China

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A serial killer who cut up his victims and sold their remains as 'ostrich meat' on the local market has been executed in southwest China.
 
Zhang Yongming, 57, was found guilty of murdering 11 people and selling parts of their flesh, state media reported.
 
When police searched his home they found eyeballs preserved in wine bottles, such as is traditional Asian practice with snakes to make 'snake wine', and dried human meat.

Mr Zhang was known amongst his neighbours in the village as the ''Cannibal Monster'.

Yesterday he was ‘escorted to an execution site and executed’ on Thursday after being sentenced to death in the southwestern city of Kunming in July, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

Neighbours told a local newspaper that they had seen green plastic bags hanging from his home with what resembled white bones protruding from the top.
 
Mr Zhang, who 'cut his victims into pieces to cover his tracks’, had a previous conviction for murder, but was released in 1997.

Upon entering  his home police found the 'eyeball wine' and human flesh hung up to dry and fear he may have also fed his victims to his dogs, according to Hong King newspaper The Standard.
 
Although the notoriously secretive Beijing administration refuses to  publish its execution statistics it is believed to have the highest rates in the world.
 
The latest report from Amnesty International predicts 'thousands' every year, whilst U.S.-based advocacy group the Duihua foundation estimated that 4,000 prisoners were executed in 2011.
 

There is cautious optimism among China media watchers this morning over the news that a deal has been struck between censors and protesting journalists at China's Southern Weekly news magazine, which is also known as Southern Weekend.

With its round bed draped with gauze curtains, pink decor and dim lighting, this room resembles a hotel hideaway frequented by amorous couples.
 
In fact the suite is located inside a hospital in China, which has opened a dedicated 'sex room' in a bid to help would-be parents who are struggling to conceive.
 
The Wuhan Songziniao Hospital even has porn and saucy outfits available on request for patients making use of the facility, which is decorated with erotic art and equipped with an array of sex toys.

The hospital in China's Hubei province said the room has been designed to 'encourage pregnancy by inspiring sexual passion in the patients'.

The ward is also furnished with a plush sofa and flat-screen TV should couples wish to take advantage of a DVD offering advice and tips, or to watch a selection from the library of porn films on offer at the facility.
 
For patients still struggling to get in the mood, nurse and air hostess outfits are available on request.

Experts are also on hand to provide tips on boosting the chances of conceiving, the hospital said.
 
But all this encouragement comes at a price - couples wishing to make use of the facility must pay 880 yuan - or £88 - per night for the privilege.

 

A Chinese property tycoon is working as a street cleaner – because she wants to teach her children the virtue of hard work.
 
Millionaire Yu Youzhen, 53, owns 17 flats and has become wealthy on the back of the Chinese property boom.

 But instead of pampering herself with her wealth and enjoying lazy days at the salon, spa or shopping, she instead insists on getting up at dawn six days a week to sweep, scrub and empty bins along a two mile stretch of busy road in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

'I want to be a role model for my son and daughter. I don’t want to sit around idly and eat away my fortune,' said Yu.

She said she didn’t want to give her children the impression that being a rich landlady and living off proceeds from her enviable portfolio was an easy way of life.
 
'That lifestyle would only harm them in the long run,' Yu added.
 
Her sweeping plan seems to have paid off.

Both of her children are wage-earners with her son earning a salary of £200 per month as a driver and her daughter earning £300 a month in an unspecified job, according to Chinese newspaper reports.
 
Yu earns a measly monthly salary of £130 from her less than glamorous employer - the Wuchang District Urban Management Bureau.

'I am not a cultured person but I always feel I need to be doing something,' Yu said, who took the job a decade ago after finding her wealthy lifestyle boring.
 
The rags to riches former vegetable farmer used to toil on the fields and hauled heavy loads of produce on her back to the daily market.
 
But when Communist China stated to reform its economy in the 1980s and allowed peasants to start businesses, Yu and her husband saved enough money to construct three five-story village houses,  which they leased out for rent.
 
They have been successfully playing China’s booming property game ever since and expanded their property empire to 21 properties.
 
They have sold four flats, the proceeds from which  - plus the monthly, multiple rental income  - now provide for a luxury lifestyle should the novelty of handling a broom and an honest day’s work ever wear off.