Feel like there's been a huge rise in big environmental accidents happening recently? That's probably because there has been - the Environmental Ministry has revealed that accidents rose 98% in the first six months of the year, mostly because of higher demand for energy and minerals. “Fast economic development is leading to increasing conflicts with the capacity of the environment to absorb” demands, the ministry said. To combat the problems, it has started a nationwide investigation of drinking water and mine tailing ponds this year, as well as setting up databases on violations, strengthened regulations and is encouraging residents to report complaints. It has identified a “large number of culprits” and will be doling out punishment - and hopefully, this will mean what pristine waters are left won't be swept up in these harsh times. more ›

China's premier on Wednesday extolled the prosperity the Communist government has brought to many Chinese, yet he sounded an alarm that inflation could derail the country's rapid emergence. more ›

Reuters: China steeled for worse weather as holidays loom more ›

Nasty. Nasty. Nasty. If we didn't have to walk the dogs, we'd just stay inside our (semi) warm living room all day. We know the miserable sleet (or is it freezing rain?) and slippery conditions are forcing some offices to send workers home early today. But winter's icy grip on China is far more serious than some missed work or a slip on the sidewalk. Here's a rundown (and, please, feel free to add to this list in a comment): more ›

Xinhua: British PM visits Shanghai more ›

Will the Dalai Lama reincarnate before he dies? Calgary Herald: Two Dalai Lamas? Reuters: China condemns Dalai Lama for ideas on succession The Times: Dalai Lama offers his flock a vote on whether he should be reincarnated The Economist: Communists can live with reincarnation. A referendum is a different matter AP: China Reports Riot in Southwestern Tibet Sino-US relations NYT: China Explains Decision to Block U.S. Ships Bloomberg: China Denies Saying Incident Was `Misunderstanding'... more ›

A prominent former Thai senator accused of sex crimes against four underage girls was sentenced to 36 years in prison on Tuesday, when an appeals court stiffened the sentence of a lower court. more ›

European efforts to encourage a speedier appreciation of the Chinese renminbi will step up a gear this month amid concerns the euro is bearing the brunt of global macroeconomic adjustments. more ›

According to Bloomberg News, finance ministers of the G7 nations, currently meeting in Washington are once again expected to issue a strongly worded statement prodding China to do more with an undervalued yuan. The traditionally US championed trade tussle is getting some very vocal support from the Europeans and the Canadians this time around. more ›

China will offer religious services for foreigners arriving for the 2008 Olympic Games, an official in charge of religious affairs said. more ›

The Chinese Communist Party, the world's largest political party with some 64 million members opened its 17th Party Congress yesterday. With over 2,200 delegates from all over the nation, the congress was opened by parliament chief Wu Bangguo with the national anthem, followed by a moment of silence marked for Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun and other "martyrs of the revolution" before President Hu Jintao began addressing the party. A great sense of expectation there as you can see on the video now that the party has just begun, but as the days go by, we will no doubt see more and more of these scenes instead. more ›

China issued a sweeping denunciation of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian on Thursday, accusing him of stirring animosity between the sides to divert attention from his personal scandals. more ›

Starbucks Corporation, the world’s biggest coffee shop chain, recalled 250,000 children’s plastic cups made in China after receiving reports of the cups breaking and posing a choking hazard. more ›

Typhoon Wipha might have been a no-show, and even though Typhoon Krosa was not expected to be as big as Wipha, the whistle it whipped up on our seventh floor apartment did mean we were hardly able to sleep all night (although the rain does appear to have stopped for now). more ›

The Indian government on Tuesday invited six aircraft manufacturers including Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to bid on a contract for 126 combat planes worth up to $10 billion. more ›

Typhoon forces almost a million Chinese from homes [Canada.com] more ›

China's aviation authority, citing safety concerns, has announced plans to scale back flights at overstretched Beijing airports and ban the creation of new airlines before 2010. more ›

OK, we all know about the Great Wall, the Great Firewall and the Great Green Wall. All that is old news now. Get this: China is now building a 6 million yuan, 40-kilometer (25-mile) long, 1 meter (3.3 feet) high wall around Dongting Lake in Hunan Province to guard against the 2 billion field mice that have been on the run from the flooded Yangtse River. Already, the mice have destroyed about 520,000 hectares (1.3 million acres) of crop land when rising water drove them from their burrows. And even the enterprising businessmen in Guangdong who sought to help by bringing the mice en masse to the dinner table did little to mitigate the situation. more ›

Gold, silver, bronze? Nah. According to Bloomberg.com athletes the world over have smog on their minds when it comes to the quadrennial Olympics competition next year in Beijing. Gunn-Rita Dhale, Norway’s reigning world champion for women’s mountain biking had this to say about her future host city, more ›

This propaganda banner from the municipal police department of an unnamed city warns would-be burglars that if they're thinking about stealing, they might be better off investing in the stockmarket. Bloomberg reports today that China's key stock index has risen to a new record, having taken less than two weeks to rebound from a rout that erased more than $400 billion of market value. The CSI 300 climbed 128.19, or 3.1 percent, to close at 4227.57, with about 90 percent of the shares included in the measure advancing. Where are you placing your money? more ›

In the last quarter of 2006 Google's business in China was quickly spiraling down. But Googlers don't give up so easily, even if they did quit some efforts in the Chinese market already (China Herald summarised it before). This week, Google made its first step back into the market and announced their long rumoured mobile phone search collaboration with China Mobile: more ›

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?). more ›

Photo from rachelleb.com. more ›

Mercer Human Resource Consulting just released its annual standard of living report, which ranks the quality of life in the world's major big cities. Shanghaiist has kept up the results the last few years, and there haven't been any major changes. Bloomberg reports: more ›

From the February 27 issue of New York magazine, we learn that Shanghai is the No. 1 destination New Yorkers are "fleeing" to (Nos. 2 and 3 are Budapest and Pittsburgh, naturally). Here's what the magazine wrote about our city: more ›

Bloomberg reports that Focus Media -- responsible for many of the flat LCD screens airing ads throughout the city -- has plans to turn parts of Shanghai into Times Square. Actually, not just Shanghai. Focus Media will "install giant screens of light-emitting diodes in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou." The first such illuminated advertising wall, 16 stories tall, appeared in Shanghai in 2003 on the Aurora Building, a skyscraper that appears in many a Pudong skyline photo. Focus Media's LED screens wouldn't be 16 stories, but they would be huge -- 500 square meters, costing 50,000 RMB per square meter. more ›

is trading at 8.0560 to the dollar, a gain of nearly 0.7 percent since its revaluation last year. more ›

The Hurun Report will release its annual "China Rich List" tomorrow, ranking about 400 of the richest people in China. On their website (link above), you can also find all types of interesting rankings, from philanthropy (individuals or corporations) to the "power" ranking, which we surmise means something in addition to just the boku bucks. The 2004 rankings are on there as well. Just for kicks, you can check out Forbes' rankings, which are also yearly but as of now are limited to the top 200, which we suppose sucks for No. 201, but with all that cash, we're sure he/she can shop their way out of that funk. On second thought, maybe Nos. 201 and 401 are happy to have avoided the spotlight. There's a Chinese saying: shu da zhao feng (树大招风), which means "the tall branch catches the wind." Then there's a another saying: qiang da chutou niao (枪打出头鸟) or "the bird that stands out from the flock is the first to get shot." And yet another: ren pa chu ming zhu pa zhuang (人怕出名猪怕壮) or "people fear fame and pigs fear getting fat." Hmmmm. Wonder why the Chinese have all these sayings. We always thought to get rich was glorious. more ›

Hong Kong fashion mecca Joyce will expand its boutiques to Shanghai and Beijing by 2007, according to managing director Adrienne Ma. Ma told Bloomberg News: "Greater China is definitely our focus, our direction, our strategy." more ›