One to bookmark: Baidu Beat

For any China nerd, this is a blog to bookmark

For example, this is one of the top ten search results today: "qiang xing qu shen" (强行取肾) refers to a young man in Hunan who had his kidney forcibly removed by criminals. The classic, and sordid, urban legend is retold in today's China.

And early last week, a "list of uncivilized civilians" or "bu wenming shimin" (不文明市民) made it to the top of Baidu's real-time search results. Officials in Wuhan turned to naming and shaming bad drivers, jaywalkers and litterbugs to crackdown on bad behavior. Unsurprisingly, the move generated much online debate.

Baidu Beat also keeps an eye on new phrases coined by China's Netizens. For example, "ni dong de" (你懂的). It translates as "you know it" and is used to indicate something better left unsaid be it something between friends or a sensitive political issue. Net meme hipsters take note - "ni dong de" scored as Baidu's top new Internet phrase of last year.