Beijing This Month

Allowing that the Beijing public has had more than its fill of advice,negative as well as positive,on the SARS problem,there is little point in my pontificating further.Suffice to say that we carry some excellent medical advice on other pages,along with a plea for people to start applying more commonsense to the disease rather than passing on rumors largely lacking in accuracy and substance. Along with everyone else,we can but express our deepest sympathy to those who have lost family and friends,and remain fervent in our hope that science will come up with a genuine cure for this very nasty virus .Our spcial sympathy goes to the loved ones of that they were likely to become infected,and who ultimately paid for their courage with their lives. if we feel any comfort at all,it is over the traditional resilience of the Chinese people. Yes,they remain confused for the moment,but one can virtually guarantee that rhey will get through the SARS epidemic with the same gutsy spirit demonstrated on so many threatening occasions in the past. We too have been economically affected by fall-out from the virus,hence this issue's reduced number of pages.We trust you will bear with us until the situation rights itself,meanwhile enjoying the pages we are able to produce.You will find all our regular features,plus a profile of a highly successful non-profit community organization;a particularly humorous update from the two laowao New Long Marchers;a disturbing Yesteryear Beijing article by Italian author/journalist Adriano Màdaro and much else to keep you informed amused and generally au fait with our city.