The man who regained control of the bus that mowed into oncoming traffic on the Yangpu bridge, thus saving dozens of passengers, was a 35-year-old promary school teacher without a drivers license, Shanghai Daily has found. Shanghai native Chen Wei stopped the bus by rushing to the front and pressing the floor break. He had been in the last row when he felt the bus veer to the left and crash into other cars on the bridge. When it slammed into a taxi head-on, throwing the driver through the front windshield, Chen moved to the front and hit the brake, saving the lives of everyone on board as well as those in the bus' path. Like all bashful heroes should, he insists he's just a normal guy.
The man who stopped the out-of-control Yangpu bridge bus
Fatal bus crash on Shanghai's Yangpu bridge
Last night at around 9:30pm, a No. 3 line bus lost control on the Yangpu Bridge and swerved into the opposite lane, colliding with cars and causing a 12 vehicle pile-up. Roughly 14 people were injured. Three were killed by the accident - the bus driver died on the spot and two others, a bus passenger and a driver of a taxi the bus crashed into - died of injuries after being sent to the hospital. Police are currently investigating the cause of the accident. Source: Xinmin and Xinhua
Video: Hunan's bravest bus driver
This video, which has gotten over 130,000 views so far, is of what netizens are now calling the bravest bus driver.
Year in Live Music and what to look forward to in 2008
Well, 2007 is pretty much over. This Shanghaiist has never really been a big New Year's person, maybe because we always end up the odd one out at midnight or the one that has to break up the drunken fights that erupt. But, in the spirit of the season we have decided to do that traditional (way over done) recap of the past year. 2007 was a big year for music in Shanghai and below are our picks for 2007...and of course this list is biased, memories are subjective to each person and the most memorable shows for me usually tend to be because of personal involvement at some level.
Busdriver kicked out of Canada (on his way to China)
Comments below don’t necessarily represent the Shanghaiist’s point of view or opinion regarding the Canadian government (we don't want them to hold a grudge and kick us out of Canada too!)… we just received it recently from the Busdriver promoter and thought it was kind of funny… shows are still on in Beijing and Shanghai…..and we are as giddy as a school boy in the girls locker room to see Busdriver play live!
Shanghai October Music Festival news
September is quickly sliding into history, which means for all us music fans that the orgy of music festivals Shanghai will experience in the first weeks of October is almost upon us. And of course Shanghaiist is here to bring you the latest in festival news.....
Napalm Death, Busdriver and Yacht
Another week, another round of rumors floating around. Looks like the Busdriver show is going to happen and is scheduled for October 13th at 4Live. What makes it even more exciting is the fact that Yacht, Portland DJ extraordinaire, might be opening for him. Yacht is currently on tour with Architecture in Helsinki and in the past has toured with LCD Soundsystem. Seeing both him and Busdriver on the same stage makes us wet our pants a little each time we think about it.
Busdriver taking us to school
Shanghaiist loves good music gossip, and we are tickled purplish-red (our face usually turns this color after being overly tickled) to be the first to report that Busdriver, underground rapper extraordinaire, will be coming to China in October. Don't know who Busdriver is? Well, damn it, you should.
Last Chance For Youth, Di Maggio and another week in music
Video of Blind Stereo MV

