Danwei Noon Report is a daily roundup of new and old media coverage about China from Chinese and English sources.

How many roads must a man walk down?

Monitoring firm CSM also provided ratings for 17 Chinese cities. My Hero was the leading program by average rating throughout the season, reaching 3.29%. This is higher than the average rating for this year's Super Girl on Hunan Satellite TV which has so far averaged 2.79% . This weekend's Super Girl competition is down to its final ten competitors. Perhaps in response to My Hero's success, Hunan TV has already announced informally that they will organize a Super Boy program next year.

My Hero's slogan is worth noting: "How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?" (一个男人要走过多少路才能称为真正的男子汉？) The Sina story about My Hero is here, in Chinese.

The Battle for Macao intensifies
From the Financial Times:

Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino mogul, on Monday warned Stanley Ho and other gaming operators in Macao that competition in the world’s second largest casino market has only just begun and would intensify.

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” said Mr Adelson, chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands.

Visiting the former Portuguese enclave to mark the topping off of his company’s $2.3bn Venetian Macao resort, Mr Adelson was responding to Mr Ho’s complaints earlier this month that the Las Vegas Sands’ first operation there – the Sands Macao – was squeezing his casinos.

Mr Ho, who enjoyed a monopoly in Macao’s gaming industry for 40 years until 2002, said the Sands Macao raised the commissions it paid to junket operators, whose job it is to round up high-rollers for Macao casinos. As a result, many of his VIP halls were having difficulty maintaining their business...

...The 700-table Venetian Macao, a Las Vegas-style resort, is due to open next summer. (Link)

Watch this old Danwei TV Hard Hat Show if you want to see some of the casinos referred to above:

China and Japan agree on Asian Currency Unit
From the Financial Times:

China and Japan, Asia’s two economic giants which are also political rivals, have developed “an unusual consensus” in support of an Asian Currency Unit to reduce their reliance on a weakening dollar, a senior Chinese economist said on Tuesday.

China was originally suspicious of proposals for an ACU because it would be dominated by the yen, Fan Gang said in a speech delivered on his behalf on Tuesday at a conference at the Australian National University in Canberra.

But he said China’s economic and trade growth has swept away many of these concerns. “There is no fear of potential dominance by the Japanese yen,” he said. (Link)

County government in Guizhou standardizes phone ringtones
On the 28th, a CCTV broadcast reported that the government of Huangping County, Guizhou, had issued a notice requiring all upper-level government employees to use a single dial-in ringtone for all of their cell phones and some home phones as well. This did not make the cadres very happy - the memo also noted that compliance would be used to evaluate whether employees were devoted to their hometown.

The lead editorial in The Beijing News today notes that having employee ringtones play a single commercial is not an uncommon tactic among Chinese corporations, but cautions that it may backfire:

But does forcing the use of a ring tone have much effect? Forcing employees to use a ringtone might raise disgust among some employees and phone-answerers; does this spread fame or infamy for the company? Respecting the freedoms and rights of employees is not only the moral and legal responsibility of business and the government, but is the only way to increase effectiveness. (link - in Chinese)

20 Beijing courtyard houses for sale
Xinhua yesterday published a story today on an auction of courtyard houses set to take place in Beijing in Septermber. The company in charge of the auction said they were targeting buyers from Hongkong, Macao and Taiwan, who already make up a large section of the current owners of such houses. (Link - in Chinese)

Bill Zhang contributed to this report