If you are a parent, imagine how you would feel if the authorities suddenly told you your child's school was shut, closing down, with nowhere else for your offspring to go. Well that's exactly what happened in China, where more than 20 schools for children of migrant workers have shut down in Beijing. Now parents and NGOs are working together to hit back at what they say is a policy of social exclusion.

Chinese rare earth reserves supply 95% of the world's consumption - but at what price? Rare earths industry emits toxic chemicals and radioactive thorium and uranium into the air, water and soil, which can cause cancer and birth defects among residents.

It's said that it can cure kidney stones, a bad cough and even sexual dysfunction... Bear bile has been a component of traditional Asian medicine for thousands of years, but the conditions, in which it is extracted, are truly horrendous, leading to increasing numbers of Chinese animal welfare groups, calling for an end to the practice.

More than 200 children have elevated levels of lead in their blood caused by a battery plant near their communities in eastern China. At least 23 were suffering from "moderate to severe" lead poisoning and have been hospitalized. Local government officials have shut down the plants, but victims' parents are asking for compensations.

In prison for "inciting subversion", Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo missed the Nobel Prize ceremony on Friday. He was awarded the 2010 Peace Prize for drafting a document calling for democratic reform in the country. China has been infuriated that the award has been given to a dissident.

China begins the huge undertaking of counting and mapping its population. Over the next 10 days, more than 6 million government workers are going from door to door to ask residents to fill in census forms. The aim of this numbers game: get an accurate picture of Chinese society as millions of people move from poor, rural areas into the cities. But also: map how many unregistered children there are.

In Mongolia, poverty and inequalities fuel the rise of neo-Nazi groups. The chinese community is their main target.

China's one-child policy has far-reaching consequences in most aspects of Chinese life - one of the less-publicized being the increase in the trafficking of women in the country. There are now only 83 women for every 100 men in China, and the government estimates that this will result in 24 million not being able to find a bride by 2020. Many families are now turning to traffickers to find their sons a bride.

China may be a massive potential market for search engine companies, but Google may pull out of the country, in a row over censorship. Google has cried foul following hacking attacks on the email accounts of several Chinese dissidents, which the company says originated in China. Google has since said that it will no longer comply with Chinese government censorship regulations, risking its future in the country but winning the admiration of many of China's internet users or so-called "netizens".

China is investing its future in Shanghai, a city of 19 million inhabitants with 120 new skyscrapers built every year... The city is the capital of excess and permanently under construction. As Shanghai hosts the 2010 World Expo, France 24 takes you on a tour of the city that epitomises the China of tomorrow.