Strange deaths in Chinese prisons

China - Questions are being asked about strange deaths in Chinese prisons. It has emerged officials are logging such cases as an inmate who was killed playing blind man’s buff, another who died from picking at acne and a third who apparently tripped and fatally fell in a toilet. These are among the recorded reasons for a large number of bizarre deaths suffered by inmates of China’s detention centres over the past 18 months.---...More

Toyota extends recall to Europe, China after US

WARNING---TOKYO?The crisis facing Toyota Motor Corp. deepened Thursday as the company said its large-scale recall, stemming from a faulty accelerator pedal problem, would spread to Europe and China.

The geographic reach and size of Toyota's recall has grown dramatically in recent days, raising questions about how many of its vehicles around the world are equipped with the defective accelerator pedal.---...More

Chinese News-Ban on eating cats and dogs

China - Chinese legal experts are proposing a ban on eating dogs and cats in a contentious move to end a culinary tradition dating back thousands of years. In ancient times, dog meat was considered a medicinal tonic. Today, it is commonly available throughout the country, but particularly in the north where dog stew is popular for its supposed warming qualities.More

China puts a stop to snake-bitten cock-in-a-pot

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese health authorities are putting a stop to restaurants serving chickens which have been bitten to death by poisonous snakes and cooked up for a supposedly detoxing meal.

The dish, served by a small number of eateries in the southern province of Guangdong and the south-western city of Chongqing, has generated a storm of publicity and controversy in the Chinese media and amongst bloggers.

A video showing a cook holding a snake and forcing it to bite a live chicken until it dies has been widely circulated online, (http:/you.video.sina.com.cn/b/21145091-1405053100.html) generating mainly angry comments.

"It's disgusting and really cruel," wrote one poster on the popular portal sina.com.cn.

"Not only is it cruel and blood-thirsty, but totally amoral," the Chongqing Business Daily cited a neighbour to one of the restaurants as saying.

Health authorities in Guangdong have already told restaurants to stop serving "poisonous snake-bitten chicken" and now those in Chongqing have joined in.

"Although nobody has been poisoned, this at the very least is an irregular way of slaughtering poultry," the business newspaper quoted a local health official as saying.

One dish, prized among some in Guangdong, is monkey brains scooped from a live animal, which has regularly upset animal rights campaigners in the West.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Nick Macfie; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Stupid News-No butts: China orders officials to smoke

BEIJING (AFP) – Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported.

The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.

"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.

China has 350 million smokers, of whom a million die of smoking-related diseases every year.

More than half of all male doctors in China smoke, but the government is now trying harder to get them to kick the habit in order to set an example for others, state media reported recently.

China launches campaign to break sex taboos

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Sunday launched a national sex education campaign aimed at breaking traditional taboos and getting more people to seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infertility.

Just seven percent of women and slightly more than eight percent of men seek immediate medical help for sexual problems, while more a third of people never seek help, said one of the campaign's advisors.

"These numbers are shocking," Xia Enlan, head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department of the Capital University of Sciences' Fuxing Hospital, told a news conference.

"The numbers who get medical attention for sexual problems are extremely small," she added. "This delays treatment for some very serious diseases."

The campaign, called "The sunshine project to care for gender health," will feature posters, competitions and sponsorship of an international sex toy fair in Beijing, organisers said, in a bid to breach "painful topics" of sex.

It will be fronted by Hong Kong starlet Yvonne Yung and her husband Will Liu, who will be the campaign's "image ambassadors."

"Sexual health is an important part of family life and good for helping build a harmonious society," said Cui Yandi of the China Woman and Child Development Centre, one of the programme's main sponsors.

China reported a one-fifth rise in syphilis last year, with a total of 257,474 cases, according to the Health Ministry, though gonorrhoea cases dropped by a tenth.

HIV/AIDS in China is also now mainly sexually transmitted. In the past, most infections were caused by intravenous drug use.

By the end of 2007, China had an estimated 700,000 people infected with HIV, up from an earlier estimate of 650,000, but is believed to have many unreported cases.

While the government has rolled out a television campaign to promote condom use, a major move for a country where talking about sex is problematic for many people, Xia said traditional shyness about discussing sex remains a huge issue.

"It's taboo. The influence of feudalistic thinking has been around for many years. People are not very open," she told Reuters.

"People need to talk about it now that the economy has been growing so fast and we're becoming more and more open," Xia said.

"The traditional way of thinking has not been broken," she added. "We need more publicity, and to talk about these issues in the open. That's why we need this campaign."(Editing by Valerie Lee)
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Warner Bros blacks out "Dark Knight" from China

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Warner Bros studio said on Wednesday it has canceled plans to release its blockbuster Batman movie "The Dark Knight" in China, citing "cultural sensitivities" surrounding the film.

The studio, a unit of Time Warner Inc, did not specify what Chinese audiences or censors might find objectionable about the movie.

"Based on a number of pre-release conditions that are being attached to 'The Dark Knight,' as well as cultural sensitivities to some elements of the film, we have opted to forego a theatrical release of the film in China," Warner Bros said in a statement.

The film includes a sequence in which Batman, the movie's comic book superhero played by Christian Bale, penetrates a criminal mastermind's skyscraper redoubt in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

"The Dark Knight," which was released in July, is the top-grossing film of the year with more than $996 million in worldwide ticket sales, including over $7.5 million in Hong Kong, according to the website Box Office Mojo.

The film also has earned the late Australian actor Heath Ledger a Golden Globe nomination for his final role as Batman's maniacally evil foe, the Joker.

Stupid News:China farmer sentenced for faked rare tiger photos

BEIJING - A Chinese farmer who claimed to have taken photos of a rare tiger was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Saturday for faking the pictures, a court official and state media said
Zhou Zhenglong was tried for fraud in Xunyang County People's Court in Shaanxi province Saturday morning and was sentenced a little over five hours later, the Xinhua News Agency said.

More...
An official who answered the telephone at the court said in addition to the prison sentence, Zhou was also fined $290. She refused to give her name or any other details.

According to official media accounts, Zhou, aged 54, heard that a reward of about $146,000 had been offered to anyone who found an endangered South China tiger in the wild, where one had not been seen for more than 20 years.

Last October, he emerged from the woods in Shaanxi with his claim of a tiger sighting, plus dozens of digital photos. The provincial forestry department rewarded him with $2,900.

While first intrigued, China's online community quickly exposed the animal as a paper tiger — an old poster propped up among the trees — because it was too shiny and did not change its position no matter where it was snapped.

The public called for an official investigation when someone produced an old poster with a photo that looked strikingly like Zhou's tiger and posted it online.

Police arrested him after seizing the old tiger poster, which Zhou allegedly borrowed from a farmer in another village, Xinhua said. They also found a wooden model of a tiger claw that Zhou allegedly used to fake a paw print in the snow, it said.

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Odd News:World's shortest man, leggiest woman meet

LONDON - Trafalgar Square routinely serves as a stage for mimes, jugglers and other acts, but the tourist attraction drew an exceptionally curious crowd Tuesday when the shortest man who can walk met the woman with the longest legs.
He Pingping, of China, was born with a type of dwarfism. He, 20, stands precisely 2 feet 5.37 inches tall.


The pair met to publicize the release of "Guinness World Records 2009." This year's version of the popular book is due out Wednesday.

He called Svetlana Pankratova's legs "very beautiful."


Pankratova, 36, who is Russian but lives in Spain, has legs that are nearly 52 inches long, or more than 4 feet long. Her upper body has nearly typical proportions, giving her a giraffe-like appearance.


At just over 6-foot-4, Pankratova isn't the tallest woman on record. Sandy Allen, of Shelbyville, Indiana, who died recently, held that title at 7 feet, 7 inches, according to the book. The book said He is the shortest man who can walk.
....article

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il Died in 2003 - His role is played by a double

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il Died in 2003 - His role is played by a double

North Korea - Is Kim Jong Il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years, but a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead — and his role is played by a double. The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders, including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China, have been negotiating with an imposter. He believes that Kim, fearing assassination, had groomed up to four look-alikes to act as substitutes at public events.



Japanese Expert: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il Died in 2003
FOX NEWS...

Odd News-Japan says no word from China on dumpling poisoning

Odd News-Japan says no word from China on dumpling poisoning

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Foreign Ministry denied on Saturday media reports that Beijing had for the first time acknowledged that pesticide-laced dumplings -- at the heart of a bilateral row -- had probably been contaminated in China.

Japanese media, including NHK public television, said China had told Japan an individual working with the factory that produced the poisoned dumplings was probably to blame for causing food poisoning in China in June.

The daily Yomiuri Shimbun evening edition said Beijing was also looking into the possibility that the exported dumplings, which had caused 10 Japanese to become sick in December and January, had also been contaminated in China.

Japan and China have long been at odds over where the dumplings were contaminated, with both denying sabotage in their countries.

The media reports said the individual had contaminated the dumplings "for personal reasons".

"The Japanese government has not received such information from the Chinese government," the ministry said in a faxed statement.

Foreign Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

The poisoning case has long been a headache for Japan's unpopular Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who came under fire for taking too long to alert the public after the first consumer fell ill in late December.

(Reporting by Miho Yoshikawa; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Crazy News-Cash-for-corpse murders probed in China

Crazy News-Cash-for-corpse murders probed in China

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese police have arrested members of a gang suspected of murdering more than 100 disabled or elderly people and selling their corpses in a bizarre scheme to avoid cremations, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

Burials have traditionally been seen as the most respectful way to handle the dead in China, but were discouraged after the Communists came to power in 1949 to conserve farmland and eradicate superstition.

The bodies were bought by wealthy families and sent for cremation in lieu of deceased relatives who were then secretly buried, the South China Morning Post reported.

The killers would trail their victims, usually mentally disabled or elderly people, "drag them into vehicles in remote areas and either strangle or poison them", the newspaper said.

An unnamed police officer from Puning, in southern Guangdong province, said about seven suspects were arrested three weeks ago when police discovered the gang while investigating a homicide, the Post said.

Corpses would sell for 10,000 yuan (818 pounds) each, it said, without specifying the charges against those being held.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Nick Macfie)

The Bejing "Water Cube" and its green "bubble-wrap" technology

The Bejing "Water Cube" and its green "bubble-wrap" technology

The Bejing National Aquatics Center has been the centerpiece of this year's Olympic games, but it isn't only because of Michael Phelp's unbelievable 8-gold-medal-winning performance.

It's the bubbles.

Although it may be visually stunning to the many visitors worldwide (especially at night), the Water Cube's bubbly exterior showcases some of the latest in green technology that is currently being used to save significant amounts of energy.

Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) is a light-weight polymer foil, around 250-microns thick, that is stretched thin and then folded to create giant air pockets that let light pass through while trapping and storing heat. 3,000 of these air bubbles have been created (roughly 30 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep in the center) and are organized into three layers for use in the walls of the Bejing National Aquatics Center.

"It is like very sophisticated bubble wrap," said Annette LeCuyer, an architecture professor at the University at Buffalo (via LiveScience.com). "What you end up with is a very thick wall that is mostly made of air," LeCuyer said. "It acts like a duvet blanket."

So where do we find the energy savings? According to Vector Foiltec, a glass building would take 200 times more energy to fabricate and construct when compared to an EFTE building. Additionally, according to LeCuyer, the "bubble wrap" provides the same amount of insulation as two layers of triple-glaze glass. LeCuyer adds that a glass building would cost twice as much to construct, due to the extra framework required to support the much heavier glass.

Other advantages over standard glass is that it is fire-resistant and also shatter-proof, and since it is non-stick, dirt, dust, and other foreign elements can be easily washed away with rain.


So what's next for EFTE? A sports stadium, leisure parks, and apparently a giant indoor Amazonian rainforest in Iowa are currently in the works. With all the advantages and unique design implementations that EFTE has to offer, expect this new green technology to have a very bright future in the coming years.

Source: LiveScience.com - How Bubble Wrap Could Power the Future

Hot Chinese Cheerleaders-Lucky and Yo-Yo

Hot Chinese Cheerleaders-Lucky and Yo-Yo

BEIJING (Reuters) – Gum-chewing cheerleaders baring pierced belly buttons, blaring rap music and giant inflatable mascots -- the once unthinkable in China now makes basketball an Olympic hot ticket.

Dancing girls with names like "Lucky" and "Yo-Yo" also shake their thing during breaks in the action, but what do older spectators make of all the naked flesh and near-deafening music?

"They brighten things up," Niu Peigen, a 69-year-old retired local government official from the north-eastern city of Dalian, said as a tune from American rapper Kanye West boomed out.

"They create a good atmosphere. It's only in the last few years we've seen things like this," said Niu.

No one in the 18,000-strong, popcorn-munching crowd, even those who thought the costumes were a little skimpy, seemed to disapprove of this NBA-style razzmatazz in today's China.

"Some of them are wearing a bit too little maybe, but I can accept it," said 53-year-old Beijing accountant Li Shuqin.

"I think we're quite open now. This sort of thing is normal now on TV," said Li.

The dancers pointed out they were not around when Chinese authorities would have frowned on them waving pom-poms with little to cover their modesty.

"I'm only 19 so I don't know what it was like then," said Yo-Yo.

"At first I couldn't imagine dancing in front of so many people. I'm normally quite shy but when I dance I get a bit crazy. You have to."

The razzmatazz has also helped basketball give beach volleyball a run for its money as a darling of the Games for television viewers.

Mascot figures in enormous blow-up suits are another big hit at the basketball, where crowd noise has been measured at 110 decibels or the equivalent of a jet aircraft taking off at 200 yards (metres).

Leading NBA players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have joined Chinese fans in doubling up with laughter at the antics of the mascot figures who bump into each other and fall over a lot.

"We just try to do cute things to make people laugh. It's a great feeling to be able to do that," 21-year-old Gao Qijia said before climbing into a huge inflatable suit.

Yo-Yo said: "If you feel your clothes coming loose or your bra slipping it can be a bit scary. But you can't panic or at least let it show."

(Additional reporting by Jason Subler; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

An Attack On U.S. Citizens In China - Relative of U.S. coach killed in Beijing attack

An Attack On U.S. Citizens In China - Relative of U.S. coach killed in Beijing attack

Sad news today at the Olympic Games in China.

Relative of U.S. coach killed in Beijing attack
One other American, local guide also injured by knife-wielding Chinese man
updated 4 minutes ago
BEIJING - A knife-wielding Chinese man attacked two relatives of a coach for the U.S. Olympic men’s volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing, killing one and injuring the other on the first day of the Olympics on Saturday, team officials and state media said.

The man then committed suicide by throwing himself from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower just five miles from the main Olympics site.

The brutal attack shortly after midday was all the more shocking because of the rarity of violent crime against foreigners in tightly controlled China, which has ramped up security measures even more for the Olympics.

Team ‘saddened and shocked’
The stabbing came only hours after what by many accounts was the most spectacular opening ceremony in Olympic history and it has already dampened some of the enthusiasm.

“They are deeply saddened and shocked,” Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said of the volleyball team.

The U.S. Olympic Committee said in a statement that two family members of a coach for the men’s indoor volleyball team were stabbed at the Drum Tower “during an attack by what local law enforcement authorities have indicated was a lone assailant.”

One of the family members was killed and the other was seriously injured, it said, without giving details.

The official Xinhua News Agency identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, 47, from the eastern city of Hangzhou. It said Tang attacked the two Americans and their Chinese tour guide, who was also injured, at 12:20 p.m. on the second level of the ancient tower, then leapt to his death immediately afterward. The second level of the tower is about 130 feet high.

Victims not wearing U.S. apparel
Seibel said the two Americans who were attacked were not wearing anything that would have identified them as Americans or part of the U.S. team. He could not name the coach.

“They were not wearing apparel or anything that would have specifically identified them as being members of our delegation” or as Americans, he told The Associated Press.

He said it is “too early to say” whether the U.S. delegation or athletes will require additional security.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan said it was aware of an incident involving two Americans and was working with Chinese authorities to find out more. He said U.S. officials were in contact with relatives of the two Americans who are in Beijing.

“Out of respect for the families involved, we can’t say more than that,” Don Q. Washington, another embassy spokesman, told reporters.

Police blocked off streets leading to the Drum Tower immediately after the attack and cordoned off the area with yellow police tape. Security officers were examining the scene on the tower and below.

Attacks on foreigners in China are extremely rare. A Canadian model was murdered last month in Shanghai, but police said that was because she stumbled onto a burglary.

In March, a screaming, bomb-strapped hostage-taker who commandeered a bus with 10 Australians aboard in the popular tourist city of Xi’an was shot to death by a police sniper.

Still relatively safe
Shanghai and Beijing are still safer than most foreign cities of their size. Punishments for crimes against foreigners are heavier than for crimes against Chinese, and police-linked neighborhood watch groups are highly vigilant. Chinese are not allowed to own guns.

Even so, the U.S. government now warns Americans against muggings, beatings and even carjackings, especially in the nightlife and shopping districts of large cities.

Built in the 13th century, the Drum Tower is one of the few ancient structures still in Beijing, and was used to tell time in imperial China for the city, using drummers who pounded their instruments to mark the hours. It is located on an important central axis of the city, to the north of the Forbidden City, the former home of the emperor.

The White House said President Bush, who is in Beijing for the opening days of the games, was informed of the incident, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims. It said the administration and the Beijing U.S. embassy have offered those families any assistance they need. Also, U.S. officials have been speaking to Chinese authorities about the incident.

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said in a statement that the committee had received reports of the attack and was in contact with Beijing Games organizers “to find out full details, and are ready to provide whatever assistance we can.”

Not Funny News - Attackers in western China kill 16 border officers

Attackers in western China kill 16 border officers
By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Aug 4, 9:43 AM ET



BEIJING - Two men rammed a truck into a group of jogging policemen and tossed explosives, killing 16 officers Monday in an attack in a restive province of western China just days before the Beijing Olympics, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Though it happened on the far side of the country — near the Afghan-Pakistan border — the attack came as security forces were on alert for the Games, which open Friday. It was among the deadliest and most brazen attacks in years in Xinjiang province, site of a sporadically violent rebellion by local Muslims against Chinese rule.

About 20 people upset at having been evicted from their homes staged a brief demonstration near Tiananmen Square, Beijing's heavily guarded political center. Uniformed police quickly surrounded the group until members of a neighborhood committee came and pulled the protesters away, scuffling with some.

In the Xinjiang attack, the two men drove a dump truck into the group of border patrol police officers as they passed the Yiquan Hotel during a routine 8 a.m. jog in the city of Kashgar, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

After the truck hit an electrical pole, the pair jumped out, ignited homemade explosives and "also hacked the policemen with knives," Xinhua said.

Fourteen died on the spot and two others en route to a hospital, and at least 16 officers were wounded, Xinhua said.

Police arrested the two attackers, one of whom was injured in the leg, the report said.

Authorities closed off streets, sealed the Nationalities Hospital down the street from the explosion, and ordered people to stay inside, said a man answering phones at the hospital duty office.

Local government officials declined comment Monday. An officer in the district police department said an investigation was launched.

Kashgar, or Kashi in Chinese, is a tourist city that was once an oasis trading center on the Silk Road caravan routes and lies 80 miles from the border with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. Its mountainous, remote environs have allegedly provided cover for terrorist training camps, one of which Chinese police raided early last year.

Chinese security forces have been on edge for months, citing a number of foiled plots by Muslim separatists and a series of bombings around China in the run-up to the Olympics. Last week, a senior military commander said radical Muslims who are fighting for what they call an independent East Turkistan in Xinjiang posed the single greatest threat to the games.

A spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee said he did not have enough information to comment on the bombings. But he said security arrangements were being increased around the Olympic venues.

"We've made preparations for all possible threats," the spokesman, Sun Weide, told reporters. "We believe, with the support of the government, with the help of the international community, we have the confidence and the ability to host a safe and secure Olympic Games."

A Chinese counterterrorism expert, Li Wei of the China Institute for Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, said the attack was likely the work of local sympathizers, rather than trained terrorists who sneaked across the border into China.

Xinhua said that Xinjiang's police department earlier received intelligence reports about possible terrorist attacks between Aug. 1 and 8 by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. The movement is the name of a group that China and the U.S. say is a terrorist organization, but Chinese authorities often use the label for a broad number of violent separatist groups.

In Xinjiang, a local Turkic Muslim people, the Uighurs (WEE'-gurs), have chafed under Chinese rule, fully imposed after the communists took power nearly 60 years ago. Occasionally violent attacks in the 1990s brought an intense response from Beijing, which has stationed crack paramilitary units in the area and clamped down on unregistered mosques and religious schools that officials said were inciting militant action.

Uighurs have complained that the suppression has aggravated tensions in Xinjiang, making Uighurs feel even more threatened by an influx of Chinese and driving some to flee to Pakistan and other areas where they then have readier access to extremist ideologies.

One militant group, the Turkistan Islamic Party, pledged in a video that surfaced on the Internet last month to "target the most critical points related to the Olympics." The group is believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, with some of its core members having received training from al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban, according to terrorism experts.

Terrorism analysts and Chinese authorities, however, have said that with more than 100,000 soldiers and police guarding Beijing and other Olympic co-host cities, terrorists were more likely to attack less-protected areas.

Odd News - Athletes bare all for advertising campaign

Odd News - Athletes bare all for advertising campaign

LONDON (Reuters) - Some of Britain's top athletes have decided to bare all ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Triple jumper Phillips Idowu, cyclist Rebecca Romero and swimmer Gregor Tait have all been photographed taking part in their individual sports stark naked as part of an advertising campaign for a sports drink.

"Everyone is used to seeing athletes in competition or winning, but we wanted to give people the chance to see the real make-up of an athlete and their muscle and power," said Cathryn Sleight, marketing director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, which launched the Powerade campaign.

Idowu said the photo shoot was "definitely one of the more unusual shoots I've taken part in, but also one of the most enjoyable."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

(For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" at http://www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics; and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china )

Stupid News - Dog meat off the menu during Beijing Olympics

Stupid News - Dog meat off the menu during Beijing Olympics

BEIJING - Canine cuisine is being sent to the doghouse during next month's Beijing Olympic Games.

Dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Waiters and waitresses should "patiently" suggest other options to diners who order dog, it said, quoting city tourism bureau Vice Director Xiong Yumei.

Dog, known in Chinese as "xiangrou," or "fragrant meat," is eaten by some Chinese for its purported health-giving qualities.

Beijing isn't the first Olympic host to slap a ban on the dish.

South Korea banned dog meat during the 1988 Seoul Olympics by invoking a law prohibiting the sale of "foods deemed unsightly." After the Olympics, the ban was not strictly enforced.

Dog meat is also eaten in some other Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos.