Extra! Extra! Troubadours, unions and backyard wells

• A small debate is raging on the internet about the place of street culture in Shanghai. This after a 24-year-old troubadour complained about being fined five yuan and kicked out of the Caobao Lu subway stop because Shanghai doesn't allow begging or any kinds of performances in or near subway stops.
• Wal-Mart employees in China have formed their own union. Says the report:

  Wal-Mart has long battled to bar unions from its stores, in the United States in particular, but the government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions, or ACFTU, has been campaigning aggressively to set up branches in the company's 60 outlets in China. Senior Chinese officials and the state-controlled media have accused Wal-Mart of obstructing efforts to unionize its work force.

  One step closer to a worker's paradise!

• Construction of China's first massive underground bunker is underway in Shanghai. It can hold up to 200,000 people, which means the rest of us get incinerated. It is connected to subway stations and office buildings, in case you need your Starbucks fix before the apocalypse.
• Hong Kong is vying for the first Asian David Beckham Football Academy, though if we know anything about Shanghai, it's that it will vie for one as well.
• A Hubei land-rights activist said he was paralyzed from the neck down after being attacked by assailants. Not so, say the authorities: He broke his own neck.
• From Cattlenetwork.com we have a report about the labor riots at a Dongguan toy factory. Mattel and McDonald's, two of the major companies that the factory makes products for, did an investigation and found that the riot had nothing to do with poor working conditions. Earth to McDonald's: People will riot when you serve them stale fries at the mess hall day in and day out.
• Shanghai's temperature reached 37 degrees over the weekendbut the surface temperature on the elevated roads was upwards of 50 degrees, which is why from 12-2 pm, they had to douse the entire road with several tons of water in order to bring down the temperature.
• We like the title of this article on Chinese basketball's recent loss to Spain: 63∶97再负西班牙 中国男篮挽回点颜面. The title says that China managed to regain some face, despite losing by a whopping thirty-four points. This is because in the previous game, they lost to Spain by 47 points.
• The rate of non-performing or bad loans in Shanghai has decreased so that they now occupy about 2.75 percent of the total amount of loans, whereas the national level is 3.82 percent.
• There's a new fad among people who live in big houses out in the 'burbs of Shanghai: Digging wells in their backyards. The cost? A mere 300 yuan.
• This blogger debates with himself the reason why Park 97 in Shanghai has lasted as long as it has, not so much in comparison with other places in Shanghai, but with popular nightlife spots in Beijing.
• Lupu Bridge was where the party was last night, as a bunch of Chinese and foreigners got together to celebrate Qi Xi, Chinese Valentine's Day.

Photo by Thomas Will taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site.