As a non-US citizen, I'd rather see discussion and/or flag waving (of either or both camps) of American politics on this forum, than not see discussion of local politics or anything even remotely related to it.
Xiefei: "if China just signed up for the apostille system"
I have understood that it isn't so much that China wouldn't want to sign it, but various obligations that other countries would put on China in order to recognize China's apostille.
Many countries more recently signed into the convention also face some bilateral exceptions, that their apostille is not recognized by individual states.
This applies in particular to countries that could be considered to still be developing their legal and regulatory systems. China is no stranger to such hurdles.
The country would take it as quite a slap on the face, if it signed to it only to find that almost every country will not recognize it's apostille anyway.
In my case, the authentication stamps generally read as follows:
"The XXX certify that YYY whose signature and seal appear under the foregoing certificate, is authorized to issue certificates of that nature".
In my understanding authentication does therefore consider neither the physical document, nor its content, but the signature or seal on it. It authenticates the authority of the issuer, or in case of multiple steps the authority of which ever agency stamped it in the previous authentication step.
Thus my point is that an authentication step would be unnecessary bureaucracy if XXX and YYY are same. It wouldn't add anything to the chain of trust.
"your country may have what's called an "Apostille" agreement with China"
No, not the case. China is not part of the Apostille convention - maybe they have bilateral agreement with some countries, perhaps DPRK or so. Not mine.
But it still looks like in your case the Dept. of State correctly refused to authenticate their own documents for you.
I mean, they could, and maybe have in past, but isn't it a bit like myself authenticating some document that I myself make up - doesn't make it any more real, in eyes of Chinese consulate.
But maybe your grief is solely with the guy who was mistaken/lied about new CRBAs being possible to authenticate by Dept. of State?
I read your longer reply, and I think I understand what you wrote. I'm not from USA, so I can only try to reflect on it with situation in my own home country,
I still don't understand why the US agency (State Dept.) that issued the certificates would need to further authenticate the certificates that they themselves issued.
In my country, which ever agency issues a certificate of this or some other kind, plays no role in further authentication. It is always the next bigger authority - and for (equivalent of) Dept. of State there is no bigger authority, other than Chinese consulate if the documents are to be used in China.
Point of Dept. of State authenticating documents that Dept. of State issued, would be basically to confirm that they are entitled to issue them - not necessary.
If I was to request such regardless, and it happened with a a failing customer service person, I might too get replied "we don't do that" like you experienced - and they would be kind of right.
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Paying a visit to the Cool Mountain Yi
发布者Development brings changes to old rituals as well.
About two years ago I was in a funeral ceremony of a close relative-by-law deep in Changning county in eastern Baoshan prefecture.
The deceased was not really an Yi, but was written off as such in the population records. Rest of the family, as well as most of the villagers, were Yi.
New regulations from authorities state that the deceased may no longer be just buried like they were in past. Instead, they must now always be cremated. I assume this is to save valuable farmland in the mountains, and perhaps for hygiene reasons as well..
Since this cremation is done in a separate facility, it means that the deceased (and his or her left-behind spirit), who previously remained in the family house until buried, have to be taken out of the house for cremation and then returned to the house in a small coffin.
The spirits are known to have some temper, so much care is always put to making them happy.
In that specific village, this was the first case of implementing the new regulations. The ritual specialist had to establish new rituals so the spirit could safely travel outside the house and then return.
Wooden stools were lined in the courtyard, and a line was attached to them to form a kind of bridge, which the spirit could use to leave the household and then return there for further rituals. Firecrackers naturally escorted the way.
This was a variation of a case where somebody would die (accidentally for example) outside of the house. In that case, a similar pathway would be created so the spirit could return to the house for rituals, before usually returning to the mountains where the death occurred.
I was told of a spirit of a man who lives in the nearby mountainside. At that time guns were still allowed, and the poor guy fell to his death when taking a shot at a wild goat or similar animal.
On top of the mountain there are half a dozen shrines for everyone who has died in the mountains. Visitors to the mountain top are expected to kowtow to each of these shrines, or risk wrath of the spirits on their way down.
Sichuan water release devastates parts of northwest Yunnan
发布者I was going to mention that. Also If there were (even) more dams and associated buffer lakes along the river, then those (unless already full of course) could dampen the impact of this kind of natural disasters further along the stream. But that would be man vs. nature of course, at cost of nature.
Beijing approves massive Changshui International Airport expansion
发布者Since many Chinese tourists will not stay in Kunming, but head to more touristy places in Yunnan, I'm wondering how many will change plane at Changshui to get to their final destinations, and how many will take subway or other transport downtown and then to other travel nodes - like the high speed train terminal.
I'm thinking that for many the latter option would give a chance to see at least a bit of the provincial capital, and also some countryside from train or bus that they wouldn't catch from air.
Thus the question is, how rest of Kunming's transport system is up to take this expected increase in air passengers.
Bringing classic Shanghai elegance to Kunming
发布者@Montaigne: The 2pm opening time in end of the advertisement refers to opening time of the original Shanghai location. This ad does not mention opening time of the Kunming location at all, but clicking to the official event calendar entry, it seems to be at 11am.
Study: Air pollution causes loss of intelligence
发布者I would tend to think, that it is not easy to separate loss of cognitive performance caused directly by air pollution, and loss of same abilities indirectly by otherwise weakened other abilities (ranging from lung performance to worse sleep for example) arising from the same pollution.
Considering the wide range of parameters that may affect ones cognitive performance, it should be no-brainer to conclude that (one way or another) air pollution affects cognitive performance.