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).

The Bird's Nest (fuzheado)

Good Luck Games and Bird's Nest: photos: This links to a set of photos by Andrew Lih of the Bird's Nest during the Good Luck Games, held last weekend as a trial of some Olympic facilities.

See also TooManyTribbles's photos of various Olympic venues.

Big dumb recycling machine: At Shanghai Scrap, Adam Minter describes his attempt to use a new "reverse vending machine" on Shanghai's Nanjing Road:

Now, one might reasonably ask: why does China need machines to collect bottles and can when there are tens of millions of hard-working scrap peddlers who'll do the work for less than the cost of the new machine? Well, according to Shanghai's city fathers, as reported in the Shanghai Daily, the idea is to put the scrap peddlers out of business because, quoting Shanghai Daily, "they have a negative impact on the city's image."

Sanlitun Soho: Alex Pasternack looks at the latest real estate developments in Sanlitun.

Jia Zhangke and the three Factory Beauties: Translations of articles about director Jia Zhangke on the Faster than instant noodles blog.

Q&A with Wen Jiabao: Phoenix TV reporter and editor Rose Luqiu had a chance to ask Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao a few questions while he visited earthquake victims living in tents in Sichuan's Pengzhou city last week. John Kennedy has translated the transcript.

Landslide threats in Sichuan: This is a blog post by landslide expert David Petley about the key problems associated with landslides in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake.

KMT leader in PRC: From The New York Times:

The chairman of Taiwan's Nationalist Party left Monday for Beijing, the latest in a series of moves by officials on both sides of the Taiwan Straits to forge closer relations.

The official, Wu Poh-hsiung, is the first serving chairman of his party to visit the mainland, although Lien Chan, the party's honorary chairman and unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2004, has also made the trip.

School safety and democratic mechanisms: From David Bandurski at the China Media Project:

Zhang Qianfan: making China's schools safer means building local democratic mechanisms

One of the most persistent issues to emerge in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake is of course the question of shoddy school construction. In a column running in The Beijing News just before the weekend, Peking University professor Zhang Qianfan (张千帆) argued that the building of local 'democratic mechanisms' was necessary if China wished to avoid repetition of the tragedies of Wenchuan.

New big 3 of China telecoms: Reuters have published a good summary of the government's restructuring--by fiat--of China's telecoms industry which will leave only three players in the market: China Mobile-Railcom, China Unicom-Netcom and China Telecom.

BBC journalist: Did we show too much?: A thoughtful blog post by BBC correspondent James Reynolds:

I'm back in Beijing with a bit of time to think back on the earthquake and the way I covered it.

A couple of questions have been going through my mind: Did I show too much/too little? Did I intrude too far into people's grief?

A seismic shift in China's relations with West?: Jane Macartney of The Times was allowed personal access to Wen Jiabao as he pledged openness to foreign journalists in front of the rubble of Yingxiu Middle School.

Missing panda spotted alive after Sichuan earthquake: Xinhua reports:

A giant panda which went missing from a major panda base in southwest China's Sichuan Province after the May 12 earthquake was spotted alive about 5:20 p.m. on Sunday by a group of road workers.

Learning to speak Olympics: Mike Meyer, author of soon to be published 'The Last Days of Old Beijing' has a piece in the New York Times about teaching English in a hutong in Beijing and Mocky the naughty monkey, star of the English text book.

China Red Cross deals with tarnished reputation: From China Herald:

The China Red Cross has come again under scrutiny of China's internet users. Initially it was accused for lack of transparency, because it did not want to explain what was happening with the funds it received for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.

Now the vice-chairman of the Sanya Red Cross Society China has been attached.

See also Speak4China: Chinese netizens continue to monitor earthquake corruption and Red Cross in the Crosshairs.

Beijing blood bank is full: From Black and White Cat:

China is usually short of genuinely free blood donations, creating a market for illegal blood selling. But Tiger Temple reports that on Sunday the blood collecting buses in Beijing had temporarily stopped accepting donations because so much has been given since the earthquake. Commenters report the same in other cities around the country.

Sunday afternoon 6.4 aftershock in Sichuan: From the Economic Observer:

As of late Sunday evening, at least one had died and 359 injured after a 6.4-magnitude aftershock hit Sichuan's Qingchuan county that afternoon, according to Chinese state media.

China visa - facts and fiction: At tbjblog, Nadine Ulrich presents the latest info on the increasingly difficult problem of getting a visa to China.