A 60-year-old Shanghai man has been duped out of his savings after responding to a street advertisement for a healthy man to impregnate a rich woman in return for 1 million RMB. As if this wasn't humiliating enough, his friend has also taken him to court in order to retrieve the 6,000RMB he contributed towards the 'investment'. more ›

In the latest series of events stoking the tensions between Hong Kongers and Mainlanders, Cheung Wan Lai, director of hospital groups at the Hospital Authority, revealed that the quota for foreigners giving birth in Hong Kong has been reduced from 10,000 in 2011 to just 3,400 in 2012. more ›

Yikes! Syphilis, a killer disease which was almost eliminated in the 1960's has returned with a startling vengeance. As state policy has shifted focus onto HIV/AIDs prevention, China has been left without a comprehensive public STI screening programme. Health expert Paul Causey also cites the issue of screening married gay and bisexual men, many of whom remain deeply closeted and hard to reach. In addition, a booming economy means "both businessmen and migrant labourers [have] more cash and opportunity to pay for unsafe sex while away from home" and this has led to the shocking rise of maternal syphilis in China. more ›

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

Since Youtube's still blocked, we've decided to go old school and give you an animated gif instead for today. There's something magical about the way animated gifs repeat over and over again, so that even though you've watched it once, you keep watching it and then suddenly you realize you've been staring at a baby falling repeatedly for a good five minutes. more ›

Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos at shanghaiist.com. more ›

We attended the Chicago Improv All-Stars show at Henry's last night ... and we enjoyed ourselves. It kind of had the feel of a theme party at a friend's house (assuming that friend was very popular, brewed their own beer, had a very large living room with poorly placed pillars, was bad at training their staff and charged guests RMB 280 at the door). If you have ever seen an episode of Whose Line... more ›

See the Chicago Improv All-Stars! more ›

Déjà vu all over again? Here it is once more, Shanghaiist's nearly quarterly review the Douban book Top Ten List: Annie Baby - "Sunian Jinshi" (Beijing-based author, photographer and blogger who writes about love and self-exploration in the big city.) JK Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (Official Chinese version, published by the People's Literature Publishing House.) Markus Zusak - "The Book Thief" (Australian author of Austrian-German heritage writes a WWII book... more ›

This is just waaaaay too cute. If these three videos aren't enough for you, then hop over to Life in the Fast Lane for more amazing pictures and videos of baby pandas from day 1 to day 120 of their birth that made us keel over from an overdose of cuteness. Have a fabulous Thursday, Shanghai.... more ›

Southeast Asian pact exposes rifts [NY Times] Southeast Asian leaders signed a charter here today that was drafted as a watershed document to bind the region together as a European-style economic community but has instead exposed the sharp divisions over Myanmar and other issues among the signatories.Malaysia busts DVD lab in its biggest raid in 2007 [Reuters] Malaysia has raided a laboratory capable of churning out $52 million worth of pirated DVDs a year in... more ›

Photo of the Mont Blanc superstore on Nanjing Lu from All Roads Lead to China more ›

We know we've been posting a lot of videos lately, but this one was too engrossing not to pass along. It's Christopher St. Cavish, former motorcycling philanthropist and current food writer at SH magazine, eating a live baby octopus at a Korean restaurant in Shanghai. According to the YouTube page: It was for a magazine article, stupid, tasted terrible, and fueled by alcohol. We saw Chris on the street recently, so we can confirm that... more ›

Shanghaiist has just touched down in Beijing. And just as we were wondering if it was just us, or if the air in the Jing was really that much worse *cough*cough*, this is what we read:
• Birth defects in Chinese infants have soared nearly 40 percent since 2001
• There is one Chinese baby born with birth defects every 30 seconds
• In Beijing, the incidence of breast cancer has increased 23 percent in 10 years, with about 45 women out of every 100,000 diagnosed with the disease, says the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In Shanghai, the figures are even worse, at 55 out of 100,000, up 31 percent in the past decade.

In the latest edition of Sexy Beijing, Sufei hits Shanghai and asks her psychoanalyst and historian dad if her obsession with Chinese men has anything to do with her relationship with him and his relationship with her mom. Turns out that they have a really fascinating family history! Sufei's grandfather was a practising psychiatrist in Hamburg and his brother was the Chief Rabbi of Augsburg and everyone was forced to flee Nazi Germany when her father was just a baby, so he spent the early years of his life in China (and he's got the pictures to prove it!). As we all know, many Jews chose to come to Shanghai because it was the best and safest place to go on about their business. Of course their party didn't last long but that's another story. But okay we'll quit talking for now so you can go back in time with Sufei into the Shanghai of 1930's. more ›

According to recent rumors we've heard, tickets are on sale this week for the biggest show of the year (in our humble opinion), The Beyoncé Experience! Beyoncé (aka Beyoncé Knowles), the 27-year old singer, model, and actress, is currently one of the biggest superstars in America. She began her career with the ginormously successful all-girl group Destiny's Child and has been just as prosperous as a solo artist. She brings her world tour called The... more ›

Sichuan TV reports of a helpless 19 year old girl by the name of Yan Chunyan in Wenzhou that has gone on the streets on the search for a kind hearted soul who will adopt her baby. The 21 year-old man with whom she had been living together for over two years and who fathered her child has disappeared, and without a job, she simply doesn't know what to do. When asked why she wanted a baby at such a young age, she explained: more ›

The mercury may be falling but there's still lots of sizzle left in the grill. It's time for another great big cook-off, and The Naked Cow is hosting the Shanghai Rib Cook-off in two weeks! And it's all for a good cause! 10% of all proceeds from the day will go to Shanghai Bo Ai Children's Rehabilitation Center which aids local children with cerebral palsy. more ›

Shanghaiist really needed a break and what better place to take that break than... the Venetian? I know what you're thinking: biggest casino in the world + gambling Chinese tourists = a big fat headache. Well, it wasn't that bad, really. The Venetian was fully booked over the weekend so we could only get one night at the Vegas transplant... which was quite enough for us. The casino is an exact replica of its Vegas hotel, except about ten times bigger, and just as gawdy and tacky... which makes it perfect for the throngs of Chinese crossing the border each day. The casino (which looked to be the size of several football fields) was completely packed both Friday and Saturday, and reached a fever pitch around midnight both nights. The big game in Macau is Baccarat, which is a glorified version of high/low, and a electronic version of Roulette called SicBo that is played with dice. The second level was the shopping plaza, complete with false "Venetian style" storefronts, canals and singing gondola drivers (see picture). Shanghaiist doesn't gamble (except for hold 'em poker, which isn't offered in any casino in Macau!), but was content just watching other people throw their hard earned money away. more ›

This week's Adoptable Pet from Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghaiist's adopted animal charity. From the SCAA:
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This group of women in Guangxi Province's Nanning (南宁) have just completed their state-sponsored training and received their certification as trained maternity matrons (月嫂), who according to our favourite English-Chinese dictionary, are maids -- usually married women who already have their own kids -- that are hired to take care of mothers and their newborns ("Chinese women traditionally are confined indoors for a month after delivering a baby on the grounds that they are particularly susceptible to various gynecological diseases in this period."). Apparently even the recruiting companies have all come waiting like vultures at the certification ceremony, and are paying as much as RMB2,800 per month for a mid-level maternity matron and RMB4,800 for a senior-level maternity matron. That's more than some white collar workers get! more ›

Since the family was once again in town, we decided to have dinner, not at Jade on 36 this time, but at what is maybe Shanghai's most famous restaurant of Shanghainese food (with a Sichuan twist, according to this site): Meilongzhen. We first tried this place two years ago, and then again last April, but this time we went to their branch accross the street, on the 6th floor of the Westgate mall (which incidentally is called in Chinese Meilongzhen Guangchang 梅龙镇广场). For 2 months starting last April, the old restaurant was closed for refurbishment, and only its branch was open. more ›

Eating with chopsticks can be tricky for those of us who first picked them up quite late in life. Even though we've been using them for a while, our frequent spillages suggest that we need to refine our chopstick wielding skills. Success in this endeavour will generate the same level of praise hitherto reserved for baby faced Channel V presenters and NBA basketball stars. We may exaggerate, but thanks to Gomestic (via Lifehacker) we have found the definitive seven step guide to becoming a chopstick maven. more ›

An innovative Chinese couple seeking a unique and distinctive name for their baby have arrived at the "@" sign, which in Chinese sounds like "love him" (爱他). Naturally, language officials (yes, those guys have struck again) were not amused. more ›

Photo from US National Archive and Records Administration via Pingnews.com more ›

Beijing's Olympic countdown extravaganza suggests China is likely to put on a spectacular show next August, but the run-up also illustrated that the next 382 days are unlikely to be trouble free for the hosts. more ›

Jackie Chan, China's most famous actor/singer/producer/cartoon character/matchmaker (whew!) finds himself one sino-franchise poorer this week, as government officials have blocked mainland distribution of his newest flick, Rush Hour 3. E! News reports: more ›

I turned to several government departments, including the local police station and the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau Yangpu District branch, but no one would solve the problem. I know the residence problem will affect my daughter's whole life, so I still asked authorities for help, but I was shocked by the result. They suggested I send her to an orphanage.

Ok, whatever people might say about the Bund – tacky, over-priced – most are still damn glad it's there rather than not. It is, after all, the most enduring reminder of Shanghai's decadent international past. Consequently, when the paradigm of this past, the Peace Hotel, recently closed for its US$65m makeover, a few questions were raised about the area's future. more ›

The couple promised to pay Ma 100,000 yuan as reward for a child and 150,000 yuan if there were twins and they paid Ma 3000 yuan every month after they made the agreement. Ma tried artificial insemination in October 2006 but this failed and the doctors said she was probably not suitable. However the doctors said they would try once again later.