Chunky monkeys put on diet

More than 200 Tibetan macaque monkeys in western China that grew fat and lazy from gorging on tourist junkfood have slimmed down after a strict 3-year diet imposed by wildlife officials. Authorities at a nature reserve in Sichuan province’s Emei mountain region launched a diet plan for the monkeys after fears they were losing their wild instincts and becoming obese.

20 million bloggers

China had 19.87 million Internet bloggers at the beginning of November -- a 24 percent increase over the past 12 months. While more than 15 percent update their blogs once a week, only 4.6 percent do it daily, Baidu.com found. Blogs devoted to medicine and education are particularly popular, stated the Xinhua news agency.

Organ transplant furore

Two major organ transplant hospitals in Queensland, Australia have banned training Chinese surgeons because of concerns that China takes organs from executed prisoners. International reports have suggested that there are 60,000 organ transplants the China Medical Organ Transplant Association recorded.

83 million disabled

A new survey has offered the clearest picture to date of the number of disabled people in China, putting the group at 83 million people, 6.34% of the total 1.3 billion population. 
People over 60 accounted for 11% of the nation’s population in 2005, rising from 8.5% in 1987.  The disability rate tends to be high among the elderly.

Makeup for Metros

Urban Chinese men spend 8.6 minutes a day gazing at themselves in the mirror and shell out 80 yuan (C$11.7) a month on beauty products, Xinhua news agency reported. Men in Beijing and the financial centre of Shanghai were neck-and-neck on whose residents were most vain. Those in the capital spent the most money.