It's funny the stuff which is meant to impress. It was widely reported the honor guard at this year's national day parade in Beijing would be goose stepping at exactly 116 paces every minute.

Soldiers on show during China's National Day celebrations, October 1, 2009

I tried to count to make sure, but couldn't keep up. To do this they trained for six months. And it was pretty impressive, in a North Korean/Cold War era kind of way.

One strange note, according to leader of the honor guard, to be chosen, the soldiers needed to have "big" eyes, double eye lids, measure 1.88 meters tall and from the top of their belt buckle to the ground had to be 1.2m. To be honest such detail escaped me on the day.

It was also impressive to watch the columns of tanks and missiles roll through the heart of Beijing – the new technology we were told again and again was all "made in China". Perhaps given the history of recent product recalls from this country that may help U.S. military planners rest a little easier.

But possibly most impressive of all wasn't on show, the improvements in the daily life of hundreds of millions Chinese people.

Since the end of the tumultuous era of Mao Ze Dong the economy has boomed. People here are eating better, living longer and have the kind of life their parents wouldn't dream of.

But Beijing was so intent on keeping today's celebrations to the hand picked elite few, it deployed a security operation which was a none too subtle reminder that this country is still run by a one party authoritarian regime.

Somehow, standing there along the parade route, I couldn't help but think, wouldn't this have been a better day if the people of China were allowed to take part in some kind of festive celebration, minus the military hardware?

It would have been a much better image for an overseas audience than the tanks and nuclear capable ICBM's - years of hard work by Chinese diplomats talking about their country's peaceful rise may just have been undone by 66 minute long parade of some of the most destructive weapons on the planet.

Beijing, beautiful one day, polluted the next, and the next, and the next...

I guess I filed the story about Beijing's blue skies a little too soon. 

It is true the city has had a record run of blue sky days. It is true the pollution levels had been coming down... But since that story went to air, the old grey haze is back. Sods law.

In fact the US embassy air monitoring station which tracks the smallest and most hazardous pollution says the air on Thursday was "very unhealthy" and at times "hazardous". To be fair it's just one station, and not indicative of the entire city, but at least it gives you an idea.

This could be just a bump on the road, or maybe its an unwelcome sign China's economy is picking up steam.

Some brokers will tell you the color of China's sky is a better economic indicator than the share market or the governemt's statistics.

I was told recently that some of the smaller steel works have now fired up again because prices have steadily risen.

If this is true, then maybe unhealthy air is a good measure of the health of the economy, and sadly it seems they're inversely related.

BEIJING, China - I think I had a shared experience this week with millions of Chinese netizens who try to avoid, fool or stick it to Beijing's censors. It all centers on the "Grass Mud Horse."

So this is what happened. Chinese netizens as they're called here, have been speaking in code, and sticking it to censors by calling them a "Grass Mud Horse," because in Chinese when you say those words but slightly change the tone it actually is a profane insult involving something to your mother. Watch more about the 'Grass Mud Horse' phenomenon

And this is where the shared experience came in. I was trying to explain something, without saying what it was, because obviously those kinds of words are best left to a few standup comedians, or action films involving Bruce Willis.

To be honest, trying to say something while not saying it, while trying to not lose the meaning of what your not allowed to say is incredibly difficult, which may explain why the netizens here are so annoyed with the censors, even if the can't say it.

ST. ANDREWS, Australia – How is it that more than 1,800 homes were destroyed in Australia's wild fires, while yet others were left standing, often surrounded by a lunar like landscape of burnt out buildings?

A dirt track runs through the burnt out forest in Victoria state.

Jim Baruta might have the answer to that. He lives in the small town of St. Andrews and his house is one of the few left standing.

"Houses up on the ridge there they've all gone, all gone, the person up the back died. (Another) person up here died and that's just my neighbors let alone down the road, it's just shocking."

Baruta's home is high on a hill and he saw the flames coming, moving incredibly fast over the ridge. He says there was no warning, and he had no choice but to stand and fight.

"People who were down lower in the other houses had no idea, they were getting in their cars and leaving ... they didn't know the fire was just down the road and this is when they started driving out of here. This is how they got caught," he says.

Many of those who fled too late were killed by the blaze. As it swept towards Baruta's house, he says it sounded like the roar of ten jets, he could feel the fire sucking away all the oxygen, he was having trouble breathing and the heat was incredible.

When his sunglasses melted on his head, he headed for a bunker or safe room, which he had built specifically for bushfires.

Inside, he waited for the worst to pass. When he came out, the fire had eased a little, but his home was surrounded by flames on all sides. At first he used a hose to put out the spot fires, when that melted he switched to a bucket.

"Even though you feel like you were going to drop dead you just want to keep going, keep going, just keep walking carrying buckets don't stop don't stop everything was just re-igniting, reigniting, same fire, you put a bucket on it another bucket and it wouldn't stay down, and that's how it was for hours."

Once the fire had passed, and his property was left blackened and scorched, he would wake every hour during the night, putting out embers, ensuring his house was safe.

He knows he's fortunate. More than 20 of his fellow residents were killed and Baruta is not sure how this small town of 1,500 will cope.

"It's going to be shocking, there's going to be so many funerals to go to".

WHITTLESEA, Australia — Rural Australians are a tough bunch - how else do you explain people who insist on living in bushland prone to sweeping wild fires every summer?

A sign is taped to a post in front of a burnt out property after the fires on February 10 in Bendigo.

At first, most here around the town of Whittlesea seemed to be shell-shocked, unable to deal with the enormity of the devastation which now surrounds them... small towns like Marysville and Kinglake, once picture perfect towns reduced to smoldering ruins.

Then there was grief for the dead, the injured.

Now there is anger. At the relief center, families lashed out at TV news crews. There was at least one argument involving pushing and shoving, maybe even a punch was thrown. One woman grabbed me, saying: "Don't sell your morals for a pay check".

Major Rodney Barnard from the Salvation Army told me: "People are angry because they feel helpless, they're lashing out at the police who won't let them back to see if their homes are still standing, they're angry because now they realize all they have they're standing in".

At the Whittlesea relief center, volunteers are sifting through piles and piles of donated clothes, food, diapers and other essential supplies to help the survivors cope over the next few days.

One woman, Monique, said she just wanted to do something, she was not directly affected, but she needed to come and help.

And that seems to be the case everywhere here - from the frontlines of the fire to Australia's cities there is an overwhelming drive to regain control in the face of a massive uncontrollable natural disaster.

BEIJING, China - Early morning in Beijing, with the temperatures barely above freezing, thousands crammed the National Agricultural Exhibition Center. It was shoulder-to-shoulder as they pushed their way to the front of the booths with resume in hand.

Competition is stiffer these days for vacancies at job fairs in China.

This was the first jobs fair in the capital this year as the unemployment rate among graduates, known as the "Bird's Nest Generation," and the less-than-charitable "Pampered Generation," slowly edges up – proof that the economic crisis is cutting a painful path across all sectors of society. This year more than 6 million graduates will be looking for work across China.

"There's so much pressure with all this competition, it's just how it is right now in China," said one man who recently graduated with a degree in media and public relations.

He added: "Because of the financial crisis it will be difficult to find a job."

Others were significantly lowering their expectations - two nursing graduates said they were willing to look for jobs in other areas, oddly enough they said they would even consider a job in finance, while at the same time lamenting their plight as job seekers in an economy that has taken a downturn.

"Last year was much better than this year to look for work," said one of the nurses.

There was once a time when these university-educated graduates were guaranteed a good salary and lots of perks, but not now. A recent survey has also shown, for the first time, that average wages for newly employed graduates is falling between 10 percent and 12 percent, depending on the city.

For the companies that are still hiring it means they can have their pick of the best and the brightest. One real estate company recruiter said his company would demand only the very best salesmen.

Perhaps it was the optimism of the young, perhaps because it's still early days in this financial meltdown, perhaps because they've never been through this before, but most expected to eventually get a job. Maybe not their first choice, but a job.

One woman refused to even consider a job in a factory, or other menial labor, "I'll just wait" she said.

The question is how long will she be able to sit this crisis out?

BEIJING, China - In diplomacy, you never really know what might come back to haunt you. Last month, after U.S. President George Bush ducked a flying shoe during a visit to Baghdad, there was this exchange at the regular Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing with spokesman Liu Jianchao:

The shoe thrown at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

MOFA briefing Dec 16th 2008

Q: U.S. President George Bush's visit to Iraq has been overshadowed by an incident in which a pair of shoes was thrown at him by an Iraqi reporter during a news conference. How do you comment? Also, many of our interviewees in Beijing said they were not surprised that the incident happened because the U.S. has been too aggressive. How do you feel about this?

LJ: People may have different opinions, but a state leader should be treated with due respect. This also reminds me of one thing, next time I should watch out for not only who are raising their hands but also who are untying their shoelaces. (Laughter)

It got a pretty good laugh at the time, as noted in the official transcript. Chinese officials, though, have a much different take after a shoe was thrown at Premier Wen Jiabao at Cambridge University.

On Tuesday, at the same regular briefing, my colleague from the BBC asked why the Bush incident was worthy of a good chuckle, yet the Wen protest was "despicable behavior" even though it was essentially the same act.

The less-than-humorous spokesperson Jiang Yu, with a very straight face thought for a moment and replied: "Both our comments are proper." And that was it.

State-controlled media did struggle for a while before knowing just how to report the latest shoe protest. At first it was referred to as a "disturbance" but then eventually the incident made it on to CCTV, complete with video of the shoe. Mind you, I lost count of the number of times the Bush shoe incident went to air on CCTV.

It could be a major breakthrough for free reporting, but the reality is the video was already out there – on the Internet and other places. The blogs here, often seen as the best forum for free speech, have had a mixed reaction – some have denounced the shoe thrower, with calls for the infamous human flesh search engines to find out who he is (for more on flesh search engines check out my story from December 16 last year), while others have praised the protest.

All in all a pretty good mix of opinions – maybe the real breakthrough in China will come when the Foreign Ministry can have a laugh, as well.

BEIJING, China — It's meant to be China’s biggest party of the year, when everyone forgets their hardships (and there are plenty even when the economy is going gang busters) and celebrates. So as I was walking around the famous Drum and Bell Tower and the swanky bars of Houhai in Beijing, I couldn't help but feel it was all a little flat. In fact at times, it seemed as if there were more western tourists who were out and about letting off firecrackers than locals were seeing in the Lunar New Year.

A worker installs lanterns to celebrate the Chinese New Year in front of the Bird's Nest on January 24 in Beijing.

There's an old Chinese superstition, the way you spend the Lunar New Year will portend the rest of the year – if that’s the case then China looks to be in for a very quiet, almost miserable year. The bars were not full, the crowds just didn't appear, and the fireworks lasted barely 20 minutes. Compared to last year, it was a bit of a dud. Even on the first day of the Lunar New Year, barely any fireworks (the last two years the fireworks barely let up even during daylight hours, certainly the fire crackers could be heard from early morning to late, late at night and on it went for two weeks). Watch why the Year of the Ox is looking more bearish than bullish

The men selling the fireworks on the street corners also seem to be hit by the economic downturn . . . not surprising when you realize a box of decent crackers can cost 800 RMB ($117.00). That's a lot especially when you might have just lost your job, or as is more likely to be the case, had a wage cut or overtime slashed. Chinese typically don’t like talking about tough times ahead, the concept of face means it's incredibly important for them to keep up appearances. This isn’t the U.S., where almost everyone is willing to open up and tell you practically everything about their financial pain, where there is a collective catharsis about sharing stories of hardship.

It’s also tricky getting a read on China's economy by using government supplied statistics, but perhaps the lack of enthusiasm, people and fireworks, might be yet another anecdotal piece of the jig saw puzzle which confirms China is feeling the pinch much more than last quarter’s 6.8% GDP numbers would suggest.

Tradition has it that the loud bangs on Lunar New Year are meant to scare away the evil spirits – this year, with fewer being able to afford the fireworks and crackers, perhaps the evil spirits might be staying around.

BEIJING, China - It's always sobering traveling around China, a stark reminder of how difficult life is for many people in this country.

And life in Dongxiaokou, on the outskirts of Beijing, is pretty tough right now. This is a village made of scrap, other people's trash. Here the scrap dealers live in poorly-built homes.  There are no showers, just one communal toilet. This is where they do business, eat, live and sleep, children play on old spring mattresses like trampolines, roll with filthy dogs that are friendly, but seem to have never been washed.

But they have it good compared to the people they buy from. Scrap collectors like Zhang Guolin. We met him on the streets - he was haggling with someone over the price of what looked like an old radiator from someone's home; in China, not even trash is given away – people like Zhang have to pay for it.

Once, in our office building in Beijing, new tenants moved in. When it came time to remove the boxes, the scrap collectors pounced, but the new tenants here wanted 80 Yuan (U.S.$11.60) for the cardboard moving boxes. The scrap collectors would only pay 70 Yuan (U.S.$10.15), so those boxes stayed in the hallway for weeks until they agreed on a price.

Zhang though did the deal for the metal and loaded up his tricycle so high it all looked as if it would topple. This load of metal, cardboard and plastic was the end result of five hours' work which started before dawn, when temperatures were around minus 15 degrees Celsius.

In less than two months, Zhang and the dealers he sells to in the scrap yards, have seen their incomes cut in half or worse. The end result of a collapse in demand for recycled products – be it metal, paper or plastic.

Zhang said this was a good day because of the deal for the metal which normally would of earned him 60 Yuan (U.S.$8.70.) But in this market, the pay-off was just 25 Yuan (U.S.$3.60.)

I asked him if he knew why his income had fallen so dramatically. He smiled and said: "I don't have the brain to figure out why business is so bad now."

All he knows is that his family in Xinyang in Henan Province will be making do with a lot less, and they didn't have much to start with.

BEIJING, China - "Never mind the share market, worry about the sky. When the smog clears, there's trouble."

That was the advice one economist gave me when I first arrived in Beijing.

It might just be the weather, changing wind directions or the Olympics and pollution control measures kicking in, but we've had mostly blue skies for months now.

At best it's anecdotal evidence that China's economy is slowing. Normally, all the pollution pumped out from China's manufacturing south is blown up to Beijing where it is caught in the horseshoe-shaped mountain range that surrounds the city. And there it stays - gray, heavy and smelly.

But not lately. With one report suggesting 100,000 factory closures nationwide and electricity consumption falling (a better indication of economic activity than anything else, say some experts) perhaps, just perhaps the payoff from the economic crisis is some fresh air and blue sky.

Maybe after years of breakneck double-digit GDP growth, Beijing is quite literally taking a breather.