Results tagged “accessasia”

We read a fair amount of China-related news, and it's hard not to get a bit apathetic about it all, since so much of it seems to revolve around the same few topics. Slate's article, however, touches on something we don't normally hear about: China's tomato products industry.:China, it turns out, now grows more tomatoes for processing—the kind that get turned into ketchup, pasta sauce, salsa—than any place in the world besides California, and maybe...

We are writing this while choking on second-hand smoke at a Huaihai Lu cafe/eatery. Our choice, we know, but we had a meeting here and then decided to have lunch — and now we are having our neighbor's Marlboro Lights for dessert. Anyway, a nice little midday reminder of why we prefer to work at home. But is relief on the way? According to the latest Access Asia Weekly Update, maybe so. (Keep in mind that the author of the Access Asia newsletter is a fervent supporter of smoker rights, who refers to pansies like Shanghaiist as "killjoys who think they are going to live forever."):

Shanghaiist likes to smoke. We used to enjoy Davidoff, but it seems since summer we can no longer get our favourite brand (at a cheap price) in our regular cigarette store. We normally pay RMB 11 a pack — at government run stores you have to pay RMB 18 for a pack. We have no idea what happened. Some said there is something wrong with smuggling imported cigarettes out of airports now, but why this particular brand? No idea.

Regarding yesterday's afternoon siesta taken by Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, one informed reader offered the following scenario:

We've never been to the knockoff DVD shop called Blockbuster ... and now we'll never get a chance to. The real Blockbuster has seen to it that the place -- which apparently is of the overpriced, 10 kuai per DVD, Kade Club ilk -- lose its name. This is from Access Asia's Weekly View on Asia:

• A book talk by Paul French at Glamour Bar: Access Asia's Paul French is a reluctant Shanghaiist reader who actually made an appearance at our recent Halloween party. Perhaps more importantly, he is an author who puts out about a book a year. His latest, Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand, is out now from Hong Kong University Press. He'll be talking about the book at Glamour Bar tomorrow at 4 pm. Here's a bit about the book and Mr. Crow:

That's the way it was back in the 1930s and 40s. They even had a board game to that effect -- it was called "Shanghai Millionaire" (pictured). We learned about this Monopoly clone via the weekly newsletter of market intelligence firm Access Asia. You can read the current newsletter here, but be warned that it will switch to the next newsletter at the end of the week (how about an archive, guys?).

Our favorite weekly email newsletter says so:

OK, we think we've finally recovered from Friday night. The Shanghaiist launch party at British Bulldog Pub was hot, in almost every definition of the word. We packed the place, forcing the bar to open its rarely used third level. Opening band Xingfu 13 rocked the house in a shortened set (they were delayed by a lack of a stool for their drummer, and couldn't stay longer because they were using a cable needed by the other bands back at Tang Hui -- how indie rock is that?). And the Shanghai Cowboys killed, and confused the handful of regular pub patrons in attendance. Based on some very unscientific drunken polling, everyone had a good time at the party (except for maybe the uncharacteristically frazzled event organizer -- but you'd be frazzled too if you had to deal with ... ah, we're not going to name names). The raffle -- though somewhat unorganized because bar management forced the Shanghaiist crew upstairs at the last minute -- made several prize winners very happy, some eerily so.

A final party plug before Shanghaiist lugs a shitload of T-shirts and raffle prizes over to the British Bulldog Pub. We had a couple last-minute additions to the raffle prize list (below), so be sure to check it out one more time. (Raffle tickets are 10 kuai, by the way, and five for 40 kuai. Entrance, of course, is free.) There are two threads about the party currently running on local message boards. One controversially suggests that "cute guys don't read blogs." Maybe that's true. But we at Shanghaiist read somewhere -- probably a blog -- that cute guys and hot girls tend to like live music and alcoholic beverages. And on those two criteria, we have you covered. As our friend Jake would say, this party is going to be "fresh."

Not sure if you heard or not, but we're having a party on Friday. And while people seem genuinely excited about the great live music, the cool prizes (see below) and the chance to meet Shamus, we all know that what will really pack 'em in the British Bulldog Pub are the Shanghaiist.com T-shirts! (Play along, folks.) Yep, Friday will be your first opportunity to purchase these custom-made, 100-percent-cotton wonders that have local fashionistas foaming at their pouty little mouths. You know why, right? They are ringer Ts! Shanghaiist T-shirts, which come in normal Western sizes, will sell for 60 RMB on Friday. That's less than a beer in some bars in Shanghai. Some lucky party-goers will win a shirt in our lucky draw. Here are some of the other prizes up for grabs:

Not sure where you are right now, but we're pretty sure we know where you will be exactly one week from now -- somewhere in Shanghai saying, "Oh shit, I forgot about that Shanghaiist party." And that would be too bad, because for a bunch of bloggers, we've actually organized a pretty (if we do say so our damn selves) damn good time. And by good time, we mean semi-cheap booze*, great live music and (almost) free stuff.