Danwei Picks is a daily digest of the "From the Web" links found on the Danwei homepage. A feed for the links as they are posted throughout the day is available at Feedsky (in China) or Feedburner (outside China).

Black water: coastal China on the brink (I): China Dialogue presents a translation of a Southern Metropolis Daily report from November, 2007, that details how China's fisheries are dying off:

The fishermen of Shuigou village are washing the dirty water from their legs for the last time and preparing to leave the sea behind.

"I'll probably go and do manual labour," says Hou Baoyou, "the sea is too unreliable." Once-vibrant fishing villages are being deserted as the trend of moving away from the coast spreads. Nowadays, seafood buyers from other regions are nowhere to be seen in Shuigou. Thousands of workers used to arrive from other parts of China, now the locals themselves are leaving for the town.

Pranking the chengguan entry: Micah Sittig translates a Baidupedia entry on chengguan that's pretty perceptive:

① noun: a mafia-type organization devoted to keeping up appearances through violence methods, exclusively bullying those who can't afford to rent a storefront, can't afford to register a business permit, or belong to other disadvantaged groups. ex: the chengguan are on the prowl, everybody scram!

② adjective: violent, gory, horrendous. ex: That's too chengguan, man!

Are you really Tibetan? You’re so clean!: Black and White Cat translates a letter that a Tibetan reader sent in to blogger Lian Yue:

After I graduated, I applied for an office job. One boss asked my to change my Tibetan name to something that Han people could recognize more easily, like Zhuoma or Zhuoga, to give people a strong impression and be more competitive in business.

Later I went to XX for an interview. One manager was extremely interested in knowing whether or not Tibetans only wash twice in their lives. He was very curious to know: "Don't they mind being dirty?" That took up a third of the interview.

India, too, looks to Africa: From The Times:

India has granted Africa radically improved terms of trade in the clearest signal yet that it intends to compete head-to-head with China for access to the continent’s natural resources.

Speaking at the inaugural India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, said that tariffs would be scrapped on a host of African imports, from diamonds and copper ore to sugar cane and clothes. The abolition of duties will cover 94 per cent of the in-bound goods from 34 African nations.

The summit, which is being attended by the leaders of 14 African states, is widely regarded as India’s riposte to the China-Africa Cooperation Forum of 2006, at which China unveiled $9 billion in preferential loans, export credits and other incentives to reinforce its grip on Africa’s mineral-rich regions.

Where's the news stand?: Imagethief visits Beijing's new Terminal 3:

The whole concession arrangement smacked of having been designed by someone who doesn’t actually travel by air, or who had no vision for Beijing’s potential role as a hub airport. Think about it: Most people will want to deal with the formalities before they relax and shop because on any given day they won’t know how long it will take to get through them. And international transfer passengers, if Beijing ever develops that market, won’t even know that there was something better just beyond their reach.