Other: November 2009 Archives

Even though our very own Eric Hu will be evaluating a series of hot pot restaurants for the winter season, we need to give the restaurant chain, Haidilao (海底捞火锅), a shout out for having captured the Chinese entrepreneurship in restaurant service form (even if veers very far from our Western/foregin standards of what is considered “appropriate"). If the patron has not made a reservation, Haidilao offers a variety of free services in their waiting rooms; aside from the comfortable sofas and chairs, diners may partake in shoe polishing, manicures, Wi-Fi, and even watch repair. There is a playground for kids, as well as chessboards, cards, and newspapers. And that's before actual dining has even occurred. After viewing the elaborate display of available sauces, we knew we were sold.

Usually when we wax on the topic of Chinese jails, we invariably chat about beatings, places to detain dissidents and "innocent" games of cat & mouse turning into something more sinister. We don't usually think of basketball courts, East-West fusion architecture or greenery.

      

The overwhelming pinkness aside, we're going to throw this thought out there: Shanghai's ginormous Barbie store is actually pretty cool. After a few hours spent meandering through doll city (though our experience was not as intense as CNNGo's self-challenge) we decided that the awesome Barbie Spa is our favorite feature of the place. Yes, that's right - we are encouraging you to head on over to 550 Huai Hai Road to get beautified, Barbie-style.

• Gothamist was saddened after seeing why Sad Panda is so so sad.

• Continue reading "Week Around the Ists"

If there's one thing that we at Shanghaiist would like to thank the Net Nanny for, it's that she's totally reunited Chinese microbloggers with the one big happy family that is Twitter again. You see, previously, everyone was distributed across a plethora of local microblogging services, but now with the demise of the two kingpins of the Chinese twitter clone world, Fanfou and Jiwai, everyone's just decided to collectively show the GFW their middle finger by signing up for a VPN and rejoining the conversation on Twitter.

       

What's lurking underneath Tiananmen Square? It ain't just rats. In 1969, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, Mao commissioned the construction of an underground city, built right under Beijing. Fearing an imminent nuclear attack from the U.S.S.R, Dixia Cheng (地下城 the underground city) was meant to be a safeguard, designed to house 40% of the city's 7.5 million in case of catastrophe. It was meant to have apartments, stores, and even a skating rink: all the comforts of above-ground home.

Anyone who’s been trawling through the China-related web this week will surely have stumbled across the ‘Nine Nations of China’ map that surfaced on Atlantic Monthly. Patrick Chovanec, from Tsinghua University, posted his map amidst the inescapable excitement of Obama’s visit to China, reminding the US President that China is "a mosaic of several distinct regions, each with its own resources, dynamics, and historical character."

Since around March this year, a sad-looking panda has been spotted roaming the streets of New York City — on the subway, in Times Square, at various parks and around Wall Street's bull statue. Over the next few months, the Sad Panda has intrigued and fascinated New Yorkers — his short disappearance on Wall Street led a few concerned individuals to put up a missing notice, and his great makeover as Spongebob Squarepants did not go unnoticed. Turns out this Sad Panda is a 62 year old man from Guangzhou, Chen Jialing, who has now lived in the United States for many years.

Despite getting a ton of press when it first opened back in March, it looks like the Barbie Megastore on Huai Hai Road just hasn't been as popular as Mattel had hoped. The six-floor retailing monolith has been unable to make any of its "astronomical" sales targets.

Remember that fun little bike race we told you about a couple weeks ago? The Shanghai Alleycat? It happened this weekend and, happily, seemed to be a great success! Check out the winners and various links to picture galleries on the People's Bike website. Good going, guys. Hopefully, by next year, we'll actually be comfortable enough bike riders to join in on the festivities.

Tired of the same old same old every day? Then class it up this week by attending a clean energy workshop hosted by JUCCCE, a photography exhibition at Dada, and not just one, but two quiz nights held to raise money for charity.

Seattlest reminded us that we don't watch Mariners baseball for the game, we watch it for the player-on-player bromance.

• We rounded up all the news about the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions you need to know.
• We giggled at a bunch of tricky, enterprising panda cub escape artists.
• We revealed U.S. President Barack Obama's itinerary in China, before talking about the hopes surrounding his trip here, the disappointment we'll probably feel about his town hall and other Obama-themed stuff.

Earlier this year, Aritz Parra of the new video news network VJ Movement took his camera and followed Dylan Chen, one of the organisers of Shanghai Pride, mainland China's very first gay pride season. He followed the young man over the course of two months, chronicling the ups and downs Dylan and his team experienced in putting together the event. The result is this beautifully and sensitively edited video clip you see below. Check out the money shot of the plainclothes policeman videotaping one of the Shanghai Pride events.

    

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's favorite adopted animal charity.

Well gee, we guess this city is prohibitively expensive. Shanghai college students looking for romance can't catch a break - not from snooping Anti-PDA patrols and definitely not from their meager moneybags. According to Enovate, most college students get some allowance from their parents every month, but it's a pittance if you actually want to get romantic...

While on our regular traverses through the internets, we came across these hilarious netizen-made maps detailing what people from specific regions of China think about the other regions around China. And if you've ever been in a conversation with a Chinese person, you'll know they're full of opinions about what their Henan brethren are like, or what those damn Shaanxi people are always up to.

We'll be the first to admit that navigating Shanghai's streets can be a monstrous task at times. Maybe you're new to the city. Maybe, like some of us, you have the navigational ability of a sea cucumber. Either way, this shirt we found with a map of central Shanghai printed on it seems like the best low-tech way to get yourself un-lost.

In this video, a hapless zookeeper is outwitted by two mischievous panda cubs. One playfully distracts him long enough for the other to open the zoo gate. Both then make a dash for the real world. Oh pandas, if only you knew how ill-adapted to the real world you guys really were.

Seattlest talked about gay marriage, performing, and the sexiness of the Pacific Northwest with Rufus Wainwright.

On Wednesday we told you about how the recent comments of Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew made during his latest trip to the US have caused an uproar among Chinese netizens. Aside from his more controversial statements that Asia needs the United States to counterbalance a rising China and that the US needs to be "an important part" of any new East Asian architecture, Lee also gave a wide-ranging interview to the Charlie Rose Show of the PBS network. China featured heavily in the 60 minute interview which kicked off with Lee's proclamation that the United States may have half a century left as the world's dominant power. In the new world order, said Lee, the US would have to make space for China and India at the top table of the world. For the next hour or so, sit back with us and gaze into Lee Kuan Yew's crystal ball as he looks back into the past and divines the future. As always, if you're in China and still not able to watch Youtube videos, now is the time to get your VPN. Meanwhile, a full transcript of this interview is available here.

• We documented our Halloween celebration with pictures, more pictures and even a video!
• We went to Origin on Taikang Lu and found their sandwiches and salads refreshing and delicious.
• Then we headed over to three different places to get some soup for comforting our flu-ridden bodies.

• Malone's has written in to tell us that in the 15 years (count 'em!) they've been in Shanghai, they've sold a whopping 750,000 burgers. That's a lot of meat! Congratulations, Malone's, from all our deliciously clogged expat hearts.
• Six of the best bartenders in town compete to make the most delicious martinis they can. We’re especially curious about how the Minty Gin Martini and the Fig Martini taste. Mmmm… [Cityweekend]
• Speaking of drinks, Chef/owner of el Willy, Guillermo Trullas Moreno, is trying his hand at mixology at a new place called el Coctel... two floors up from The Shelter. Soft opening is expected to be in late November. [Urbanatomy]

Woah Mickey, now that Shanghai Disneyland finally seems to have gotten all its papers in order, it seems like everyone can’t stop gabbering on about it (for instance, has anyone else noticed that Shanghai Daily has kind of turned into Shanghai Disneyland Daily today). Except, we suppose, us. Hey, give us a break, we’ve been covering this roller coaster ride of a deal for so long that it being greenlighted has actually left us a little flabbergasted. And so, since we’re at a loss for words, we’ll let other people talk about what they think about the soon-to-be erected (well, at least by 2014) Sleeping Beauty castle in Pudong.

We thought we'd seen the last of babies taking drags off ciggs with the first video, but nope.

"In this province we have 30 million migrants living apart from their wives or husbands whose hunger for sex has never been recognized by society or the government...