the market to get her supplies. Then she’d ride a 4 hours car home, and put it up for sale in our department store.
That was a day in her life. She lived like this for several years.
My outfits, of course, were always on the leading edge of fashion. When I got too rowdy, I’ve even lost a shiny leather shoe before. It got picked up by a vagrant, and my grandma had to exchange it back with peanuts.
My neighbours say that I was too little, I’ll grow out of them soon, why buy such expensive shoes for me? My mom said that they didn’t understand.
She’d always been generous about everything she bought for me. Even when I was going to middle school, and her business was failing and she didn’t have much money, she’d grit her teeth and buy me whatever new clothes I wanted.
She asked a friend in Guangzhou to buy me sneakers. They might be all over the place these days, but back in the day, all my classmates only had white canvas shoes to wear, and I had sneakers!
She’s bought a super fancy one piece dress before, and I wore it to get photographed, and that became the advertising photo at the photo studio in my small town for years.
She’s done two other amazing things too:
One is that after our little town got its first building with an elevator in it, they set up a garden and tea seats at the rooftop. It was very expensive there. You had to pay just to ride the elevator. And coke was also shockingly expensive. My mom took me there right away. She got me a coke to drink there and then, and bought another can to savour at home.
The other is that once, during New Years, I saw a lady downstairs that had a really pretty coat, and told my mom I liked it. So my mom asked her how much it was, and she said 400 RMB. My mom told her to take it off and give it to me, and handed her 400 RMB in cash. I still remember that lady shivering in the wind as she hugged herself and how she’d smiled at me and said, “Your mom really loves you.”
I rambled on this much because I wanted to record the little moments of my mom’s love for me, that I’ve remembered for years.
My mom always said that girls need money in order to not turn bad. I’ve never had to worry about money growing up. I’ve never been sensitive to materialism. When I was going to university in Chengdu, all my classmates got 300-400 RMB of spending money every month, and I had 1000. So I had the spare money to skip class and travel to Xian to see my boyfriend (I bet my mom never thought of this. She still doesn’t know to this day).
But my family is really only middle-class. My dad had a job at a government-owned corporation. My mom ran her own small business. She was just exceedingly generous to me, because she wanted me to know that we had everything at home. I didn’t need to beg for anything from anyone else. I didn’t have to envy someone else. To achieve that, she was willing to be stingy with herself and my dad.
After I graduated from uni, she bought me my first house, in the very centre of the Three Gulfs Plaza, a one-bedroom apartment unit on the 28th floor. My mom’s words at the time were, “You’re gonna go out with friends, so you have to live in the middle of town. That way, it’s convenient and safe to come home at night.”
Later on, I read the same sentiment in a webnovel, “After a date, if the guy offers to take you home and you tell him a super remote and poor address, he’s going to avoid you right away.” It’s the same idea—girls need to live in good locations.
Did her generous love turn me into a useless piece of trash? I don’t think so.
After I graduated, I haven’t asked for any money from my family. My mom gave me great genes. I’m not ugly or short. I have a lot of confidence in myself. And I always have plenty of pretty clothes and bags and shoes.
This is all stuff I’ve had since childhood, and now I’m earning money to buy them for myself. I’ve always been able to maintain the same standard of living she gave me, and I’m confident in continuing to afford it. And when I’m able to pay her back, I’ll buy her whatever she wants too.
My mom awoke my sense of beauty first, by leading by example. When my grandma got super sick, she would cry and apply her makeup in a daze. She’d start in on her eyebrows, and my grandma would struggle up from her hospital bed to tell her, “You gotta do your foundation first before you draw the eyebrows.” You see the power of leading by example. I learned that even at the worst moment of your life, you have to make yourself look a little bit more beautiful. The more depressed you are, the more you need to dress up.
Second is that she broadened my perspective. Sometimes, you have to waste your money. You can’t obsessively only spend your money on necessities. You have to buy things that broaden your world, that bring fun. Once you’ve seen everything and ate everything and drank everything and had everything, then you don’t have as much hunger for material things, and you’re less likely to compromise for a little bit of material goods. Not to mention, fun is great. Even weird kinds of fun, like trying out all kinds of different whiskeys. It’s pointless, but if it makes you happy, why not?
Third is to love yourself. When she wandered around the Liberation Monument, enjoying her alone time, buying rare goods, eating snacks, watching movies, she was sending a message: you can be perfectly happy by yourself. You can still enjoy everything around you.
Fourth is to work hard to make money. Not much to elaborate on this—she’s a very hardworking person, so I’m a very hardworking and brave person too. Right now, I’ve got a stable job, I’ve got savings, I’m living a peaceful, quiet life as I get my own children through school. What’s not great about that?
Thank you for reading this far, about this story of my mom inspiring my sense of beauty.”
Comments say, “I’m raising my two daughters this way. They’re only in primary school right now, but I put on makeup every day even if I’m just gonna stay home and clean. It’s not just to bring myself joy, but to teach my daughters that mommy is always fragrant and pretty. That way, they’ll pay attention to their appearance, and know to be pretty and elegant. Pretty girls are always confident, and the self authorship that comes with confidence is the greatest treasure I can give them.”
“What a wonderful mom. You have such a great legacy of love that I’m sure you’re a wonderful mom in your child’s eyes too.”
“Speaking of inspiring beauty, my mom inspired beauty in me when I’m 40 years old. She’s a farmer, and liked to do embroidery when she was young. When she was 70, she signed up for painting classes. She kept flowers all her life. And before 40, I just didn’t have any thoughts about beauty, I didn’t have a sense of it. And just starting this year, I started learning photography, learning how to keep flowers. I’m sure I’ve just awoken my mom’s genes in me.”
A blogger writes about another blogger’s experience at the Xian Airport: “There are endless scammers at the Xian Airport. Xian Airport recently rolled out free hotels for overnight layovers, and yet they’re getting nothing but criticism on the internet. Why? Because there are whole crowd of scammers hanging around the airport doors, targeting people with a layover in Xi’an.
I specifically went to experience the free hotels in Xi’an, flying from Shenzhen to Yan’an, then to Xian, and then back to Guangzhou. I managed to get a night at the “Royal Dragon Airport Hotel” on their app. When I arrived at Xian at night, according to the app notice, I went to Gate 326 in Terminal 3 for my shuttle.
And that’s where the trickery began.
At nighttime, Gate 326 is shut off in Xian airport. If you want to go over there, you have to leave through Gate 324. And there are a couple of scammers hanging out, outside Gate 324, claiming to be employees from “Royal Dragon”. They’ll very enthusiastically walk up to you and asked, “Here for your free hotel? Just follow me.”
At that point, I figured something was wrong. That’s too much service for a free hotel. So I opened my recording device and recorded the scammer’s whole deal.
Scammer: “In the morning, the shuttle leaves from the hotel at 4:30 and every half an hour after that. (They introduce the time the shuttles leave, and emphasise that not only is it super early but it’s inconvenient for most passengers). Let me see your phone number. If you use the free hotel deal, then you get a bunk with other passengers. We can upgrade you to a private room, and it’ll be much closer to the airport, with a 5 minute shuttle ride. You won’t miss your flight in the morning. It’s only 138 RMB.”
Me: “What if I go to the hotel front desk to get the upgrade?”
Scammer: “If you go over to the hotel, they’ll make you bunk with other people. All free hotel stays require you to bunk with other people.” (super impatient tone).
And then, the scammer just kept emphasising that you have to bunk with other people and it’s super far away, and claiming that their hotel is only 500 metres away from the airport, that they have a deal with the western airport, that they’re all bed and breakfasts…
I didn’t go with the scammers and went to the Royal Dragon Hotel, and talked to the employees there. The employees explained that those people have no connection to the airport or their hotel. They’re just scammers pretending to be Royal Dragon employees. And they say that there are plenty of private rooms available at the Royal Dragon for just 100 RMB.
The employee also said that if I’d went to their “bed and breakfast”, I’d take one look at the environment and not want to stay. And if I want to ride the scammers’ car back, then I’d have to pay another 50 RMB for the car ride. “A girl last time got so frustrated she cried.””
This was the first post the blogger uploaded. Last week, the blogger uploaded a new post, where he explains, “After my first video, Xian Airport took action right away. They fined 138 people and arrested 3 in just 4 days. But then, I found out that what was happening around Gate 324 had just moved over to Gate 322. They were only patrolling outside of Gate 324, and nobody cared what happened at Gate 322.
This time, the free hotel I booked was right inside the airport terminal, called Air Star. On my way, a man close to Gate 322 grabbed me.
Scammer, “Are you doing a layover? You need to book beforehand if you’re doing a layover. Everyone’s off work now. They’re all gone.”
Me: “No way. What kind of hotel doesn’t have a front desk at night?”
So I went over to Gate 322 and asked the patrolling workers, “Hey, you’re the anti-fraud security at Gate 324, right? Do you know there are scammers at Gate 322?”
Worker: “There are? Well, we don’t know anything. We don’t bother them if they don’t bother anyone else.”
Me: “He was just bothering me.”
Worker: “He was?”
Me: “So are you gonna do anything about it?”
Worker: “Sure. But we need evidence that he bothered you first, and then we need to call the polite, and the police will send a team…”
Me: “But you’re standing right here, in view of Gate 322, and he’s bothering people.”
Worker: “Well, we don’t know anything about that.”
Me: “You can at least patrol between the two gates, right? Then he wouldn’t bother people over there.”
Worker: “If I see him bothering anyone, I’ll be sure to take photo evidence.’’
Me: “Okay, then I’m gonna walk over there and see if he bothers me again.”
At least until this point, I was sympathetic to these salarymen. They’re just doing the job they were assigned by their boss. This job is probably just unpaid overtime to them. Honestly speaking, he doesn’t have a stake in bothering these scammers, it’s true. After all, you can get in a lot of danger fucking with people’s source of income. He’s bound to get off of work sooner or later, and most of the employees here love close by. If he got into a conflict with the scammers and got injured or threatened, would his company do anything about it? Probably not.”
This wasn’t the end, though. Last night, the blogger once again landed in Xian Airport, and this time, everywhere he walked around, there were patrolling security. He thought the problem was solved, until he got a PM from a fan, that read: “There’s an internal memo in the security department. The airline told the security team about your flight yesterday, and they held a meeting especially about you. From the moment you touched down, they’ve been following you and telling people about your route over their walkie talkie, and setting up security ahead of time. They said you’re really tall so you’re easy to spot.”
Not just this, but in a group chat labelled “Xianyang Airport North Station Drivers”, with 499 members, someone sent this blogger’s itinerary to the whole group, like they’re trying to draw trouble to him. A screenshot of the messages in this group chat:
“The Xian Airport blogger is here again. Anyone close to the airport should get away for the moment.”
“Oh god, that man is a fucking animal.”
“Everyone go report his posts.”
“Can we figure out what his tiktok account is?”
Across this whole incident, this really isn’t about social media influence or public opinion or any of that. It’s long-term laziness causing one of the oldest cities in China to lost its reputation.
We all know that this isn’t just happening in Xian. Based on the comments, it’s seems like there are plenty of scams in any city with a big tourism industry. There are plenty of traps to avoid, a lot of people to be on your guard against. Some commenters talk about being given a tour to fake terracotta soldiers that really blew my mind.
Personally, I really like Xian. I’ve got a lot of good friends there, and it produces some of my favourite food. This is just like the beaches at Qingdao. When it comes to building your image as a tourism city, well, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Forget the attractions and the restaurants. If the moment a tourist lands in your city, they have to worry about scams, then I don’t know what’s the point of this trip. What face do you have to welcome people to your city?
You build a giant, fancy, expensive airport, but you don’t have the ability to manage it properly? You’re an ancient and great city. Stop slapping yourself in the face with incidents like this.”
Comments say, “40 minutes after he booked his tickets, it was being shared to the scammer’s group chat, and you’re telling me there aren’t spies among airport employees? Those workers are being paid by the scammers.”
“The scammers figured out his personal information right away. Without some kind of insider, how could they be this brazen?”
“Xian is the worst-managed city in all second line cities. As a tourism hub, they’ve had fake buses running around their attractions for years and never done anything about it.”
A tiktok video of a Chinese art exam being graded:
Comments say, “At first I was fine with it, but close to the end, I was like, “This is 54 too!??””
“People really have the confident to take the exam when this is all they can draw?”
“Anything that used paper and a pencil is getting 54 XD”
LKQ - sus 🥲