BEIJING – China is greeting the financial crisis with a sense of alarm.

“The economic crisis has arrived, are you ready?” asked one Chinese blogger recently.

It was one of the many tell-tale signs that the tumult is beginning to touch China’s once booming economy.

While Beijing has recently responded with a massive stimulus package to forestall a potential crisis, the Internet is abuzz with ordinary folks exchanging inventive tips to cope with the challenges ahead.

Reuters

A man holds a baby as he sits in front of a poster begging for work on a walkway bridge above a main road in Beijing on Nov. 5, 2008.

“Drink boiled water, not bottled water, and avoid entertaining guests,” wrote one Chinese blogger in a 23-point advisory.

Another blogger called on China’s youth “not to fear empty wallets or unemployment.” 

“We are young and can start again,” he said, and went on to describe how to outsmart the economic downturn. ”Don’t ask the boss for pay raise,” he advised. “Layoffs start with those with high salaries.”
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With a major gender imbalance as a result of China’s one-child policy, bachelors get their own day. NBC’s Adrienne Mong follows John, a 30-year-old computer programmer, in his quest for love at a speed-dating event in Beijing.  

VIDEO: Checking out singles on China’s “Bachelor Day”

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BEIJING – According to the lunar calendar, it’s officially winter in China today. And although it was sunny, the wind picked up as the temperature dropped.

So spare a thought for 56-year-old Dong Jiqin, who could be evicted from his home in western Beijing and sleeping on the streets of the capital tonight.

Not because he’s just another victim of the global economic recession. If anything, he’s just the latest casualty of China’s breakneck development.

Or so it would appear.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Dong Jiqin holds up a court document.

“The demolition project here began in October 2002,” he told us and a handful of other foreign journalists shivering in the morning chill of his dilapidated courtyard home in Beijing’s Xicheng district. “Neither the government nor the developer has ever shown any certificate of legitimate right to tear down houses [here].”

Dong, who was grasping a folder of legal documents that included court summonses and court notices regarding the demolition of his home, said he had been given no information about the development plan.

“Nobody ever came to my house to discuss details. They are just trying to take my house illegally,” he said calmly. “They bought off the garbage collector, too. He told me they are coming to demolish today.”

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