Trending across China

Hit TV series returns for second course, firefighting hero becomes an online celebrity and Guangzhou soccer boss has words with his underperforming players.

Appetite for hit series satisfied

The long-awaited second season of A Bite of China, a Chinese food documentary which scored high ratings and widespread popularity in its 2012 first season, began airing on Friday.

The first episode of the eight-part second season proved a hit with web users commenting that they "drool while watching it" and "want to watch it again" on the Weibo account of the program's director Chen Xiaoqing.

A Bite of China is about crafted banquets and nature's raw offerings across China, and the relationship between people and their local food. The second season covers more than 150 regions across the country and took six months to film.

Heroic firefighter is online star

Photos of a firefighter who carried a burning gas storage tank out of a building have gone viral online.

A restaurant in Wuhan, Hubei province burst into flames in January, and three of eight gas tanks in the kitchen caught fire. Huangfu Jiangwu, 26, who was battling the blaze with colleagues, carried the tank into an open space before using a wet cloth to put the fire out.

The photo was taken and first posted by a web user and the fire department of China's Ministry of Public Security confirmed the firefighter is Huangfu on April 17.

More lactation rooms on the way

Beijing is to build 2,000 lactation rooms within three years, providing nursing women with facilities to meet a possible baby boom after allowing a second-child to some couples, Beijing News reported.

Beijing Municipal Federation of Trade Unions in January launched a drive to built lactation rooms at company premises in the city with 20 created and 10 in use so far. A survey showed only 7 percent of nursing female employees in the country have lactation rooms at their work place. For the rest, 53 percent use meeting or utility rooms to express milk and 47 percent use the bathroom.

Joy time for Doraemon fan

Doraemon Secret Gadgets Expo kicked off at Joy City in Chaoyang district of Beijing on Saturday, Beijing-based Legal Evening News reported. The exhibition, which ends on June 22, features 100 life-sized Doraemon models with a variety of gestures and facial expressions together with iconic tools, including bamboo dragonfly aircraft.

 

Soccer boss' psychotherapy

Chinese tycoon and Guangzhou Evergrande owner Xu Jiayin pepped up the spirits of his team by joking that they should sell mineral water if they could not play good soccer. Evergrande forward Gao Lin said on WeChat that the boss had chatted about everything except the team's consecutive losses in the group stage of the Asian Champions League as he threw a treat for the team on Friday. The defending champion squandered a chance to qualify for the knockout stages by losing to Australia's Melbourne Victory 0-2 on Tuesday and has to at least draw with Japan's Yokohama F. Marinos next week to progress.

System to track school enrollment

Students graduating from elementary schools and entering middle schools in Beijing will have their information collected through a new electronic system starting May 1 to guarantee fair enrollment. Li Yi, spokesman for Beijing Municipal Education Commission, said on Friday this is the first year that the city will use an electronic platform to track middle school enrollment.

Man pays medical fees after 60 years

A 67-year-old man in Xingtai, Hebei province, traveled over 1,000 km to pay back 10,000 yuan ($1,607) in medical fees he owed 60 years ago, Anhui Commercial Daily reported on Friday. In 1955, the man was treated for free for a swollen groin in his hometown of Bengbu, Anhui province, as his family was poor.

Bridge climbers to be held accountable

Police in the provincial capital of Guangzhou will seek to punish people who climb on local bridges to get attention, New Express Daily reported on Friday. Since 2011, 97 local residents have climbed bridges and threatened to jump; of those, about 70 percent were simply trying to get attention, the report said. Police said that because rescues of the climbers waste resources and disturb public order, climbers should face criminal penalties.