As of June 1, China banned grocery stores from giving out free plastic bags to customers, joining Sweden, Ireland, and a few other places in raising awareness of how wasteful plastic bags are. (I never saw the necessity, in China as well as New York, for stores give you a bag just for Coke or to double-bag a carton of milk.) Now reusable grocery bags are being worn everywhere and sold in every other clothing shop. I found this one with Mao the Smoking Bicyclist at Grifted on Nanluoguxiang, Beijing's unofficial hipster hutong. (They also have a line of Socialist dolls.)

In other fun news, Serious Eats found Absinthe gummy bears in New York. And Syria currently has the world's largest restaurant, seating at max. of 6,014 people, with separate theme sections for Chinese and Indian food.