High-Tech’s Crucial Rare Earth Elements Are Already Running Low

Rare earth minerals are used to make smartphones, flat-screen televisions, drills, electric vehicles, compact florescent bulbs, wind turbines, and military equipment. But now China, the world’s nearly-sole provider of rare earth elements, is warning that modern lust for high-tech toys and tools has caused the supply of these materials to plummet. According the a recent official [...]
June 22, 2012 | By Colin Schultz

The Arc of History is Long, But it Bends Toward Asian Economic Dominance

Derek Thompson from The Atlantic manages to present 2,000 years of economic history in 5 paragraphs plus a colorful little graph by Michael Cembalest, an analyst at JP Morgan. In Year 1, India and China were home to one-third and one-quarter of the world’s population, respectively. It’s hardly surprising, then, that they also commanded one-third and [...]
June 21, 2012 | By Rachel Nuwer

China’s First Woman Astronaut: Progress or Propaganda?

At 2:30 am GMT on Monday, June 18, the Chinese spaceship Shenzhou-9 docked with the Tiangong-1 orbital space lab, the first time ever with a crew. Aboard the spacecraft was 33-year-old Liu Yang, the first female Chinese astronaut—or taikonaut—in space. The mission was only China’s fourth manned flight. The country’s space program got off to a [...]
June 18, 2012 | By Colin Schultz

Shanghai Gets Supersized

Boasting 200 skyscrapers, China's financial capital has grown like no other city on earth – and shows few signs of stopping
November 2011 | By David Devoss with additional reporting by Lauren Hilgers

A Buddhist Monk Saves One of the World's Rarest Birds

High in the Himalayas, the Tibetan bunting is getting help from a very special friend
October 2011 | By Phil McKenna

Presenting China's Last Empress Dowager

The early 20th-century photograph of Empress Dowager Cixi captures political spin, Qing dynasty-style
October 2011 | By Owen Edwards

Connie Sweeris, Ping-Pong Diplomat

A 1971 table tennis competition between the U.S. and China laid the groundwork for a foreign relations breakthrough
March 21, 2011 | By Jeff Campagna

Dinosaurs' Living Descendants

China's spectacular feathered fossils have finally answered the century-old question about the ancestors of today's birds
December 2010 | By Richard Stone

Shanghai’s European Suburbs

Chinese urban planners are building new towns with a foreign flair, each mimicking architecture from Europe’s storied cities
June 10, 2010 | By Rachel Kaufman

The Great British Tea Heist

Botanist Robert Fortune traveled to China and stole trade secrets of the tea industry, discovering a fraud in the process
March 09, 2010 | By Sarah Rose

Demolishing Kashgar's History

A vital stop on China's ancient Silk Road, the Uighur city of Kashgar may lose its old quarter to plans for "progress"
March 2010 | By Joshua Hammer

Tai Shan Will Return to China

The panda who has the distinction of being the first surviving cub born at the National Zoo will be returning to China
December 04, 2009 | By Jesse Rhodes

Terra Cotta Soldiers on the March

A traveling exhibition of China's terra cotta warriors sheds new light on the ruler whose tomb they guarded
July 2009 | By Arthur Lubow

The Legends Behind the Dragon Boat Festival

Celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, Duanwu Jie honors storied history with culinary treats
May 15, 2009 | By Jeninne Lee-St. John

Dancing for Mao

A photograph of a 5-year-old girl made her famous in China—and haunted the man who took it
May 2009 | By Jennifer Lin

Endangered Site: Xumishan Grottoes, China

This collection of ancient Buddhist cave temples date back to the fifth and tenth centuries, A.D.
March 2009 | By Lyn Garrity

Mao Zedong: King of Kitsch

With Mao-abilia everywhere, the "Great Helmsman" may have done more for the Chinese people in death than in life
March 2009 | By Bill Brubaker

Macau Hits the Jackpot

In just four years, this 11-square-mile outpost on the coast of China eclipsed Las Vegas as gambling's world capital
September 2008 | By David Devoss

The Great Wall of China Is Under Siege

China’s ancient 4,000-mile barrier, built to defend the country against invaders, is under renewed attack
August 2008 | By Brook Larmer

A Yankee in China

William Lindesay follows the trail of forgotten traveler, William Edgar Geil, the first man to traverse the Great Wall of China.
August 01, 2008 | By Megan Gambino

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