Saturday February 12, 2005, Beijing, Beijing, China

Ski resorts in China

As of 2005, China has more than 200 ski resorts, many of them using artificial snow. The resorts began springing up during the past decade, when there were only an estimated 500 skiers in the country.

Skiers fill the slopes at a ski resort outside of Beijing.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Saturday February 12, 2005, Beijing, Beijing, China

Ski resorts in China

As of 2005, China has more than 200 ski resorts, many of them using artificial snow. The resorts began springing up during the past decade, when there were only an estimated 500 skiers in the country.

Beginner skiers practice at a ski resort outside of Beijing.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Wednesday April 30, 2003, Beijing, China

SARS in Beijing

A bicycle rider in Tiananmen Square wear masks as protection from SARS.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Monday March 1, 2004, Beijing, Beijing, China

Daily Life in Beijing

Local Chinese punk bands play at a club.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Saturday October 2, 2004, Beijing, Beijing, China

Midi Modern Music Festival in Beijing

Fans of the heavy metal band Ritual Day scream during their performance at the Midi Modern Music Festival. The modern music festival lasted four days and attracted thousands of young chinese who screamed and danced listening to their favorite rock bands.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Sunday April 4, 2004, Beijing, Beijing, China

Daily Life in Beijing

A woman uses a brush to write Chinese characters on the ground at the Temple of Heaven. The calligraphy is written in water and fades a few minutes later.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Saturday August 7, 2004, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China

Rock Concert in China

Soldiers guard the front of the stage before the start of the music during a 3-night rock concert. Local media reported 10,000 soldiers, police and private security were present for the event.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Sunday October 12, 2003, Qingyang, Gansu, China

Daoist monks bless recently restored temple

82 year-old Daoist Grand Master Su laughs while walking around the Daoist temple. The temple, damaged during the Cultural Revolution, was recently restored with government money in an attempt to promote tourism.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Tuesday August 3, 2004, Beijing, Beijing, China

Chinese Computers and Electronics center of Zhongguancun

A woman carrying a new HP combination printer scanner copier walks past a beggar in the Zhongguancun area.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Friday February 20, 2004, Daqing, Heilongjiang, China

Chinese artist Shen Shao-min

Artist Shen Shao-min is preparing to ship his art to Switzerland for a show.

Artist Shen Shao-min, whose art uses bone, resin and at times chinese cabbage, poses on the cutting board of his kitchen.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Wednesday June 16, 2004, Meicheng, Hunan, China

Taoism in China

Grandson Long Tao holds the photo of his deceased grandfather Long Zhiyou. Family members dressed in the traditional mourning color of white bow prepare for the final march a three-day funeral. The ceremony is led by Daoist priests.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Wednesday June 16, 2004, Meicheng, Hunan, China

Taoism in China

Men rest and smoke cigarettes after carrying the casket up a hill to the gravesite during a three-day funeral. The elder sons of the deceased Long Qiusheng and Long Yulai lean over the headstone, their heads covered in white. The ceremony is led by Daoist priests.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Tuesday June 15, 2004, Meicheng, Hunan, China

Taoism in China

A local villager, his face painted to asssume the role of a demon queller, leads a funeral march during a three day funeral. The ceremony is led by Daoist priests.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Tuesday June 15, 2004, Meicheng, Hunan, China

Taoism in China

Family members, friends and local townsfolk march in a procession during a three-day funeral. The group burns paper and wooden gifts representing cars, houses and other household goods for use in the afterlife. The ceremony is led by Daoist priests.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Saturday April 10, 2004, Shenzen, Guangdong, China

Chinese Factory Workers Injured on the Job

Wang Xuebing (L) , who lost part of his right arm in a factory accident, and Zhang Xinquan (R), who lost part of his leg, speak to each other in their lawyer's office. Stories of dismembered workers are numbingly similar in China. Usually, the migrant worker is a recent arrival to one of China's coastal industrial zones, taking any job offered, no matter the conditions. Without any safety training, the worker is assigned to an unfamiliar machine. Zhou Litai, a lawyer who represents hundreds of workers maimed or killed on the job, said foreign consumers should be aware that some "Made in China" products "are tainted with blood from cut-off fingers or hands." Smaller factory owners have no leverage with global buyers and are always worried they'll be replaced by other suppliers, so they try to make money rapidly, said Chen Ka-wai, the assistant director of the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, a watchdog group that monitors working conditions on the mainland.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Monday March 8, 2004, Anyang, Henan, China

Employees participate in weekly company meeting

Dressed in the company uniform, several thousand employees line up for the Monday morning flag raising and company meeting at the Ancai Hi-Tech Company. Once a week the management addresses the employees.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Tuesday March 8, 2005, Beijing, Beijing, China

The biggest mall in Asia

The Golden Resources Shopping Mall claims to be the biggest mall in Asia.

Shoppers at the Golden Resources Shopping Mall look over a railing near a paper dragon.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Thursday March 4, 2004, Beijing, Beijing, China

Construction in China

A worker solders metal near new apartment buildings. Construction has begun on many new residential complexes.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Tuesday February 24, 2004, Beijing, Beijing, China

Western Corporations in China

A Chinese man on a bicycle rides past an advertisement for Intel.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Wednesday October 1, 2003, Beijing, Beijing, China

Rockets on display at the Chinese Military Museum

Visitors tour the Chinese Military Museum including models of rockets and missiles from the country's space program. China announced the launch of a manned space exploration rocket scheduled for October 2003, making it after Russia and the USA the third country able to send men in space.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Tuesday September 30, 2003, Shenzen, Guangdong, China

China's Huawei Technologies Co. rapidly grows

A Huawei assembly line builds circuit boards at the company's factory. The company has a young workforce with an average age of around 30. The complex holds administrative offices, production lines, research and development facilities and worker housing for many of their 10,000 engineers. Huawei, among the makers of the equipment that keep together the Internet, telephone systems and computer databases, is trying to jump into the corporate router and switch the market that Cisco now dominates. Huawei has been expanding into overseas markets, challenging Cisco with similar products at lower prices. It's domestic sales grew by a third in the first half of the year, and analysts expect international sales to grow from $550 million last year to $1 billion this year and $1.4 billion next year.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Tuesday April 29, 2003, Beijing, China

SARS in Beijing

A man wearing a mask walks past a billboard in Beijing. The billboard reads "The SARS will surely be conquered by our government under the ledaership of the Communist Party of China."

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Saturday April 26, 2003, Beijing, China

SARS in Beijing

Men wear masks while waiting at the Beijing Railway Station. Many are fleeing the city and the SARS epidemic.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Saturday April 9, 2005, Beijing, Beijing, China

Anti Japanese demonstration in Beijing

A crowd of mostly young people rallies against Japan in the university and high-tech section of Beijing. Demonstrations against Japan have spread in China since Tokyo approved a new history textbook that critics say glosses over atrocities by Japan's military in the first half of the 20th century, including forcing tens of thousands of Asian women into sex slavery.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Thursday March 3, 2005, Tumen, Jilin, China

Scenes from the border between China and North Korea

A portrait of late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung at a border point across from Tumen in Nanyang, North Korea. Photo is shot through binoculars from the Chinese side of the checkpoint.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Sunday February 13, 2005, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

Harbin Ice Festival

A visitor to the Harbin Ice Festival takes a break among the ice sculptures.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Friday November 26, 2004, Beijing, Beijing, China

Fetal cell surgery in China gives patients hope

Chinese doctor Huang Hongyun performs a controversial surgery, involving fetal cells (semi-related to stem cells). He injects them into the brains of ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) patients or the spines of spinal cord injury patients. These patients who usually slowly lose ground to their disease are instead regaining abilities. Americans and people from all over the world have been flying to Beijing to have this experimental surgery. Dr. Huang went to Rutgers Univerisity in New Jersey and was partially trained in the United States, where fetal cell research is restricted to animals. This treatment of using cells from an aborted fetus is too controversial in today's politically charged atmosphere in the United States, which hinder stem cell research. ALS patient Sandrea Mathis of Dallas, Texas is cared for after having fetal cell surgery perfomed by Dr. Huang. The surgery involves drilling two holes into the brain and injecting fetal cells.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Saturday November 8, 2003, Beijing, Beijing, China

Basketball in China

Construction cranes line the skyline near basketball courts at Beijing University. China has gone basketball crazy with three Chinese Basketball Association alumni now playing in the N.B.A. According to various surveys, more Chinese now play basketball than soccer or any other sport, and you cannot find a schoolyard without a backboard and a rim, with the players sporting N.B.A. replica jerseys and the latest name brand footwear from Nike, Adidas and Reebok. High school and college games are beginning to mount a challenge to the old state-run academy system. China will strive for its first medal in Olympic basketball in 2008 with home court advantage in Beijing. It is said that Chen Jianghua, a 14 year old junior Olympic hopeful might become China's first world-class point guard, as the one to feed the ball to Yao Ming, the Detroit Pistons star.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris

Friday November 7, 2003, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Basketball in China

Chen Jianghua takes a water break during a game as fans watch through the fence. China has gone basketball crazy with three Chinese Basketball Association alumni now playing in the N.B.A. According to various surveys, more Chinese now play basketball than soccer or any other sport, and you cannot find a schoolyard without a backboard and a rim, with the players sporting N.B.A. replica jerseys and the latest name brand footwear from Nike, Adidas and Reebok. High school and college games are beginning to mount a challenge to the old state-run academy system. China will strive for its first medal in Olympic basketball in 2008 with home court advantage in Beijing. It is said that Chen Jianghua, a 14 year old junior Olympic hopeful might become China's first world-class point guard, as the one to feed the ball to Yao Ming, the Detroit Pistons star.

Credit: Doug Kanter / Polaris