The first ever World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) opened last Friday (Oct 3) in Beijing, China, and will run until October 18.
3,000 participants from over 150 countries are competing for 35 gold medals in five events… bridge, chess, draughts, Go and Chinese chess. The events are a mixed variety of popular board and card games from the East and West [more on BBC]

The historical first gold medal is won by Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia on Sunday in women’s chess individual blitz (image via
WMSG 2008’s website)
Hong Kong pop star Kelly Chen finally tied her knots with her long term boyfriend Alex Lau after 16-years into relationship. The couple held their wedding ceremony at InterContinental Hong Kong Hotel on Thursday (Oct 2).

The newly weds, with Victoria Harbour as the backdrop (Image via
Sina)
Congratulations, and best wishes.
New Zealander Robert Thompson set out from Leysin, Switzerland on June 24, 2007 and embarked on a 12,159km journey of solo and unsupported trek by skateboard through Europe, USA, and across China.
His journey was completed in Shanghai on September 28, 2008 [via Shanghaiist]
Rob has unofficially broken the Guinness World Record for the ‘longest journey by skateboard’ currently hold by by Dave Cornthwaite with a distance of 5,823km. Rob’s attempt has been submitted to Guinness and is currently under evaluation.
Video below is a summary of his final 1,200km journey from Xixia to Shanghai; which kinda reminds me of Chinese movie “Getting Home”…
“Eat You Up” is a dance hit by Angie Gold which was hugely popular in 1980s especially in Asia because of the covers by Japanese pop star Yōko Oginome and Hong Kong star Priscilla Chan.
I never knew the song title though… happened to bound in to this music video while searching about Korean pop star BoA’s American debut with a song of the same title.
Sharing all three music videos below (from Angie, Yoko and Priscilla); pretty catchy song and some ‘interesting’ 80s’ fashions and dance moves…
Angie Gold - Eat You Up
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Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow is going to direct and star in the movie version of “The Green Hornet”, announced Columbia Pictures.
Canadian comedian Seth Rogen will co-write the movie and star as the main character; and Stephen Chow will star as Kato, Green Hornet’s sidekick which was played by legendary martial arts star Bruce Lee in the TV adaptation in 1960s.

The Green Hornet and Kato, played by Van Williams and Bruce Lee in 1960s TV series
It’s said that the movie will be more comedic than the original versions (comic, radio and TV)… but I have doubts over the making of this movie regardless. It just doesn’t click for me, and I don’t think the young generations could relate to the characters.
The Green Hornet is scheduled to premier in Summer 2010.
The Beijing Paralympic Games has started and ended rather quietly compared to the Beijing Olympic Games. Didn’t manage to catch anything live… as said earlier, the media coverage was really poor for this event, which was a pity because I am sure there were lots of wonderful moments throughout the Paralympics…

A referee helping a soccer player with his shoestrings (Image from
Xinhuanet)
I have been following the Chinese news on the event, and it seems like the Paralympic Games have been very well ran as well… kudos to the Chinese organisers for that. Hope that it will be another great event in London 2012, and hope that the international media will give more attention next time.
“The Assembly”, a warfare movie by Chinese director Feng Xiaogang became the biggest winner at the 29th Full Blossom Awards presented on Saturday (Sept 13) in the City of Dalian, China.
The Assembly won the best movie, best director, best leading actor (Zhang Hanyu) and best supporting actor awards (Deng Chao).
The best actress and supporting actress awards are won by Li Bingbing and Taiwanese veteran Gua Ah Leh respectively with movie “The Knot”.

Best actor and actress Zhang Hanyu and Li Bingbing (Image from
Xinhuanet)
The Sanlu brand’s contaminated milk formula has caused four infants’ deaths in China and the number of infants diagnosed with kidney stones or other problems after consuming the Sanlu milk has hit 6200 mark, with 158 of them suffering acute kidney failure. (Last updated September 19, 2008)
Chinese authorities have arrested 19 people since the scandal was exposed last week. Two brothers who run a milk collection centre in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, have admitted that they added melamine into the milk they supplied to Sanlu.
The brothers began mixing their milk with melamine in late 2007 to pass Sanlu’s quality test after their supplies were rejected a few times by the company and resulted in huge losses. Melamine is a chemical which is often used in plastic industry; reports suggested that it could make the milk appeared rich in protein.
Sanlu might escaped the blame for causing the contamination, but the public is questioning their slow response. New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group, which owns 43% of Sanlu Group, stated on Sunday that it has urged the Chinese company to recall since early August 2008.
Chinese news also reported that the first Sanlu related kidney stone case was discovered in early March 2008; while some reports quoted from a high rank government officer in Hebei province said that Sanlu knew about the use of melamine in its milk as early as 2005.
The scandal has rocked Chinese food safety concern yet again. In 2004, at least 13 babies died in Anhui province after drinking fake milk powder.
Update (Sept 17) - melamine found in more milk… 22 products from various dairy food firms are found contaminated by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).