From Reuters:Shanghai police will post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on TV in a bid to shame them out of breaking traffic rules, local media reported on Thursday. Offending pedestrians, moped riders and cyclists would be snapped at selected intersections and their images put in regular columns and on special television programmes set up by police, the Shanghai Daily said. The scheme had come under fire from lawyers who said public humiliation... [continue]

Jocelyn Ford reports from Beijing:A Tibetan street hawker lives in a community of migrant workers in the outskirts of Beijing. Hostilities toward her escalated after the March riots in Lhasa. She and her son are delighted to find they are welcome at the Olympic stadium.... [continue]

This article in the China Daily caught our attention:Three hundred and twelve travelers were found to be HIV positive in the first seven months of this year, up 19 percent year-on-year, a report released Tuesday showed. They were among 756,000 travelers who received random blood checks at border crossings, according to the report compiled by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). The increase in positive cases was mainly due to the... [continue]

From NoComment TV:Athletes, officials and spectators leave Beijing after Olympic Games. The chinese capital begins to return to normal after Olympics.... [continue]

THE HEROES: Natalie Du Toit: This 24 year old South African swimmer became the first female amputee swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics, and placed a very commendable 16th in a field of 24 in the 10,000m swim. Du Toit first started competing internationally at the age of 14, but in 2001, her left leg was amputated at the knee after a car accident. The traumatic experience not only did not stop her from... [continue]

The Olympics has come and gone without a hitch and while BOCOG officials can finally heave a sigh of relief, we have a few questions in our mind — Will people on the streets continue to be as friendly? Will counterfeit products be kept off the streets? Will it be as easy to get work visas as it was before all this Olympics hoopla came along? Japan's Fuji TV has the answers to one of... [continue]

Photo by fateless_gypsy More photos on 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 (and here).... [continue]

For those of you that still haven't gotten around to your own illegal hike up the World Financial Center, you'll be glad to know you can soon get a bird's eye view of the city from the top of that building without risking arrest. Yes, the building that's been through many trials and tribulations will finally be open this Saturday. Apparently, the gallery located on the 100th floor of the skyscraper at a height of... [continue]

The Chinese internets are abuzz with the idea that China's final medal count of 51 golds, 22 silvers and 28 bronzes coincides with the date and time of May's devastating Sichuan earthquake — 5.12, 2:28pm. We must admit we ourselves were kind of freaked out by the connection when we first heard this. Were the heavens trying to tell us something? Alas, if only it were really true. China won 21 silvers at last count,... [continue]

BBC: Chinese mob thinks ex Olympian Steve Parry is Michael Phelps MSNBC: Lang Lang, the superpianist MSNBC: Jack Ma of Alibaba fame MSNBC: Su Fei of Sexy Beijing... [continue]

The closing ceremony of the Beijing Games was star-studded and glitzy as promised, but those that came expecting to be wowed off their socks as they were by the opening went away disappointed (read the reactions from China-based twitteratti). After all, Zhang Yimou and company did so spectacularly well in the opening they couldn't have possibly done better. Or could they? Quite frankly, we thought the ceremony was going to end after David Beckham's grand... [continue]

Photo of the Bird's Nest by stelzer The report card Deutsche Welle: Controversial Beijing Games Close in Spectacular, Surreal Style AP: Mixed legacy likely as China's Olympics conclude Reuters: No medals for China, IOC from rights groups Reuters: China basks in the glow of success of Games Al-Jazeera: Olympic chief praises Beijing games Seattle Times: China put on great show in Beijing, but with iron fist The Scotsman: Olympics: The gold medal for public... [continue]

Tonight's star-studded Olympic closing ceremony will feature David Beckham, Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame While we aren't able to provide you with any spoilers like we did for the opening ceremony, executive vice president of NBC Olympics David Neal made his way to a college campus 90 minutes west of Beijing where secret rehearsals were being conducted and exclaimed, "It's just unlike any other closing ceremony I've ever seen." While... [continue]

We've previously noted how Al-Jazeera's treatment of the Tibet issue tends to be somewhat lopsided, but this latest report on Islam in China which features interviewees from both ends of the political spectrum does exhibit cognisance of the various sensitivities and the interplay of a variety of complex factors. The heterogeneity of Muslims in China makes them a highly fascinating group to study, if we can even consider them as a "group" to begin with.... [continue]

The latest edition of Sexy Beijing explores the phenomenon of parents seeking partners for their children at 'Parental Matchmaking Sessions' in parks — a trend that has caught the attention of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who recently floated the idea to the city-state of 4 million in his National Day Rally speech as a way to increase the republic's fertility rate of 1.29, which is far below the replacement level of 2.1.... [continue]

OMG was our first reaction when we saw this recreation of the Olympic Village in Beijing — yes, the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, the media tower and all — which took world record cardstacker Bryan Berg several days to build (in a Hong Kong shopping mall), 140,000 cards and NO super glue! We've seen the real Olympic Village, but this is awesome shit. Apparently some of Berg's works can even support up to 108 kg... [continue]

For those of you that saw the 100M Butterfly final, you'll know Michael Phelps was off to a really bad start in the first lap, but he made a miraculous comeback in the second to finish first by just 0.01 second in what's been dubbed his "fingernail victory". And now the heretofore unseen camera angle from the perspective of silver medallist Milorad Čavić of Serbia. (h/t Towleroad)... [continue]

“Because we are in such a system, we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed. We are always eager to get other information from different channels. But when you are in a so-called free system you never think about whether you are brainwashed.” — Tang Jie, a graduate student with Shanghai's Fudan University and a fen qing (or "angry youth") to Evan Osnos, who wrote a highly commendable piece on China's angry youth... [continue]

We agree with WSJ's Sky Canave's observation about the sad lack of food options on the Olympic Green. McDonald's, being an official Olympic sponsor, was the only restaurant on the Green (sad, isn't it?) and if you didn't want to bring yourself so low as to step into a fast food restaurant like we did, the only other options really were instant noodles (mmMMmm yummy!) and this exploding lunch box that you see here, available... [continue]

Hua Guofeng, the man to whom Chairman Mao was supposed to have said before his death, "With you in charge I'm at ease", and who ruled China briefly before slipping into obscurity when Deng Xiaopeng took over has died at the age of 87. In the early days, Hua was widely credited with the downfall of the Gang of Four but that all changed after Deng took over.An earlier report by The Times (UK) that... [continue]