China’s Ding Ning reacts after winning a point against South Korea’s Kim Kyungah in the women’s semifinal table tennis match between China and South Korea on Aug. 6.

dendroica:

The head of a Buddha statue peeks above the dirt in Handan, China, where archaeologists have reportedly unearthed nearly 3,000 Buddha statues, which could be up to 1,500 years old.

The discovery is believed to be the largest of its kind since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, an archaeologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told reporters in late March, according to the Associated Press.

The Buddha statues—most of which are made of white marble and limestone and many of which are broken—could date back to the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties (A.D. 534 to 577), experts say.

The statues—discovered during a dig outside of Ye, the ancient capital of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties—may have been rounded up and buried after the fall of the Northern Qi dynasty by later emperors in an attempt to purge the country of Buddhism.

(via Pictures: 3,000 Ancient Buddhas Unearthed in China)

A cleaner rappelled down the side of a newly renovated building in central Beijing.

Housing prices in 100 big cities in China fell for a sixth consecutive month in February on a sequential basis, and analysts say prices could slip further as Beijing’s property tightening policy remains in place. Shown, residential buildings in Qingdao, Shandong province.

A villager irrigated a crop in Honghe, Yunnan province, China, Sunday. Local residents are taking a variety of measures to fight against a severe drought.

architizer:

4 years after the earthquake, Sichuan school children receive a miniature city to call their own.

A plane flew through polluted skies near a fence at a Beijing airport.

Monks prayed at Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, Gansu Province, China.

A young monk watched an elder monk as they prepared to pray Tuesday at the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, Gansu Province, China, ahead of the Tibetan New Year.

theatlantic:

In Focus: Rising Protests in China

A wounded villager from Wukan is seen after a riot with the police the day earlier in Lufeng, a city of 1.7 million, in the southern Chinese Guangdong province, on September 23, 2011. Hundreds of villagers in southern China protested on Friday over a government seizure of land, the latest outbreak of trouble in Guangdong province that illustrates growing public anger at the practice of land grabs.

See more. [Image: Reuters]

A vendor rides his bicycle laden with heart-shaped balloons down a street in Beijing on Feb. 14. Beijing’s Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau were anticipating over 4,000 couples would be showing up at registry offices around the city to tie the knot this Valentine’s Day, which is being considered particularly auspicious as it falls in the Chinese lunar year of the dragon. (

A couple took pictures in an interactive art installation named ‘You and Me’ on Valentine’s Day in Beijing