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).

How to make the foreign media's task that little bit easier: Beijing Newspeak muses about Xinhua's handling of the story about the military uses of the train to Lhasa:

I often wonder why, if "western" news organisations - I'm not sure why biting criticism from sections of the Indian press for example is passed over - always play up the negative aspects of a China story, Xinhua then spoon feeds them material to make their jobs even easier. First rule of censorship in China: avoid a story that involves the Chinese military in Tibet unless it's really necessary.

Taking the subway in New Beijing: b. cheng at A Modern Lei Feng starts a series on changes in Beijing with a look at the subway:

To me, Beijing has always been the little city inside the 2nd Ring Road, or at the very most, inside the 3rd Ring Road. Thus, if there was someplace that I didn't choose to bike to or due to inclimate weather, the subway was always an excellent option for getting around. The movements toward a "New Beijing" that occurred during the first Olympic bid and also as preparation for the 50th Anniversary of China in 1999 were very welcome, an expanding of line 1 that was convenient for shoppers (Wangfujing, Yonganli) as well as tourists (Tiananmen East & West) and office workers (GuoMao). There was basically no place the loop line and line 1 couldn't take you (or at least a subway ride and a 10 minute bus/cab ride). The subway showed its age and could really use a good scrubbing, made all the more obvious riding the loop line after line 1 opened up, but it was convenient and never too crowded.

Over the past few years, as more and more people come to the city, the subway has gotten more crowded, but it always rationally so, during the morning/evening rush it could get pretty packed, but rarely (and only at the very height of rush hour) uncomfortably so.

Freeze on Hollywood films for the winter: In The Independent, Clifford Coonan reports:

China has banned Hollywood films, at least until February and possibly until May, over a trade row with the United States and because American movies are proving too successful and hitting box office for local films. Chinese authorities are also said to be miffed over the US's continued arms sales to Taiwan...

...The ban, which is the toughest clampdown on foreign movies since they were allowed back into the country, began last Saturday and will continue until the end of February at least, and some sources say it could continue until May. Crucially, the Asian and Chinese arms of the major studios have not been given any release slots in the first two months of 2008...

...The film bureau said it had not heard of any ban: 'There's no such thing. We've never heard anything about this,' a spokesman said, but industry sources say the order to stop Hollywood movies, which are very popular in China, came from high up, possibly from the propaganda ministry...

...There were other freezes from 20 June until 11 July and 21 July until 12 August, and it had been presumed that December would be for Chinese films only.

The new face of youth activism in China: At China Dialogue, Weiya Hao writes about new networks that encourage young people to get involved:

This year, with climate change the increasing focus of widespread debate, the country's young people have started to act by founding China's first young people's network focused on global warming, China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN), which incorporates seven separate organisations.

It started in August with a group of 10 young people concerned about China's environment – mainly heads of student green groups and other youth organisations – who met at a farewell dinner for a foreign student. After a lively discussion about China's climate-adaptation policies, the state of university green organisations, student climate-change activism overseas and technological issues, they decided that isolated action lacked impact – and a network would be beneficial.