Photo: [Tom Caswell's photostream]

• OK, so it's not exactly common to see the phrases "environmental protection" and "five-year plan" in the same sentence. But China's gotta start somewhere, right? Not only are government officials striving to increase the breadth of across-the-board greening programs (the Vice Minister of MEP, Zhang Lijun, was quoted as saying that “the two pollutant control programs that [China] relies on are not enough.”), but also on measures to expand transparency, like a website where the environmental quality of more than 100 cities can be viewed - and is updated daily. [Greenlaw]
• Execution: it's not just for mentally-ill drug smugglers anymore. Lu Jun, a former World Cup referee, is facing the death penalty over allegations that he fixed, among others, a match between South Korea and Japan in 2002. World Cup officials have vowed to make the process of referee selection more "independent" and plan to send their 200 current refs to somewhere called "Anti-corruption Rectification Education Camp." Sounds fun! Yahoo! UK & Ireland Sport]

• Ever heard of China's plans to construct a 17-nation, 16,000-mile long rail network? As it turns out, you might not be missing anything. Adding to the fact that several of the countries involved use rails that are incompatible with Chinese ones, China has on its shoulders the obligation of proving the might-be railroad's economic viability - beyond the fact that its "pay with natural resources" financing method is being labeled by some as a means of colonization. [The Atlantic]
• Rule number one of Chinese business: don't set up a business in Guangdong. Despite its pre-eminence as a hub for factories here in China (the World's hub for factories as an entity), it's expensive, oversaturated and actually short of workers. Instead, try Tianjin, Hangzhou or Ningbo, which are developed enough to support legitimate business - but undeveloped enough to support said businesses operating. [China Law Blog]
• Gizmodo has today taught us two things: Google's mantra is apparently "don't be evil" and one of its VP's was quoted as saying "figuring out how to deal with China has been a difficult exercise" - in 2006, when G.cn was set up. With Google just days away from trying not to let China's proverbial door hit its ass on the way out, we'll let you figure out the irony here. [Gizmodo]
• Got an income of 180 kuai per month? Don't abandon your dreams of Chinese home ownership yet - at least not in Shenzhen. As it turns out, you can get a used cargo container to sleep in for as cheap as six yuan per day. Call to inquire about agent fees. [China Hush]
• Despite trailing the U.S. nearly one to ten in terms of gross revenue, China's the world's second-largest film market. Not surprising, given our population, right? Apparently, members of China's largest motion picture association seem to credit this fact to the Chinese film industry. We're sure this has nothing to do with the most popular movie in the world being forcibly banned from screens prior to the release of the amazing Confucius movie. [China Daily]