Last month the Fashion & Style section of The New York Times published Riding the It Factor, putting forward the Dutch bicycle as the new fashionable "It object" on the New York streets in these times of "Great Downturn."
The 55-year-old from Nanzhuang village, near Qingdao, took three months to build the two-wheeler. It has no metal parts whatsoever - the joints were fixed with small wooden bungs and the chain mechanism was replaced by a rod-crank system that rotates the wheel.
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).
Photo from indrasensi
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Calling all Shanghai entrepreneurs! Come meet new faces and get to know other like-minded individuals at this week's NextStep event which features Tony Mustafa of Essential Finance. All are welcome, no membership required, and no cover charge.
Ever thought of what you're doing to offset your carbon footprint? This Saturday, instead of driving your car or taking a taxi, why don't you try taking public transport, cycling or walking instead? Residents will be asked to avoid driving private cars within the Inner Ring Road, and while compliance is not mandatory, driving will be banned outright in some areas.
Shanghaiist has had a string of bad luck in recent months when it comes to locks. Say, for example, the lock on our door which swung closed behind us one Saturday night at 3am and left us stranded outside our apartment with only a towel to cover our modesty (long story).
Shanghaiist contributor Micah has posted some information about the present and future of Wujiang Lu in the comments section of our post from yesterday. We thought they were worth highlighting.
The lead character in the drama you see unfolding in the photos above is a man suspected of killing his 71-year-old mother-in-law and his 13-year-old nephew on March 30 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. For good measure, he allegedly also killed a "bicycle caretaker" yesterday, the same day police cornered him in a room on the eighth floor of a hospital. His wife somehow tipped police off regarding his whereabouts (we don't know why he was in the hospital).
Imagine Superman, Monkey King, time travel, martial arts and state-of-the-art technology all rolled into one. Sorry for that mental image, but this is what Mohuan Shouji (魔幻手机 or "Magic Cellphone") promises when it hits the small screen in November. This "modern" fantasy television drama series brings up a concept that human beings can actually be transported through SMS (we have heard rumors that Shanghai officials and mobile phone service providers are actually planning on launching this functionality ... by 2010, the magical year when all of our dreams will come true).
Lots of juicy transportation news today:
Photo by kumo36 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.
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.
Yesterday's Metro Express reports on a vote by 2470 internet users of real-estate website Sofun.com to decide which Shanghai metro station has the most romantic potential, ie where you would be most likely to meet your one true commuting love.
Q: How many locals does it take to fill a sidewalk?
A few weeks ago, Shanghaiist spoke out against a nitwit AP writer who penned a story about absolutely nothing (and not in the Seinfeld "good nothing" kind of way). Well, our friend at the AP seems to have resurfaced, this time in Shanghai, writing for our city’s finest English language newspaper, Shanghai Daily, under the assumed name “Yuan Qi”. Alright, we admit, this sounds a bit far-fetched. But, we did spot a story that reeked of his style.
Photo by captainvideo taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos 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.
It finally happened. Sometime between the early evening last night and this afternoon, Shanghaiist's bicycle was stolen. Yes, it was locked. Twice. And no, we did not bring it into our apartment, to the collective shock and incredulity of our landlord and the retired woman that minds the front entrance of our apartment block. Shanghaiist had naively believed that the four flights of stairs we schlepped the thing every time we used it (almost daily) would be enough to deter what few opportunists found their way into our building in a “safe” part of town. But ultimately, one of the immutable truths of Shanghai life prevailed. Your bike WILL get stolen.
DCist helps us make more sense of the world this week. Posts like this concert review are the reason for Scott Stapp. DCist also enumerates the reasons for playing ultimate frisbee, Condi's tight buns, their love of a local convenience store, and their jealousy of a person in Seattle calling the city.
If you choose to undergo the necessary procedures for hiring a car, or even easier, borrowing a friends, then where to go?
We have no idea, but it's happening, according the subscription-only South China Morning Post (via the World Business Council for Sustainable Development):
A little more than five years ago, Shanghai police arrested Chen Genrong, the mastermind behind the underground production of fake Phoenix-brand bicycles. Shanghai Star reported then that daily around 1,500 bicycles used to be shipped from his secret warehouse on Gong Qing Tuan Lu in order to be sold nationwide.
With its "E-mail From Shanghai: Return of the Bourgeois Dogs," TIME magazine points out one of thousands of examples that China today is nothing like it was 30 or 40 years ago -- many people own pet dogs, animals that were outlawed and slaughtered by Chairman Mao's Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. The fact that many Shanghainese own dogs (if that's what you choose to call these tiny creatures) is nothing new, and thanks to Taco Bell, Paris Hilton and -- we'd like to think, at least -- Triumph, little yippy pooches are all the rage the world over now. Hell, even future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens has one -- although he's not entirely sure why. "I guess it's trendy to have little dogs like this," Clemens said earlier this month at baseball's All-Star game.
Most people climb the Great Wall. Some run up it. A few strange souls ride their unicycles on it. And 1000 saxophonists are planning to gather on it to play their instruments in unison (if you've scheduled an outing to Badaling that day, we strongly suggest a stroll around the Summer Palace instead).
Bikes get stolen in Shanghai. Sure, they go missing in New York, or Seattle, but Shanghai seems to have less respect for the lock than most metropoli. When our cute orange folding bike turned up missing last week, Shanghaiist went a bit crazy. While many bike theft victims purchase progressively cheaper bikes, following the theory that "this one's so garbage no one could possibly want it," we went the opposite direction. Walking past Speed Cat Bicycle (site in Chinese) every day might have been the reason. In a tiny little shop that would be comfortable in any US college town, Speed Cat is instantly recognizable by the pile of half-assembled frames outside.
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