Hello Kitty Online was a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role playing game active from 2008 to 2017, developed by Sanrio Digital and Typhoon Games . The game is tied to the SanrioTown website, where players are required to register a free account.
163-416: The game tells the story of a hero (the player) helping Hello Kitty and her friends wake up from eternal slumber and defeat a "mysterious and malevolent power". SanrioDigital hosted three phases of testing: Closed Beta, Founders' Beta, and Public stress test. The closed beta application was announced on February 13, 2008 running through February 21, 2008. More than 50,000 applications were submitted. Due to
326-616: A prefectural capital and during the Three Kingdoms period , it was held by Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao before falling to the Wei Kingdom of Cao Cao . The AD third-century Western Jin demoted the town, placing the prefectural seat in neighboring Zhuozhou . During the Sixteen Kingdoms period when northern China was conquered and divided by the Wu Hu , Jicheng was briefly the capital of
489-415: A wiki , which players can edit to include updated information about the game. Players can also band together to form a guild . Guildmates can help each other build to speed up the construction of houses. Group Quests were planned to be available in future updates to the game. Hello Kitty Online contains no direct player-versus-player conflict, though players may choose to compete amongst themselves in
652-446: A "human little girl" who is in third grade and also 48 years old. The Atlantic described the sketch as both "a skewering of the ever-expanding Hello Kitty commercial universe" and as capturing the gaslighting and manipulation of truth of the time. Beijing This is an accepted version of this page Beijing , previously romanized as Peking , is the capital city of China . With more than 22 million residents, it
815-851: A Japanese term meaning "stateless" or "nationless" in reference to characters lacking any identifiable national background. The character's first appearance on an item was in March 1975 on a vinyl coin purse sold in Japan, where she was pictured sitting between a bottle of milk and a goldfish bowl. She first appeared in the United States in 1976 when Sanrio opened a Gift Gate store in San Jose, California . Hello Kitty sold well immediately after her 1975 launch, and Sanrio's sales increased sevenfold. Due to Japan's growing economy, many Japanese children could afford to buy Hello Kitty products. Her popularity also grew with
978-420: A buff to player stats while they are in service; lastly, they are able to help when it comes to collecting resources. Pets gain levels from food: when pets are fed regularly, their stats and level will increase over time. Each player's farm has an allotted space on which the farm's owner can build a house. In order to build a house, players require a land certificate, which can be bought from an NPC or received as
1141-530: A charity event where guilds crafted in-game food for donation UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra . Based on the distribution of crafted food (quantity, difficulty, etc.), Sanrio Digital made a cash donation to those charities. During the event, guilds produced a total of 344,965 items which were donated to the Game Masters. This was in turn calculated at a value of $ 12,273, to be donated to UNICEF and
1304-555: A collection which includes shoes ranging from kids' to adult sizes as well as clothing and bags. In 2020, Skechers collaborated with Hello Kitty releasing chunky-soled style shoes with brand's logo and Hello Kitty's face and bow. Hello Kitty is used as a brand for sanitary pads in Asia and Latin America. In 1994, artist Tom Sachs was invited to create a scene for Barneys New York Christmas displays and titled it Hello Kitty Nativity . In
1467-462: A commercial launch on July 5, 2010. HKO Thailand permanently closed on December 24, 2011. Aeria Games was chosen as the publisher for the North American release, with a transition back to Sanrio Digital occurring on June 1, 2010. On January 16, 2010, Sanrio Digital announced Food For Friends 2, the charity-driven in-game event to raise donations for charitable causes. The mechanics were similar to
1630-466: A considerable portion for steel and cement making. Power plants in the coal-mining regions of Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, where coal consumption has tripled since 2000, and Shandong also contribute to air pollution in Beijing. Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia, respectively rank from first to fourth, among Chinese provinces by coal consumption. There were four major coal-fired power plants in
1793-419: A few pedestrians can pass through at a time. Once ubiquitous in Beijing, siheyuans and hutongs are rapidly disappearing, as entire city blocks of hutongs are replaced by high-rise buildings. Residents of the hutongs are entitled to live in the new buildings in apartments of at least the same size as their former residences. Many complain, however, that the traditional sense of community and street life of
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#17328488236761956-597: A hugely successful casual MMO . With the SanrioTown blog feature, gamers were able to share their experiences while playing the game. The players were also responsible for helping out the newbies with their blog and video tutorials. Generally, players found other players and the HKO staff to be pleasant and helpful, citing the HKO environment as a breather from the "griefing" and PvP-confrontations that affect most online games. House building
2119-726: A large public gathering of Beijing residents against the Gang of Four and the Cultural Revolution in Tiananmen Square was forcefully suppressed . In October 1976, the Gang was arrested in Zhongnanhai and the Cultural Revolution came to an end. In December 1978, the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress in Beijing under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping reversed the verdicts against victims of
2282-472: A major center of electronics in China. In recent years, the expansion of Beijing has also brought to the forefront some problems of urbanization, such as heavy traffic , poor air quality , the loss of historic neighborhoods, and a significant influx of migrant workers from less-developed rural areas of the country. Beijing has also been the location of many significant events in recent Chinese history, principally
2445-501: A number of animated series targeted towards children, as well as several comics, animated films, video games, books, music albums and other media productions. A variety of products have featured the character over the years, like school supplies, clothing, accessories , and toys, along with other items. In 2008, there were over 50,000 different Hello Kitty branded products. In 1962, Shintaro Tsuji , founder of Sanrio, began selling rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. Tsuji noted
2608-466: A number of available minigames. The Item Mall was located both on the SanrioTown website and the game. At the Item Mall players would purchase premium items including unique clothes, pets, weapons and house designs. Purchases would require Sanrio Loyalty Points (which are gained from using SanrioTown services such as blogs), and Sanrio Cash Points (which are purchased using real money). Another method
2771-464: A pancake" ( tan da bing ). This pattern of development is frequently cited as a reason for Beijing's urban problems. Beijing has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate ( Köppen : Dwa ), bordering on a cold semi-arid climate ( Köppen : BSk ) in the south and in the northwest, characterized by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon , and brief but cold, dry winters that reflect
2934-423: A part" in the success. In 2014 an anthropologist was told by Sanrio that Kitty White was not simply a cat (i.e. "depicted on all fours"), describing her as a little English girl called Kitty White, from outside London. Following reports that interpreted this to mean she was human, a Sanrio PR representative said that the organization had "never said she was a human", explaining anthropomorphization by comparing
3097-561: A period of 39 years. Also required was the execution or exile of government supporters of the Boxers and the destruction of Chinese forts and other defenses in much of northern China. Ten days after the treaty was signed the foreign armies left Beijing, although legation guards would remain there until World War II . With the treaty signed the Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Beijing from her "tour of inspection" on 7 January 1902 and
3260-511: A playable character via downloadable content in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania . Three Hello Kitty anime films were released in Japan. Hello Kitty: Cinderella released in 1989, Hello Kitty no Oyayubi Hime released in 1990, and Hello Kitty no Mahō no Mori no Ohime-sama released in 1991. On 3 July 2015, Sanrio announced a full-length animated Hello Kitty theatrical feature initially planned for 2019. In early 2019, it
3423-412: A quest reward. Construction can begin after sufficient amounts of the required resources have been accumulated. There is a variety of different houses; the more elaborate and extravagant, the more expensive. Once a house is completed, players can furnish the interiors with different appliances, furniture and interior elements such as wallpapers and floorboards. The design of Hello Kitty Online emphasizes
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#17328488236763586-625: A rabbit which made her first appearance in 1976 and which Mercis argued infringed the copyright for Miffy. A court in Amsterdam ruled in favour of Mercis in November 2010 and ordered Sanrio to stop the production and sale of merchandise featuring Cathy in the Benelux countries. However, in June 2011, the two companies announced that they had reached a settlement agreement to end their legal dispute. Sanrio stopped using
3749-477: A resource gathering tool such as a pick-axe and click on an available resource node. Resource tools have level requirements in respective skills (e.g., an advanced pick-axe would require a higher level in the mining skill). Item crafting is a key feature of Hello Kitty Online and, like resource collection, is divided into four skill subtypes: Cooking (food items that replenish health, energy or both); Tools/Weapons, Clothes (like weapons, clothes need to be created by
3912-476: A scene early in the book, Alice plays with a cat she calls Kitty . Sanrio's motto is "social communication", and Tsuji wanted the brand name to reflect that by including a greeting. He first considered "Hi Kitty" before finally settling on "Hello Kitty", her current name. Sanrio decided to make Hello Kitty British because foreign countries, in particular Britain, were trendy in Japan at the time of Hello Kitty's creation. Sanrio already had several characters set in
4075-429: A song called " Hello Kitty " for her fifth studio album, Avril Lavigne , released in 2013. The Hello Kitty Stratocaster guitar, originally released in 2005, was initially aimed at pre-teen girls, but has since been used by notable guitarists including Krist Novoselic , Courtney Love , Dave Navarro , and Lisa Loeb . In 2022, vintage Hello Kitty Stratocasters were among the most popular musical instruments sold on
4238-674: A southeasterly direction. The Miyun Reservoir, on the upper reaches of the Chaobai River, is the largest reservoir within the municipality. Beijing is also the northern terminus of the Grand Canal to Hangzhou , which was built over 1,400 years ago as a transportation route, and the South–North Water Transfer Project , constructed in the past decade to bring water from the Yangtze River basin. The urban area of Beijing, on
4401-555: A symbol of friendship, which they hope she will foster between people across the world. There has been speculation that Hello Kitty has her origins in Maneki Neko , a traditional Japanese cat figurine. The name "Hello Kitty" is a back-translation of Maneki Neko , meaning "beckoning cat" in English. Despite this, no definitive statement supports that speculation. Hello Kitty has also instead been put forth as an early example of mukokuseki ,
4564-426: A total of 600 million people. After this "pollution shock" air pollution became an important economic and social concern in China. After that the government of Beijing announced measures to reduce air pollution, for example by lowering the share of coal from 24% in 2012 to 10% in 2017, while the national government ordered heavily polluting vehicles to be removed from 2015 to 2017 and increased its efforts to transition
4727-416: A yellow one on her right. Their papa George is described as dependable, humorous but also absent-minded. Their mama Mary is portrayed as a good cook who loves doing housework. Grandpa Anthony likes to tell stories and grandma Margaret likes sewing. In addition to family, Hello Kitty is also depicted with several animal friends, including the mice Joey and Judy, the bears Tippy and Thomas, the raccoon Tracy and
4890-543: Is "BJ". The earliest traces of human habitation in the Peking municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District , where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived there more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout
5053-719: Is 27.2 °C (81.0 °F). Precipitation averages around 528.0 mm (20.8 in) annually ( Haidian and Chaoyang has an average annual precipitation of 584.2 mm (23.0 in)), with close to three-quarters of that total falling from June to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 42% in July to 62% in January and February, the city receives 2,490.5 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from −27.4 °C (−17.3 °F) on 22 February 1966 to 41.9 °C (107.4 °F) on 24 July 1999 (unofficial record of 42.6 °C (108.7 °F)
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5216-408: Is a gijinka , an anthropomorphism or personification of a Japanese Bobtail cat . Official character profiles list her full name as Kitty White ( キティ・ホワイト , Kiti Howaito ) , born in the suburbs of London, England , on November 1. Her height is described as five apples and her weight as three apples. She is portrayed as a bright and kind-hearted girl, very close to her twin sister Mimmy. She
5379-480: Is a copy of Miffy, being rendered in a similar style. He stated disapprovingly in an interview for the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph : "That" [...] "is a copy [of Miffy], I think. I don't like that at all. I always think, 'No, don't do that. Try to make something that you think of yourself'." Mercis, the firm that managed copyrights for Bruna, took Sanrio to court over their Hello Kitty-associated character Cathy,
5542-464: Is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu , currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi , and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio . Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as a British anthropomorphized white cat with a red bow and no visible mouth. According to her backstory, she lives in a London suburb with her family, and is close to her twin sister Mimmy, who is depicted with a yellow bow. Hello Kitty
5705-447: Is causing harm and danger to the population. The air pollution does directly result in significant impact on the morbidity rate of cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease in Beijing. Exposure to large concentrations of polluted air can cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems, emergency room visits, and even death. Dust from the erosion of deserts in northern and northwestern China results in seasonal dust storms that plague
5868-410: Is created by Toshiki Inoue and Shakua Sinkai and updates once a month. Ichigoman first appeared in 2011 in an exhibition with Yuko Yamaguchi 's art. Hello Kitty has her own branded album, Hello World , featuring Hello Kitty-inspired songs performed by a collection of artists including Keke Palmer , Cori Yarckin , and Ainjel Emme under Hello Kitty's Lakeshore Records record label. Hello Kitty
6031-506: Is famous for its siheyuans , a type of residence where a common courtyard is shared by the surrounding buildings. Among the more grand examples are the Prince Gong Mansion and Residence of Soong Ching-ling . These courtyards are usually connected by alleys called hutongs . The hutongs are generally straight and run east to west so that doorways face north and south for good Feng Shui . They vary in width; some are so narrow only
6194-430: Is good at baking cookies and loves her mama's homemade apple pie. She likes to play the piano and collect cute things, and her favorite subjects in school are English, music, and art. Hello Kitty is portrayed with a large family with the surname White . Her twin sister Mimmy is described as "shy and very girly", interested in sewing and dreaming of marriage. While Hello Kitty wears a red bow on her left ear, Mimmy wears
6357-452: Is no longer the common name for the city, some of the city's older locations and facilities, such as Beijing Capital International Airport , with the IATA code PEK, and Peking University , still retain the former romanization. The single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京 , which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing
6520-428: Is shaping up to be a pretty fun MMO for the younger, less battle hungry crowd. It's certainly not as in-depth as a major MMO is, but it provides a stylish environment with colorful characters and music that seems oddly epic for a game about cats and bunnies. While it seems like it'd be an ideal game for the younger demographic, I found plenty of adults playing it, too. HKO has the franchise appeal behind it to possibly make
6683-565: Is the publisher for HKO in Singapore and Malaysia, with a Founders Beta running from June 22 - July 22, 2009. The commercial release began on October 15, 2009. The game is officially published in the Philippines by Level Up! Games , launching an Open Beta on September 25, 2009, and a commercial launch occurring on November 11, 2009. On July 8, 2010, the Philippines version of HKO ceased operation, only to be reopened five months later on December 8 of
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6846-524: Is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city after Shanghai . It is located in Northern China , and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts . Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province and neighbors Tianjin to the southeast; together, the three divisions form
7009-456: The APEC China 2014 and the 2015 China Victory Day Parade , respectively. During and prior to these events, Beijing's air quality improved dramatically, only to fall back to unhealthy levels shortly after. On 8 and 9 December 2015 Beijing had its first smog alert which shut down a majority of the industry and other commercial businesses in the city. Later in the month another smog "red alert"
7172-565: The Asian Youth Orchestra . Sanrio Digital partnered with GOGAME to publish HKO in Indonesia. An Indonesian version of Founders' Beta started on April 15, 2009, running through April 29, 2009. The Indonesian Open Beta phase ran from June 16, 2009 through June 24, 2009. The commercial release of the Indonesian version was launched on July 1, 2009. The game ceased operation in December 2010. gloot.net
7335-692: The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , the Central Academy of Fine Arts , the Central Academy of Drama , the Central Conservatory of Music , and the Red Cross Society of China . Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had numerous other names . The name Beijing , which means "Northern Capital" (from the Chinese characters 北 běi for north and 京 jīng for capital ),
7498-648: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by the Beijing CCP Secretary . The Municipal CCP Committee issues administrative orders, collects taxes, manages the economy, and directs a standing committee of the Municipal People's Congress in making policy decisions and overseeing the local government. Since 1987, all CCP Secretary of Beijing is also a member of the Politburo . Government officials include
7661-639: The Convention of Peking ending that war, Western powers for the first time secured the right to establish permanent diplomatic presences within the city. From 14 to 15 August 1900 the Battle of Peking was fought. This battle was part of the Boxer Rebellion . The attempt by the Boxers to eradicate this presence, as well as Chinese Christian converts, led to Beijing's reoccupation by eight foreign powers . During
7824-457: The Great Wall and the Grand Canal —all of which are popular tourist locations. Siheyuans , the city's traditional housing style, and hutongs , the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. Beijing's public universities make up more than one-fifth of Double First-Class Construction universities, and many of them consistently rank among
7987-584: The Hello Kitty Dreamcast , Hello Kitty Game Boy Pocket, and Hello Kitty Crystal Xbox have also been released exclusively in Japan. Hello Kitty appeared as a guest character in Sega 's Sonic Dash in 2016, as part of Sega's partnership with Sanrio. Hello Kitty and My Melody (another Sanrio character) appeared together in Super Mario Maker as unlockable Mystery Mushroom costumes. Hello Kitty appears as
8150-518: The Jing-Jin-Ji cluster . It is ranked as the 10th most important city in the world by Knight Frank . Beijing is a global city and one of the world's leading centres for culture , diplomacy , politics , finance , business and economics , education , research , language , tourism , media , sport , science and technology and transportation and art. It is home to the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies and houses
8313-646: The Qing dynasty as a direct successor of the Ming (delegitimising Li Zicheng and his followers) and Beijing became China's sole capital. The Qing emperors made some modifications to the Imperial residence but, in large part, the Ming buildings and the general layout remained unchanged. Facilities for Manchu worship were introduced, but the Qing also continued the traditional state rituals. Signage
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#17328488236768476-524: The Temple of Heaven . Next, there is what is sometimes referred to as the "Sino-Sov" style, with structures tending to be boxy and sometimes poorly constructed, which were built between the 1950s and the 1970s. Finally, there are much more modern architectural forms, most noticeably in the area of the Beijing CBD in east Beijing such as the new CCTV Headquarters , in addition to buildings in other locations around
8639-520: The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 . The city has also hosted major international events, including the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2015 World Championships in Athletics , and the 2022 Winter Olympics , making it the first city to ever host both Winter and Summer Olympics. Beijing is situated at the northern tip of the roughly triangular North China Plain , which opens to the south and east of
8802-647: The Xianbei Former Yan Kingdom. After China was reunified by the Sui dynasty in 581, Jicheng, also known as Zhuojun , became the northern terminus of the Grand Canal . Under the Tang dynasty , Jicheng as Youzhou , served as a military frontier command center. During the An-Shi Rebellion and again amidst the turmoil of the late Tang, local military commanders founded their own short-lived Yan dynasties and called
8965-451: The hutongs cannot be replaced, and these properties are often government owned. Beijing had a long history of environmental problems . Between 2000 and 2009 Beijing's urban extent quadrupled, which not only strongly increased the extent of anthropogenic emissions, but also changed the meteorological situation fundamentally, even if emissions of human society are not included. For example, surface albedo , wind speed and humidity near
9128-688: The oldest surviving pagodas in Beijing date to the Liao period, including the Tianning Pagoda . The Liao fell to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in 1122, which gave the city to the Song dynasty and then retook it in 1125 during its conquest of northern China . In 1153, the Jurchen Jin made Beijing their "Central Capital", or Zhongdu . The city was besieged by Genghis Khan 's invading Mongolian army in 1213 and razed to
9291-503: The 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The first known church was constructed by Catholics in 1652 at the former site of Matteo Ricci 's chapel; the modern Nantang Cathedral was later built upon the same site. The capture of Beijing by Li Zicheng 's peasant army in 1644 ended the dynasty, but he and his Shun court abandoned the city without a fight when the Manchu army of Prince Dorgon arrived 40 days later. Dorgon established
9454-409: The 28th article to be posted to the web site, an announcement was made that the site would revert to WoW Insider . On April 1, 2008, Sanrio Digital issued an April Fools' Day announcement revealing the first Hello Kitty Online expansion pack, entitled "Island Adventure", was scheduled for release in 2009. The news was posted on the main SanrioTown blog as well as the official HKO blog. The title of
9617-406: The Beijing area. Beijing's annual average concentration of major airborne fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, declined to 30 micrograms per cubic meter in 2022, the best air quality for the city since 2013. Due to Beijing's high level of air pollution, there are various readings by different sources on the subject. Daily pollution readings at 27 monitoring stations around the city are reported on
9780-548: The Cathy character, and the two firms jointly donated €150,000 for reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami . As of 2014, 90% of the profits from Hello Kitty came from licensing of products for the international market. She has been particularly popular in other Asian countries for decades, such as in China, where her cultural impact is comparable to that of Barbie in the Western world. In 2008, Japan named Hello Kitty
9943-561: The Character Databank popularity chart. In a 2010 survey, she was in third place behind Anpanman and Pikachu from Pokémon . In 2010, The New York Times attributed the character's relative decline in Japan to her biography not being "compelling enough to draw many fans." The newspaper later wrote that analysts called the characterization "weak", and that Hello Kitty not having a mouth has dampened her success as an animated TV character. According to Character Databank, Hello Kitty
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#173284882367610106-511: The Cultural Revolution and instituted the "policy of reform and opening up". Since the early 1980s, the urban area of Beijing has expanded greatly with the completion of the 2nd Ring Road in 1981 and the subsequent addition of the 3rd , 4th , 5th and 6th Ring Roads . According to one 2005 newspaper report, the size of newly developed Beijing was one-and-a-half times larger than before. Wangfujing and Xidan have developed into flourishing shopping districts, while Zhongguancun has become
10269-858: The Hello Kitty Stratocaster electric guitar (since 2005, with Fender , under its Squier sub-brand, in the US) and an Airbus A330-200 commercial passenger jet airliner, dubbed the Hello Kitty Jet (2005–2009, with EVA Airways in Taiwan). In late 2011 and early 2012, EVA Air revived their "Hello Kitty Jets" with their three new A330-300s . However, due to high demand, the airline added two more alongside their existing A330-200s in mid-2012. A year later, EVA Air introduced one of their 777-300ERs as another Hello Kitty Jet, which featured other Sanrio characters as well as Hello Kitty. In 2009, Hello Kitty entered
10432-723: The Hello Kitty characters. Another restaurant called the Hello Kitty Diner opened in the Chatswood area of Sydney , Australia, and a Hello Kitty dim sum restaurant opened in Kowloon, Hong Kong . In 2008, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital opened in Yuanlin, Taiwan . Hello Kitty is featured on the receiving blankets , room decor, bed linens, birth certificate covers, and nurses' uniforms. The hospital's owner explained that he hoped that
10595-521: The Indonesian theme park Dufan to introduce Hello Kitty Adventure, a cinema based attraction. Hello Kitty cafés have opened around the world, including in Seoul and other locations in South Korea; Bangkok, Thailand ; Adelaide, Australia ; Irvine, California ; the Santa Anita Mall in California, and the Park MGM in Las Vegas, Nevada . There is a themed restaurant named Hello Kitty Sweets in Taipei , Taiwan, which opened in 2008. The restaurant's decor and many of its dishes are patterned after
10758-457: The Ming capital Yingtian (modern Nanjing ) alienated many there, he established his fief as a new co-capital. The city of Beiping became Beijing ("Northern Capital") or Shuntian in 1403. The construction of the new imperial residence, the Forbidden City , took from 1406 to 1420; this period was also responsible for several other of the modern city's major attractions, such as the Temple of Heaven and Tian'anmen . On 28 October 1420,
10921-405: The SanrioTown website, Your Account and the relevant services that we have been providing to you will no longer be available from November 1, 2023" officially marking the end of both Hello Kitty Online and SanrioTown for good. Hello Kitty Hello Kitty ( Japanese : ハロー・キティ , Hepburn : Harō Kiti ) , also known by her real name Kitty White ( キティ・ホワイト , Kiti Howaito ) ,
11084-562: The US, and it wanted Hello Kitty to be different. In 1976 Setsuko Yonekubo temporarily took over as lead designer for Hello Kitty, after Shimizu left Sanrio. In 1980 Yuko Yamaguchi became lead designer and has remained in charge since. Yamaguchi has said that fashion, movies, and TV inspire her in creating new designs. New series involving Hello Kitty with different themed designs are released regularly, following current trends. Spokespeople for Sanrio have said that Hello Kitty has no mouth, as they want people to "project their feelings onto
11247-403: The United States, Hello Kitty is recognized by more than 80% of young adults in the 18–23 age group, as of 2016 . In 2014 a four-day convention, Hello Kitty Con in Los Angeles , attracted over 25,000 visitors. The convention was held in celebration of Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary. Sanrio's Puroland Tokyo theme park also held a celebration spanning several days in November 2014. Hello Kitty
11410-441: The ambassador of Japanese tourism in both China and Hong Kong, marking the first time Japan's tourism ministry had appointed a fictional character to the role. Sharon Kinsella, a lecturer at Oxford University on Japanese sociology, called the selection of Hello Kitty "a bit farcical ... as if a dumbed-down cultural icon ... can somehow do something significant to alter the gnarly and difficult state of China–Japan relations ." In
11573-447: The announcement sounds strikingly similar to the hit television series " Lost ", involving survivors of a plane crash that had been traveling to Australia, their struggle to survive in a hostile environment while dealing with the island's natives, and the danger that the survivors will split up and follow two leaders rather than remain together . The fake news was used as material for a humorous article on WoW Insider . Hello Kitty Online
11736-521: The appropriate ingredients and/or resources in their inventory if they wish to craft. Resource collection has four subtypes of skill: woodcutting, gathering, planting and mining. Players must choose a primary and a secondary skill from these four subtypes. A character's chosen skills can reach much higher levels than skills not chosen. Since higher-level resources require a higher corresponding level, players are encouraged to trade amongst each other for resources. In order to gather resources players must equip
11899-512: The artist. As of April 2010, the Wind-Up Hello Kitty sculpture is still on display at Lever House. Although Sachs did not seek permission to use the character in his work, a brand marketing manager for Sanrio was quoted as saying "You know, there was Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol , and then Michael Jackson and Jeff Koons . When you're an icon, that's what happens." In 2013 The Wall Street Journal said Sanrio's attitude to copyright
12062-714: The artwork, which received backlash from Catholic organizations for its misuse of Christian symbolism. In 2009, Tom Sachs' Bronze Collection was shown at the Public art space in Manhattan's Lever House , as well as in the Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado , and the Trocadéro in Paris . The collection featured white bronze casts of a foam core Hello Kitty sculpture – a style distinctive to
12225-487: The best in the Asia-Pacific and the world. Beijing is home to universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University . Beijing CBD is a center for Beijing's economic expansion , with the ongoing or recently completed construction of multiple skyscrapers . Beijing's Zhongguancun area is a world leading center of scientific and technological innovation as well as entrepreneurship. Beijing has been ranked
12388-402: The capital to Nanjing . After the Qing general Yuan Shikai forced the abdication of the last Qing emperor and ensured the success of the revolution, the revolutionaries accepted him as president of the new Republic of China . Yuan maintained his capital at Beijing and quickly consolidated power, declaring himself emperor in 1915. His death less than a year later left China under the control of
12551-534: The center of Beijing, directly to the south of the Forbidden City , the former residence of the emperors of China. To the west of Tian'anmen is Zhongnanhai , the residence of China's current leaders. Chang'an Avenue , which cuts between Tiananmen and the Square, forms the city's main east–west axis. Beijing's pattern of development from the old inner city to its urban fringe are frequently described as "spreading like
12714-461: The character to Mickey Mouse : "No one would mistake the Disney character for a human–but at the same time he's not quite a mouse. Just like Hello Kitty isn't a human, she's not quite a cat either." Sanrio stated further, "Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat. It's going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat." There have been several different animated series starring Hello Kitty. The first
12877-418: The character" and "be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty." Another explanation Sanrio has given for Hello Kitty's lack of a mouth is that she "speaks from the heart. She's Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any particular language." However, Yuko Yamaguchi has also said that "Kitty has a mouth" that is "hidden in the fur". Representatives for Sanrio have said that they see Hello Kitty as
13040-731: The city Yanjing , or the "Yan Capital." Also in the Tang dynasty, the city's name Jicheng was replaced by Youzhou or Yanjing. In 938, after the fall of the Tang, the Later Jin ceded the frontier territory including what is now Beijing to the Khitan Liao dynasty, which treated the city as Nanjing , or the "Southern Capital", one of four secondary capitals to complement its "Supreme Capital" Shangjing (modern Baarin Left Banner in Inner Mongolia ). Some of
13203-443: The city burned 26.3 million tons of coal, 73% of which for heating and power generation and the remainder for industry. Much of the city's air pollutants are emitted by neighboring regions. Coal consumption in neighboring Tianjin is expected to increase from 48 to 63 million tons from 2011 to 2015. Hebei Province burned over 300 million tons of coal in 2011, more than all of Germany, of which only 30% were used for power generation and
13366-712: The city such as the Beijing National Stadium and National Center for the Performing Arts . Since 2007, buildings in Beijing have received the CTBUH Skyscraper Award for best overall tall building twice, for the Linked Hybrid building in 2009 and the CCTV Headquarters in 2013. The CTBUH Skyscraper award for best tall overall building is given to only one building around the world every year. In
13529-450: The city to provide electricity as well as heating during the winter. The first one (Gaojing Thermal Power Plant) was shut down in 2014. Another two were shut in March 2015. The last one (Huaneng Thermal Power Plant) would be shut in 2016. Between 2013 and 2017, the city planned to reduce 13 million tons of coal consumption and cap coal consumption to 15 million tons in 2015. The government sometimes uses cloud-seeding measures to increase
13692-518: The city was officially designated the capital of the Ming dynasty in the same year that the Forbidden City was completed. Beijing became the empire's primary capital, and Yingtian, also called Nanjing ("Southern Capital"), became the co-capital. (A 1425 order by Zhu Di's son, the Hongxi Emperor , to return the primary capital to Nanjing was never carried out: he died, probably of a heart attack,
13855-667: The city with the largest scientific research output by the Nature Index since the list's inception in 2016. Beijing hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many organizations, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Silk Road Fund , the Chinese Academy of Sciences , the Chinese Academy of Engineering ,
14018-542: The city. Mountains to the north, northwest and west shield the city and northern China's agricultural heartland from the encroaching desert steppes. The northwestern part of the municipality, especially Yanqing District and Huairou District , are dominated by the Jundu Mountains , while the western part is framed by Xishan or the Western Hills . The Great Wall of China across the northern part of Beijing Municipality
14181-580: The city. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident triggered the Second Sino-Japanese War , World War II as it is known in China. During the war, Beijing fell to Japan on 29 July 1937 and was made the seat of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China , a puppet state that ruled the ethnic-Chinese portions of Japanese-occupied northern China . This government was later merged into
14344-563: The city; the Beijing Weather Modification Office sometimes artificially induces rainfall to fight such storms and mitigate their effects. In the first four months of 2006 alone, there were no fewer than eight such storms. In April 2002, one dust storm alone dumped nearly 50,000 tons of dust onto the city before moving on to Japan and Korea. The municipal government is regulated by the Municipal Committee of
14507-557: The client and game systems. A press release was also posted on the Sanrio Digital blog. Applications to participate in the Founders' Beta were accepted through email, through which 20,000 accounts were issued. A public stress test was announced on February 2, 2009, and ran from February 14 though February 17. All SanrioTown members, except those located in Europe, were invited to participate in
14670-423: The closed beta announcement, and included humorous comments from influential game blog Kotaku, ValleyWag, InventorSpot, Japanator, and others. While the game was generally positively received, many players became frustrated with the lack of attention to the game by its developers and a large portion quit the game. An increasing number of the remaining players, however, are attempting to encourage new players to join
14833-636: The construction of the Beijing Subway and the 2nd Ring Road . During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the Red Guard movement began in Beijing and the city's government fell victim to one of the first purges. By the autumn of 1966, all city schools were shut down and over a million Red Guards from across the country gathered in Beijing for eight rallies in Tian'anmen Square with Mao. In April 1976,
14996-447: The early 21st century, Beijing has witnessed tremendous growth of new building constructions, exhibiting various modern styles from international designers, most pronounced in the CBD region. A mixture of both 1950s design and neofuturistic style of architecture can be seen at the 798 Art Zone , which mixes the old with the new. Beijing's tallest building is the 528-meter China Zun . Beijing
15159-469: The emergence of kawaii culture, which embraces cuteness. UNICEF named Hello Kitty as children's ambassador to the United States in 1983, children's ambassador in Japan in 1994, and gave her the title of UNICEF Special Friend of Children in 2004, a title unique to her. Originally, Hello Kitty was only marketed towards a child and preteen audience. In the 1990s, the target market for Hello Kitty
15322-487: The energy system to clean sources. Joint research between American and Chinese researchers in 2006 concluded that much of the city's pollution comes from surrounding cities and provinces. On average 35–60% of the ozone can be traced to sources outside the city. Shandong Province and Tianjin Municipality have a "significant influence on Beijing's air quality", partly due to the prevailing south/southeasterly flow during
15485-564: The event, players accumulate points which were used to calculate a charitable contribution as follows: Combat is secondary in HKO with focus on resource collecting and crafting. Several different locales based on, and named after, cities such as Beijing , Paris , London , Tokyo , and New York City are present, as well as wholly original and explorable areas. All players are represented by customizable human avatars. Available options during character creation include gender, hairstyle, eyes, skin tone, face and blood type . Combat, though not
15648-523: The fictional expansion pack is a reference to the South Park episode " Make Love, Not Warcraft ", in which the character Butters Stotch states that he prefers "Hello Kitty Island Adventure" to more violent and competitive games such as World of Warcraft . According to Sanrio Digital's April Fools' release: Island Adventure will be the first expansion pack in gaming history that will reduce rather than expand an existing game world. The plot revealed by
15811-592: The fighting, several important structures were destroyed, including the Hanlin Academy and the (new) Summer Palace . A peace agreement was concluded between the Eight-Nation Alliance and representatives of the Chinese government Li Hongzhang and Yikuang on 7 September 1901. The treaty required China to pay an indemnity of US$ 335 million (over US$ 4 billion in current dollars) plus interest over
15974-488: The first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics , and also the Summer and Winter Paralympics . Beijing combines both modern and traditional style architectures , with one side of the city being modernized and renovated to fit the times, and the other half still offering traditional hutong districts. Beijing is one of the oldest cities in the world , with a rich history dating back over three millennia. As
16137-584: The game and old ones to return as well as attempting to contact the developers. On April 1, 2008, the World of Warcraft news and strategy web site WoW Insider announced that it would no longer cover World of Warcraft , but would switch to Hello Kitty Online . The banner that originally read "WoW Insider" was replaced with one that read "HKO Insider", with images of Hello Kitty on both ends. WoW Insider 's April 1 content consisted exclusively of satirical articles (at least 26 of them) based on Hello Kitty Online. In
16300-434: The game began to disappear, many people stopped playing, but the forums were still active with old and new players, who would log on occasionally, although the game was clearly not well taken care of, since Sanrio Digital was shifting their focus to mobile games instead. The servers remained active with minimal amounts of players until around 2017, when the game was taken offline permanently, unbeknownst to many people outside of
16463-571: The game community MMOSite to give away more accounts to beta testers. On September 12, 2008, news was posted on the Official Blog announcing a Beta stage called "Founders' Beta" scheduled to run from October 8, 2008, to November 8, 2008. Players who are selected for the Founder's Beta will be given special rewards, and will be able to keep characters and possessions at the end of the Founder's Beta. The announcement stated that there would be improvements to
16626-417: The game's decline in popularity. A few parts of the game were undeveloped in the game's earlier stages, which caused some people to stop playing after finishing the story. A physical release of the game was announced, but delayed, so it didn't sell as well as it could have. In 2010, Sanrio announced a Tokyo city quest, but it was never released. Instead, players got a stripped down New York quest. The final quest
16789-569: The ground two years later. Two generations later, Kublai Khan ordered the construction of Dadu (or Daidu to the Mongols, commonly known as Khanbaliq ), a new capital for his Yuan dynasty to the northeast of the Zhongdu ruins. The construction took from 1264 to 1293, but greatly enhanced the status of a city on the northern fringe of China proper . The city was centered on the Drum Tower slightly to
16952-712: The influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone . Spring can bear witness to sandstorms blowing in from the Gobi Desert across the Mongolian steppe , accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn, similar to spring, is a season of transition and minimal precipitation. From 2001 to 2024, the hottest period in Beijing is early August, and the coldest period is late January. According to China's seasonal division standard, Beijing enters spring on 26 March, summer on 20 May, autumn on 13 September, and winter on 31 October. The average annual temperature in
17115-726: The international market. By 2010 the character was worth $ 5 billion a year and The New York Times called her a "global marketing phenomenon". She did about $ 8 billion at retail in 2013. UNICEF has appointed Hello Kitty children's ambassador and the Japanese government appointed her ambassador of tourism. There are Sanrio theme parks based on Hello Kitty: Harmonyland in Hiji, Ōita , Japan, Sanrio Puroland in Tama New Town , Tokyo , Japan, and Hello Kitty Shanghai Times in Shanghai , China. The Hello Kitty media franchise has grown to include
17278-461: The lack of customization options for each character (e.g. dye kits or ways to change the color of the home items) was noted. IGN 's hands-on review of the Closed Beta was largely favorable, concluding: After going through most everything the beta had to offer, including making stylish blue jeans, purchasing a Japanese garden, and getting a freaking T-rex as a pet, I can say that Hello Kitty Online
17441-616: The larger Wang Jingwei government based in Nanjing. In the final phases of the Chinese Civil War , the People's Liberation Army seized control of the city peacefully on 31 January 1949 in the course of the Pingjin Campaign . On 1 October that year, Mao Zedong announced the creation of the People's Republic of China from atop Tian'anmen . He restored the name of the city, as
17604-520: The largest fleets in the world. Beijing became the first city in China to require the Chinese equivalent to the Euro 4 emission standard . Coal burning accounts for about 40% of the PM 2.5 in Beijing and is also the chief source of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide. Since 2012, the city has been converting coal-fired power stations to burn natural gas and aims to cap annual coal consumption at 20 million tons. In 2011,
17767-549: The largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies in the world, as well as the world's four biggest financial institutions by total assets. It is also a major hub for the national highway , expressway , railway , and high-speed rail networks. For a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic , the Beijing Capital International Airport was Asia's busiest airport (2009–2019) and the second busiest airport in
17930-476: The last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China , Beijing has been the political center of the country for most of the past eight centuries, and was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium CE . With mountains surrounding the inland city on three sides, in addition to the old inner and outer city walls , Beijing was strategically poised and developed to be
18093-422: The late 1990s. At that time, several celebrities, such as Mariah Carey , had adopted Hello Kitty as a fashion statement. New products featuring the character were made available in a large variety of American department stores . Hello Kitty's popularity in Japan peaked in the late 1990s when she was the country's top-grossing character. In 2002, Hello Kitty lost her place as the top-grossing character in Japan in
18256-462: The likelihood of rain showers in the region to clear the air prior to large events, such as prior to the 60th anniversary parade in 2009 as well as to combat drought conditions in the area. More recently, however, the government has increased its usage of such measures as closing factories temporarily and implementing greater restrictions for cars on the road, as in the case of " APEC blue " and "parade blue", short periods during and immediately preceding
18419-427: The limited number of testing accounts available, applicants were instructed to create a video explaining why the applicant should be chosen to participate in the closed beta test. This submission process ran until March 10, 2008 with selected applications being announced on March 18, 2008. The Closed Beta phase began on April 23, 2008, and ran through June 1, 2008. During this Closed Beta period, Sanrio Digital joined with
18582-448: The loyal fandom. The exact shutdown date is unknown, but a fan blog claims the last time they were able to log in was in August 2017. On September 21, 2023, at around 18:00 Tokyo local time they had announced via email that, "...After careful consideration and evaluation of our business operations, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cease the operations of SanrioTown. As a result,
18745-475: The majority of MMORPGs players receive experience points and level increments by defeating opponents and completing quests; this is not the case in HKO , where players level-up primarily through resource collection and item crafting. Collecting resources is an important aspect of HKO because many items found in the game are obtained by crafting or purchasing from NPC vendors. Crafted items are generally superior to items bought from NPC vendors. Players must have
18908-406: The marketplace Reverb.com . While it originally retailed for $ 230, some re-sold for over $ 1,000. In 2022, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch parodying Hello Kitty's backstory (described by The A.V. Club as "incongruous, corporate-sanctioned") and Sanrio's handling of it. The sketch centers on managers at a fictional Hello Kitty store. They describe the character in contradictory terms as
19071-565: The municipality, including in Wangfujing , located in central Peking. The first walled city in Beijing was Jicheng , the capital city of the state of Ji which was built in 1045 BC. Within modern Beijing, Jicheng was located around the present Guang'anmen area in the south of Xicheng District . This settlement was later conquered by the state of Yan and made its capital. After the First Emperor unified China in 221 BC, Jicheng became
19234-436: The name Kiss Hello Kitty (that paired animated versions of the members of the rock band KISS with Hello Kitty) was announced in March 2013. Produced by Gene Simmons , this show was supposed to air on The Hub Network (now Discovery Family ), but it never came to fruition. Hello Kitty's Paradise [ ja ] was a long-running live-action children's program that aired on TXN from January 1999 to March 2011. It
19397-519: The new capital, to Beijing, a decision that had been reached by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference just a few days earlier. In the 1950s, the city began to expand beyond the old walled city and its surrounding neighborhoods, with heavy industries in the west and residential neighborhoods in the north . Many areas of the Beijing city wall were torn down in the 1960s to make way for
19560-534: The newest 2D animated Hello Kitty series Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures on YouTube on 26 October 2020. Hello Kitty had two Japanese comic series serialized in Ribon , a shōjo manga magazine - Hello Kitty Doki (ran from May 2007 to April 2008) and Hello Kitty Peace (released in June 2008). In March 2016, Sanrio launched a webcomic featuring Hello Kitty as a strawberry -themed superhero called Ichigoman ( ichigo meaning strawberry). The webcomic
19723-415: The next month. He was buried, like almost every Ming emperor to follow him, in an elaborate necropolis to Beijing's north.) By the 15th century, Beijing had essentially taken its current shape. The Ming city wall continued to serve until modern times, when it was pulled down and the 2nd Ring Road was built in its place. It is generally believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world for most of
19886-596: The north of modern Beijing and stretched from the present-day Chang'an Avenue to the northern part of Line 10 subway . Remnants of the Yuan rammed earth wall still stand and are known as the Tucheng. In 1368, soon after declaring the new Hongwu era of the Ming dynasty , the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang captured Dadu/Khanbaliq and razed the Yuan palaces to the ground. Since the Yuan continued to occupy Shangdu and Mongolia , Dadu
20049-464: The plains in the south-central of the municipality with elevation of 40 to 60 metres (130–200 feet), occupies a relatively small but expanding portion of the municipality's area. The city spreads out in concentric ring roads . The Second Ring Road traces the old city walls and the Sixth Ring Road connects satellite towns in the surrounding suburbs. Tian'anmen and Tian'anmen Square are at
20212-479: The plants will dry out and die. But be aware that there are moles that sometimes come to farms to eat your plants. Every defeated monster in HKO has a chance of dropping a rare pet card that can be used to gain that monster's service, effectively making that monster a player's pet. Players may own a maximum of 3 pets in total, and only one pet can be used at any time. Pets have a variety of roles: they can act as mules, providing extra inventory space; some pets provide
20375-536: The players themselves but can be traded to other players) and Furniture. Each player receives a starter farm upon entering the game for the first time. The farm serves as the primary form of income in the game. Crops grown on the farm can be sold, traded to other players, or crafted into different items. Players can also purchase bigger and nicer (and pricier) farms. Successful farming requires players to take into consideration variables such as land fertility, pests and growth factors. If you don't water your farm frequently,
20538-467: The previous Food For Friends, with players from North America, Singapore, Malaysia and Europe invited to participate. During the 10-day event, players from the various regions donated in-game items which were converted to US$ 18,038.30, the donations being delivered to Doctors Without Borders in response to the earthquake in Haiti. A new event, Chocolate Harbor Rescue , was released on September 9, 2010. During
20701-437: The primary focus of the game, is still relevant. Weapons take the form of various blunt implements such as brooms, flyswatters and microphone stands. Players enter combat by right-clicking on a nearby monster, at which point the avatar and the monster will begin to exchange blows. Monsters don't die in HKO , but when their health bar is fully depleted they become dizzy, pass out and are defeated, allowing players to loot them. In
20864-471: The profits gained by adding a cute design to the shoes and hired cartoonists to design cute characters for his merchandise. Hello Kitty was designed by Yuko Shimizu and was added to the lineup of early Sanrio characters in 1974. Hello Kitty was initially known only as "the white kitten with no name" ( 名前のない白い子猫 ) . Shimizu got the name Kitty from Lewis Carroll 's Through the Looking-Glass ; during
21027-476: The public stress test. The public stress test was extended until February 22, during which a new charity event was announced, allowing players to craft in-game items. Similar to the previous Food for Friends event, the actual in-game items were used as a conversion rate to real-world goods which were donated to the Po Leung Kuk residential child care unit. From November 3 to 6, 2008, Sanrio ran Food for Friends ,
21190-596: The residence of the emperor and thus was the perfect location for the imperial capital. The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates . Beijing is one of the most important tourist destinations in the world. In 2018, Beijing was the second highest earning tourist city in the world after Shanghai . Beijing is home to many national monuments and museums and has eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites —the Forbidden City , Temple of Heaven , Summer Palace , Ming Tombs , Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site , Beijing Central Axis and parts of
21353-521: The rule of the Qing dynasty over China was restored, albeit much weakened by the defeat it had suffered in the Boxer Rebellion and by the indemnity and stipulations of the peace treaty. The Dowager died in 1908 and the dynasty imploded in 1911. The fomenters of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 sought to replace Qing rule with a republic and leaders like Sun Yat-sen originally intended to return
21516-602: The same year. Hello Kitty Online was originally published by Burda:ic in Europe, with the game commercially launching on September 25, 2009. On March 26, 2010, Burdia:ic and SanrioDigital formally announced that SanrioDigital will begin self-publishing the European version of HKO. On April 7, 2010, Burda: ceased to publish HKO Europe. SanrioDigital announced C2 Vision as the publisher of HKO in Thailand on October 14, 2009. The Thai version of HKO went into closed beta on May 28, 2010, with
21679-534: The scene, the Virgin Mary was replaced by Madonna with an open Chanel bra, the three Kings were all Bart Simpson , the stable was marked by a McDonald's logo, and the Christ Child was replaced by Hello Kitty. This contemporary revision of the nativity scene demonstrated Sachs' interest in the phenomena of consumerism , branding, and the cultural fetishization of products. Many audiences instead took offense to
21842-471: The song seven years prior. There are numerous Hello Kitty games starting with the release of the first title for Famicom in 1992; however, the majority of these games were never released outside of Japan. Hello Kitty also has made cameo appearances in games featuring other Sanrio characters, such as the Keroppi game, Kero Kero Keroppi no Bōken Nikki: Nemureru Mori no Keroleen . Special-edition consoles such as
22005-477: The squirrel Rorry. Aside from the core Hello Kitty characters, several spinoff characters have been created: Hello Kitty's boyfriend Dear Daniel in 1999, Charmmy Kitty , Hello Kitty's pet cat, and Sugar, her pet hamster, both in 2004, and her superhero alter-ego Ichigoman in 2011. SFGATE said in 2004 that in light of the level of success of Hello Kitty, her fictional biography "seems almost too modest – or irrelevant" and "doesn't seem to have played much of
22168-789: The summer and the mountains to the north and northwest. In preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics and to fulfill promises to clean up the city's air, nearly US$ 17 billion was spent. Beijing implemented a number of air improvement schemes for the duration of the Games, including halting work at all construction sites, closing many factories in Beijing permanently, temporarily shutting industry in neighboring regions, closing some gas stations, and cutting motor traffic by half by limiting drivers to odd or even days (based on their license plate numbers) , reducing bus and subway fares, opening new subway lines, and banning high-emission vehicles. The city further assembled 3,800 natural gas -powered buses, one of
22331-427: The surface were decreased, whereas ground and near-surface air temperatures , vertical air dilution and ozone levels were increased. Because of the combined factors of urbanization and pollution caused by burning of fossil fuel , Beijing is often affected by serious environmental problems, which lead to health issues of many inhabitants. In 2013 heavy smog struck Beijing and most parts of northern China, impacting
22494-497: The theme would help ease the stress of childbirth. Dr. Martens collaborated with Hello Kitty in 2010 and 2020. The 2020 collaboration includes platform boots, platform sandals as well as a satchel. Forever 21 collaborated with Hello Kitty on clothing collections several times, the first one in 2011. In 2018, Puma collaborated with Hello Kitty to create a collection which features sneakers for both children and adults. Also in 2018, Converse collaborated with Sanrio to create
22657-399: The urban area of Beijing is 12.9 °C (55.2 °F) to 13.3 °C (55.9 °F), of which the average daily minimum temperature is 7.7 °C (45.9 °F) to 8.4 °C (47.1 °F), and the average daily maximum temperature is 18.5 °C (65.3 °F) to 18.9 °C (66.0 °F). The monthly daily average temperature in January is −2.7 °C (27.1 °F), while in July it
22820-407: The use of the game and SanrioTown web site as a social community platform. A number of social features found on SanrioTown were integrated directly into the game client, and HKO players are able to access SanrioTown's video sharing service, blogs and emails with a hellokitty.com address. Players can also participate in the discussions posted on the community forums. The official HKO website includes
22983-587: The warlords commanding the regional armies. Following the success of the Kuomintang 's Northern Expedition , the capital was formally moved to Nanjing in 1928. On 28 June the same year, Beijing's name was returned to Beiping (written at the time as "Peiping"). On 7 July 1937, the 29th Army and the Japanese army in China exchanged fire at the Marco Polo Bridge near the Wanping Fortress southwest of
23146-597: The website of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BJEPB). The American Embassy of Beijing also reports hourly fine particulate (PM2.5) and ozone levels on Twitter. Since the BJEPB and US Embassy measure different pollutants according to different criteria, the pollution levels and the impact to human health reported by the BJEPB are often lower than that reported by the US Embassy. The smog
23309-592: The wine market with a collection of four wines available for purchase online, continuing the expansion of product lines targeted at older audiences. Hello Kitty is included as part of the Sanrio livery at the Japanese theme parks Harmonyland and Sanrio Puroland . The Hello Kitty Shanghai Times theme park in Shanghai , China opened in 2019. A theme park called Hello Kitty Town existed in Iskandar Puteri , Johor , Malaysia from 2012 to 2019. In 2014, Sanrio partnered with
23472-448: The world (2010–2019). In 2020, the Beijing subway was the fourth busiest and second longest in the world . The Beijing Daxing International Airport , Beijing's second international airport, is the largest single-structure airport terminal in the world. The city has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2008 Summer Paralympics Games. In 2022, Beijing became
23635-488: Was Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater , an animated television series with 13 22-minute episodes that premiered in 1987. The next, an OVA titled Hello Kitty and Friends , spanned 30 entries originally released in Japan between 1989 and 1994. Hello Kitty's Paradise came out in 1999 and was 16 episodes long. Hello Kitty's Stump Village came out in 2005, and The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends came out in 2008 and has aired 52 episodes. A crossover series under
23798-713: Was " laissez-faire " compared to companies like Disney , and that they have let artists use Hello Kitty's likeness without interfering. In 2015, a nine-foot tall pearlescent Hello Kitty sculpture by artist Sebastian Masuda was exhibited at the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza in New York City , as part of the Japan Society's exhibition: Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection . Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne wrote and recorded
23961-407: Was also chosen by AH Software to be the basis of the new Vocaloid Nekomura Iroha ( 猫村いろは , Nekomura Iroha ) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sanrio. Musician Yoshiki unveiled the Hello Kitty theme song "Hello Hello" in November 2014 at the first Hello Kitty Con. Yoshiki, who was the first celebrity to have his own Hello Kitty doll, "Yoshikitty", was approached by Yamaguchi to compose
24124-452: Was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing (the "Southern Capital"). The English spelling Beijing is based on the government's official romanization (adopted in the 1980s) of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin . An older English spelling, Peking , was used by Jesuit missionary Martino Martini in a popular atlas published in Amsterdam in 1655. Although Peking
24287-436: Was awarded a Best Digital Entertainment Award for the 2008 Hong Kong ICT Awards. In 2015, the HKO database from the SanrioTown website was leaked online, exposing the private information from 3.3 million accounts, including first and last names, birthdays, gender, country of origin, passwords, and email addresses. This indirectly lead to the removal of any functionality of the Item Mall. There were many factors that went into
24450-409: Was bilingual or Chinese. This early Qing Beijing later formed the setting for the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber . Northwest of the city, Qing emperors built several large palatial gardens including the Old Summer Palace and the Summer Palace . During the Second Opium War , Anglo-French forces captured the outskirts of the city, looting and burning the Old Summer Palace in 1860. Under
24613-435: Was broadened to include teenagers and adults as a retro brand . Marketing to those who could not get Hello Kitty merchandise as children, and those who fondly remember items they had, Sanrio began selling Hello Kitty branded products such as purses and laptops. The 1994–1996 Face series was the first to be designed specifically for mature consumers. The Hello Kitty brand rose to greater prominence internationally during
24776-400: Was built on the rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes. Mount Dongling , in the Western Hills and on the border with Hebei , is the municipality's highest point, with an altitude of 2,303 metres (7,556 ft). Major rivers flowing through the municipality, including the Chaobai , Yongding , Juma , are all tributaries in the Hai River system, and flow in
24939-427: Was created in 1974 and the first item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in 1975. Originally, Hello Kitty was only marketed towards pre-teenage girls, but beginning in the 1990s, the brand found commercial success among teenage and adult consumers as well. Hello Kitty's popularity also grew with the emergence of kawaii (cute) culture. The brand went into decline in Japan after the 1990s, but continued to grow in
25102-428: Was found to be difficult and players complained that they had to ask their guild mates to help. Hello Kitty Online 's Closed Beta was praised for being largely free of bugs; the help and support provided by the developers was praised by players as swift and earnest, and it was considered a remarkable achievement by one reviewer. A post on the Outblaze Blog dated February 15, 2008, summarized several online reactions to
25265-611: Was issued. According to Beijing's environmental protection bureau's announcement in November 2016, starting from 2017 highly polluting old cars will be banned from being driven whenever Smog "red alerts" are issued in the city or neighboring regions. In recent years, there has been measurable reductions in pollutants after the "war on pollution" was declared in 2014, with Beijing seeing a 35% reduction in fine particulates in 2017 and further reduction by 2020. The primary factors behind this reduction were replacing coal power with natural gas and cleaning up polluting industrial facilities in
25428-404: Was paying money in exchange for points using game cards. Hello Kitty Online 's Closed Beta garnered mixed, though mostly positive, reactions from the media and players. Noctalis.com called it "a cloyingly sweet pink-filled wonderland of talking animals set to a chirpy soundtrack". The game's sprite-based and isometric perspective 2.5D graphics were criticized as 10-year-old technology, and
25591-423: Was responsible for half of Sanrio's $ 1 billion net income, and there were over 50,000 different Hello Kitty branded products in more than 60 countries. By 2010 the character was worth $ 5 billion a year and The New York Times called her a "global marketing phenomenon". Worldwide annual sales reached $ 8 billion in 2013. In July 2008, the Dutch artist Dick Bruna , creator of Miffy , alleged that Hello Kitty
25754-950: Was revealed that New Line Cinema would be teaming up alongside Sanrio and Flynn Picture Company for an "English language film based on the venerable kid brand." In 2021, it was reported that Jennifer Coyle and Leo Matsuda had been hired to direct the film with Lindsey Beer set to pen the script. Originally aimed at the pre-adolescent female market, the Hello Kitty product range has expanded from dolls, stickers, greeting cards, board games, clothes, backpacks, lunch boxes, piggy banks, pencils, erasers, accessories, school supplies and stationery to purses, toasters, televisions, other home appliances, massagers, motor oil and computer equipment. These products range from mass market items to high-end consumer products and rare collectibles. As of 2014 , more than 50,000 Hello Kitty product lines were available in over 130 countries. Sanrio and various corporate partners have released Hello Kitty-branded products, including
25917-400: Was set on 15 June 1942). See or edit raw graph data . Three styles of architecture are predominant in urban Beijing. First, there is the traditional architecture of imperial China, perhaps best exemplified by the massive Tian'anmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace), which remains the People's Republic of China's trademark edifice, the Forbidden City , the Imperial Ancestral Temple and
26080-463: Was the 2012 Valentine's Day quest. According to MMO Fallout, Sanrio stopped supporting the game in March 2012. Presumably, this is when download links to the game were removed from the website. The game stopped receiving any updates, and was essentially abandoned. Sometime after, the original site, hellokittyonline.com, redirected to the SanrioTown website, which blocked users from making new accounts (although some found ways around it). Because traces of
26243-434: Was the longest-running weekly kids' television program in the network's history. In January 2011, the show's creators mutually agreed to end the series after twelve seasons, with the final episode being broadcast on 29 March 2011. In August 2018, Sanrio began streaming a CGI animated series on YouTube . It features Hello Kitty talking to the camera about her life in the style of vlogging YouTubers. Sanrio began streaming
26406-508: Was the third highest-grossing character in Japan as of 2013. In 2019 and 2020, Character Databank ranked her fifth, and as of 2021 she was out of the top five. Overseas, her global popularity has increased over the years. According to Sanrio, Hello Kitty was appearing on 12,000 new products each year as of 1999. Beginning in 2007, following trends in Japan, Sanrio began using darker designs for Hello Kitty with more black and less pink and pulled away from kawaii styles. By 2008, Hello Kitty
26569-449: Was used to supply the Ming military garrisons in the area and renamed Beiping ( Wade–Giles : Peip'ing, "Northern Peace"). Under the Hongwu Emperor's feudal policies, Beiping was given to his son Zhu Di , who was created " Prince of Yan ". The early death of Zhu Yuanzhang 's heir led to a succession struggle upon his death, one that ended with the victory of Zhu Di and the declaration of the new Yongle era . Since his harsh treatment of
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