Vote for Thalia! Help a Charity!

Ex-Shanghaiist writer Thalia Kwok recently wrote a travel piece that made it into the semi-finals of the NYCGo Writing Contest. Her piece is about one of her favorite places when she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Chongqing - the 18 Staircases Teahouse.

The winner gets a $10,000 contract to be a writer in residence in New York City for two weeks to write 30 Trazzler trips covering the five boroughs there. Hotel and airfare paid for.

Thalia's said that if she gets the grand prize, she'll donate half the money ($5000 USD) to a charity in China. She hasn't decided exactly which one yet, but hey - if there's one thing we're good at here at Shanghaiist, it's sniffing out great charitable organizations.

Winning the contest requires having a huge number of people show support by "wishlisting the trip." It only takes a second: Click this link to Thalia's piece and then hit the Wishlist. Voting ends on September 14.

You don't need a separate Trazzler account, just have it connect to your Facebook and voila, you've helped Thalia and some to-be-determined charity in China!

Oh... right... that's still blocked isn't it. Well, Trazzler's not that annoying a service so maybe it'll be worth signing up for anyway!