it was once sunny

Qingdao, Northern China

To remind myself that at one point this summer it was sunny I'm posting some pictures of the beach at Qingdao from May. Some classic Chinese seaside sights here;

• no sunbathing instead there's umbrellas and full clothing
  (women prefer pale skin to tanned)
  
• only men in the sea
  
• and no one's actually swimming, mostly there's only degrees of paddling

And you are never far from a bike, even at sea. Above, bike-pedaloes.

But don't despair if you're planning a global ad campaign about beaches - some things at the seaside are the same all over the world, like kitschy shell-based ornaments:

the internet gets Chinese girls pregnant

The QQ logo, a popular internet chat brand in China.

According to the operators of a pregnancy helpline in Shanghai nearly half of the teenage girls who call them met their partners on the internet. Full story here, from the China Daily. An indication of the net's popularity as a place to find dates for Chinese youth and more evidence of the generation gap - youth sexual activity is out pacing the government's and parents' ability or willingness to deal with the previously taboo subject of sex.