BEIJING – To the chagrin of Shanghai city residents, there’s more “pork chop soup” on the menu for the foreseeable future. 

More than a week since authorities in Shanghai started pulling thousands of dead pigs from one of the city’s major waterways, the Huangpu River, municipal authorities in that city of 23 million are continuing to pull hundreds of carcasses from its waterways each day, bringing the total since last week to over 13,000. 

Workers on Sunday pulled nearly 500 pigs from the Huangpu, bringing the total found from that river alone to over 9,500. The Huangpu River supplies over a fifth of Shanghai’s drinking water.

As the pig tally creeps up, Shanghai government officials have been struggling to put a positive spin on the ghoulish images popping up each day from the city’s waterways. 

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A report Monday in People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, focused on the stepped up food and water quality tests across the city. It also earnestly noted that not only have the numbers of pigs being pulled from the rivers dropped, but the size of them too.

Citing a report from Shanghai’s city government, the paper stated that two thirds of the most recent carcasses found were piglets, suggesting that the worse may have passed.

Social media outrage
Still, the daily sight of carcasses being pulled from the city’s waterways for disposal has angered the public and sparked a spirited discussion on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo. 

Reports that many of the pigs found have tested positive for porcine circovirus, a virus that has killed large numbers of pigs in the region in recent months, has also raised suspicions about the safety of Shanghai’s water supply.

“The water must have been polluted [by these dead pigs],” wrote one user named Lujun, “Authorities are being dishonest and trying to hide something.”

“The government is as corrupt as these dead pigs,” another user using the name Ziyoudeweini wrote disgustedly. “I feel so cold. Who can we count on?” 

“Water quality in the Huangpu River has been normal up to now,” one official at the Shanghai Information Office assured NBC News Monday. He also stressed that porcine circovirus cannot be contracted by humans. 

Where are they coming from?
Shanghai officials have stepped up surveillance for dead pigs around the Huangpu River and have called upon local government in the nearby city of Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province to step up their own searches. 

Just northeast of Shanghai, Jiaxing is believed to be the source of many of the dead pigs floating down into Shanghai. Shanghai’s Information Office officials declined to speculate on whether Jiaxing was the sole source of all the pigs, but told NBC News that the prefecture was the focus of a joint Shanghai-Jiaxing investigation.

An official at the Jiaxing Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment on the progress of the investigation late Monday.

But steps were being taken in Jiaxing to curb the continued dumping of pigs into the region’s waterways. The city’s local newspaper, Jiaxing Daily, reported that leaflets had been passed out to farmers in the region, urging them to properly dispose of dead pigs with local authorities rather than quietly dumping them into the river.

Jiaxing is likely not the only community to be dumping dead pigs into its waterways, as reports indicate that porcine circovirus has spiked across farming communities this winter, killing more pigs than usual. Many have speculated that farmers have been attempting to discretely dispose of the sick pigs rather than reporting them to authorities and risk investigation.

NBC News’ Danny Zhang contributed to this report.

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BEIJING — The rise of new Chinese leader Xi Jinping last November has not been good for mainland officials caught with their pants down.

In recent months, a slew of low-level Communist officials as well as a few high ranking ones —most notably the vice party chief of the southwestern province of Sichuan, Li Chuncheng — have been exposed by local media and dismissed from their positions after their sexual peccadilloes came to light.

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The latest senior official to be toppled due to a sex scandal, Yi Junqing, was a vice minister in charge of China Central Committee’s Central Compilation and Translation Bureau.

His dismissal was announced Thursday in a one-sentence statement by Chinese state media, which simply noted he had been "removed from post for 'improper lifestyle.'" 

The terse release by the state-run Xinhua news service belied the expansive and often lurid claims that have flooded the Web about Yi’s sexual trysts. Yi was seemingly exposed by his alleged mistress, Chang Yan, who posted a 120,000 Chinese character essay online detailing the sex, money and gifts exchanged over many months.

Though many of the affair’s particulars read like the cliché-ridden narratives familiar to many Chinese who have followed the adventures of officials over the years, this case is unique in that it shows the lengths to which many in China go to secure coveted ministry jobs, and the economic and social security that comes with those jobs.

Chang, 35, a married native of China’s Shanxi province, was a visiting post-doctorate student at the Translation Bureau and had aspirations of landing a job there once her studies were completed.

Earning employment at the bureau’s Beijing office — and thus the proper permits needed to bring her husband from Shanxi to live and work in Beijing —would require the authorization of Yi, who ran the bureau.

According to Chang’s account, the price for that approval turned out to be steep, both morally and financially.

"I was trying to figure out what he wants, money or me," Chang wrote in one excerpt translated by the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper. "There is no free lunch if I wanted to work for the bureau. I knew there was a price to pay to work for the bureau. I had already paid 10,000 yuan [USD$1,600]. He said he would take two months to get me the job and then he would invite me."

Besides giving in and becoming Yi’s mistress, Chang writes that she paid $10,000 in total to Yi to secure this government position. Yi’s failure to deliver on that job led Chang to post details of the sordid affair on her private blog, she said.

That someone would sleep with a potential boss or even pay for a position is of no surprise in China, but to have it written about so openly sparked an uproar online.

Despite censors erasing the story on Chinese websites, news of the essay soon spread on the Web.

On China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, the affair became a hot topic Friday.

A post by Chang on her blog — where the original entry was quickly erased — seemed to suggest that the story had been written as a piece of fiction.

"In my spare time I put together a work of fiction," Chang wrote on her blog entry. "I suffered serious depression... and regularly sank into a state of delusion and even fantasy."

Weibo users overwhelmingly dismissed the confession as forced and condemned Yi for his corruption.

"Rumor has again proven to be truth," wrote one user.

"If we got rid of officials like Yi who had these types of affairs, we’d have to eliminate 99.9 percent of them!" declared another.

Regardless of whether her story is true or not, Yi’s dismissal Thursday shows the lengths to which China’s ruling Communist Party appears willing to go in order to maintain its legitimacy and supremacy.

More news from China from NBC News' Behind the Wall

NBC News' Le Li contributed to this report.

BEIJING – With more than 100,000 pilgrims and visitors expected to attend the annual Xishan Wanshou Palace Temple Fair, authorities thought it would be a good idea to confine the local beggars in one spot.

So, more than 100 beggars from the town of Xishan, in China’s southern Jiangxi province, were placed in a 165-foot-long iron cage during the fair on Sept. 15.

But when pictures of the beggars in the cage were posted on Sina Weibo, China’s most-popular version of Twitter, there was an outpouring of criticism online. Most netizens were furious.

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One micro blogger wrote, “It’s just like a zoo. This is trampling their dignity.”

Another blogger sarcastically chimed in, “Our government always boasts that China has the best record on human rights. Before I did not believe that, but today I am convinced. These officials are just too smart, treating people as dogs.”

Others thought the pictures are too ridiculous to be true. 

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So NBC News called the civil affairs office of Xinjian prefecture government, which oversees the annual fair at the Taoist temple in the town of Xishan, to verify the photos were real. Mr. Wan, head of the civil affairs office, acknowledged that the photos were in fact real and told NBC News that it was the best solution the government could find for the problem so far.  

“We had to consider both sides: the pilgrims and the beggars. There are some fake beggars who just want to trick money from pilgrims. We did see the pilgrims were harassed by such beggars in the past. On the other hand, the temple fair is so crowded that beggars might be hit by cars or trampled by the crowd,” said Wan.

Cities and towns across China hold fairs in or near the local Taoist or Buddhist temple usually once a year, or in some instances monthly. In this case, the town of Wanshou was holding its annual fair, hence the preparation for big crowds.

Xinjian government also made a statement on its official Weibo account saying: “In order to avoid accidents, we provided this temporary rescue shelter whose two exits are open. All the beggars voluntarily entered it.”

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Many netizens were not satisfied by the answer and believe it was just an excuse by government officials to justify their behavior. 

One blogger posted, “Despite any reasons they may have, the moment the government locked the beggars in the cage, they had already stripped away these people’s dignity.”

To many Chinese, the photos also damaged their impression of temple fairs. For centuries, the temple fair, “Miao Hui” in Chinese, has played a unique role in ordinary Chinese daily life. It originated in ancient times when people offered sacrifices to gods, but later it gradually turned into a marketplace for people to exchange goods and a place to see cultural performances.

During the last 10 years, the Chinese government has encouraged the fairs in order to emphasize traditional values. But this incident has left a bad impression of local officials and how they organize the events.

One blogger wrote: “What should be caged is power.”

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BEIJING – Zhang Xinyu meticulously completes her eye exercises twice daily. Her teacher tells her they will help keep her eyesight sharp. At age 12, Xinyu has already been wearing glasses for two years.  

For 49 years, the Chinese Education Ministry has required students to exercise their eyes in the name of the Communist Revolution and to combat myopia, or short-sightedness.

The prevalence of myopia, however, is skyrocketing. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of Chinese are short-sighted by the end of high school – triple the U.S. rate. Few Chinese questioned the effectiveness of the eye exercises over the past five decades – until a recent post challenging the exercises was published earlier this summer on Sina Weibo, China’s widely popular answer to Twitter. 

“China has had eye exercises for 49 years,” posted a microblooger under the alias “Live from Shanghai.” “Of all the countries in the world, only China uses these eye exercises. The eye exercises are no good for people’s vision. Today, more than 360 million Chinese teenagers have myopia, the second largest percentage in the world.” 

The post ignited a firestorm online. Within a day, the post was re-tweeted more than 10,000 times and had received 1.5 million comments on Sina Weibo.  

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What are Chinese eye exercises?
All schools in China require students to do the exercises daily, playing familiar music over loud speakers during the workout. The Education Ministry even organizes occasional competitions to reinforce the program.  

This uniquely Chinese activity dates back to 1961, when the Beijing Education Bureau noticed a sharp increase in the rate of myopia and appointed a Chinese doctor to create exercises to stop the growing problem. 

“The Beijing government must have taken this issue very seriously,” said Yan Yirou, a retired employee from the Beijing Education Bureau who worked closely on developing the eye exercises. “There were only three people in charge of students’ health, and two were sent out to handle the project.”

It took two years to develop the exercises. Chinese students have been performing them ever since, except during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, when schools were often closed.

Are they effective?
“For the Communist Revolution, let’s protect eye sight and prevent short-sightedness,” was the explanation school children received for the exercises until recently.  

The Chinese Education Ministry cannot provide a scientific rationale for this practice. Under pressure from netizens following the recent Weibo post, the ministry told the Oriental Morning Post, “We’ll ask the experts and make an announcement as soon as possible.”

Ministry officials declined an interview request from NBC News to explain the benefits of the exercises.  

Zhu Tianyu, a Beijing local in his 40s, admitted his doubts about the exercises. “I do not know whether they help or not. My eyesight is awful, but I never took the eye exercises seriously.”

His wife, Du Yu, disagrees. “It works,” she said. “I still do them now. Every time I exercise, I feel my eyes are more relaxed.”

Not everyone is convinced.

“It’s difficult for me to say whether they are good or not. But even if they are, their advantages are not apparent,” Xu Yujing, who's been a high school teacher for more than 25 years, told NBC. “Students do not know the pressure points… Everyone does it for the sake of inspection.”

Ian Morgan, a visiting scholar at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center in Guangzhou, is even more skeptical of the Chinese routine.

“I think it is pretty obvious that Chinese eye exercises do not prevent myopia,” Morgan said. “There is no scientific evidence that they do anything useful at all.”

Student pressure
There is broad consensus that China's hyper-competitive education system is a prime cause of the prevalence of myopia.   

“The Chinese believe that exams and the Gaokao [the Chinese college entrance exam] decide a student’s future,” said Yan Yirou, the retired Education Bureau employee. “The eyesight problem is obviously from the heavy school work. In my survey for the Education Ministry, I found myopia rates were the lowest during the Cultural Revolution because no one was studying."

Chinese school children's excessive workloads have only gotten worse with time and are widely believed to be contributing to the problem. 

“When I became a teacher in 1986, only one third of students were short-sighted,” said Xu, the longtime teacher. “Today, most students in my class are.”

Pressure for students to study is intense – especially since a student’s Gaokao score can largely dictate his or her future career path.

Despite the prevalence of myopia and the flawed eye exercises, there appears to be no solution in sight.

“It’s unlikely that either the Chinese education system or the eye exercises will change anytime soon,” said Zhang Xin, chairman of the Beijing Education Association Students' Health Division.

Some recent research has shown that children who spend more time outside during daylight hours do not become short-sighted, even if they study a lot. But getting children outside is difficult when the pressure to study is so great. 

Some Chinese parents are now taking their overworked children to so-called “eye exercise centers,” where children can rest while masseurs do the eye exercises for them.

At only $3.50 for one treatment, the cost seems like a bargain way to combat short-sightedness for the glory of the Communist Revolution.

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BEIJING – The sudden appearance and rapid disappearance of dissident artist Ai Weiwei on China’s version of Twitter has provided a window into the zany, fast-paced and utterly incomprehensible world of social media censorship in the communist state.

Ai told NBC News that he had been told that -- since new rules were introduced over the weekend on the mandatory real-name registration of every account on the Twitter-style Sina Weibo website -- his name was no longer being blocked on the site.

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“Before if you looked up my name on Sina Weibo you got a message that said that it was a ‘sensitive or illegal word being used,’” Ai told NBC News Monday. “Yesterday a friend told me that my name was no longer being blocked, so we thought we’d give it a try.”

Ai, whose outspoken criticism of China’ ruling Communist Party and alleged tax-evasion led to his detention for 81 days last year, has had his name censored by China’s “Great Firewall” and his physical travel has also been restricted.

So the sudden discovery that his name was suddenly viewable and searchable on Weibo spurred him to experiment.

“I just wanted to see if this policy really applies. They [new internet rules] said if you use your real name and identity, you can open your own Weibo account,” Ai said, “so we tried and found that it worked.”

"Ai Weiwei testing, 3/19/2012" would be Ai’s first and last post under his Weibo account.

Account deleted
In a little under two hours, 10,680 people flocked to follow him online before censors deleted his account.

Though unsurprised by the number of followers he attracted in such a short time, he still can’t explain why he was suddenly able to open an account.

“I have no idea. Some people said it may just be a mistake, I have no idea,” he said. 

Read more news from Behind the Wall

Curiously, the introduction of the new rules was followed shortly afterward by the banning of the Chinese term for “real-name registration.”

Weibo users had been comparing notes regarding whose accounts had or hadn’t been suspended for not providing their real names. The blocking of “real-name registration” appeared to happen because the discussion of the topic became so widespread.

Sildeshow: History of US-China relations

Sina has provided some information about how many of its users have opted to register their Weibo accounts with their real identities. The last official statistic released was a week ago when the company announced that it anticipated 60% of its users would be registered by last Friday’s deadline.

Earlier Monday, NBC News attempted to create a new Weibo account using an anonymous identity. While the site seemed to accept the information filled in, no confirming email required to start using the account ever showed up in our inbox.

'Jasmine Revolution'
However, some users who say they have not submitted any identification to Sina claim they have the ‘V’ badge that all users who verify their identity have on the site.

China’s government is sensitive about the destabilizing potential of social media sites as seen in places like Egypt, Libya and most recently Syria.

Chinese TV show 'Interviews before Execution' stirs controversy

An anonymous call for a “Jasmine Revolution” early last year sparked a tightening of restrictions on such sites and increased calls by Chinese regulators and officials for real name registration.

Another newly banned word was “Ferrari,” amid intense gossiping over the potential identity of the owner of a Ferrari who crashed their car early Sunday morning in Beijing, killing one and injuring two others.

The topic that was quickly censored after users speculated that the victim could have been the child of a high-level Communist official.

NBC News’ Bo Gu contributed research to this report.

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BEIJING – That’s Comrade Yao to you.

Nearly six months after Yao Ming formally retired from basketball, the 7-foot-6, eight-time NBA All-Star has been anything but idle. In that time, Yao has started college, spearheaded a campaign to end shark-finning, and even started his own vineyard.  

But last week he added a new title: Standing committee member of Shanghai’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

At 31, Yao is the youngest member of the 142 member committee charged with advising the Communist Party on issues that affect the public interest.

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Zhang Chi, a spokesman for Yao Ming told the China Daily that despite taking the position, Yao had no political aspirations beyond pushing policies related to sports and charity, saying, “Yao wants to use his influence to do good deeds for society, but not to seek a political position.”

Judging by what he saw on the first few days on the job, who can blame him?

On Sunday, Yao took his seat on the committee to much fanfare. Unfortunately for the other members there, the assembled media stuck around long enough to catch – and publish – what many of these consultative meetings often look like: a snooze-fest.

With arms-folded and intent gaze, Yao is seen in one picture listening attentively while his fellow committee members doze off.

The picture was picked up on by China’s microblogging sphere and soon went viral. Some netizens pointedly suggested that the photos may have come during a break in the committee hearings, but most people responded with amusement to the scene they’ve come to expect from such events.

“Poor Yao, he probably regrets being that tall and not being able to sleep!” wrote one commentator on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo.

“Yao Ming is still new to meetings like this,” wrote another before continuing, “He’ll be just like the rest of them soon enough.”