Around China

Shandong

Pig farmer admits stealing saplings

The manager of a pig farm in Yantai has been detained on suspicion of stealing saplings worth thousands of yuan from a nearby plant nursery. The man, surnamed Xu, told police that he regretted taking the plants to spruce up his farm. Police said Xu has been ordered to return the saplings and will be punished in accordance with the law.

Jiaodong.net

Kite flier causes flight delays

A runaway at Qingdao Liuting International Airport had to be shut down for more than an hour on March 12 because of a kite. The toy was spotted flying at 150 meters above the ground at about 1:40 pm. A number of flights were delayed due to the incident and seven response vehicles were dispatched to the area to remove the kite and the person flying it.

Cnr.cn

Hunan

Thief targets college students

A man accused of stealing more than 50,000 yuan ($7,300) worth of students' property from a university in Zhuzhou has been detained. The 31-year-old, surnamed Zhou, allegedly stole cash, identity cards, diplomas and office supplies from the school, among other items. He had even answered some of the questions on the test papers that he stole, according to police.

Yangtze Evening News

Liaoning

Photo hunter prefers models

A 50-year-old in Shenyang has had his picture taken with more than 10,000 people during the past two years. The man, surnamed Zhu, is obsessed with getting his photo taken alongside models and has attended almost every fashion show and beauty contest held in the city in the recent past. He has had his photo taken with a wide variety of people, both men and women, ranging in age from 4 to 80. Zhu said he has saved all the photos on his computer because his girlfriend will not allow him to print them off to decorate his home.

Huashang Morning Post

Xinjiang

Man proposes with space rock

A man in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has proposed to his girlfriend by unveiling a 33-metric-ton meteorite in one of the city's public squares. He stood inside a heart made of rose petals and knelt before his girlfriend as a friend removed a red sheet from the piece of space debris. The man bought the meteorite for about 1 million yuan ($145,000), which he previously planned to use to buy an apartment.

China News Service

Anhui

Horse breeder strikes it rich

A farmer in Bozhou stands to make thousands of yuan after finding three large bezoars in the stomach of a dead horse. A bezoar is a hard, stony mass formed by the accumulation of matter in the stomachs of certain animals. They are highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine as it is thought that they relieve convulsions and reduce phlegm. Half a kilogram of bezoar can fetch many thousands of yuan on the domestic TCM market. The 48-year-old farmer who found the bezoars, Zhang Jisheng, has raised horses for decades.

Anhui Commercial Daily

Guangxi

Man motorizes electric bike

A man in Nanning has been fined for retrofitting a motor onto an electric bicycle and hiding the vehicle's registration plate. The motorist was stopped by police on a road in the city but attempted to flee, before being intercepted by another officer a few meters away. His vehicle had a sign attached to the front that read "a challenge to all police officers in Nanning". The police said the man was being fined for illegally modifying his vehicle and had been ordered to restore it to its original condition.

Modern Life Daily