On the morning of July 23, in reaction to a dispute over the ownership of a local fish pond, villagers near Foshan, Guangdong arrived at the local fish market carrying weapons, planning to "teach a lesson" to the head of the fish market. When police arrived to investigate, the villagers attacked and overturned the police vehicle. They then tied the officers to the overturned vehicle, and began pouring gasoline around them! more ›

Well, that's not being ruled out as a possibility. Witnesses being interviewed have said that they smelled gasoline just prior to the bus going up in flames. They said that someone had probably spilled something flammable. It also seems that the only thing that was flammable on the buses would have been the seats, but the burning pattern seems to suggest that it wasn't the seats that first caught on fire. Chinese commentary has suggested that the bus driver was at fault for 1. cramming too many people on the bus (he and every other bus driver in China) and 2. not stopping the bus when people saw flames coming out the back. It's going to be awhile before we know what happened—if we ever know. In the meantime, the blame game is on. more ›

Photo from fateless_gypsy more ›

Photo by Peijin Chen 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. more ›

A fire broke out at the Huai Hai Lu Parkson's on the night of September 7 around 8:45 PM (article in Chinese). One of the escalators caught on fire, they had the fire out in a couple of hours and the store was closed on Friday. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but what was interesting was this short article which stated that customers were asked to pay for their purchases before evacuating the building (article in Chinese). We're not sure how this went down -- is there a chance that a Shanghaiist reader was either there or nearby at the time? Still no word yet about the actual cause of the fire -- they've ruled out arson and short-circuits (the escalator was still moving when the fire started). They also say that escalators and elevators are supposed to be checked frequently, and that department stores should all be prepared for emergency situations that involve evacuations. Employees have to know exit routes and must also help direct and guide people out. Did they do that at Parkson's? You're supposed to make people drop what they are buying and evacuate them, but the second article seems to suggest they did otherwise. more ›

Maybe we'll try to hit the MIDI next year, although it doesn't seem like it will be the same. The movie's message is that the festival is getting more corporate -- selling out, as they say -- and that next year people selling homemade T-shirts, buttons and other souvenirs won't be welcome. more ›

On the heels of the recent forced-eviction protests in front of Shanghai's Portman Ritz-Carlton comes news that two city real estate agents were sentenced to death for torching the homes of residents who refused to abandon their neighborhoods in 2004 and 2005. One of the acts of arson killed an elderly couple back in January. more ›