In this week's paper, the Nation section ran an interview with a couple of young women from Taiwan who had been interning in Mainland.

Most of their observations were what you're likely to here from nearly any foreign visitor to China. They talked about not being able to get onto Facebook, how the food was oily and mentioned something about the lack of doors on some public toilets.

In addition to this standard fare, we noticed the following quote that perhaps reveals a little bit about the state of the retail sector in Xiamen, where the girls were staying, compared to Taiwan.

"When we went shopping, it felt like Chinese New Year. In Taiwan, the shops would only be this busy during Spring Festival. On the mainland, it seems that everyday was like Chinese New Year."